Wednesday December 1 2010
By SUNIL RAO
Ex-BSF personnel seeking Canadian visas can now breathe easy - a hitherto automatic refusal of their application by the mandarins in bureaucracy may now be overruled by a powerful advocate on Parliament Hill.
The status of UAE nationals seeking to visit Canada - who now have to get into a queue to submit their applications, unlike earlier when each country's nationals were granted automatic entry on a reciprocity basis - is however not as clear.
But here too, hope may be on the horizon.
Further visa policy changes have been promised in the next short little while.
The events follow an announcement from Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney last week that he had approved a new policy under Canada's immigration law that will further facilitate the "temporary entry" of "certain persons" into Canada.
In May, Kenney announced Citizenship and Immigration Canada was reviewing its admissibility policy, which is grounded in immigration law. The law, which is deliberately broad, may at times create irritants with our valued international partners, Kenney admitted.
"I saw the need for greater flexibility within the law and asked my department to review the policy," said Kenney. "I am happy to report I have approved a change that will allow exactly that required flexibility."
The minister said a number of governments had raised with him their desire for greater flexibility in the admission of their officials.
This policy will now allow the minister, or a delegate, following appropriate review, to exempt certain foreign nationals from the inadmissibility provisions in Canada's immigration law for temporary entry.
A ministry statement explained the aim is to advance Canada's national interests and to minimize bilateral irritants, while continuing to ensure the safety of Canadians.
Kenney also promised further changes: "This new policy is a preliminary step in the overall review of CIC's admissibility policy."
Calls in Parliament
Perhaps coincidentally, Kenney's policy change came alongside increasingly calls in Parliament particularly from Peel area MPs for the government to address visa application and related issues, including marriage fraud.
Gurbax Singh Malhi, MP for Bramalea-Gore-Malton, stepped up the pressure on the government regarding the high rate of Temporary Visitor Visa refusals his office hears complaints about on a daily basis.
"The high rates of temporary visitor visa refusals is preventing many of my constituents and other Canadians from inviting family and friends for occasions such as weddings, funerals and other special events, even when many of them had visited.
"When will the minister stop this unfairness and reform the visitor visa system to assist Canadian families in times of compassion?" he demanded on the floor of the House.
Malhi has for quite some time now been advocating a visa bond system that would allow immigration officers to give applicants or sponsors the chance to provide a financial guarantee in borderline visitor visa cases.
His Federal Liberal colleague Navdeep Bains, MP for Mississauga - Brampton South, demanded answers for the unacceptably long wait times in both immigration and citizenship application processing times.
"My office has been inundated by requests for updates on citizenship and immigration files. This is a direct response to the government's failure to provide accurate information," Bains charged on the floor of the House.
He also questioned the significant gap in service provided in different regions of the world.
"It just shows how poor their resource management is when you see the Ghana office taking 86 months to process an economic class application and Italy taking only taking 29 months - a difference of almost five years depending on where you apply."
He said it was also confirmed that citizenship applications in Canada are now taking over two years to process.
Fiesty Brampton-Springdale MP Dr Ruby Dhalla meanwhile raised the issue of fraud marriages.
"Unfortunately, the issue of fraud marriage is growing," she noted.
"Measures and protocols must be immediately implemented to stop innocent Canadians from being used in marriages of convenience. In addition victims that file complaints or request investigations are never informed or contacted as to the status," Dhalla charged, while urging more government transparency on the issue.
Added Malhi: "The government should close loopholes in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, ensuring the marriage-based system is strengthened and fraudulent marriages are eliminated altogether."
Malhi is urging the federal government to amend IRPA to strengthen the "conditional immigration" marriage-based system. He is also proposing the government establish a three- to five-year probation clause in the case of sponsored spouses, while asking the government to restrict the finalization of each citizenship application until probation is complete without criminal activity or Immigration Act offences.
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