Look into and improve on the processing time of PR applications in Dakar Visa Office.

Look into and improve on the processing time of PR applications in Dakar Visa Office.

Started
17 December 2019
Petition to
Marco Mendicino (Minister of Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada)
Signatures: 619Next Goal: 1,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by Joel Mola

Applications for Canadian Permanent Residence under the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) scheme and Provincial Nomination Programme (PNP) which fall within the jurisdiction of the Dakar (Senegal) Visa Office are being unnecessarily delayed.

1. A majority of those whose applications are processed by the Dakar Visa Office have to wait for far more than the 6 months wait time within which CIC aims to process all applications. The wait time with this visa office is 10 and even up to 14 months, as compared to other visa offices such as Ottawa visa office wherein majority of the applications are processed within the 6 months timeline.

2. Curiously, applicants after having waited for 14 months instead receive an additional document request for something as banal as another work reference letter conforming to the job duties of the primary occupation under which the applicant made his/her application for permanent residence because the initially submitted work reference letter did not sufficiently match. Applicants who receive such requests upload the documents even on the same day and then back to radio silence; no word from Dakar visa office for months. So it basically takes the staff of Dakar Visa Office a whopping 14 months to simply confirm that an applicant submitted the right reference letter which accurately spells out his/her job duties. Apparently, applications are received by this visa office and piled up to gather dust for months before they are even touched! This is just one example of the horrendous wait times and additional document requests we have to experienced with this visa office.

It is difficult to understand why this visa office will take 10 and even 14+ months just to verify the employment antecedents of an applicant.

3. The worst about Dakar Visa Office is that they NEVER respond to enquiries from applicants about their applications unlike other visa offices; their phone number never goes through when we try calling, they never reply emails and they never reply Case Specific Enquiries submitted by webform, talk less of obtaining GCMS (Global Case Management System) notes on an application there. How then is an applicant to verify what might be the problem with his/her application?

4. Dakar Visa Office does not seem to have a clearly laid down policy to process applications. Some persons get updates on their applications within a few months while many others wait up to 14 months and above. Apparently, processing Permanent Residence applications is not considered important there.

5. We understand that workload might cause delays but the status quo is frustrating. Please there is need to redress this situation, this snail pace is not fair to our lives which hang in the balance while waiting endlessly for the life changing consequences an answer to our applications might bring. As a result, plans are put off, other life changing important decisions are delayed, investments are suspended, etc. The super long wait time does no justice to the Federal Skilled Worker immigration programme.

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Signatures: 619Next Goal: 1,000
Support now
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Decision-Makers

  • Marco Mendicino (Minister of Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada)