Dixie Bloor Neighbourhood Centre is organizing an information session on \"How to get your relatives in Canada, under family sponsorship?\"

The seminar will cover information on the eligibility criteria, who all can be sponsored under family class, details on process, processing times and the documents required to support the application.

The session is free and is provided as part of the Immigrant and Settlement Adaptation Program funded by the Government of Canada through Citizenship and Immigration Canada

The details are as below:

Location : Dixie Bloor Neighbourhood Centre
315-1420 Burnhamthorpe Rd. East
Mississauga, ON L4X 2Z9
Date : October 23, 2008
Time : 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm

To register, please contact:

Praveen Kalra
Settlement Worker
Dixie Bloor Neighbourhood Centre
315-1420 Burnhamthorpe Rd. East
Mississauga, ON. L4X 2Z9
Phone: 905-629-1873 Extn. 244
Fax : 905-629-0791

Hi Mr Kalra,

Do you know of any such organization that provides similiar kind of services as yours in Calgary?

Thanks.

You can get all the details by visiting this link.

http://employment.alberta.ca/cps/rde/xchg/hre/hs.xsl/154.html

Hope the information is useful to you

Best wishes

Praveen Kalra
Settlement Worker
Dixie Bloor Neighbourhood Centre
315-1420 Burnhamthorpe Rd. East
Mississauga, ON. L4X 2Z9
Phone: 905-629-1873 Extn. 244
email : pkalra@dixiebloor.org
web : www.dixiebloor.ca

Dear Mr. Kalra

As you are well aware, parental sponsorship is a two step process. In the first step, the sponsor sends in the application to the Case Processing Center in Mississauga which scrutinises the application and approves/disapproves it based on the income criteria. It is then sent to the Canadian consulate in sponsored person's country of residence where they undergo medicals, provide police clearance and other documentation before a permanent residence visa is issued.

According to the latest information posted on the CIC website, the first step is taking 26 months and the second step could take anywhere between 6 months to 3 years, depending on the country in which the sponsor lives. On an average, the whole process takes around 3-4 years which is pretty long in the first place. It is preposterous that CIC charges you the application fees upfront (around $1000 per applicant) and sits on your application for 2 years before giving you the go-ahead. Also, there has been a disturbing trend noticed for parental applications since Dianne Finley announced changes to the system. Not only has the processing time for this class slowed down drastically, the weekly update to the current processing date shows the date going backwards. A couple of weeks back the date was Aug 16th 2006. Last week, it was Aug 11th and this week it has stayed at Aug 11.

There is a widespread feeling in immigrant communities that CIC is not serious about maintaining a reasonable processing time for parental sponsorship and is hoping that by the time the parents get to the stage of taking their medical exams, they either lose their health and do not pass the examinations or get frustrated by the whole process of waiting for their turn and give up before that time.

I think that this is an important issue that should be highlighted in your dealings with CIC. The family unit is very strong among immigrant communities and they want to enjoy the warmth of their parent's company during their sunset years and foster bonds with their own kids. Also, with grand-parents at home, both spouses are able to work and this increases the overall family income.

We just hope that CIC is serious about keeping their promise of "family reunification" in deeds and not in words.

Thanks

As a fellow desi, I am in absolute agreement with you that the processing time to sponsor parents under family class is unreasonable and totally unjustified. The issue has been raised and concerns have been voiced at different forums, interaction with CIC and the processing hands are aware of the hardships faced by, both the sponsor and the aging parents. Having said that, priorities are decided at the governemnt level and as fellow citizens , we must continue to highlight the issue through media, discussion forums and our elected representatives. I wish that things change in future and processing of parental applications can also be done as quickly as spousal cases.

Praveen