Immigration

MEDIA RELEASE: Statement on Changes to Express Entry

MP Jenny Kwan Statement on Changes to Express Entry

The recent changes reflect the government’s elitist view that the people who make the most money are the most valuable immigrants. This offensive notion that a person’s worth is determined by their salary does not reflect the values of Canadians. Under this approach, workers who fall below the government’s high-wage threshold risk being left behind, including essential workers, caregivers, health-care workers and tradespeople whose contributions are indispensable to our communities and economy. Their value cannot be reduced to the size of a paycheque.

The government is also creating serious risks by offering up to 100 additional Express Entry points for qualifying high-wage job offers without requiring a Labour Market Impact Assessment, or LMIA. The existing LMIA system has already been plagued by fraud, including the illicit buying and selling of assessments. Removing this requirement without demonstrating that equivalent safeguards are in place raises serious concerns about the integrity of the immigration system. Instead of the LMIA process, individual immigration officers will be responsible for verifying whether job offers are genuine and employers are legitimate businesses. This will place additional demands on an already stretched system, create opportunities for fraud and risk increasing processing times.

There is another fundamental concern: without the LMIA process, the government will no longer assess through that mechanism whether Canadians are available to fill these positions.  This is an important tool to assess if there is a genuine need to go outside of Canada to fill these positions.  

Canada needs an immigration system that values workers fairly, protects people from exploitation and responds to genuine labour-market needs—not one that privileges high earners while leaving essential workers behind.

The government must establish clear, stable pathways to permanent residency for people already in Canada, including international graduates and temporary workers who have contributed to their communities. Immigration selection should reflect the full range of Canada's labour needs, not simply prioritize higher-wage occupations.

We are seeing a pattern of policy lurching on immigration from the Carney government that is creating confusion and chaos for people navigating the system. International students, temporary workers and families make major decisions about education, employment and their futures based on government rules. When those rules repeatedly change, people are left wondering whether their investments and contributions will still count. The government cannot keep moving the goalposts and expect people to plan their lives with confidence. Canada needs a coherent, long-term immigration strategy with predictable pathways, clear objectives and fair transition measures. The immigration system has gone backwards under the Carney government. This government has directly caused chaos on the immigration file.

OPEN LETTER to Immigration and Public Safety Minister on Palestinian study visa applications

Despite promises that processing would be completed in 10 days, more than 130 Palestinian students accepted into Canadian universities remain trapped in extreme delay, with some losing their admissions or risking their lives while waiting.  

I issued an open letter calling on Ministers Lena Diab and Gary Anandasangaree to immediately address this crisis. The government must apply existing flexibility rules for biometrics in Gaza, conduct a second review of rejected applications relying on generic refusal reasons, and establish a dedicated mechanism to ensure fair, individualized, and timely decisions. 

CBC News: Canadians born abroad caught up in yearslong citizenship certificate processing delays

IRCC taking 33 months to process applications in wake of 'lost Canadians' law

When Pascal Sud and Meisha Smith prepared in January for the arrival of their first child, the choice seemed simple.

Smith would give birth in her home country of Jamaica where she had family support, and then they would together return to Montreal three months later.

At the time, the wait time for the citizenship certificate that their daughter, Sofianne, needed to fly back to Canada was between four and six weeks.

But more than eight months later, they're still waiting.

Sud is back at work in Montreal while Smith and Sofianne are still in Jamaica. 

"It's been very frustrating," said Sud. "I was lucky to be there for three months … but I've been missing every step since, and it's been very difficult to be apart from them."

He's not alone.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is struggling to handle a flood of citizenship applications — many of them from a change to federal law late last year that allows anyone who can prove they have a Canadian ancestor to apply.

That backlog is preventing Canadians born abroad like Sofianne from coming home.

According to the department's most recent update on Sept. 3, there are 136,000 applications waiting to be processed. Those applying for a citizenship certificate now face a wait of 33 months.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan called on the government to restore staffing and resources that were cut at IRCC, calling the processing delays "simply unreasonable and unacceptable."

