IRCC Expanding Processing Office to Quicken Family Reunions

The Immigration, Refugees & Citizenship Canada (IRCC) recently announced that it is expanding its Case Processing Centre, situated in Nova Scotia’s Sydney municipality.

This development has been made in an effort to increase the number of applications processed and to quicken family reunions.

Changes to the Processing Centre

The processing centre will get a new office space and will be able to hire 62 more employees. 

This new space will enable the IRCC to expand this capacity and allow more remote employees to return to the office.

The office is currently restricted to just 30% occupancy because of the limits set after the Covid-19 pandemic.

The new office space has a lease of one year, which is enough for the IRCC to evaluate its needs for future years.

Effect on Family Class Applications

The new employees will be mainly working on family class applications. 

The IRCC expects to utilise these added resources to increase the processing time and process more applicants.

Quote from Immigration Minister

The Immigration Minister, Marco Mendicino, said that this move would help reunite families and help the IRCC process more jobs for the local community. 

He also said that this extra space and capacity could expedite the processing times and help IRCC return to its previous 1-year standard of processing spousal applications. 

He added that he was proud of the Sydney office’s work and that it will continue to play a crucial role in strengthening Canada through immigration.

Local members of the Parliament like Jaime Battiste, the MP for Sydney-Victoria and Mike Kelloway, MP for Cape Breton-Canso, have also supported the move.