Harleen Kaur’s bags are packed but she has nowhere to go.
Last December, the Canadian government told her she was approved to become a permanent resident. So she quit her job as a scientific project manager in India and prepared to move to Toronto.
She and her family booked flights for early April. But then the novel coronavirus pandemic struck. All international flights leaving India were cancelled and the travel documents she and her family were issued by Canadian immigration authorities expired on April 27.
Now, six months later, Kaur says she and her husband, along with their two young children, are stuck in India. Even though flights between the two countries resumed in May, they can’t fly to Canada because the government hasn’t renewed their travel documents.
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Canadian immigration and embassy officials also haven’t provided a clear timeline for how long it will take before these types of documents will be renewed, Kaur said, leaving her and potentially tens of thousands of other would-be immigrants feeling stranded.
“The problem is that we have been kept in the dark,” Kaur said from her home in Bangalore, India.
“I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. It’s like an endless wait.”
According to government data, more than 85,500 people immigrated to Canada from India in 2019. India is the largest source of newcomers to Canada, making up nearly a quarter of all new immigrants over the past three years.
Between April and July, the first four months after lockdowns triggered COVID-19 restrictions, the number of permanent residents arriving in Canada from all countries dropped by about 63 per cent compared to the same time period last year, according to Immigration Canada data. That’s a decrease of roughly 83,000 people.
It’s unclear how much of this drop is due to people being unable to travel due to COVID-19 restrictions, and how much is due to the government being slow to renew previously-approved residency applications.
Family losing hope
On March 18, Canada imposed travel restrictions for international flights, including prohibiting non-essential air travel for foreign nationals. But anyone whose permanent resident status was confirmed on or before this date was exempt from these rules and allowed to travel to Canada so long as they have a valid entry visa.
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Then, on March 23, India banned all international air travel, including departing flights, affecting people like Kaur and her family.
By the time international flights resumed — Air India operated at least 100 flights from New Delhi to Toronto and Vancouver between late May and the end of August — the Kaurs’ travel documents issued by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada were no longer valid.
And despite the fact that Canada has since set up an online portal for people with expired documents to get extensions, very few applicants have received the authorization they need to travel.
“We have contacted approximately 300 people so far [who completed the online process] and we are waiting on a number of them to get back to us with supporting information,” said Immigration Canada spokesperson Béatrice Fénelon.
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Global News asked Immigration Canada how many permanent resident documents have expired since the start of the pandemic and how many have been renewed. The government did not answer either of these questions directly. It also declined to say how many people have asked for an extension of their travel documents.
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At this point, Kaur said, she and her husband have all but given up hope, putting their immediate plans to move to Canada on hold.
“It was a big blow for us,” she said. “This is the most challenging time we have faced as a family.”
Immigration Canada says it is facing unprecedented challenges due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, including the need to close visa offices around the world.
Despite these challenges, however, the government says it is processing renewal applications submitted through the online portal from confirmed permanent residents “as quickly as possible.”
The application requires submitting numerous details, including living arrangements, possible job offer, plus plans for accessing basic services, such as groceries and medical care, during the required 14-day quarantine period upon arriving in Canada.
Would-be immigrants must also have a compelling reason for coming to Canada now, such as being reunited with an immediate family member or working in the health-care sector, before their expired documents will be renewed.
But some of the instructions on Immigration Canada’s website for completing this process are misleading and have caused applicants to fork over thousands of dollars for flights they then have to cancel.
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Prashant Gupta, from Kolkata, India, says he’s completed Immigration Canada’s web form at least a dozen times trying to get his documents renewed.
According to the online instructions for the form, priority will be given to people with “proposed or confirmed” travel plans and to those willing to travel “immediately once approved.”
To boost his chances of success, Gupta booked a flight departing Aug. 25 from Delhi to Toronto and sent his confirmation to the government. But he then had to cancel the ticket because he didn’t hear back from Immigration Canada in time. The cancelled ticket, worth nearly $1,400, has not yet been refunded, he said.
“We’re looking for hope here, but we’re not getting it,” Gupta said.
Global News asked the government why it advises people that priority will be given to those with confirmed travel plans when there are no clear timelines for how long it takes to renew documents.
In an email sent Sept. 18, the government said Immigration Canada’s website would be changed to advise people not to purchase tickets until after their applications are approved. As of Oct. 7, the website remained unchanged.
“We ask that individuals provide [Immigration Canada] with a proposed travel itinerary to show that they have looked into whether they can transit through other countries while on route to Canada,” Fénelon said.
Families separated
Reetendra Desai, an IT recruiter living in Toronto, has been trying to get his wife’s expired entry visa and permanent resident documents renewed for months.
“It’s horrible. I just cannot imagine what she might be going through,” Desai said.
Desai married his wife in India after immigrating to Canada. He then sponsored her resident application so she could join him in Toronto.
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Her entry visa was granted on March 18 — five days before India suspended all international air travel and the last day Canadian officials said foreign nationals were exempt from travel restrictions.
Since then, however, Desai has been unable to get his wife to Canada. He’s completed Immigration Canada’s web form multiple times without success. The responses he gets are always the same, he said, generic replies with no real answers.
“If things don’t move, I think I’m just gonna say goodbye to everything that I’ve made here — to the dreams I have here,” he said.
Problems not limited to India
Immigration Canada did not answer questions about what, if any, countries other than India are experiencing delays in processing renewal applications for expired residency documents, and whether this issue is limited to a specific region.
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However, the government did say India “remains one of the top countries in terms of application volumes.”
“Processing times vary from country to country and IRCC is regularly reallocating resources to address fluctuations in the number of applications,” Fénelon said.
Global News has, however, spoken with people in Bangladesh, Nigeria and the United States who say they too have been unable to get their residency documents renewed, despite having completed the government’s web form on multiple occasions.
There has been a significant drop in immigrants coming to Canada from some countries. For example, in 2019, there were 33,240 permanent residents from India who came to Canada between April and July. But in 2020, during the same period, there were only 13,140 — a drop of more than 20,000. For the Philippines, which had the second-largest decline in immigrants moving to Canada, these numbers were 10,800 in 2019 and 2,750 in 2020.
There are also groups on social media platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram with thousands of members from all over the world who say they’re unable to get their documents renewed. Many of these people express similar frustrations about having quit their jobs in anticipation of moving to Canada, pulling their kids out of school, and burning through life-savings meant to be used to start a new life in Canada.
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Dr. Samira Tasnim, a physician from Bangladesh, said she and her family have been contacting Immigration Canada relentlessly for months with nothing but generic replies.
“I’m a physician and a researcher [but] I’ve quit my job for more than five months now, which is a long break for my career,” she said.
Tasnim says she and her husband also sold their home, furniture and car in anticipation of immigrating to Canada. Instead of using this money to support themselves after moving, they’re now using it to cover basic living expenses since neither of them are working.
“Why are they holding us back? Why are they withholding this extension?” Tasnim said.
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A spokesperson for India’s High Commission in Ottawa told Global News there are no domestic travel restrictions that prevent an Indian citizen with a valid entry visa from travelling to Canada. This includes anyone whose documents expired but are then renewed by the Canadian government.
In August, Air Canada also resumed a limited number of flights between India and Canada, with plans to expand service even further in October, pending approval from India’s aviation ministry.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
