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More than 300 people, a number that only continues to grow, around the world, who are awaiting immigration visas, have filed legal notices against the Federal Court of Canada as they wait in a lengthy Canadian immigration backlog, some since 2004. It is important to note that this is not a class-action lawsuit. Thus, a court ruling would apply only to those involved in the litigation. This means, from a backlog of 900 000 applications, only 300 of them have access to a court ruling.
There were a great deal of Canadian immigration applications that were filed between 2008 and 2010, and even before February 2008, when new laws were brought in to fast-track new applications from skilled workers. However, there were also new laws that capped the number of skilled-worker applications. The skilled-worker backlog was reduced from 641,000 people to 314,000, with 140,000 applicants from the early phase of the program who are still waiting for a decision. Some applications have been in progress for as long as 26 months.
This is not the first time: the federal government has been faced with a legal situation due to backlogging and challenges by the court to new regulations from 2002 to 2003. In response, Ottawa offered a $2.9 million settlement to 105,000 backlogged applicants, agreeing to get rid of the new rule that affected pre-existing applications negatively
For more information, contact FWCanada – Canadian Immigration Law Firm
