This is the email I just sent to my MP. I could have written so much more, but I want him to actually read it (or someone in his office at least.)
"I am writing you today as a citizen of Canada and a resident of downtown Edmonton who is sponsoring my husband for Canadian Immigration under the Inland Spousal Sponsorship program.
When we committed to applying for residency for my husband, the wait time for first stage approval (and the following work permit that is granted as well as access to Alberta Health Care - most external insurance agencies will not cover someone who has been outside of their country for a year) was 6 months (with an additional 8 month wait for residency to be granted). By the time we had applied, the wait period was listed as 8 months. Unfortunately, as the CIC workers began their strike around this time last year, wait times increased to 11 months as our application sat in waiting. In January of this year (after another delay in processing applications due to prioritization of applicants affected by the typhoons in the Philippines), things started looking up and the immigration office in Vegreville started powering through applications, granting work permits to spouses of Canadians and Permanent Residents to three months worth of applicants in one month. The processing time went back down to 8 months. It has been 9 months to the day since we submitted our application.
Unfortunately, in February all applications came to a grinding halt as CIC made the decision, amidst promises that this would decrease wait times, to transfer our files and all unstarted inland sponsorship applications to Mississauga. Since this move, there has been little to no movement with applications. Processing times have increased to 10 months.
I am grateful that my husband can legally stay here with me in Canada whilst his application is being processed. That being said, spouses of temporary foreign workers, students, skilled workers, and other classes of immigrants are granted work permits with processing times as short as a few months. Why is it that this same courtesy is not granted to citizens? Our spouses should be granted work permits when CIC receives our completed application; not when our stage 1 is processed. If residency is not granted or if a relationship is deemed to be fraudulent, simply revoke the work permit. With a work permit, my husband could be a productive member of the community in Canada. He could be contributing to the economy and to growth in Canada. As it stands right now, he is a burden to the taxpayers - as a single income household with myself as the breadwinner, and my husband dependant on me our tax filings reflected this. As a degree holder, working in a well paid job in my field, I should be contributing to the tax pool; however, with the struggles of supporting our household on one income and filing joint taxes (as my husband is considered a resident for tax purposes), I am not doing my share as a Canadian and my husband is not doing his share as someone who lives in our country. This is not because we do not want to, but rather because we are not allowed to due to an unjust immigration process.
I am not asking for special treatment. I hope that whoever processes our application looks into it with rigour and in 100% confident that we are in a genuine relationship and that my husband will be a credit to the Canadian culture. I am simply requesting that spouses of Citizens and PRs be afforded the same opportunities as spouses of people applying for immigration and under other immigration classes. The move to Mississauga has slowed the process down and left many families in limbo, unable to travel (to see my sick father-in-law, in our case), unable to contribute to the economy and work, and unable to contribute to their families. Having the posted processing time continue to increase is heartbreaking, when we have been waiting for this since August 2013.
I hope you can represent myself as your constituent and the hundreds of other Canadians and their families affected by these unexpected and unwarranted delays.
Thank you."
