People In Limbo
These delays are not just numbers on a spreadsheet. Thousands of families are affected and struggle everyday waiting...and waiting....and waiting. Here are just a few of those stories:
The following are a selection of comments from our petition:
Being unable to work or attend school for the length of the first process, which is at 10 months currently, puts a person's life on hold. They start to feel useless and that they are a burden on their partner. This needs to be addressed.
M.S in Gatineau These people are married to Canadians or PRs and want to make a contribution to their families, their community and the Canadian economy. They should be granted Open Work permits while their applications are being processed. Once paying taxes like any other citizen, they should have access to health care and E.I. under the same rules. What is the old saying? For every dollar spent, 7 more are generated. I think it would be in our best interest to let them make a dollar!
G.B in Barrhead Not being able to help my husband pay the bills is a huge problem for me. Not that we can't survive on one income, it's that we shouldn't have to! I can't apply for a job to actually feel productive, and I can't volunteer because of all the legal stuff behind it. I moved from my country to be with the love of my life, to start a new life here with him. And right now, I can't do that. We can't even start planning to have our own family yet, because we have to wait for paperwork to go through, or risk getting pregnant without health coverage. Our whole life is stuck in a file, waiting on someone's desk. And we get no communication as to what is actually going on and why the time frame has continued to increase.
C.S in Gatineau The process is already so long, and since I submitted my application in December 2013 the processing time keeps getting worse. We only live on one income, and we are going in debt because my husband has to pay the international student fees at University. The processing time needs to be faster!
N.D in Montreal |
My husband and I applied in late July 2013. Since then, I (the sponsor and Canadian Citizen) have been working 2 jobs and putting in more than 60 hrs a week to make ends meet. We are both mentally drained and I am both mentally and physically exhausted. My husband is a healthy and educated man, who left his good job back in his home country to come to Canada, only to wait on an OWP for more than 9 months now. This is highly unacceptable. This is a service which we paid a hefty fee for and we need answers! We have been left in the dark with no valid information as to why the processing times continue to climb. We cannot plan for our future, and like many others in our situation, we are in complete financial distress. In January. My husband’s father passed away and we made the decision to return to his home country for the funeral. Not only were we faced with grieving the death of his father, but we were in constant fear of the unknowns; as it is prohibited to leave Canada during inland sponsorship processing. It is completely up to the Canada boarder officers to let you back into the country and if they decide to deny you for any reason, your application is thrown out. This is ridiculous and change is needed! More efficient processing, more communication to applicants and more staff clearly needed to meet the demands!
R.S in Dartmouth CIC has no idea how each delay and their slow processing time affects each applicant/sponsor. It is unfair for everyone's lives to be put on hold during this lengthy processing time. Especially with the latest delay and no movement for the past 4 months now is only causing nothing but mental turmoil and piling on to the financial stress that everyone is experiencing. Albeit the applicants are already physically inside Canada, I can confidently say that none of them are fully happy and feels at peace.
E.L in Toronto |
Delay of over 13 months
This is a section of a google spreadsheet tracking how long people have been waiting. As you can see, the wait is well over a year now for a lot of applicants.
Applicants cannot receive information on their file until it has reached the "Working on applications received " date (currently August 2nd 2013 as of 15/10/2014). How is this acceptable when other immigration routes provide Open Work Permits in a couple of weeks? |
#InlandSponsor