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Government to slash waiting times for spouses immigrating to Canada

Canada's Immigration Minister said that application wait times for spousal immigration will be cut in half. Photo from Getty Images.
Canada’s Immigration Minister said that application wait times for spousal immigration will be cut in half. Photo from Getty Images.

After 27 months, John McCool is in his final stages of applying to be a landed immigrant.

The U.S. citizen, who married a Montrealer in 2014, has put his life on hold as he navigates the Canadian immigration system. Unable to work or go to school, he’s lived in limbo as he waits for his papers to be approved.

Despite being frustrated by the process, McCool is relieved others won’t have to go through the same hardship as he has, after Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced Wednesday that it will cut waiting times for immigrating spouses.

“I’m really happy because it just means there won’t be as many families who have to go through such uncertainty and hardship of waiting to start their lives and begin their future with their spouse,” he told Yahoo Canada News. “They can start working, their access to health care starts earlier. All that has real impacts.”

At a press conference today, John McCallum, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship announced that starting immediately, the government would cut waiting times in half. That means, spouses looking to move to Canada from abroad now wait 12 months, down from 24, to immigrate. He added that the goal is to get that time even lower, though complex cases could take more than a year.

“The immigration department is a big ship, you don’t turn it on a dime…we are hoping in coming months we are able to reduce (wait times) further,” he said at the conference.

It was also announced that the new application kit for sponsors, available on Dec. 15, have been redesigned to be easier to follow.

n 2017, the department intends to admit 64,000 spouses, a spike compared to the last decade’s yearly average of 47,000.

McCallum explained that Ottawa was able to speed up the process thanks to the $25-million that was announced for the department in the last budget.

McCool said he’s thankful other families won’t have to wade through the uncertainty that comes with applying to live in Canada, which can take a serious toll on mental well-being.

“A lot of the emotional impacts that my husband and I dealt with really hung over our marriage,” he said. “Starting a new life can be hard, and to have the government put more barriers is really difficult. I don’t think people plan for that when they move to another country.”