Visa processing time to be reduced to 30 days for Pakistanis, says Canadian minister

ISLAMABAD - Canadian Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Sean Fraser announcced on Friday that the processing time for a temporary resident visa (TRV) for Pakistanis would be slashed to 30 days soon. 

In response to complaints that the visa processing time was over 800 days, Fraser said on Twitter that currently, a complete TRV application from Pakistan will be processed in 60 days while confirming that the authorities were trying to reduce the duration to 30 days in the near future 

 “The website shows 802 days because we’re processing older applications from when borders were closed due to the pandemic. We’ve reduced the backlog for Pakistani TRVs significantly, from 55K to less than 15K,” he said.

The minister also elaborated that they were investing in a new processing center in Islamabad to boost processing and interview capacity in the Indo-Pac region.

Canada is becoming a favourite destination for aspiring immmigrants especially Pakistanis owing to healthy lifestyle and economic oppurtunities that the country offers.

At present, there are over two hundred thousand Canadians of Pakistani origin living in the country and every year, hundreds of Pakistanis end up in the country. 

Canada has seen record breaking population growth last year, in what appears to be the direct result of pro-immigration policies.

According to the official statistics, the country's population grew by over a million last year, first time since 1957 due to multiple reasons with immigration being the prominent one.

Statistics Canada, the government census agency, said in March that the population has reached 39.5 million after the recent growth which marks the first 12-month period in 'Canada’s history where population grew by over one million people'.

The 2.7-percent population growth was the highest since 1957, when the country saw a 3.3 percent spike in its population, due to multiple factors including post-World War II baby boom and a jump in refugees relocating from Europe.

The government agency said the surge in the number of permanent and temporary immigrants could "also represent additional challenges for some regions of the country related to housing, infrastructure and transportation, and service delivery to the population".

As far as statistics are concerned, Canada welcomed 437,000 immigrants in 2022, while the number of non-permanent residents in the country grew by 607,782.