By Narcity |
Canada will be unveiling a new family immigration policy that will make it easier for families to reunite and come to Canada.
Later this month, the federal government announced that Canada will be unveiling a new family immigration policy that is supposed to make it easier for families to reunite and come to Canada. Essentially, the policy will be a revamp of the Family Reunification Program, which allows both recent Canadian immigrants or citizens to sponsor their family members to come to Canada as well.
Under this program, Canadians have to apply to sponsor either their spouse, children, parent, or grandparent. Those who are sponsored would then be considered family class immigrants, rather than economic immigrants.
The program, however, has been pretty controversial for a while now. In 2016, the government introduced a new system for giving out family class visas, which is the lottery system we have today. This method basically allowed a number of applicants to apply online and they would be randomly selected to apply for visas.
This program received a lot of backlash, especially from those trying to apply, who said it was unfair to families. The selection process, which is essentially a completely random lottery, turned people’s immigration chances into the luck of the draw.
The lottery system was meant to be a solution, though. In 2016, it was introduced as a way to get rid of another controversial system for the family visas which was the first-come-first-serve method. Now, two years later that same system is the one we are going back to.
The new system launching this month is meant to be an improved version of the system which was originally scrapped two years ago. With the new changes, the lottery system is gone completely and family visas will be determined based on quota, also known as first come first serve.
Back in 2016, this same system was deemed controversial after a report revealed it essentially put a price tag on immigration. Since the application forms, which had to be hand delivered, were first come first served courier companies that were charging hundreds of dollars to drop applications off when the lines first opened.
As a result, people were claiming that the system allowed only those who could afford the high courier fees or to camp outside the Mississauga office, the only place in the entire country where applications were accepted, would have any chance of being selected.