Immigration Minister announces that the new pilot will ‘right’ a ‘wrong’

The Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship in Canada, Ahmed Hussen, has put out a statement announcing that the new pilot may make up for some old wrongs. The sponsorship applications for certain family members who were banned before from receiving Canadian permanent residence under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations will be given a fresh chance under this new two-year pilot that is being launched by the country.

This pilot will help non-accompanying family members who had not been declared. As a result, the immigration authorities did not examine them when the sponsor submitted their application for Canadian permanent residence. Section 117(9)(d) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations in Canada prohibited these family members from getting a Family Class sponsorship, declaring them to be ineligible.

However, the times are about to change because this lifelong ban is finally being lifted temporarily. It has always been a cause for controversy as the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) think of it as “a significant barrier” which prevents family reunification in the country. The CCR has claimed that the section has a disproportionately negative impact on immigrants and refugees who have failed to disclose a family member.

According to Hussen, the federal government has finally acknowledged that the regulation might have been unfair. The newcomers who did not declare their immediate family members when they arrived in Canada could not sponsor them, and that was a wrong that needed to be fixed. The IRCC has classified the sponsors under pilot as resettled refugees. They would be treated as immigrants who have been granted refugee protection in Canada or as people who have been sponsored themselves. The pilot is expected to run from September 9th, 2019, to September 9th, 2021. The IRCC has stated that the applications which are already being processed can get impacted positively.