Filipiniana News – November 2011
RHYME & REASON
On 4 November 2011, CIC announced a
two-year freeze in the acceptance of parent and grandparent sponsorship
applications effective immediately (5 November 2011). To help soften the blow, CIC has introduced
the so-called “super visas” meant to allow parents and grandparents to enter
Canada as visitors for up to two years at a time, without need to file
extension applications every six months.
The freeze or moratorium of up to two years
on parent and grandparent sponsorship applications is meant to allow CIC to
process the increasing backlogs and reduce the processing times which now
averages at about seven years. With plans of increasing the annual quota of sponsored
parents and grandparents admitted to Canada (from the present 15,500 to 25,000
in 2012), CIC hopes to steadily reduce the backlog while conducting
consultations on how to “redesign the parents and grandparents sponsorship
program to ensure that it is sustainable in the future”.
CIC introduced the “super visa” for parents
and grandparents to help facilitate immediate family reunification. Starting 1 December 2011, parents and
grandparents are supposed to be granted ten-year multiple entry visitor visas
that will allow them to remain in Canada as visitors for up to two years at a
time, subject to certain conditions.
The “super visa” may sound like good news
for those who may indeed be able to come to Canada much sooner than if they are
to wait for the finalization of their permanent residence applications as
sponsored parents or grandparents.
However, I am not too sure that this will benefit as many as we might
have hoped.
It must be noted that the usual
admissibility factors which are weighed by visa officers in processing
temporary resident visa applications, whether of the “regular” or the “super”
variety, still remain. The FAQs which accompanied the recent announcement
confirmed this as follows:
“Who is eligible for a Parent and Grandparent Super
Visa? What do they need to do to qualify for it?
Parents and
grandparents of Canadian citizens or permanent residents who have been found
admissible to Canada and meet some other conditions are eligible for the Super
Visa.
Visa officers consider several factors
before deciding if the person is admissible. This means they are a
genuine visitor to Canada who will leave by choice at the end of their
visit. Among the things that could be
considered are:
·
the
person’s ties to the home country,
·
the purpose
of the visit,
·
the
person’s family and financial situation,
·
the
overall economic and political stability of the home country, and
·
invitations from Canadian hosts.
In addition to being found admissible to
Canada, the parent/grandparent must also:
·
provide
a written commitment of financial support from their child or grandchild in
Canada who meets a minimum income threshold,
·
prove
that they have bought Canadian medical insurance for at least one year to cover
the period of time that they will be in Canada, and complete an Immigration
Medical Examination (IME).”
Although the more specific guidelines have
yet to be released by CIC as of this writing, the above CIC announcement
excerpt suggests that the so-called “super visas” contradict the very reason
for sponsorship of parents or grandparents.
If the issuance of “super visas” would still depend on the very same
factors used to evaluate regular temporary resident visa applications, then
many parents/grandparents who are in the process of being sponsored (or those
caught by the moratorium) will be found ineligible because their intention is
in fact to establish permanent residence in Canada with their sponsoring
children/grandchildren and not of a “temporary” nature as required of visitor
visa applicants.
It is also worth noting that the “super
visa”, which is a document authorizing entry to Canada and issued by a visa
office outside Canada, is different from the authorization to remain or a
visitor record granted by immigration officers upon the visitor’s entry to
Canada. For regular visa holders, a
simple stamp on the passport upon entry to Canada without any expiry date means
that the visitor can stay in Canada for a maximum of six months. If the officer enters a date just below the
entry stamp, this means that the visitor must leave Canada (or apply for an
extension) by that date even if it is less than six months from the date of
entry.
It remains to be seen how the “super visa”
with a two-year authorized visitor stay will be implemented. Hopefully, many visa officers will exercise
positive discretion in granting these new “super visas” and two-year visitor
records, in line with the spirit behind their creation in the first place. However, relying on visa officers’ subjective
interpretation of immigration laws and policy is part of what makes the outcome
of immigration applications very unpredictable and frustrating. Thus, it may help if the relevant guidelines
will be clear and specific enough to leave less room for arbitrary
interpretation and to provide a more consistent and fair implementation of
these recent changes that will truly meet family reunification objectives.
As for the moratorium on parent/grandparent
sponsorship applications, we hope that this will truly be just a temporary measure
that will be lifted once the backlog has been reduced if not eliminated. Otherwise, banning this type of family
sponsorships altogether will not only be bad policy, but will be clearly unfair
and discriminatory. In immigration
matters, pure economic considerations should never trump deeply-held cultural
and social values.
The author is an immigration lawyer in
the GTA and may be reached at
deanna@santoslaw.ca.
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