One area this task force will study is credential pre-qualification – allowing people in other countries to acquire Canadian-standard proficiency through accredited institutions overseas or distance learning with Canadian institutions.
— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18
• Moving the technological infrastructure of immigration online and recording all interactions between immigration officers and applicants to help ensure oversight, fairness, and accountability.
• Introducing technology to speed application vetting by immigration officers.
• Increasing cultural awareness training and using remote meeting technology to match applicants with immigration officers who best understand the cultural context of the applicant.
• Letting applicants correct simple and honest mistakes in an application within a set amount of time.
° Currently, if a person makes an error in an application, the application is rejected, and the person is required to re-submit the application entirely.
— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18
Reduce processing times that have been impacted by COVID-19 to under 12 months.
Introduce electronic applications for family reunification.
Implement a program to issue visas to spouses and children abroad while they wait for the processing of their permanent residency application, so that families can be together sooner.
— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02
• Replace public, government-assisted refugee places with more private and joint sponsorship places. All refugees arriving in Canada will do so under private or joint sponsorship programs, with exceptions in cases of emergency or specific programs (such as the human rights defenders program discussed below).
° This does not mean a reduced financial commitment to refugee sponsorship or lower overall numbers of protected persons. It means that public dollars will be directed through joint sponsorship programs where newcomers benefit from community support and the better outcomes associated with private sponsorship.
° Moving from “private” and “public” sponsorship streams to “private” and “joint” sponsorship streams ensures every refugee family arriving in Canada will do so with a group of dedicated and motivated Canadians, ready to make them feel welcome.
° This also ensures that private sponsors will not always have to bear the full costs of sponsorship, allowing them to help more refugees.
• These changes will revolutionize the experience of compassionate organizations conducting private refugee sponsorship. Sponsors will spend more time helping people in distress with more government support and less government hassle.
When it comes to financial allocations for joint sponsorships, Conservatives will prioritize the following categories:
• Support delivered to the most vulnerable.
• Support delivered through sponsorship agreement holders with a demonstrable track record of successfully integrating refugees.
• Support delivered through a new, specialized, “human rights defender” stream, welcoming human rights advocates such as notable Hong Kong protestors who are particularly vulnerable in their home country as a result of their willingness to stand up for the rights of others.
Canada’s Conservatives have a proud record of assisting the world’s most vulnerable refugees, including our pioneering assistance to LGBTQ+ people, especially from Iran, who would otherwise face a death sentence.
• Canada’s Conservatives will make the Rainbow Refugee Assistance Project a permanent government program. We will work with LGBTQ+ organizations in Canada to encourage and facilitate greater participation by these organizations in refugee sponsorship, and we will lead a global network of free countries to assist the world’s persecuted sexual minorities.
— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18
• Allow private sponsorship of the most vulnerable victims of persecution directly from their country of origin.
• Work with Canadian communities to create a specific program to allow direct private sponsorship of persecuted religious and sexual minorities.
— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18
Build on the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot and work with employers and communities across Canada to welcome 2,000 skilled refugees to fill labour shortages in in-demand sectors such as health care.
— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02
• Allow family members of Canadians to come and live in Canada for up to five years without permanent status, renewing their stay for additional time, where appropriate, provided that they purchase health insurance.
• Allow those coming to Canada on a super visa to purchase health insurance from the government of their province or territory on a cost-recovery basis where the provincial or territorial government wishes to offer this option.
— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18
Implement a program to issue visas to spouses and children abroad while they wait for the processing of their permanent residency application, so that families can be together sooner.
— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02