I am at my wits end for this. Its been 6 months since I landed, IRCC or Canada post lost my PR card (which is not just a travel document), I sent my solemn declaration in March and still have no idea when I will receive it. More than anything I am angry at them for sending it via regular post. They make us pay for it so why not charge us 50 $ more but send it via registered post so that there is some tracking! It seems like they have become experts at using COVID as an excuse to now not work for 2020. Every company adapted to the disaster, humans adapted, but I guess PR card processing is done by aliens.
PR card renewal now 299 days..
- Thread starter desertrose416
- Start date
Certainly not every company adapted to the disaster. Some out of business. Others suspend their business (like Qantas extend its suspension of most international flights to March 2021).
People would complain if there was a $50 increase actually. There are complaints if prices are raised to account for inflation which is why fees are rarely raised. It you want to leave Canada you have the option of a PRTD.
After all, I guess the activist rhetoric managed to have some effect, PR card renewal went down from 299 days to 132 days.
I do not think it is a coincidence that this just happened shortly after CBC aired this
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-couple-calls-for-automatic-extensions-after-permanent-resident-card-renewal-goes-awry-1.5640723
A couple of days ago, I received a response for an email I sent to the minister of immigration, which was kind of a surprise, the minister office mentioned that they are working hard to get processing back on track. I did not give their promises much weight and I was honestly surprised that they managed to cut the processing time by more than half this quickly. Maybe all the calls me and others done to their MPs worked or maybe it's just all a coincidence.
My personnel experience during all this is that politicians such as MPs (even conservative like my MP) and ministers seem to care/sympathize about the situation, I guess they need votes from PR who will become citizens sooner or later. At least, they cared way more than the bureaucrats in IRCC. As the manager of my MP office said to me, "IRRC consider immigrants as files to be moved around, no more no less, they do not care about any personnel difficulties immigrants face."
In short, Activism works especially if your demands are reasonable.
132 days still about 4 times the pre-COVID processing times but I think it is way more reasonable than 10 times the normal.
Thing is, at this time we do not know what IRCC's published PR card renewal timeline information is based on. Until Covid-19 the posted timeline was based on current PR card renewals (in contrast, for example, citizenship application processing timeline was based on a previous year's data), which was easy since *most* PR card renewal applications were completely processed within a few days of the date the application was opened . . . so the timeline was simply, roughly (within a week or so), the difference between the working-on-applications-made-as-of-date and the current date.
The various two hundred days plus timeline information published in the last few months was clearly NOT based on that. I forget the precise date, but just before the lockdown measures IRCC had already processed most PR card applications received by some date in February . . . so the reports about two hundred plus days to process were clearly NOT calculated the same as the timeline was prior to that, because even as of today it has NOT been more than two hundred days since applications were received (recognizing that a significant percentage do not get fully processed soon upon opening, but most do).
It may be mere coincidence, but it is currently, roughly, about 132 days since the last batch of PR card applications were fully processed before the lockdown (again, most not all). So does this posted information merely reflect IRCC resuming the same methodology for reporting the timeline it employed before?
As for the impact of the activism. I am highly skeptical. Contrary to much of the insults and diatribes aimed at Canadians whose vocation is providing services for immigrants, it is far more likely that there has been a continuous effort to address the problems posed by Covid-19, and similar to many other branches of government IRCC is now able to begin the process of at least partially restoring services, with due consideration given to real priorities. Many, if not most, reasonably anticipated that IRCC would make a reasonable effort to do its job, no nagging necessary.
The currently posted 132 day timeline may signal they have actually begun routine processing of PR card renewals again, since it was about 132 days ago that IRCC received the last of the applications it processed before the lockdown . . . or perhaps they still have not started processing again and this posted timeline could simply be reverting to the same methodology as before, such that if the timeline is updated a week from now it will be 139 days. My guess is the first, not the latter, and of course that would be good news for those waiting. But to know, we will have to wait to see what actually unfolds.
Oh boy, I promised myself not to argue with you again but here we go.
First, IRCC stopped processing PR card renewals 156 days ago (Feb 10th,2020), not 132 days ago.
You have the right to defend your colleagues in IRCC and praise their efforts and their actions as flawless but you are not doing them any favors.
You are not a client of IRCC, and there is a reason elected officials are in charge of the government bureaucrats.
This is because elected officials are answerable to the public and the clients of any service (including IRCC)
have the right to complain/advocate (which is not nagging) for their interest using all legal tools without fear of intimidation/retribution.
