Canadian visa applications processing times speed up
March 26 2009 by Bryan Palmer
In 2008, people applying for visas to move to Canada found their applications were being processed 12% faster than the year before, according to new figures from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration.
The figures will be cautiously welcomed by government critics who claim the slow application process discourages high calibre, skilled, educated immigrants from moving to Canada.
However, things have improved slightly, with 80% of applications being processed within 33 months last year, compared to 37 months in 2007.
People applying for marriage visas are faring well, with 80% having their application processed within 11 months, although this is down from 2007, when their average application time was just eight months.
The department has also been criticised for the discrepancies between the application processing times for different countries: Canadian visa applicants from Asia have to wait an average of 55 months, while US citizens wait just 21 months.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says the improvement is a positive step, "this is a huge development," Kenney said in an interview. It's been at least two decades - a generation - since waiting times went down rather than up."
However, Kenney says he remains concerned about skilled migrants choosing to live in Australia or move to New Zealand, over Canada, simply because of the application time.
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