Canada immigration minister to prioritise reuniting families in 2014

Aggressive action to deal with the massive backlog of immigration applications by parents and grandparents will, according to Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration minister, be prioritised in a 2014 push to reunite families.

Minister Chris Alexander announced that the parent and grandparent backlog will have decreased by around 50 per cent of its 2011 total by the end of this year, underpinning his commitment to reunite families as part of a revised immigration plan. The present decrease, he added, is proof of the government’s commitment to family reunification, with an estimated 20,000 parents and grandparents slated to be admitted in 2014.

The revised priorities are though to be the result of predictions that, by 2015, the backlog will have swelled to around 250,000 applicants with a waiting time of up to 15 years for clearance. Waiting times in 2014 are expected to shrink to a fifth of that figure, an improvement on the recent eight-year estimate.

The government’s Action Plan for Faster Family Reunification via immigration of sponsored older family members means that new applications will be accepted from January 2014. A cap of 5,000 application per year is expected, and the new criteria for acceptance will involve the families sponsoring their parents and grandparents.

Canada’s immigration website will post added information over the next few weeks in addition to new application forms and guides on how to apply. Alexander believes the modernised programme will result in faster processing times as well as ensuring that families already in Canada have the means to support their relatives financially, thus protecting taxpayers’ interests.