I've been in contact with my MP in the past. I didn't do so to ask for special favours because I recognize that everyone here is in the same situation and we are all worried for and missing our loved ones. I did so venting my frustration with how cumbersome the application process is. I explained that it is as if we get penalized when we make small errors, but the process is not user friendly or easy to follow.
At the time she explained that she is on a working group that has made suggestions on how to improve processing times for various immigration streams moving forward. The suggestions were great and included ideas such as making the spousal application an online process - other immigration streams that have online applications have shorter wait times.
My husband and kids are in Nigeria. The country is becoming more and more dangerous and there has been an increase in armed robberies in my husband's neighbourhood recently. My husband and kids are basically targets for being kidnapped because I am white and Canadian. I am worried about them on a daily basis. But because I don't have any faith that this process will be completed for us by the end of the year, I am going over in early December for a month.
I reached out to my MP again. Again more to vent my frustration than to ask for any favours. I understand their limitations and that if they could do anything to speed up the process, the process wouldn't go any faster because everyone would be trying to jump the queue anyway.
I spoke with her assistant who empathized with the situation, but basically said they can't do anything and then proceeded to tell me about worst case scenarios and cases that have gone on for years and years. Really not what I needed to hear. One case took about 13 years. I am curious now as to what constitutes a complicated case? Any ideas? He also told me that they had three similar calls just that one day, and the day was only half over.
I tried to explain how there is no equality or equity in the process - there are countries where the citizens can come to Canada freely while the process is in place, and the processing is faster and they are safe (here or in their home countries), yet our families are from dangerous countries, generally can't leave during this process, and the process takes longer so they are in danger longer.
I pointed out, too, that we paid for this process. It is not as if we are getting this for free. If this service were coming from a private company, we would request our money back and take our business elsewhere.
He tried to say that the holdups aren't always because of the Canadian government. He said that the process can be held up because governments of countries such as Nigeria and Ghana aren't quick to follow up on requests for security checks. But, don't other streams have security checks also? How can they be faster for people trying to come as students than those who are coming over as spouses?
There have been petitions on Change.org and I am wondering if there is benefit to creating a new one. There was also an article about spousal sponsorship and how difficult it is for the spouses going through this process on the Huffington Post earlier this year (I think). I am trying to find it and find who wrote it. Maybe we could reach out to the writer to see if they would be interested in doing a follow up piece, especially now that the new processes are in place.