Criticizing the performance of a governmental institution and asking for improvements is not " insults and diatribes" or "nagging".
I do not understand the emphasis that IRCC is "Canadians whose vocation is providing services for immigrants."
At one point or another, people complained about the performance of every federal and provincial institution, and I never hear anyone accuse them of insulting/nagging Canadians who work in these institutions. Are immigrants supposed to bow down and do not criticize or advocate for their interests because they are not Canadians?
Anyway, it is very strange that after all the recent protests of BLM and the government of Canada acknowledgment of systematic racism that
the idea of immigrants' activism in asking the government institutions' to improve service is somehow controversial/nagging/ungrateful.
Anyway, I would like to thank everyone who contacted MP, minister, prime minister, or the media.
You did a good job and let's hope this crisis is over soon and I hope you do not get intimidated or discouraged.
I have zero professional or vocational association, now or in the past, zero, with any aspect of Canadian immigration. IRCC personnel are no more my "colleagues" than any other Canadian in any profession (despite my age, I still "work" but I operate a sole proprietorship and export abroad the entirety of what I do; I have no business or professional or vocational colleagues in Canada of any sort, unless one considers my suppliers, a local computer store and Staples, to be colleagues in some some sense). The insinuation that I am biased because IRCC personnel are my colleagues typifies much of the criticism repeated in this forum (albeit actually by a rather small number of individuals): unfounded and untrue.
While I do not currently have any applications in process with IRCC, I am an immigrant and my only relationship with IRCC has been that of a client. On multiple occasions. So here too, your accusation that I am not a "client" is unfounded, simply not true. I continue to have the same CIC/IRCC client number I have had since at least the spring of 2002 when I was issued a formal Visitor Record (noting though my visits to Canada began in the 1950s).
Let's be frank: credibility is a critical commodity. Repeatedly making false allegations does not foster confidence.
I am skeptical that the so-called activism had an impact, or much of one anyway. Indeed, I doubt there was all that much serious activism. Yeah, that is an opinion, my opinion. But here too let's be clear, not all opinions are created equal. And there looms that credibility factor again.
In any event . . .
If you are claiming the cause of advocating for faster PR card processing in the midst of a global pandemic is in any way akin to the profound and very much called for BLM movement, that is off base, way way off base. There is no comparison. There is no hint that the suspending of PR card processing related to measures taken in regards to Covid-19 was in any way racially motivated. And people are not being killed, lives taken, because IRCC is taking longer to issue a new status card.
So I am advocating for perspective. Credibility. Civic responsibility. But yeah, perspective looms large, an honest perspective. It is worth trying.
Activism may help or may not in every specific case. One does not always get what they want. There is not point in discouraging it. As you put it:
After all, people often become immigrants to Canada because they hope that their voices may be heard by authorities here.
I totally agree. I am puzzled by the persistent discouragement/criticism that some expressed for legitimate complaints in this issue.
Just look at the comments on the CBC website on the story about the lady unable to visit her dying father because of PR card processing.
So much groundless criticism to the lady because she as an immigrant dared to ask for government help in expediting the PR card application.
I was surprised by the thinly veiled racist tones in these comments. Systemic racism is not limited to killing a certain group of people, it is about ignoring/denying/ridiculing their rights.
The issue is simple if you have a card in processing and the long processing times affect you significantly, ask/complain about it through the legal channels. If you do not have an application and no useful information to help people expedite their application, then just wish them luck and do not discourage them. I did not see any official statement from IRCC say that please do not complain to elected officials because it insults us.
Did I mention "perspective?"
Not only are opinions not all created equal, not all activism is created equal either. The need for activism, in particular, is not equal.
Painting the clamouring for faster PR card renewal processing, and IRCC "reform" generally, in the midst of perhaps the most serious crisis Canada has suffered in many decades, as a just cause of noble import, does not sell. Lipstick on a pig would be a generous comparison.
As I believe one participant here was advised by the government, IRCC is taking appropriate steps to assess and address the situation, and pursuing reasonable measures to provide services commensurate with the still evolving situation. No special prodding necessary.
But it is going to take some time.
I want to be frank about one important thing, however, and that regards my participation in this site. I make a concerted effort to do the homework, mostly relative to honestly and carefully offering observations to help others better understand and navigate a few particular issues related to grant citizenship applications and PR obligations. The repeated efforts to slur me and allege I am biased are unfounded and without basis, at least other than the biases I readily acknowledge, largely related to being older and relatively rather risk-averse.
