Canada Makes Family and Spouse Immigration Easier

Canada has taken steps to simplify the process of bringing families to the country for permanent residents. These measures will also help Canada in tackling the labor shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sean Fraser, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, announced on Friday that the processing of temporary resident visas (TRVs) for families will be accelerated. This means that families can be reunited faster while they wait for their permanent residence applications to be completed.

Another update is an open work permit for spousal and family class applicants. This allows spouses, partners, and dependents residing with their sponsor in Canada and holding temporary resident status to get an open work permit. They can apply for this permit when they submit a complete permanent residence application under the spouse or common-law partner in Canada class (SPCLC) or other family class programs.

To support those with expiring work permits, including spousal applicants, between 1 August and the end of 2023, an 18-month extension will be granted.

This extension will provide more opportunities to those waiting for decisions on their permanent residence applications. A similar option was recently offered to many individuals with expiring post-graduation work permits.

The Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) mentioned that most of these applications will now be processed within 30 days.

The processing measures will be designed specifically to address the cases of spouses and dependents. The approval rate within this group of applicants has already reached 93%.

Not all foreign nationals will be eligible for an extension through the accelerated process. It will be open to permanent residence applicants awaiting decisions, their spouses and dependent children with valid temporary resident status, spouses and common-law partners of most work permit holders and their dependent children, as well as spouses and common-law partners of study permit holders.