FEBRUARY 2011 applicants here!!

[Panda]

Cuts to family-reunification visas upset Asians
Community 'angry' elders may be kept out of country for years
By Suzanne Fournier, The Province February 10, 2011

Vancouver's Asian community is furious at allegations Immigration Canada is planning to dramatically cut visas issued this year for family reunification.

The reduction in visas in 2011 cuts to the heart of Asian and South Asian families, who especially cherish the contribution of elders to family life.

Seniors are being sentenced to a 13-year wait that many of them won't survive, say immigration experts.

Thomas Tam, chief executive officer of SUCCESS immigrant services, called the reduced visa numbers "a big surprise and so disappointing -everyone is angry."

"Traditionally for Asian immigrants, the reunion with grandparents is very important. Parents rely on them for childcare and our community looks after grandparents. They are not a financial burden."

Immigration Canada is planning for "fewer immigrant visas overall, a reduction from 230,450 in 2010 to 217,800 visas in 2011, a drop of over five per cent," noted Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland, who got the never-released data under an Access to Information request.

"You're more likely now to get a coffin than a visa to Canada," Kurland said Wednesday.

"If you're hoping to bring a grandparent over for a christening, they'll be lucky to get here before the child graduates from high school."

Although Kurland notes there will be slight increases in visas issued in 2011 to business immigrants, such as entrepreneurs or wealthy investors, "the only group chosen for the back of the bus are parents and grandparents."

Particularly hard-hit will be elders from cities such as New Delhi, "which will see the number of its visas drop from 4,500 in 2010 to 2,500 in 2011," said Kurland.

Charan Gill of Progressive Intercultural Community Services was incensed at the apparent drastic reduction in the numbers of parents being allowed to emigrate from India.

"Already we have so many families waiting five, six years to bring parents over. Now people will die before they see their family in Canada," said Gill.

And while Asia/Pacific visa quotas are reduced overall, the city of Beijing appears to have been given an increase.

"That means there will be only 11,200 parents/grandparents come to Canada from China in all of 2011, but one in four of them will be from Beijing," noted Kurland. "Everyone else has to wait."

Johanne Nadeau, spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, cautioned that "the visa targets only serve as a planning tool to help allocate scarce resources, manage applications and minimize processing delays across a global network."

Nadeau said the "visa targets change from year to year" and are "adjusted as necessary."

It would be "wrong to infer from planning numbers how many people Canada will actually welcome in 2011," she said.

Nadeau noted that, in 2010, Canada "welcomed the highest level of permanent residents in 50 years."

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/Cuts+family+reunification+visas+upset+Asians/4255890/story.html#ixzz1DZkExbNz

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If the above is true IT SUCKS big time, in the news release in November it said that quotas have been increased for family reunification and now they are saying it's decreased drastically, I hope SPOUSE Visas are not affected with this, For Parents and Grand Parents it will be a 13 year wait now WTF sorry for being agitated but it really is bad, Canada is really tightening down the way it's allowing the immigrants.

Hope for the best folks!

Cheers;
Panda

 

[shelleydalyce]

This won't affect spousal visa. Much different than parents. If you look at the parent processing times currently that are already waiting 10 months for the first part which takes us approximately 20 days. Read before you freak yourself out.

 

[lama21]

I am so happy they finally recieved my applicaiton / file today. I just hope the process goes fast for all of us ! And btw as they are working on the applicaiton on/after 13th Jan 2011, it seems we are very close to it. still best wishes to all !!

 

[quagaar145]

Hi, count me in for the February filers. Mississauga received our outland spouse application on Feb 4th and we will be going through the Buffalo office. I was so excited that I went and made myself a ticker to put in my signature! Reading everyone's posts about their applications has got me worried though... hubby and I aren't big on the picture-taking so we only had a small amount of photographic evidence, mostly some from our wedding with a few friends and family and then a couple from my trips to Canada. We also included skype records, stamps from passports, boarding passes, letters from myself, from him, and from my mother discussing our relationship, and a paper from his bank showing that he made me the beneficiary on his mutual fund (will that help or hurt us?). It was really all we had though, I hope it is enough.

Wishing everyone speedy processing times!

 

[CharlieD10]

Hi, count me in for the February filers. Mississauga received our outland spouse application on Feb 4th and we will be going through the Buffalo office. I was so excited that I went and made myself a ticker to put in my signature! Reading everyone's posts about their applications has got me worried though... hubby and I aren't big on the picture-taking so we only had a small amount of photographic evidence, mostly some from our wedding with a few friends and family and then a couple from my trips to Canada. We also included skype records, stamps from passports, boarding passes, letters from myself, from him, and from my mother discussing our relationship, and a paper from his bank showing that he made me the beneficiary on his mutual fund (will that help or hurt us?). It was really all we had though, I hope it is enough.

Wishing everyone speedy processing times!

Totally wouldn't worry about it, American/Canadian couples with straightforward cases are not usually suspected as non-genuine because of a small amount of evidence.

 

[quagaar145]

Totally wouldn't worry about it, American/Canadian couples with straightforward cases are not usually suspected as non-genuine because of a small amount of evidence.

Thank you, that is reassuring!

 

[Tiggilicious]

We didn't include my spouses birth certificate (US Citizen)... when I called CIC they said a copy of his passport would be sufficient, he said that was only if he was bringing in children from the US (which he isnt, we have a daughter that was born here and lives here). Now Im worried...

 

[arvin812]

Quick update. My application was received at CIC Missisauga on 09 Feb 2011. Cheers.

