My Open Letter to Canada's Immigration Minister Sean Fraser – TR Processing Times and Communication

My name is Steven Paolasini and I’m a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant. I love helping newcomers call Canada home and am particularly specialized in business immigration. Here is my open letter to the Minister of Immigration – Sean Fraser regarding the failures of IRCC sent at the end of 2022. It has yet to receive a response, let me know your thoughts.

RE: IRCC is failing Canadians and newcomers miserably

Dear Minister Fraser,

As a Canadian Citizen and licensed immigration professional with a practice in Canada, I am writing today to express my deep concerns with the current state of affairs in your ministry: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

I, like most Canadians, expressly favour Canada’s present and historical, meritocratic immigration policy that has helped grow Canada into one of the best nations in the world to earn a living, start a business, grow a family, or seek refuge. Our Citizens’ favouritism and encouragement of international migration is something that Canadians like myself are proud of and we hold dear to our hearts. It is part of our identity as Canadians. Canada is known worldwide as The Country that admits the best and brightest from around the world through a meritocratic, competent, and compassionate system. We understand that our country was built by immigrants. We are all immigrants. It is a heavily non-partisan issue: immigrants and a robust immigration policy are favoured overwhelmingly in this country. This is something many other developed competitors cannot lay claim to. In the words of our Prime Minister and your house leader, “Diversity is our Strength.” and most Canadians, regardless of political stripes, truly believe this.

However, in recent years there appears to be a rapid departure from this once proud cornerstone of Canadian identity. My main source of infinite frustration, and that of many of my colleagues, and your stakeholders, in having to deal with IRCC would be the sheer incompetence and absence of basic customer service that should be expected from any marginally effective government department, especially one as critically important and significant as yours.

These continued failures are damaging our reputation as a country abroad and at home. The once overwhelmingly fair and competent IRCC has rapidly descended into an incompetent, unfair and increasingly opaque department lacking even the most basic communication skills, processing competence, and absence of accountability that we as law-abiding, tax paying Canadians have a right to expect. Some days I ask myself, what is the point in even trying to help someone in calling Canada home? God forbid they are from a visa-required country because at this point, it’s like playing Russian Roulette with an applicant’s future in the processing uncertainty of their application! There is zero accountability when the processing time exceeds your own set service standards and when it so often does, it happens in the absence of any sort of basic and constructive, non-boiler plate, 2-way communication with your department.

If you have gotten this far reading, I thank you for your attention, and would like to elaborate on these main points of frustration and critical failures in the department: accountability and communication. I believe that your department needs to address these failures immediately to preserve the integrity of our immigration system and the reputation of our country.

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