As I have observed in this particular topic before, with some emphasis, there is nothing wrong, per se, with activist advocacy here, nor even with activist rhetoric. But to the extent it distorts what is happening and obscures a fair and accurate assessment of the information forum participants are looking for to help them make practical decisions and navigate their way forward, and especially so in these particularly trying times, that sort of activism is a distraction and an obstruction. And needs to be called out for what it is. The more obvious examples in this very topic should not need revisiting, but they illustrate the need for challenges and corrections. Among the more salient examples was the repeated, by multiple participants here, totally false, erroneous claim that PRs have a constitutional right to international travel that is being denied by the failure to issue PR cards. Which is wrong on multiple levels. Which some here persisted in pressing even after I explicitly referenced the Charter of Rights and its distinction regarding PR mobility rights.
Such distinctions are important. Forum participants should be given accurate information which will enable them to weigh things for themselves and make decisions accordingly.
Sorry, but the activist advocacy being pushed here is NOT likely to help many, if any PRs get their PR cards any sooner. It is misleading to proselytize otherwise. I realize that some here claim the contrary. Including those who FALSELY insisted PRs have international mobility rights which are constitutionally protected (no, they do not). Including those who FALSELY claim I am in some way associated with or colleagues of IRCC personnel (no, I am not).
My activist role these days is limited to what little I may be able to help others better understand and navigate the procedures. And this is indeed my agenda. I have otherwise engaged in a fair share of activist efforts, going back MORE than a HALF CENTURY, back to protests and getting teargassed in the 1960s. With more formal, organizational roles at various times, for various causes, in between. In the distant past I probably was a little careless about some of the causes I supported. Not just youth to blame, sadly. And for the part of my career I was a professional advocate (which even that was probably before many here were born), who was paying the bills tended to influence which causes I undertook (but not that I would take any cause). Most of that is well in the past now, except doing stuff similar to what I do here, what I have been doing now for more than the last decade, which again is primarily focused on helping forum visitors and participants to the extent I can provide information and analysis that will help.
For those who find it inconvenient that they are at the brunt end of my version of activism, my opposition to distortions and falsehoods about PR obligation and citizenship application processes, I do not apologize. I am not sure about how active I will continue to be, for how long, but for now, at least some of the time, I will point out when a bill of goods is being sold.
And the clamour for "reform" of IRCC currently being propounded here is indeed an effort to sell a bill of goods.
Not only are opinions not all created equal, not all activism is created equal either. The need for activism, in particular, is not equal.
Painting the clamouring for faster PR card renewal processing, and IRCC "reform" generally, in the midst of perhaps the most serious crisis Canada has suffered in many decades, as a just cause of noble import, does not sell. Lipstick on a pig would be a generous comparison.
As I believe one participant here was advised by the government, IRCC is taking appropriate steps to assess and address the situation, and pursuing reasonable measures to provide services commensurate with the still evolving situation. No special prodding necessary.
But it is going to take some time.
I want to be frank about one important thing, however, and that regards my participation in this site. I make a concerted effort to do the homework, mostly relative to honestly and carefully offering observations to help others better understand and navigate a few particular issues related to grant citizenship applications and PR obligations. The repeated efforts to slur me and allege I am biased are unfounded and without basis, at least other than the biases I readily acknowledge, largely related to being older and relatively rather risk-averse.
As I have observed in this particular topic before, with some emphasis, there is nothing wrong, per se, with activist advocacy here, nor even with activist rhetoric. But to the extent it distorts what is happening and obscures a fair and accurate assessment of the information forum participants are looking for to help them make practical decisions and navigate their way forward, and especially so in these particularly trying times, that sort of activism is a distraction and an obstruction. And needs to be called out for what it is. The more obvious examples in this very topic should not need revisiting, but they illustrate the need for challenges and corrections. Among the more salient examples was the repeated, by multiple participants here, totally false, erroneous claim that PRs have a constitutional right to international travel that is being denied by the failure to issue PR cards. Which is wrong on multiple levels. Which some here persisted in pressing even after I explicitly referenced the Charter of Rights and its distinction regarding PR mobility rights.
Such distinctions are important. Forum participants should be given accurate information which will enable them to weigh things for themselves and make decisions accordingly.
Sorry, but the activist advocacy being pushed here is NOT likely to help many, if any PRs get their PR cards any sooner. It is misleading to proselytize otherwise. I realize that some here claim the contrary. Including those who FALSELY insisted PRs have international mobility rights which are constitutionally protected (no, they do not). Including those who FALSELY claim I am in some way associated with or colleagues of IRCC personnel (no, I am not).
