Since mid-March 2020, critical operations provided by IRCC employees were maintained both remotely and in our offices. While IRCC’s in-Canada processing centres have remained open at reduced capacity, many visa application centres and IRCC offices around the world have had to temporarily close. In many countries, these have now reopened to the public or have restarted limited processing.
IRCC is adapting to these challenging circumstances and continues to deliver timely services to our clients. We have ensured priority processing for vulnerable people, those seeking to reunite with their family, and people who perform or support critical services.
Despite limitations in many of our offices, we are processing applications as quickly as possible and making great strides in processing more applications virtually, while emphasizing safety and security.
With our virtual citizenship ceremonies, over 42,000 clients have become new citizens between April 1, 2020, and October 30, 2020. We’ve also implemented virtual interviews in key areas for permanent resident applications, such as the in-Canada spouse and common-law partner stream.
As of October 2020, while continuing to follow guidelines and recommendations set by the Public Health Agency of Canada and provincial and local public health authorities, we have made great strides with business reintegration efforts, by gradually increasing access to worksites for employees whose work cannot be done remotely. This also allows for the distribution of files to remote workers for processing.
We are catching up to pre-COVID processing rates. In October, we completed 28,000 final decisions across all business lines, compared to 31,000 in February 2020. However, many factors remain beyond IRCC’s control. To address some of these, we have extended deadlines for clients facing delays in providing information, to ensure no application is refused due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Supplementary messages
The Department has an agile and nimble workforce, which has quickly adjusted in the face of COVID-19 processing challenges. In March 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, the Department responded by prioritizing delivery of critical services:
Temporary residence including in-Canada extensions, seasonal agricultural workers, essential and vulnerable workers
Permanent residence including Express Entry (Canada Experience Class and Provincial Nominee Program), spousal (in-Canada and those who are travel ban exempt), Permanent Resident Travel Document and Humanitarian and Compassionate
Refugee/asylum including asylum claims received by email, privately sponsored refugees and Urgent Protection Program
Citizenship including urgent proofs of citizenship and the implementation of virtual ceremonies.
Passport including urgent travel documents.
Over the spring and summer months, IRCC equipped its officers with the tools to support remote processing where possible, partially reinstating our operational capacity, both in Canada and abroad.
As of October 2020, while continuing to follow the Public Health Agency of Canada’s recommendations and guidelines issued by provincial and local public health authorities, the Department has moved forward with business reintegration efforts in all lines of business by gradually increasing access to worksites for employees whose work cannot be done remotely, and to support file distribution to remote workers. We are also offering limited in-person services for citizenship, permanent residence, and asylum lines of business (as of October 2020).
We have implemented adaptive measures to extend submission deadlines for clients who face delays due to COVID-19 restrictions. In other words, no application in progress will be closed or refused as a result of ongoing service disruptions related to COVID-19. While an important step in supporting our clients, this measure will further extend our processing times.
In the context of Hong Kong, our office has remained fully operational throughout the pandemic and is well positioned to continue to provide critical services to Canadians, permanent residents and those who will to travel or immigrate to Canada when borders reopen.
Our panel physicians in Hong Kong have also remained available throughout the pandemic to complete immigration medical exams for our clients.
Permanent residence
At the outset of the pandemic, processing offices were closed and staff who were able to work remotely focused on critical lines of business.
Currently, a portion of staff are able to work in the office to address paper caseloads, while business resumption strategies are in place to support working remotely for the majority of departmental staff. We are continuing to process permanent residence applications, to the extent possible.
IRCC is working with the Canada Border Services Agency to facilitate travel for permanent residence applicants who are not able to travel to Canada before their Confirmation of Permanent Residence expires. Clients can travel to Canada using their expired Confirmation of Permanent Residence document, along with an authorization letter from IRCC advising that the Confirmation’s validity has been extended in the Global Case Management System, but not reprinted.
From January to October 2020, IRCC has issued over 190 300 Confirmations of Permanent Residence. This is a decrease of 46% from the same period in 2019.
On March 16, 2020, landing appointments were cancelled in an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19. In order to continue to grant permanent residence to clients, the Department has implemented alternate procedures to enable permanent residence to be granted without the need for an in-person interview for in-Canada cases, starting April 20.
