Immigration Visa Backlog In The Context Of COVID-19
The COVID-19 situation has had a negative impact on Canada’s immigration programs, which are currently on disruption. In other words, there are potentially 2 million immigration applications awaiting processing.
According to the authorities, the coronavirus outbreak has affected their ability to process applications, resulting in delays that are out of the control of IRCC. In the following news update, we’ll take a look at the most recent government statistics.
In the context of COVID-19, Canada Citizenship applications have accumulated a large immigration visa backlog. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 epidemic last year, a rising backlog of applications has left permanent residents with longer wait times before becoming Canadian citizens, according to a CBC investigation.
Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) emails were sifted through by reporters for the Canadian public broadcaster. Accordingly, they observed that the backlog grew from 87,000 in March of last year to 102,000 at the beginning of this year, a 17 percent increase.
At the end of January, the news crew found that more than 311,250 individuals waiting to go through the application process for Canadian citizenship. According to the report, there were more than 865 people who had been waiting for more than 4 years.
According to information obtained from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), as of October 27, 2021, the following number of applications have been received by IRCC:
- There are 548,000 applications for permanent residency (economic, family, refugee, and humanitarian class applicants)
- 776,000 applications for temporary residency (applications for study permits, work permits, temporary resident visas, and visitor extensions)
- 468,000 Canadian citizenship applications (as of October 26)
- The total number of applications in inventory is 1,792,000
Nearly 350,000 new applications have been added to the IRCC’s queue since July. The Toronto Star reported in August that the backlog as of July 6, 2021, was approximate:
- 375,000 applications for permanent residency
- 703,000 applications for temporary residency
- 370,000 Canadian citizenship applications. According to the Star, this number does not include unprocessed Canadian citizenship applications at the IRCC’s mailrooms.
- The total number of applications in inventory is 1,448,000.
International travel limitations, border restrictions, a lack of operating capacity in other countries, and the difficulty of clients to get documents as a result of COVID-19 have all caused roadblocks in the processing chain. Immigration and Refugees Canada (IRCC) is disrupted by all of this, which causes delays that are beyond its control.
IRCC spokesperson stated that “despite our efforts, we realize that some applicants have suffered lengthy wait periods with the processing of their applications and we continue to work as hard as possible to shorten processing times. We appreciate their understanding and support, and we can’t wait to welcome them to Canada when the time comes.
As part of its ability to respond to the crisis, IRCC released statistics on the number of applications it has processed:
- Between January and September 2021, IRCC handled 337,000 permanent residency applications. Additionally, it processed around 214,000 applications in 2020.
- Between January and September 2021, IRCC handled 1,500,000 temporary residency applications. By comparison, this figure for 2020 was 1,700,000 applications.
- Between January and September 2021, 134,000 applications for Canadian citizenship were be processed. This compared to the approximately 80,000 applications that were handled in 2020.
The tables below illustrate the backlogs for permanent and temporary residency programs:
As of October 27, 2021, the number of permanent residence applications in the processing inventory was broken down by application type (in Persons):
As of October 27, 2021, the number of temporary residence applications (including extensions) in inventory was broken down by application type (in Persons):
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