*Click image or link to read the full news story - https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-citizenship-lost-canadians-c3-backlog-9.7366981

 

STATEMENT: On Discontinuation of Refugee Family Reunification Policy

Jenny Kwan Statement on Discontinuation of Refugee Family Reunification Policy

This decision by Immigration Minister Lena Diab is deeply troubling because the government has provided no credible explanation for suddenly ending a policy that allowed refugees to reunite with family members who were not initially declared on their applications. If there were no issues identified with the policy, why was it abruptly changed? Refugees should not be punished for circumstances beyond their control, particularly when they have already endured displacement, conflict and separation from their loved ones.

It is also frankly absurd for the government to tell these families to simply apply through the humanitarian and compassionate process. The Minister knows very well that H&C applications can involve extraordinarily long processing times, meaning this is not a genuine solution for families facing prolonged separation. With H&C admissions targeted at just 1,100 people in 2026 and 1,000 in 2027, the prospect of families being reunited expeditiously is effectively negligible. Telling families in these circumstances to get in line for a severely backlogged H&C process is not family reunification—it is asking people who have already waited years to wait indefinitely. The government needs to reverse this decision and provide a fair, timely pathway for refugee families to be reunited. Minister Diab needs to explain why she has chosen to close a pathway to family reunification that was specifically designed to address gaps in the system. Canada should be making family reunification processes more administratively efficient, not marginalizing refugees even further.

CBC News: Canadian citizenship certificate applications now facing nearly 3-year delays

Less than nine months after Parliament allowed those with Canadian ancestors to be recognized as Canadian citizens, the backlog of applications has soared to a new high.

More than 136,000 applications for citizenship certificates are now waiting for a decision — many of them from Americans. Those who apply today face an estimated wait of 33 months, according to figures posted on Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)'s website.

That is a 32 per cent jump in wait time and an 11 per cent rise in the number of applications since the previous update on Aug. 10.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said Prime Minister Mark Carney's government needs to ensure that IRCC has the resources to address the "growing crisis," pointing out that the government's last budget called for 3,300 positions to be cut by 2028-29.

"It is completely unacceptable that people who have a legitimate claim to Canadian citizenship, passed in legislation by Parliament, are being left in limbo," she said in a statement.

"Families [are] facing enormous disruption to their ability to travel, work, study, access services and plan their lives."

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/billc-3-citizenship-by-descent-9.7337738

Spring Magazine: International solidarity works: Hossam el-Hamalawy wins entry to Canada

In the morning of August 31, Egyptian journalist Hossam el-Hamalawy received an email from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), informing him that it had made a “u-turn” and reversed its decision to deny him entry to Canada.

The reversal came in response to a coordinated solidarity campaign that successfully pressured IRCC, Canada’s department of immigration, to change course.

Almost two weeks earlier, on August 18, IRCC rejected el-Hamalawy’s application for an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA), which is required for German citizens to visit Canada. An Egyptian exile and refugee, el-Hamalawy resides in Berlin and has German citizenship. His eTA application was to attend two public speaking engagements in September at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada.

IRCC initially rejected el-Hamalawy’s eTA application after requesting three times that he provide official documents from the Egyptian government that corroborate his experience of detention and torture under the regime.

In Toronto, the Executive Director of REDWORD.ca, Mostafa Al-A’sar, prepared an open letter to Minister Diab signed by prominent labour leaders, journalists, and human rights activists, including Mostafa Fouad, Executive Director of HuMENA for Human Rights; Ehab Lotayef, founding member of Egyptian Canadian Coalition for Democracy; Judy Rebick, feminist and journalist; and Sid Ryan, former President of the Ontario Federation of Labour.

Other activists launched an email campaign, which encouraged supporters to send letters to Minister Diab and her Parliamentary Secretary, Liberal Member of Parliament Peter Fragiskatos (London Centre), as well as their own Members of Parliament. Letters were sent from across Canada, including Halifax, Nova Scotia (Diab’s home riding) and London, Ontario (Fragiskatos’s home riding). Activists in the United States, Britain, and Europe also shared the email appeal.

In addition to the appeal, activists organized two emergency phone actions, which delivered over 200 voicemail messages to Diab, Fragiskatos, and dozens of Members of Parliament.

