In February 2021, Sharlene Ullani applied for a permanent resident card after years of working in Canada as a childcare provider. Eighteen months later, the internationally trained nurse with more than seven years of experience has heard nothing from Immigration Canada about the status of her application. Online, the government estimates the processing time for new permanent resident cards to be 2.6 months, or 81 days, as of August 2. “I’ve emailed twice a month and the response is always the same: “You’ll have to wait, thank you for your patience. We have this pandemic,” he told CTV National News. Ulani currently has a temporary work permit, but it does not allow her to change jobs — even from child care to adult care — without losing her status. In the months since she filled out an application for permanent residency, Ullani has written exams and completed the necessary paperwork to translate her foreign credentials into a valid license to work in Ontario as a registered practical nurse. “It’s heartbreaking to see nurses working so hard and we’re here, willing to help,” she said. “We are willing to help, but we are unable to do so due to our condition.” The Registered Nurses Association of Ontario said there are approximately 26,000 nurses “ready and waiting” to work in Ontario, 14,000 of whom are registered nurses. Chief executive Doris Grinspun says the vast majority of these people are waiting for their international qualifications to be approved by college, but thousands have already passed their exams and are waiting for their immigration status to change so they can work. “The big impact of the backlog for patients is that they either don’t change the quality of care or they don’t get care all together,” he said. “If you look at home care, it’s possible they’re not getting care all together. If you look at the ICU or ER that’s closing or shrinking, even in an emergency, it’s desperation.” Recently, Greenspoon worked with the federal government to approve the immigration applications of 26 nurses. Given the health care workforce crisis across the country, Greenspoon said the government should prioritize applications from applicants with health care backgrounds, especially nurses. “Having internationally trained nurses, the RPN… can join the workforce when they are ready to work in Ontario, and especially those who have already passed their exams and are just waiting for work permits from the federations, go ahead. Move them because the nurses and patients desperately need them,” she said. Speaking at a news conference in Ottawa Thursday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh echoed Grinspun’s calls, saying he called on Ottawa to implement a fast-track immigration system for skilled health workers. Singh said he doesn’t know why Ottawa hasn’t done so yet. “There is no justification for this,” Singh said. “I can’t understand why the government is not willing to do that … We need to respond urgently because these are people who can work here and want to work here.” In June, the immigration department said more than 2.4 million applications were in the backlog, up from 2.1 million in June. CTV News reached out to the department multiple times for updated information, but an update was not available at the time of publication. The department said it usually takes five business days to process and collect statistical data. Toronto immigration lawyer Chantal Desloges attributes the delays to a “perfect storm” of factors related to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many embassies and consulates were closed and immigration staff began working from home. “When everyone else was doing business online, it wasn’t as easy for the government to pivot,” he said. Desloges added that when the offices were closed, applications were still being submitted but no one was there to process them. “All these things happening at the same time just created a toxic soup of circumstances.” To speed up the process, Desloges said immigration staff who cannot do 100% of their work from home should be redeployed to the office. It also suggests that the government could speed up the approval process by reducing the number and frequency of interviewing applicants. “It’s really hard to predict how long it will take to sort this mess out, if ever,” he said. On Tuesday, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) introduced new measures to speed up the processing of applications for foreign nationals with expired or expiring post-graduation work permits and for applicants for temporary residence to permanent residence. Under the change, people in either of these situations will have their current work permits extended while their applications are processed. CanadaVisa.com Director of Policy Kareem El-Assal applauded the change, but said it should have been implemented in 2020. “This is a solution that should have been adopted from the beginning of the pandemic and would have saved applicants a lot of pain and also saved the Canadian government a lot of time,” he said. As delays drag on, candidates like postdoctoral researcher Julie Ottoy are left stranded, unable to leave the country or attend international conferences for work. “It’s very disappointing,” he said. “It’s been almost five months now with no hearing from IRCC and interestingly last year I submitted this application around the same time and the exact same renewal was approved in two weeks.”
