Canada speeding up spousal applications

Marco E. L. Mendicino

OTTAWA –  Immigration Minister Marco E. L. Mendicino  announced last week that action has been taken to speed up the processing of spousal sponsorship applications.

A news release from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)   said that IRCC aims to accelerate, prioritize and finalize approximately 6,000 spousal applications each month from October until December 2020.Combined with processing to date, this rate will lead to about 49,000 decisions by the end of this year, it noted.

The release also pointed out that COVID-19 has created uncertainty for Canadians who are sponsoring spouses for permanent residence.

But it said that IRCC is leveraging new technology in a pilot to digitize paper applications so they can be processed more efficiently by IRCC employees working remotely and at various worksites. In addition to implementing facilitative biometrics measures,

It also notes that IRCC will be piloting, in the upcoming weeks, technology to conduct interviews with applicants remotely, in adherence with public health protocols.

” Our government will continue to find new ways to keep families together,” said  Mendiciono.