[size=10pt][size=10pt][size=10pt]LATEST ON CIC STRIKE:[/size][/size][/size]
Mr. Edwards said visa issuance fell by 25% overall in June, but in Beijing and Delhi it is down almost 65%, with a backlog growing at up to 20% per week. He said fewer than half of the 53 visa centres are now meeting CIC's basic service standard of a two-week turnaround, and half of those are taking a month on average. In Delhi, they had to buy new shelves for the backlog.
One foreign service officer, posted to the Mexico City visa office, said many colleagues are feeling guilty as files pile up, and are tempted to do more to help applicants, “but then we have to realize that it's not us, we're not stopping it, it's really the government that's stopping it at the moment".... It's a question of equality, of fighting for our rights.”
“It's hard to see that people don't really understand what's going on, they just feel that we're not doing our jobs,” said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity both because of the sensitivity of the strike and because immigrations officers whose names are publicly known are sometimes hounded by applicants. “It's extremely difficult.... We want to serve our clients the best we can.”