My activist role these days is limited to what little I may be able to help others better understand and navigate the procedures. And this is indeed my agenda. I have otherwise engaged in a fair share of activist efforts, going back MORE than a HALF CENTURY, back to protests and getting teargassed in the 1960s. With more formal, organizational roles at various times, for various causes, in between. In the distant past I probably was a little careless about some of the causes I supported. Not just youth to blame, sadly. And for the part of my career I was a professional advocate (which even that was probably before many here were born), who was paying the bills tended to influence which causes I undertook (but not that I would take any cause). Most of that is well in the past now, except doing stuff similar to what I do here, what I have been doing now for more than the last decade, which again is primarily focused on helping forum visitors and participants to the extent I can provide information and analysis that will help.
For those who find it inconvenient that they are at the brunt end of my version of activism, my opposition to distortions and falsehoods about PR obligation and citizenship application processes, I do not apologize. I am not sure about how active I will continue to be, for how long, but for now, at least some of the time, I will point out when a bill of goods is being sold.
And the clamour for "reform" of IRCC currently being propounded here is indeed an effort to sell a bill of goods.
I do not remember the user who, almost a month ago, dared to claim in a post that PR has constitutional mobility right.
I am sure this bad immigrant learned their lesson by now, that PR mobility rights are not protected in Canada.
Yay, we all should be somehow happy, I think!
I know that I will be happy if we stopped talking about it since it is not the issue here.
No MP/IRCC officials accused anyone who lawfully complained/asked for reform of being misinformed/nagging/anti-Candian.
Was the sudden (299 days to 132 days) improvement in processing times because of activism, or was it always planned?
I do not know; I do not work in the government!
Maybe we should ask IRCC for an official explanation and ask if they cared about immigrants' complaints and feedback?
Maybe their official answer will be "we do not give a damn about immigrants complaints, "however, I doubt it.
In this forum, everyone is anonymous; however, some people would like to impose infallible authority and credibility to their views.
IRCC needs reform, just write the words immigration reform on google, and you will find tons of articles/public debate/parliament bills asking for reform. Some are proposing to limit immigration, some asking to change the rules, some asking to smooth processing, etc.
IRCC reform is not a radical or new idea.
Even the conservative government reformed IRCC dramatically and managed to cut PR application time down to six months.
But somehow, current immigrants who discuss the issues impacting them on a web forum and try to complain/ask for reform lawfully through MPs, media, etc. are scammers who are selling the bill of goods.
What bill are we selling? I did not see anyone ask for benefits or mislead other immigrants.
Are we selling hope in reform/change to the current system?
Wow, I was under the impression that a lot of changes/reforms in this country happened because of activism.
Sorry for the long worded post, I guess I am getting infected by the long arguments bug that is spreading in this thread.
I am sure this bad immigrant learned their lesson by now, that PR mobility rights are not protected in Canada.
Yay, we all should be somehow happy, I think!
I know that I will be happy if we stopped talking about it since it is not the issue here.
No MP/IRCC officials accused anyone who lawfully complained/asked for reform of being misinformed/nagging/anti-Candian.
Was the sudden (299 days to 132 days) improvement in processing times because of activism, or was it always planned?
I do not know; I do not work in the government!
Maybe we should ask IRCC for an official explanation and ask if they cared about immigrants' complaints and feedback?
Maybe their official answer will be "we do not give a damn about immigrants complaints, "however, I doubt it.
In this forum, everyone is anonymous; however, some people would like to impose infallible authority and credibility to their views.
IRCC needs reform, just write the words immigration reform on google, and you will find tons of articles/public debate/parliament bills asking for reform. Some are proposing to limit immigration, some asking to change the rules, some asking to smooth processing, etc.
IRCC reform is not a radical or new idea.
Even the conservative government reformed IRCC dramatically and managed to cut PR application time down to six months.
But somehow, current immigrants who discuss the issues impacting them on a web forum and try to complain/ask for reform lawfully through MPs, media, etc. are scammers who are selling the bill of goods.
What bill are we selling? I did not see anyone ask for benefits or mislead other immigrants.
Are we selling hope in reform/change to the current system?
Wow, I was under the impression that a lot of changes/reforms in this country happened because of activism.
Sorry for the long worded post, I guess I am getting infected by the long arguments bug that is spreading in this thread.