Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) now has a processing time of 30 days for Temporary resident visas (TRV) for searching for spouses.
The action applies to spouse applicant who have already applied for permanent residence in Canada. Instead of requiring applicants to remain in their home countries while awaiting IRCC’s decision, they can now come to Canada while they wait for their application to be processed.
In short, it means that Canadians or permanent residents who have spouses and relatives abroad will be able to reunite with their families earlier and begin settling in their communities.
Sponsor your family for Canadian immigration
Spouses and dependents of a TRV are not eligible to work or study in Canada until they are either approved for permanent residence or receive a work or study permit.
The service standard was announced by Immigration Minister Sean Fraser in Vancouver on May 26. He went on to say that there was a TRV approval rating of over 90% for spouse applicants.
The high approval rating is partly due to IRCC’s increased use of advanced analytics to pre-screen TRV applications before an IRCC official reviews them for a final decision. Minister Fraser said the use of this technology enables the department to review a number of factors on a person’s application to help determine the likelihood they will be eligible for permanent residency and place them in a category that is easier for IRCC officials to approve.
Family Class Sponsorship Processing Time
There is a processing time of 12 months for permanent residence applications through family class sponsorship. However, now that spousal TRVs are processed within 30 days, and IRCC has a 60-day service standard for work permits, it can take as little as three months (90 days) for a sponsored spouse, partner or dependent child to be able to arrive in Canada and begin work while awaiting IRCC’s decision on their permanent resident application.
Any Canadian citizen or permanent resident may be eligible to sponsor a spouse, common-law or conjugal partner for permanent residency if they can sign a commitment agreement to become financially responsible for the sponsored family for several years. The amount of money required to sponsor changes when there are also dependent children to support.
Other measures for family reunification
IRCC made the TRV notice in addition to another wording that applicants of spouses and their dependent children living with their sponsor in Canada and holding temporary resident status may be eligible for open work authorization. The can apply for an open work permit as soon as they have submitted a completed application for permanent residence to IRCC.
Previously, spouses were only eligible for an open work permit if they applied for sponsorship from Canada.
Fraser also announced that open work permit holders whose current permit expires between August 1 and the end of 2023 will be eligible to extend their permit for 18 months using a free process. This extension will cover spouses and dependents of most temporary workers, spouses of international students and permanent resident applicants.