 

[destanova]

We sent out our application yesterday, and since it's only going down the street, I'm sure it will be received today! I'm so excited to finally have ito ut of my house!

 

[Bangkokcanuck]

Totally wouldn't worry about it, American/Canadian couples with straightforward cases are not usually suspected as non-genuine because of a small amount of evidence.

I promise I am not trying to start a fight or upset anyone but I have seen so many comments like the one above and I am curious where it comes from? There seems to be a real bias felt on the board for Can/US couples like there has never been an instance of fraud in those circumstances. Conversely I have often seen written how third world cases have a much higher reason to be suspect. Is this actual fact that someone has stats on or just a mild case of racism that is sort of accepted? I wish I could find a more PC word to use, but it is a funny vibe that runs through many comments.

Obviously it hits home for me as my wife is what many of YOU would consider third world due to where she was born, but I will stack up her life experiences and world knowledge and travel and business experience against any American or Canadian for that matter. Before you decide my panties are in a knot etc, etc I really don't care other than my curiosity as to how that sort of bias has just come to be accepted as fact. Or if in fact the people that make such comments realize how it sounds or how they would feel if people made such matter of fact assumptions about them or their better half...

Interesting to say the least.. ok back to your regularly scheduled programming.

 

[CharlieD10]

I promise I am not trying to start a fight or upset anyone but I have seen so many comments like the one above and I am curious where it comes from? There seems to be a real bias felt on the board for Can/US couples like there has never been an instance of fraud in those circumstances. Conversely I have often seen written how third world cases have a much higher reason to be suspect. Is this actual fact that someone has stats on or just a mild case of racism that is sort of accepted? I wish I could find a more PC word to use, but it is a funny vibe that runs through many comments.

Obviously it hits home for me as my wife is what many of YOU would consider third world due to where she was born, but I will stack up her life experiences and world knowledge and travel and business experience against any American or Canadian for that matter. Before you decide my panties are in a knot etc, etc I really don't care other than my curiosity as to how that sort of bias has just come to be accepted as fact. Or if in fact the people that make such comments realize how it sounds or how they would feel if people made such matter of fact assumptions about them or their better half...

Interesting to say the least.. ok back to your regularly scheduled programming.

I'm just stating something I have seen from my experiences reading these boards, and reading cases in the CanLII Database about "marriages of convenience". American and British partners of Canadians can be processed in as little as 2-3 months, they are visa-exempt, which means many of them can "visit" with their partners while their PR is processed, and I have yet to see a case involving an American that was suspected of being a MoC in all the reading I do on CanLII. They are from economically compatible countries, it is highly unlikely an IO is going to think they are with their Canadian partners simply to acquire the PR, isn't it?

I, on the other hand, am from one of those same "Third World" countries as your wife. Did I package almost 5 pounds of paper showing contact between myself and my spouse, attestations to the genuineness of our relationship by family and friends, photographs of our wedding and other occasions along with our application? Hell yes, I did. Do I still think it's not enough, and worry I may be selected for an interview? Hell yes, I do. Because the minute an IO sees "Jamaican wife", he sees a black woman from a poor country married to a white man from a developed one who met online, and alarm bells and red flags are going up all over the place he/she would not see or hear if I happened to be American. My education, experience in life, none of that is nearly as important as my race and my nationality at first glance.

Do I think there is a bias? Yes, I do. Does it aggravate me? Yes, it does. But, to quote Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Titanic: "I'm not an idiot, I know how the world works". It's just a matter of fact, and I just have to deal with it. I see little point in being bitter about it, so I shrug it off, and get on with my life with my husband as best we can, until someone deems me worthy of living in his country.

 

[Baloo]

I doubt that the majority of this is about racism.

Think of it this way:
A US citizen can enter Canada pretty much when the want, social & economic levels between the USA and Canada are similar.
In fact Canada and the USA are currently working on a more harmonized border / immigration control system.
So the reality is, there are less reasons for a US citizen to commit fraud to gain Canadian citizenship. In general terms they don't gain that much, other than a less expensive health care system.

Contrast this to a country X (pick one), assume that country X has high levels of unemployment, bribery and corruption are common, and personal security is threatened on a regular basis. Ask yourself, does a regular citizen of country X have more reasons to want to leave their home and move to Canada - sure they do. So there is more incentive to commit fraud.

This is not racism or rocket science.

FWIW "first world" and "third world" are anomalous terms, ignore them, I do.

 

[Bangkokcanuck]

Do I think there is a bias? Yes, I do. Does it aggravate me? Yes, it does. But, to quote Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Titanic: "I'm not an idiot, I know how the world works". It's just a matter of fact, and I just have to deal with it. I see little point in being bitter about it, so I shrug it off, and get on with my life with my husband as best we can, until someone deems me worthy of living in his country.

I agree with much of what you have said, although I do think there are plenty of poor people in the US and Canada and the UK that have in the past been involved with a MoC agreed it would be in the minority.

I also agree I'm not bitter about it, if for some insane reason my wife did not get her PR, so be it. We would likely move out of Bangkok and stay here. Canada would lose two very good taxpayers and business owners, their loss not ours.

For the record IMHO you are already worthy of living in his country.

As stated I was not trying to stir anything up I just got a really odd vibe in reading a number of posts on this forum and wondered if others noticed it too.

I'll shut up now haha

 

[Baloo]

I'll shut up now haha

I hope not, it is a subject that needs discussing.

 

[Bangkokcanuck]

I hope not, it is a subject that needs discussing.

Agreed of course or I would not have asked about it, but this is likely not the thread to do so. Perhaps we could start up a thread in the correct place and get some feedback from a much wider variety of people as to how they view this issue.