Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has proclaimed it will speed up processing times for spousal visas to Canada through to the end of 2020.
IRCC, the Canadian immigration department, said this decision comes based on the government’s aim to process 6,000 spousal visa applications every month between October and December of this year.
As a result of this step, 49,000 spousal visa applications to Canada will now receive decisions by the end of 2020.
Marco Mendicino, the Canadian immigration minister, said that because of the pandemic, families who have been unable to be together have had to experience a tougher time than most and that the Canadian government is looking to process and approve spousal visa applications at an accelerated pace to help them come together.
IRCC has increased its personnel to speed up spousal sponsorship applications and also has plans to digitize paper applications and implement facilitative biometrics measures in order to process and approve applications quickly and remotely.
These initiatives will allow IRCC to speed up spousal application processing times by 66 per cent and allow Canadian citizens and permanent residents to be reunited with their loved ones during these challenging times.
