Asylum seekers no longer have to wait long months for a work permit.
Immigration Canada announced this week that it has introduced a new approach to expedite work permit processing for asylum seekers.
Previously, they first had to have the Asylum Seekers Document (DDA) issued by a Canadian Border Patrol Agent.
If obtaining this document took less than 24 hours before the pandemic, now that delay is several months, as an in-person meeting with a border guard had to take place to obtain the DDA.
As a result, thousands of asylum seekers awaiting their DDA are unable to work and have to resort to social assistance.
According to the new simplified procedure announced by Ottawa, asylum seekers can now be granted the DDA “according to the information provided by the applicant in his application”, i.e. at the beginning of the procedure.
“In this way, work permits can be issued faster than in the current procedure,” says the press release published last Wednesday.
The office of Quebec’s new Minister for Immigration, Franciscanization and Integration, Christine Fréchette, was pleased with the news. Quebec has been calling for such a measure for some time.
“The announcement by the federal government is a step in the right direction, now we are waiting to see how it will be implemented,” said the spokesman for Mme Frechette, Alexandre Lahaie.
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