On the 25th of June, Justin Trudeau shed light on the need to create a task force that will seek to evaluate the service standards for IRCC, passport application and Canadian airports. The IRCC initiated the task force to combat what Justin Trudeau claimed to be an “unacceptable” pile-up in the service. The IRCC had a pile-up of 2.4 million applicants anticipating processing their applications. In an email to CIC news, the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations office claimed to have tried hard to combat the immense backlog. It stated that the task force involved many federal ministers that met weekly to identify improvement areas and service gaps.
The State of IRCC and the Remedial Measures
IRCC’s Backlog of Around 2.7 Million Applicants
The Covid-19 pandemic escalated the IRCC’s backlog because restrictions jeopardized IRCC’s efficiency. For applicants who are anxious to know the realistic time it will take to process their application, the new IRCC time tool indicates the specific time the processing will take, depending on each IRCC line of business.
Sean Fraser Gives Hope Despite IRCC’s Continuous Lag in Most Service Standards
The immigration minister speaking to the CIC news in June 2022, reiterated his optimism about achieving most of the service standards by the end of the year. He claimed that the injection of more human resources and investment in efficient technology and digitalization would help ease IRCC’s backlogs a great deal.
Sean Fraser said, “My sense is by the end of this calendar year, new applications coming in will have the kind of certainty that we’ll be able to meet our service standard, and people will be dealing with 60 days or six months or twelve months, not an undetermined period of time.”
