The Hongcouver | Chinese elders’ immigration applications bog down in Hong Kong, and families in Canada wonder why

The sad reality of Canada’s heavily burdened immigration system is that those facing the longest wait for the processing of their applications are often those with the least time to spare.

And despite attempts to reform a system facing big backlogs and heavy demand, elderly parents and grandparents applying to join relatives in Canada under the family reunion scheme face worse delays than ever, with average processing times stretching to more than six years.

Now, a group of Chinese Canadian sponsors say they face a new obstacle: unexplained delays in their elders’ applications that have been transferred to Hong Kong for processing.

The sponsors say the delays are so bad that 12-month medical clearances requested of elderly applicants are at risk of expiring. Many live in rural China, and face long and costly journeys to major cities to retake the tests.

“In some locations it’s not like you can just go down the street to get your tests done,” said Vancouver East MP Jenny Kwan, who has taken up their cause, and is calling for the validity of the original tests to be extended, or for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) not to request medical clearances until the end of the vetting process.

“People are delayed in such a way that they are feeling hopeless that they will be reunited with their family members,” said Kwan. “People are desperate…for some, they want the chance to see their grandchildren for the first time, to be with them. But …it feels like after the application goes in that it will never see daylight, and that is very draining.”