Liberals working to soften approach to temporary visas, Trudeau says – National | 24CA News

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’s pushing Canada’s immigration system to melt its strategy to processing visa purposes and put much less give attention to the danger of tourists overstaying their short-term visas.

“We’re also trying to do a better job around temporary visas,” Trudeau stated Friday.

“The system — I’ll be honest — is still based around, ‘Prove to me that you won’t stay if you come,’ right?” he stated, arguing that it’s simpler for candidates to “convince” immigration officers to grant them visas if they’ve “a good job and a home and a house and a good status back home.”

On the opposite hand, people who find themselves strongly motivated to be in Canada for household causes may very well be seen by officers as extra prone to overstay, he steered: “If your mom talks about how much she loves you and just wants to be there (in Canada), and you’re there all alone, that’s scary.”

Trudeau made the remarks Friday throughout an hour-long assembly with about 25 Algonquin College nursing college students in Ottawa. Many of them instructed him they’re worldwide college students, and a handful talked about visa points.

During a question-and-answer session, one worldwide pupil recounted being hospitalized for seven months and feeling remoted. She instructed the prime minister her mom had tried twice to get a visa to come back go to her, however each purposes have been rejected.

Trudeau responded that it is important for Canadians to think about the integrity of their immigration system. But he additionally steered that he had requested Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to take a much less defensive posture when issuing visas.

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“We have to stop saying ‘Well, it would be a bad people, a bad thing, if these people were to choose to stay,”’ Trudeau stated. “Our immigration minister, Sean Fraser, is working very, very hard on trying to shift the way we look at immigration and make sure that we’re bringing people in.”

The prime minister instructed the scholar that the Immigration Department made the flawed name in deciding to not admit her mom.

“It would seem unfair to Canadians and to all sorts of people if there was a back door. These are all the things we’re trying to balance,” Trudeau stated. “But I absolutely hear you. Your mom should have been able to come and see you.”

Trudeau added that the federal immigration system is challenged by Canada’s must fill labour gaps and by quite a few crises overseas which are inflicting folks to flee their properties.

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Trudeau additionally stated Ottawa has to do a greater job serving to immigrants thrive. Otherwise, he stated, Canadians’ heat emotions towards immigration may chill.

“An anti-immigration party would have a hard time succeeding in Canada, because so many Canadians understand how important that is,” Trudeau stated. “We need to protect the fact that Canadians are pro-immigration.”

For instance, he stated there should be sufficient housing inventory for newcomer households to ascertain themselves with out breeding resentment among the many Canadian-born inhabitants. But he steered immigration may additionally assist clear up that drawback.

“There’s a labour shortage in the construction industry and building houses. So as we bring in more people who can build houses, we will solve some of the housing shortage,” stated Trudeau.

“There are solutions in this. Part of it is shifting the attitudes. Part of it is also just improving our ability to process (applications) using proper digital means and computer means.”

Fraser’s workplace confirmed that work is underway to take a look at how Ottawa points visas for relations of individuals already in Canada.

“Reuniting families is a pillar of Canada’s immigration system,” the minister’s spokeswoman, Bahoz Dara Aziz, stated in a press release. “We continue to be guided by principles of fairness and compassion, and work to explore all avenues possible in bringing people together with their loved ones.”

Canada’s visa denials and processing delays have made world headlines previously 12 months, with residents of growing nations discovering themselves unable to attend world conferences hosted in Canadian cities.

This week, the International Studies Association went public with its struggles to get visas for a whole lot of individuals set to attend a Montreal convention subsequent month.

Despite presenting airplane tickets, earnings knowledge and proof of funding they acquired to attend the convention, many attendees, together with panelists, have been denied on the grounds that they’ll’t display a chance of returning residence when the occasion is over.

The points observe an uproar final 12 months over the denial of visas for a number of African delegates to the International AIDS Conference, additionally held in Montreal, which had some accusing Canada of racism.

Data up to date Tuesday present that visa purposes take a mean of 217 days to course of for folks based mostly in Britain. It’s 212 days for folks in France.

While residents of these nations don’t want customer visas to come back to Canada, teachers from many growing nations who’re based mostly in Paris or London do want a visa to attend a convention Canada.

The Immigration Department didn’t reply to the considerations till after The Canadian Press printed an article Wednesday.

“IRCC works collaboratively with organizers of international events taking place in Canada to help co-ordinate processing of temporary resident visa applications for delegates or participants to Canada,” spokesman Jeffrey MacDonald stated in an e mail.

“We are committed to the fair and non-discriminatory application of immigration procedures. We take this responsibility seriously, and officers are trained to assess applications equally against the same criteria.”

The division stated the complexity and accuracy of knowledge in a visa utility can affect how shortly IRCC processes it, along with the staffing and assets of workplaces that deal with the requests.

But the division additionally famous that the processing occasions it posts on-line are sometimes not “reflective of reality.”

That’s as a result of the estimate is predicated on how lengthy it took officers to course of 80 per cent of purposes within the earlier six to eight weeks. Those embrace long-backlogged instances.

“Processing times can be skewed by outliers, in particular applications from our older inventory that were previously on hold for a long period of time and are now being processed,” MacDonald wrote.

“Once this backlog of applications is cleared, we will start to see processing times more reflective of reality.”