Canada’s Immigration Minister promises to hasten visa processes of immigrants’ dependents

John McCallum, Canadian Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, addressing immigrants from the Philippines on 11 August, said improvements were being carried out to enable easier entry of immigrants. It would include cutting down the processing time for applicants who are sponsored and reform of measures to protect them.

At a meet organized at the Fairmont Makati Hotel by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, McCallum promised to reduce the processing time of the applications of sponsored spouses, children and partners, saying it was taking too long currently.

The Filipinos, who incidentally are the largest number of migrants arriving on Canadian shores at present, were assured by him that the time to reunite families would be cut down from two years and the target for the same would be announced in the fall.

McCallum was quoted by interaksyon.com as saying that the processing target for Express Entry, a route through which skilled workers and international students come in, would be six months. These types of immigrants would be assigned points if they have a job offer or possess impressive educational qualification, language skills and so on.

McCallum said that he would grant more points to foreign students as they were valuable contributors to Canada and would also make good citizens of the country. He added that he was telling Canadian officials who were in the Philippines to reach out to students there and ask them to pursue studies in Canadian universities,

McCallum revealed that 50,000 permanent residents from the Philippines were welcomed by Canada in 2015. Currently, there are said to be more than 700,000 people from the Philippines living in Canada, whose contribution McCallum said was being appreciated.

According to him, no matter how immigrants arrived in Canada, they knew from their many years of experience that they certainly contribute positively to their country.

Canada has set itself a target welcome 300,000 immigrants this year. McCallum said that it was their belief that immigration was crucial for Canada’s future.

Meanwhile, India is the second largest source country of immigrants to Canada.

If you are planning to migrate to Canada, drop in at Y-Axis and avail the best possible assistance and guidance from our counsellors to file for a visa at one of the19 offices located in all the major cities of India.