On May, 2020, an alternate method of permanent resident travel document intake, processing and document issuance was implemented. Clients are now able to email their complete applications to a designated inbox. IRCC is also working with the Canada Border Services Agency to leverage a similar process for those requiring temporary resident counterfoil-less visa issuance to travel back to Canada.
Permanent resident processing for protected persons was deemed a critical function early in the pandemic. As new tools and processes are introduced to facilitate remote processing of paper applications, processing for protected persons has increased.
Since the beginning of COVID-19, processing times have increased and are expected to increase further, depending on how long it takes to return to full production to “business as usual”.
Shortfalls from 2020 levels are planned to be made up across the recently tabled Multi-Year Levels Plan (2021-2023). Canada will welcome 401,000 permanent residents in 2021, 411,000 in 2022 and 421,000 in 2023.
Spousal applications
From January to October 2020, IRCC received 21,277 spousal and children sponsorship applications. This is a decrease of 71% compared to the same period in 2019. (*Note that due to COVID-19, there is a lag in permanent residence application intake reporting).
For overseas spouses and partners, our service standard is 12 months for 80% of cases. For the 12-month period ending in October 2019, the Department met its service standard in 76% of cases. For the 12-month period ending October 2020, the adherence rate was 64%.
At the same time, IRCC has increased the number of decision makers on spousal applications in Canada by 66%, to process spousal applications more quickly and reduce couples’ wait times.
IRCC aims to accelerate, prioritize and finalize approximately 6,000 spousal application decisions each month from October until December 2020. Combined with processing to date, this rate will lead to about 49,000 decisions by the end of this year.
Temporary residence
IRCC continues to accept and process temporary resident applications, though we recognize that service disruptions and travel restrictions due to COVID-19 may have an impact on processing times.
From January to October 2020, IRCC received 246,068 initial study permit applications – an intake drop of 31% from the same time the previous year.
In addition, 175,126 study permit extension applications were received in 2020 up to the end of October, which is in line with the volume received during the same period in 2019.
From January to October 2020, approximately 150,413 initial study permit applications were processed. This is a 57% decrease compared to just under 349,000 applications processed during the same time in 2019.
For study permit extensions, 196,000 have been processed this year up to the end of October. This is 19% higher than the study permit extension output during the same period in 2019.
Processing times for initial study permits for the eight-week period ending on October 30, 2020 rose to 174 days, from 39 days in the previous year. This resulted in meeting 54% of the service standard adherence.
Study permit extension processing times were 68 days for the eight-week period ending on October 30, 2020, from 48 days in 2019, resulting in achieving 96% service standard adherence.
Permanent resident cards
Permanent resident card processing was paused at the beginning of the pandemic and resumed as part of business resumption in August 2020.
The current processing time for permanent resident cards (November 2019 – October 2020) is 82Footnote * days for new permanent resident cards and 128Footnote * days for renewal/replacement cards. In 2019, the processing time for permanent resident cards for the same period (November 2018 – October 2019) was 53Footnote * days for new permanent resident cards and 57Footnote * days for renewal/replacement cards.
Exemptions for immediate and extended family
From October 8 to November 11, 2020 (inclusive), the Department received nearly 38,000 emails that include written authorization requests and inquiries regarding travel restriction exemptions for immediate and extended family members of Canadians, persons registered under Canada's Indian Act, and permanent residents. Approximately 30% of the requests received fall under the category of extended family members.
During that period, the Department adjudicated over 11,000 requests, most of which were processed within the 14 business day service standards when a request containing complete information is received.
Acknowledgements of receipt
Due to reduced operations, IRCC’s processing offices have not been sending Acknowledgements of Receipt to applicants under paper permanent resident lines of business at our regular pace.
Where deemed necessary, modified Acknowledgements of Receipt have been implemented to advise clients that their applications were received, but have not been accepted for processing yet.
Immigration medical examinations
Our panel physician network is operating at 94% capacity and there are no delays for applicants to complete immigration medical exams. Our regional medical offices are prepared to maintain their service standards.
