anna25

hi

i am quebec investor and i have already gotten my csq and my medicals from buffalo. i want to ask how much longer is it gonna take for the passport request. i did my medicas in early aug and from wat i know buffalo got my meds in early october.

anna25

any one ???

Andrew Miller

Anywhere between 6 months to 3+ years. Look here for reported average timelines for Quebec Business class cases that were completed (visas issued) between October 2004 and September 2005.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/departm...iness-que.html

Note that for next few years processing times will be quite longer than reported on above page.

JAJ

Why should that (presuming you refer to the "settlement") affect Quebec cases?

The Canada-Quebec Accord imposes certain obligations on CIC to process Quebec cases and I doubt the Quebec government, or federal MPs for Quebec ridings, will be understanding if they don't.



Jeremy

Andrew Miller

Jeremy,

Settlement cases have the highest priority as per court approved settlement and it's imposed deadlines. Nothing can overwrite terms of settlement. CIC is processing all cases, including Quebec, but with lower priority than settlement cases. Current priority order in skilled workers classes is as follows - (1) settlement cases, (2) PNP cases (including Quebec at par with other PNP's), (3) federal skilled workers with HRSDC approved job offers and (4) federal skilled workers without job offers.

As for politicians, especially MP's - they have election coming any day now (we may find out when as soon as this week) and after election they may not even be in office, so their worries are to be re-elected, nothing else matters. But regardles - they cannot overwrite court approved terms and deadlines of settlement.

After election they will have to figure out what to do with about 800,000 applications strong backlog. If you remember when government was introducing IRPA over 4 years ago and pushing in through Parliament they were blaming old Immigration Act for "huge" then (4 years ago) 400,000 cases backlog. The very same government lowered pass mark 2 years ago and it resulted in 800,000 now strong backlog. Someone will have to deal with it and it won't be pretty...

JAJ

CIC ought to be able to deliver the Quebec and PNP numbers even if they are 'second priority'. These cases generally require much less processing resource anyway and it ought to be easy to fit them in between 'settlement' cases.

That said, it makes things even more difficult for regular federal cases without job offer.

After the election there will still be 70 or so federal MPs from Quebec, and there'll still be a Quebec government expecting CIC to live up to its commitments.

We will have to see from the statistics whether Quebec/PNP processing times rise substantially in the months ahead.


One wonders why they didn't just simply sort out the "settlement" issue by passing retrospective legislation, like New Zealand did a few years ago.

As to the backlog now, agree that there seems to be pressure building up which sooner or later will lead to some radical changes. However it ought not to affect Quebec/PNP cases unduly.



Jeremy

Andrew Miller

Jeremy,

Federal government has no obligations not commitments as Quebec immigration levels are concerned. Canada - Quebec Accord doesn't have a word "guarantee" when it comes to level of immigration for Quebec. Please read section B in the outline of the Accord on Canadian Parliament's website here:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/li...bs/bp252-e.htm

Exact wording from the above is:

"Canada remains responsible for establishing levels of immigration annually, taking into account Quebec’s advice on the number of immigrants that it wants to receive"

"Taking advice into account" is not a guarantee nor commitment of any kind.

anna25

hmmm.. i would have thought that they would give priority to investors as they are bringing substantial amount of investment in to canada.

Andrew Miller

Unfortunately we are dealing with bureaucrats...
And the only logic they use is the one that suits them.

RKDennis

That would make sense, but it dosen't work that. Look at the processing times for the Business Class, 3 years for 50% in all regions. In the Africa / Mid East Region, Damascus requires 62 months for 50% and up to 76 for 80%.

JAJ

It would be a non-starter politically for CIC to tell the Quebec government its immigration allocation is being reduced because of a 'settlement' that is unrelated to Quebec.




Jeremy

Andrew Miller

The truth is that there is nothing what current federal government can do to alienate Quebec more than they already did with current scandal.