Migrating Parents

Hi All,

I am Canadian Citizen and reside in Canada.

I sponsored my parents on 14th March - 2004 and after 5 months I recieved a letter from the Immigration Office that they have received my application and since then heard nothing from them.

I did call after 10 months and they said do not call us before 18 months.

What's going on and what's taking that long...I understand parent class has the slowest priority but is it really that slow????

Advise please.

Thank you.

IIRC the parent/ grandparent queue was up to 36/42 months...the Federal government announced increased resources last year to reduce this timelines as well as the issuance of long term visit visas to allow separated families see each other. All these measures take time to coem through.

There is a Federal election in two weeks time - the outcome may impact on this policy...after all the stated age group is often challenged on economic activity grounds (that the sponsor is liable for 10 years for their upkeep including the recovery of social security costs often negates this).

Thank you for your response.

So it will take that long and I do not see any change of policy after the elections either.

Visit Visa seems the other option and also we end up spending more money like this.

I'm afraid you just have to be patient. At least the federal government announced introduced this visitor visa concession or else you would not see your relatives for a long time. Consider yourself fortunate that Canada has adopted a common sense approach to this compared to say the US where petitioning for a relative effectively rules them out of ever obtaining a US non immigrant visa.

Thank you Kayalami for your response.

I guess you are right but we have to wait for long and if in between I sponsor them on a visit visa, I have to pay insurance etc. The Government should also consider this part too and work with the insurance companies to bring their costs down.

While I appreciate your sentiments why should the government interfere in the market and even if it does there will be an issue of subsidising insurance funded by the taxpayer (unless you are happy to shift your tax liberation day to fall)? Surely the insurance costs should be borne by the relevant person who after all decides to come to Canada - (IMHO) the government owes them no obligation...they are already granting them the privilege to enter the country.