“Foreign workers are waiting longer than ever for work permits that will allow them to live temporarily in Canada”, reports The duty.

To Immigration Service website Canadianit takes a French person on average ten weeks to obtain a work permit from abroad for a temporary stay. But point it out The duty, “The processing time is even more than a year in some parts of the world,” which comes as no surprise to the experts consulted The duty. “In general, we see every day that it goes faster if you come from a rich and white country,” complains the lawyer Benjamin Brunot, who specializes in immigration law.

“If you come from a rich and white country, it goes faster”

For example, workers from Persian Gulf countries such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates can wait up to seventy-nine weeks for their application to be processed, workers from Nigeria fifty-seven weeks and Pakistanis forty-nine weeks. “It’s gotten to the point that we’re recruiting based on the country where turnaround times are fastest, rather than the skills of the workers,” deplores another immigration lawyer, Guillaume Audet. A colleague specializing in business immigration, Patrice Brunet, believes that waiting for visas is making Canadian companies less competitive internationally.

On the other hand, reveals itself again The duty, “Canada is experiencing unprecedented delays in entry for visitors who require visas,” the delays in processing an application can be up to five months. The immigration authorities take an average of fifty-eight days to issue a visitor visa to a French national. Indeed note The duty, the administrative processing times for these requests for 105 countries are more than two months. The daily newspaper draws the following comparison:

“Applications submitted in the UK, Norway, Suriname or Finland were registered in a record time of 10 to 20 days.”

In addition, according to the daily, the Canadian authorities “leave quietly” Visa applications submitted during the pandemic without offering refunds.

A Canadian diplomat who asked for anonymity Have to, is outraged.

“That makes no sense. […] You don’t treat them [vieilles] Requests. let them say it!”

The Immigration Service, which denies these allegations, has approved more than 1 million applications for temporary residence out of the approximately 1.4 million applications received in the first four months of 2022. On the other hand, the department of the daily newspaper adds: “Promise” Take action to reduce processing times for visitor visas, in particular by hiring 500 civil servants and digitizing applications.

Canada requires visitor visas for nationals of 147 countries.