A Canadian court ruled that the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) took to long to process a Permanent Residency application from a Syrian couple. The Federal court, which is a superior court with nationwide jurisdiction, ordered that the application be processed within 30 days and the applicants be refunded $1,500 in fees.
Canadian Permanent Residency application is infamous for the long waiting periods with can be anything from a couple of months to years. Applicants could secure the assistance of a lawyer or consultant to represent them in the process.
The applicants in this court ruling are a Syrian couple, Mr. Abdulrhman Taskia and Ms. Ghufran Almutadi. They were both born in Syrian but emigrated to Saudi Arabia separately were they got married. They migrated to Canada in 2016 were they sought refugee protection. They applied and obtained Refugee status from the Refugee Protection Division (RPD). They commenced the processing of their permanent residency that same year. They receiving their medical instructions in May 2018 and completed their medical examination that same month. No update was provided by the Immigration authorities following their examination neither was there any explanation for the delay.
There were to enquiries made by the couple but those yielded no positive outcomes. They couple applied for a judicial review in February 2020 asking the Federal Court to intervene and mandate the IRCC to decide on their application. They also sought $7,500 in lawyer fees from the IRCC. The IRCC, during pre-trial procedures, stated that their application was being held back due to Mr. Abdulrhman Taskia’s security background check.
The immigration agency further argued that the coronavirus pandemic made the delay conscionable. Security reviews are handled by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) which is external to the IRCC. The applicants stated that the delays had caused distress and anxiety.
The Court ruled that the delay in the PR processing was unacceptable ordering a decision to be made imminently with a payment of $1,500 to the applicants.
Check out our forum to find out about Canada migration opportunities
