IRCC Returning Private Refugee Sponsorship Applications
Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced the closure of the special program helping Afghan refugees without refugee cards. The program closed in December 2022 after having been open to the public since October 17, 2022.
The program was open for intake for about one and a half months. This allowed many sponsoring groups to prepare an application – including raising funds, getting documents from refugees, opening bank accounts, and filling out complex application forms. The sponsoring groups in Canada dedicated an enormous time and effort away from their own daily life.
In January 2023, the sponsoring groups started receiving emails advising them that their applications are being returned because IRCC has reached its limit with respect to these types of applications. Some of the sponsoring groups that received such templated rejection emails had submitted their applications only a day after the program was opened for applications.
The sponsoring groups and most importantly the refugees hoping to start a new life in Canada had their dreams washed away because the government of Canada would no longer process those applications that were received after the cap was reached. This was devastating to many families in Canada who had promised and made enormously time-consuming arrangements to welcome refugees. It was even more shocking to those refugees whose dreams were shattered into a thin air.
IRCC’s misleading information on its website just makes the situation a lot worse for these families. After the closure of the program, the information on the website changed to include details about what happens if you already applied to the program. As you can see in the picture, the information given on the website appears to indicate that if you already applied to the program before the closure of the program, your applications will be reviewed and processed. The reality, however, is that the sponsorship applications that were received during the open period of the program were not necessarily reviewed or accepted into processing.
In fact, the program was only open for one day if the applications that were accepted into processing were all received on October 17, 2022. You might think why would IRCC still have the program open until December 2022 if they planned on returning all the applications that were received after the cap was reached? This is a great question that only IRCC might be able to answer. Also, it is important to note that during the period the program was open, I reached out to IRCC call centers to inquire whether submitting applications around November would be worth it given the amount of work and resources needed to put the application together. I was advised that I could apply to the program since it is still open.
This shows that IRCC call center agents were also not informed about this decision to return applications that were submitted when the program was open. It is now up to the sponsoring groups and members of parliament to reach out to convince IRCC that they should process these applications as they were all submitted on time.
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