Canada Introduces Super Visa

Toronto, Nov 5 (bdnews24.com)—The Canadian government will not accept for two years new applications for the migration of parents and grandparents of immigrants under sponsored visas.


Instead, a 10-year multiple-entry ‘Parent and Grandparent Super Visa’ would allow them to visit their loved ones in Canada for up to two years at a time from next month, the country’s immigration minister Jason Kenney said on Friday.


He also announced admission to 25,000 parents and grandparents in 2012, exceeding the 2011 target by 43 percent and standing at the highest level in nearly two decades.


Kenney promised it would be maintained and added that they will be cutting down acceptance of applications seeking political asylum, from nannies and on human consideration.


“The Government of Canada is fully committed to helping families reunite,” he said. “We recognise that what parents and grandparents want most is to be able to spend time with their families.”


Terming the ‘Super Visa’ the ‘most generous’ temporary visa provision in Canadian immigration history, he added that it would cost the same as all multiple entry visas.


The steps are part of the government’s four-way battle against the faltering family reunification process, which now take up to eight years, and eliminate within five years a backlog in applications that has topped 165,000.


Kenney said the government receives about 40,000 applications every year, a rate at which wait times will exceed 10 years and the backlog will grow to 300,000 by the end of the decade.


He added that the issue cannot be addressed by increasing admissions only and requires a complete redesigning of the programme, which the government plans to do within the next two years through consultations with stakeholders.


He reasoned that the pause in accepting sponsored visa application has been taken to ensure that a large number of applications are not made by people seeking to get in before there is a change in criteria.


Kenney said that in two years, he hopes to cut the backlog to 80,000 and wait times to four years.


According to the Citizenship and Immigration Department, the ‘Super Visa’ will be open to would-be visitors as well as to individuals who have already applied for permanent residency and meet the minimum annual income requirements, have demonstrated they have financial support while in Canada and who have medical clearance and private health insurance.


They will be available from Dec 1 and are expected to be issued within eight weeks of application submission.


Earlier, Kenney announced plans to boost acceptance of skilled workers and students into the country and added that the government is planning to decrease the number of spouses and dependent children who come to Canada, as well as ensure a drop in the number of live-in caregivers.