Question Period Note: SPOUSAL SPONSORSHIP

Addressing spousal sponsorship processing times

• IRCC is committed to reuniting families and the Department has implemented several measures to support and accelerate the processing of spousal sponsorship applications, while ensuring the health and safety of Canadians and maintaining the integrity of Canada’s immigration programs. The total decisions made in 2021 more than doubled that of 2020 as a whole and 2022 has seen further improvements.

• Some of these measures include file digitization, electronic applications, remote processing, conducting remote interviews, the use of Advanced Analytics, the introduction of an online application portal, an increased number of decision makers assigned to permanent residence applications and tools to facilitate the processing of these files.

• IRCC also launched a new digital case status tracker that will allow some family class permanent residence applicants, sponsors, and their representatives to more easily check their application status online.

If pressed:
• About 61,465 Spouses, Partners and Children became permanent residents between January and October 2022, compared to 54,014 during the same time period in 2021.
• Our government is also developing plans to deliver on the Prime Minister’s mandate letter to me, including commitments to reduce application processing times and to implement an initiative to issue temporary resident status to spouses and children during the processing of their application for permanent residence.

• Under the 2022-2024 Immigration Levels Plan, the 2022 planned admission target for Spouses, Partners and Children is 80,000 spaces. According to the latest Immigration Levels Plan for 2023-2025, admissions are expected to decrease to 78,000 in 2023, and then increase back to 80,000 in 2024, and 82,000 in 2025.

• A total of 69,324 Spouses, Partners and Children became permanent residents in 2021, compared to 38,831 in 2020.

• In recognition of the importance of family reunification, there are several mandate commitments that aim to enhance this program. The Department is prioritizing the reduction of processing times by balancing the processing of aging inventories alongside the processing of new applications. Prior to COVID-19, the Department was close to meeting a 12-month processing time for Spouses, Partners and Children. However, due to the effects of the pandemic, processing times have been slowed by both operational challenges, and clients’ inability to provide requested information, meet medical requirements, or travel before document expiration. As a result, processing times have increased to approximately 22 months and 14 months for overseas and domestic spousal applications respectively (as of October 2022 based on 80% of applications in the last 6 months.).

• Quebec destined spouses also face additional delays in processing given limited levels space under family class to accommodate demand of Quebec destined sponsors/spouses.

• Processing time calculations reflect the processing of both new and older applications, meaning the calculations do not always reflect what the estimated processing time will be for newer applicants, as the number can be skewed by the older inventory.

• IRCC continues to see the impacts of the pandemic in 2022 even as decision-making production increased. The lower production in 2020 and the early months in 2021 combined with the continued application intake resulted in an aging application inventory. As our current processing time reports on the time it took to process the applications that were finalized in the past 6 months, we will not see improvements until we clear the aging inventory.

• However, the Department has devoted considerable resources to improve the processing of spousal applications, resulting in higher volume and faster processing of new spousal applications. The total decisions made in 2021 more than doubled that of 2020 as a whole (89,572 decisions have been made in 2021 vs approximately 44,000 in all of 2020). The Department’s objective remains to finalize 80% of new applications received within 12 months while also working on finalizing the aged inventory, whose processing was affected by the pandemic.

• More recently, about 61,465 Spouses, Partners and Children became permanent residents between January and October 2022, compared to 54,014 during the same time period in 2021.

• The Department has also put in place innovative processes and implemented modernization efforts to accelerate spousal processing by:
o Digitizing paper applications for remote processing by officers
o Building a Permanent Residence online portal to allow applicants to apply digitally
o Using advanced analytics to support rapid eligibility decisions for inland applications and using a triage tool to facilitate manual workload distribution for select overseas applications, and
o Developing a case processing tool to assist officers in the review and decision making of spousal applications

• In alignment with the mandate letter, the Department will continue to work on strengthening family reunification and reducing application processing times, especially for those impacted by COVID-19. As well, work is being undertaken to meet the mandate letter commitment to implement an initiative to facilitate temporary residence for family members waiting for their permanent residency applications.

• The Department continues to move forward with new and innovative measures to help address processing issues while ensuring to uphold program integrity, and will communicate these changes to clients as they become available.

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