A pilot program allowing undeclared family members to be sponsored for Canada immigration has been extended.
The program came into effect on September 9, 2019, in order to address the concerns expressed by stakeholders and the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, pertaining to a lifetime bar on those foreign nationals excluded under IRPR’s aforementioned statutes.
When an individual applies to become a permanent resident, all of their family members (spouse, common-law partner, dependent children, dependent child of a dependent child) need to be declared, even if they are not accompanying the principal applicant to Canada.
In most cases, said family members also need to be examined, so that the department officials have all relevant information to make a decision on a permanent residence application and ensure that these family members would not make the principal applicant ineligible and inadmissible.
Under IRPR, failing to have a non-accompanying family member examined as such may result in a lifetime bar on being able to sponsor that member, as per paragraphs 117(9)(d) and 125(1)(d) of the Regulations. These regulations were emplaced to encourage complete disclosure by immigration applicants, to enhance the overall integrity of Family Class immigration, to “protect the health, safety, and security of Canadians,” as per the IRCC website.
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After the implementation of the 2019 pilot project, a subsequent public policy was issued in September 2021 for two years due to the unprecedented circumstances and challenges created by COVID-19.
The policy was set to expire on September 9, 2023, but the department had pre-empted that to allow for continued facilitation and “further monitoring of these cases,” IRCC would be implementing a consecutive public policy to come into effect when the current one expires.
“The consecutive public policy will allow the Department to gather fulsome data on the population utilizing this public policy to consider potential amendments to immigration legislation, while ensuring the same benefits to clients,” IRCC wrote in an older posting on its website.
As promised, the Minister signed the consecutive public policy and is in effect since September 10, 2023, to September 10, 2026. Applications pending on the day this public policy was implemented will be processed according to this public policy.
Family Class instructions relating to this public policy have been updated and reflect the new dates in terms of which applications are to be processed under this public policy.
The temporary public policy applies to all of the following applications:
All of the following requirements must be met for the public policy to apply and to exempt applicants from the paragraph R117(9)(d) or R125(1)(d) exclusion:
Dependent children have to be defined as such per the lock-in date policy. For family class applications, the age lock-in date is the date their application for permanent residence is received by the department.
For applicants whose sponsor resides in the province of Quebec, the sponsorship undertaking must be approved by the Government of Quebec’s Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration (MIFI).
Family members of a sponsor who came to Canada as privately sponsored refugees should not be excluded from this public policy on the basis that the existence of this family member would have meant that their sponsors would have had to meet higher financial requirements.
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As per the IRCC website on the update, “if the case processing centre officer notices that an applicant may be excluded pursuant to paragraph R117(9)(d) or R125(1)(d), when completing the assessment of the sponsor for family class or SCLPC class applications, they should add a note in the Global Case Management System (GCMS) so that the responsible office processing the permanent residence application will be aware.”
The immigration levels plan details that Ottawa is aiming for 106,500 family class immigrants in 2023, 114,000 in 2024, and 118,000 in 2025.
Of these, a majority (close to 80,000 each year) would be under the Spouses, Partners, and Children category.
28,500 in 2023, 34,000 in 2024, and 36,000 in 2025 would be under the Parents and Grandparents category.
The sponsor promises – via their undertaking to support sponsored members of the family class – that for a specified duration, they will provide for the basic needs of their family members so they do not have to rely on social assistance.
Those applications that involve spouses, common-law or conjugal partners and dependent children are prioritized.
Those involving adopted children, children to be adopted, and orphans are also prioritized, as they often involve minors without parental care.
No processing priorities exist for other members of the Family Class.
All family class applications for PR are submitted at the same time as the sponsorship application to a Case Processing Centre (CPC) in Canada.
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