title: “Hospital Staff Shortages Immigration Backlog Leaves Professionals On The Sidelines " ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-14” author: “Harry Fulvio”
In February 2021, Sharlene Ullani applied for a permanent resident card after years of working in Canada as a childcare provider. Eighteen months later, the internationally trained nurse with more than seven years of experience has heard nothing from Immigration Canada about the status of her application. Online, the government estimates the processing time for new permanent resident cards to be 2.6 months, or 81 days, as of August 2. “I’ve emailed twice a month and the response is always the same: “You’ll have to wait, thank you for your patience. We have this pandemic,” he told CTV National News. Ulani currently has a temporary work permit, but it does not allow her to change jobs — even from child care to adult care — without losing her status. In the months since she filled out an application for permanent residency, Ullani has written exams and completed the necessary paperwork to translate her foreign credentials into a valid license to work in Ontario as a registered practical nurse. “It’s heartbreaking to see nurses working so hard and we’re here, willing to help,” she said. “We are willing to help, but we are unable to do so due to our condition.” The Registered Nurses Association of Ontario said there are approximately 26,000 nurses “ready and waiting” to work in Ontario, 14,000 of whom are registered nurses. Chief executive Doris Grinspun says the vast majority of these people are waiting for their international qualifications to be approved by college, but thousands have already passed their exams and are waiting for their immigration status to change so they can work. “The big impact of the backlog for patients is that they either don’t change the quality of care or they don’t get care all together,” he said. “If you look at home care, it’s possible they’re not getting care all together. If you look at the ICU or ER that’s closing or shrinking, even in an emergency, it’s desperation.” Recently, Greenspoon worked with the federal government to approve the immigration applications of 26 nurses. Given the health care workforce crisis across the country, Greenspoon said the government should prioritize applications from applicants with health care backgrounds, especially nurses. “Having internationally trained nurses, the RPN… can join the workforce when they are ready to work in Ontario, and especially those who have already passed their exams and are just waiting for work permits from the federations, go ahead. Move them because the nurses and patients desperately need them,” she said. Speaking at a news conference in Ottawa Thursday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh echoed Grinspun’s calls, saying he called on Ottawa to implement a fast-track immigration system for skilled health workers. Singh said he doesn’t know why Ottawa hasn’t done so yet. “There is no justification for this,” Singh said. “I can’t understand why the government is not willing to do that … We need to respond urgently because these are people who can work here and want to work here.” In June, the immigration department said more than 2.4 million applications were in the backlog, up from 2.1 million in June. CTV News reached out to the department multiple times for updated information, but an update was not available at the time of publication. The department said it usually takes five business days to process and collect statistical data. Toronto immigration lawyer Chantal Desloges attributes the delays to a “perfect storm” of factors related to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many embassies and consulates were closed and immigration staff began working from home. “When everyone else was doing business online, it wasn’t as easy for the government to pivot,” he said. Desloges added that when the offices were closed, applications were still being submitted but no one was there to process them. “All these things happening at the same time just created a toxic soup of circumstances.” To speed up the process, Desloges said immigration staff who cannot do 100% of their work from home should be redeployed to the office. It also suggests that the government could speed up the approval process by reducing the number and frequency of interviewing applicants. “It’s really hard to predict how long it will take to sort this mess out, if ever,” he said. On Tuesday, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) introduced new measures to speed up the processing of applications for foreign nationals with expired or expiring post-graduation work permits and for applicants for temporary residence to permanent residence. Under the change, people in either of these situations will have their current work permits extended while their applications are processed. CanadaVisa.com Director of Policy Kareem El-Assal applauded the change, but said it should have been implemented in 2020. “This is a solution that should have been adopted from the beginning of the pandemic and would have saved applicants a lot of pain and also saved the Canadian government a lot of time,” he said. As delays drag on, applicants like postdoctoral researcher Julie Ottoy find themselves in limbo, unable to leave the country or attend international conferences for work. “It’s very disappointing,” he said. “It’s been almost five months now with no hearing from IRCC and interestingly last year I submitted this application around the same time and the exact same renewal was approved in two weeks.”