Finally, on August 31, Jenny Kwan shared her own open letter to the Minister, which echoed all the demands of the solidarity campaign.

*Click image or link to read the article - https://springmag.ca/international-solidarity-works-hossam-el-hamalawy-wins-entry-to-canada

OPEN LETTER: Urgent request to facilitate the entry of Egyptian journalist and human rights advocate Hossam el-Hamalawy

My open letter to Immigration Minister Lena Diab requesting urgent intervention to facilitate entry into Canada for Hossam el-Hamalawy.  

Mr. el-Hamalawy is an award-winning Egyptian journalist, scholar, and human rights advocate who fled persecution in Egypt and is now a German citizen living in exile. He was invited by faculty at Simon Fraser University (SFU) to give two academic lectures this September. However, IRCC denied his Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) after demanding documentation from the very Egyptian authorities responsible for his past detention and persecution—putting him in an impossible and unsafe position.  

It is deeply problematic to expect political exiles to seek papers from the regime they fled. Canada must stand up for human rights, academic freedom, and freedom of the press. I am calling on Minister Diab to use her discretion and immediately reconsider this decision so Mr. el-Hamalawy can share his scholarship at SFU.  

CBC News: Demand for Canadian citizenship certificates soaring, fuelled by Americans

Applications from people around the world seeking Canadian citizenship certificates have been rising rapidly in recent months, fuelled by thousands of applications from the United States, CBC News has learned.

The number of people who have already received certificates as a result of Parliament’s adoption of “Lost Canadian” legislation late last year rose nearly 50 per cent between April 1 and May 31, according to new data obtained by CBC. 

Bill C-3 allows citizenship for those who can prove they're descended from a Canadian ancestor, even if that ancestor left the country several generations back. It was adopted after the courts ruled that limiting citizenship to the first generation born outside of Canada was too restrictive. 

Between mid-December — when Bill C-3 went into effect — and May 31, some 6,100 citizenship certificates were granted by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to those who now qualify.

That is up from 4,075 certificates issued as a result of Bill C-3 from mid-December until March 31.

Another 17,390 people have received certificates as a result of having a Canadian parent. Prior to the bill's adoption, those who were born outside Canada had to have a Canadian parent to qualify for citizenship.

In June, IRCC suddenly suspended an estimated 100 certificates that had already been issued after flagging problems with the documents submitted with the applications. The concern from archivists is that some people who've already applied to IRCC will be sent back to archives to find more genealogical records.

The IRCC says 83 of the suspensions have been resolved and the certificates restored. It has sent procedural fairness letters to another 17 people whose certificates were suspended and given them 60 days to submit the documents necessary to prove their Canadian ancestry. 

If they fail to provide acceptable proof, their citizenship certificates could be revoked.

New Democrat immigration critic Jenny Kwan said she has been getting letters and inquiries from people affected by the suspension letters and has written to Metlege Diab, calling for answers.

“It really makes no sense whatsoever, what’s going on," Kwan said. "And the minister is completely ignoring that reality right now.”

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-citizenship-certificates-americans-9.7307536

Georgia Straight: A Palestinian artist’s Vancouver show is in limbo, again

A Palestinian artist has been waiting nearly a year for permission to enter Canada to tell his own story on a Vancouver stage. Now, that wait could silence The Horse of Jenin for a second time.

The Cultch says the acclaimed solo production, co-presented with Rumble Theatre and scheduled to open October 8, could once again be cancelled because performer Alaa Mohammed Said Shehada’s Temporary Resident Visa remains stuck in security screening.

Shehada grew up in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, and The Horse of Jenin draws from his childhood and experiences as a Palestinian. He now lives in Amsterdam, holds long-term residency in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, as well as a British work permit, and has travelled internationally throughout his career.

Getting to Canada has proven considerably more difficult.

Shehada applied for his Canadian visa on August 17, 2025 and completed biometrics in The Hague on September 5. According to The Cultch, he has passed both criminality and eligibility assessments. The remaining security verification has been underway since September, with no timeline provided for its completion.

That delay has already kept the Palestinian artist from a Vancouver stage once.

