Law Times

Page 10 March 7, 2016 • Law TiMes www.lawtimesnews.com FOCUS REACH ONE OF THE LARGEST LEGAL AND BUSINESS MARKETS IN CANADA! AVAILABLE ONLINE AND IN PRINT 8JUINPSFUIBOQBHFWJFXTBOEVOJRVF WJTJUPSTNPOUIMZDBOBEJBOMBXMJTUDPNDBQUVSFTZPVSNBSLFU FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT Colleen Austin T: 416.649.9327 | E: colleen.austin@thomsonreuters.com www.canadianlawlist.com Get noticed by the lawyers, judges, corporate counsel, finance professionals and other blue chip cilents and prospects who find the contacts they need for Canadian legal expertise at canadianlawlist.com with an annual Gold or Silver Enhanced listing package. ENCHANCE YOUR LISTING TODAY! CLLdir_LT_Jan18_16.indd 1 2016-01-13 12:21 PM Parent and Grandparent Program process too slow Federal program to reunite families needs reform BY MICHAEL MCKIERNAN For Law Times C ritics of the Parent and Grandparent Program say doubling the applica- tion quota for 2016 is tinkering around the edges of a program in need of fundamental reform. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada boosted the cap on the number of applica- tions it receives for the program, which allows Canadian citizens or permanent residents to spon- sor their parents or grandparents for permanent residence under the Family Class, to 10,000 from 5,000 people. However, it still had to shut down the Parent and Grandparent Program within three days of opening after re- ceiving 14,000 applications in that time. "It's a drop in the bucket," says Ronalee Carey, an Ottawa immi- gration lawyer. "An extra 5,000 is so small compared with how many people want to take advan- tage of the program." The program was suspended in 2012 to allow the department to catch up with a huge backlog amassed over years of accepting unlimited applications, which resulted in eight-year processing times. It returned in 2014 with an annual 5,000-application cap that remained until this year. Demand this year was so high that couriers were lined up out- side IRCC's Mississauga, Ont. office in the early hours of the morning on Jan. 4, the day the program officially opened, in order to make sure their appli- cants got in under the cap. David Cohen, a lawyer with Montreal- based immigration law firm Campbell Cohen, says that kind of sight makes nobody in the sys- tem look good. "It's obviously far from an ideal scenario, with the only stakehold- er benefiting being the couriers themselves. Sponsors and spon- sored persons have to trust some- one to deliver their application and experience the uncertainty of not knowing whether the ap- plication will make it in time, and that's before you consider the costs of hiring a courier for this task in the first place," he says. According to Carey, the situa- tion will only get worse in com- ing years unless there is a big change in the way the Parent and Grandparent Program operates, and she says she believes the gov- ernment will eventually convert it to a lottery system. "Getting an application in is already like winning the lottery, so they might as well just make it one. At least it would be fairer," Carey says. However, Jamie Liew, an as- sociate professor specializing in immigration and refugee law at the University of Ottawa, says even that would not be a radical enough solution, suggesting a move away from the first-come- first-served approach. "I don't think there should be any quota," she says. "Maybe we should switch the way we look at the applications, so that ap- plicants are asked why they want to come to Canada and how they will contribute. These are things that we are already asking of oth- er types of applicant." According to Liew, the eco- nomic contributions of perma- nent residents who qualify via the Parent and Grandparent Program are underrated by poli- ticians and the general public. "There are a lot of misconcep- tions about these people; that allowing them in will mean a drain on our system, because of their age. In reality, a lot of them contribute in helpful ways to our economy in a way that I think should be respected and val- ued, as long as you understand that it's a different value being provided than straight dollar amounts," Liew says. In many cases, she says Par- ent and Grandparent applicants take an active role in childcare and family support once in Canada, as well as helping new immigrants adapt to unfamiliar surroundings and integrate into society here. "I think we need some re-edu- cation as to who these applicants are, what they contribute when they're here, and then treat them the same as any other dependent or related family members cur- rently allowed to be sponsored," Liew says. "The idea that they could have private health insur- ance seems reasonable if it helps assuage the fear that they will take away resources." Parents and grandparents scared off by the sponsorship process can apply for a Super Visa from IRCC, which allows them to extend their stay in Can- ada for two years, well beyond the six-month maximum under a visitor visa. Applicants must show proof of private health in- surance for the duration of their stay, but Cohen says that require- ment is unlikely to be repeated for permanent resident appli- cants. "In an ideal world, we would let sponsored persons carry their own private health insurance, but Canada is quite adamant about not having a two-tier health system," he says. "Argu- ably, the productivity of their children or grandchildren, who are already permanent residents or citizens of Canada, would in- crease if their families could be with them. This would provide a net benefit across communities and across the country, econom- ically and socially." However the selection process works in the future, Arghavan Gerami, an Ottawa immigration lawyer, says the federal govern- ment will also have to address the issue with processing times. Although the cap has reduced initial processing times to just more than four years from eight years, she points out that that is only for one step of the process. After IRCC gives the green light, applications are sent to local visa offices in the applicant's home region. After medical assess- ments and further processing, the time from application to arrival in Canada can still take closer to a decade, she says. "It's ridiculously long, and for a lot of people, timing is not in their favour. If you're 60 when you start the process, your health is not going to get any better," Gerami says. "These applica- tions should not be taking so long. I'm baff led by the fact that, on the one hand, the govern- ment says that family reunifica- tion is a big priority, yet, on the other hand, they're not address- ing the resourcing issues that are causing such a backlog." LT Arghavan Gerami says the federal government will also have to address processing times for Parent and Grandparent Program applicants. Check out lawtimesnews.com for insight from our regular online columnists Monica Goyal discusses the latest gadgets and trends in legal technology in Bits & Bytes

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