The Horse of Jenin was originally scheduled to be presented at The Cultch in March, but the production was postponed when Shehada’s visa wasn’t processed in time. The October run was supposed to give Vancouver audiences another opportunity to see the work. With less than two months to go, its fate is once again uncertain.

The Cultch has had to rearrange programming, communicate with ticket holders, process exchanges and refunds and absorb additional operational costs as a result of the uncertainty.

But there is another loss that is harder to quantify. The Horse of Jenin gives a Palestinian artist the opportunity to tell a story about Palestinian life in his own words, on his own terms. As Palestinian stories, art and cultural expression face intense scrutiny internationally, the continued delay means Vancouver audiences may once again lose the opportunity to hear that story directly from the person telling it.

Vancouver East MP Jenny Kwan has been pushing the federal government for answers. According to The Cultch, her office has made numerous inquiries with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Ministerial Centre for Members of Parliament and Senators since January. The response has remained essentially the same: Shehada’s application is still undergoing security screening.

“Our request is straightforward,” Kwan said in a statement. “Mr. Shehada and The Cultch cannot keep rescheduling this performance indefinitely.”

Kwan also noted that her office has assisted with urgent Temporary Resident Visa applications for other performing artists and that, in most cases, particularly once biometrics were completed, applications were processed in time for their scheduled performances.

The reason Shehada’s application has remained in security screening for so long has not been made public. Without an explanation from IRCC, it would be speculative to attribute the delay to his Palestinian identity, but the impact is clear: a Palestinian artist has already been prevented from presenting his work in Vancouver once and, nearly a year after applying to enter Canada, he still doesn’t know whether he’ll be able to do so the second time around.

*Click image or link to read the story - https://www.straight.com/arts/a-palestinian-artists-vancouver-show-is-in-limbo-again#

Asian Pacific Post: “How Many More Years Must I Wait?”

For six years, Rajesh Sharma has watched his parents grow older from half a world away.

The Vancouver area small businessman came to Canada from India, built a career, bought a home and met the income requirements to sponsor his mother and father.

His father’s health is failing. His mother now struggles to manage their home alone. Sharma spends his evenings arranging medical appointments from Canada and wondering how many more birthdays and family milestones they will miss.

Ottawa’s recent decision to suspend new applications for the Parent and Grandparent Program (PGP) until further notice has turned that uncertainty into something more final.

For Sharma and thousands of other immigrants, there is now no application date, no place in the queue and no assurance their aging parents will ever be able to join them permanently in Canada.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said the decision leaves Canadians and permanent residents with no date to apply, no guarantee the program will reopen and little hope of reuniting with aging parents caught outside the country.

“The government has shamefully once again suspended new intakes to the Parent and Grandparent sponsorship program,” she said.

“At this rate, it will take decades to clear the backlog. Families cannot afford to wait decades to be reunited with their parents and grandparents.”

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada announced July 15 that it will stop accepting new interest-to-sponsor forms and will not invite more potential sponsors to submit applications until further notice.

The department said it will continue processing applications already in the system and plans to approve up to 15,000 parents and grandparents for permanent residence in 2026.

The department currently has about 60,500 permanent residence applications under the Parents and Grandparents Program in progress.

Processing times are approximately 33 months outside Quebec and can reach 66 months in Quebec. About 54,000 expressions of interest from the original 2020 pool were still outstanding as of September 2025.

Kwan said the government is managing the backlog by restricting access rather than fixing a system that has kept families waiting for years.

“It has remained closed since 2020, shattering dreams of family reunification for thousands of Canadians and permanent residents,” she said.

“Families who have been eagerly waiting for the application system to reopen are once again being told by the Liberals that they are out of luck. It is a slap in the face of families who have waited so long to reunite with their loved ones.”

The suspension comes as Ottawa sharply reduces the number of parents and grandparents it plans to admit.

Under the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan, the federal government has set a target of 15,000 admissions through the program in each of the next three years.

The previous plan had called for 21,500 admissions in 2026, meaning the new target represents a reduction of about 30 per cent.

*Click image or link to read the full news article - https://asianpacificpost.com/article/10670-%E2%80%9Chow-many-more-years-must-i-wait%E2%80%9D.html