Dear Officer,

I am writing to formally demand a final decision regarding my application for Permanent Residence, which was received by IRCC on August 9, 2022. As of today, this application has been pending for 42 months. According to my latest GCMS records and official Privacy Act disclosures, the security sub-activity has been stagnant for an unreasonable period. This extraordinary delay far exceeds the standard processing times for the Provincial Nominee Program (PV2) and meets the criteria for “unreasonable delay” as established by the Federal Court in Conway v. Canada (MCI).

1. Definitive Proof of CSIS Completion

I have received official confirmation from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) stating that CSIS completed its portion of my security screening on July 16, 2025. Despite the primary security agency concluding its assessment over seven months ago, IRCC has failed to render a final decision. This confirms that the continued delay is purely administrative and lacks any justifiable legal or security basis.

2. Severe Financial and Educational Hardship

The continued delay is causing irreparable prejudice to my family’s future in Canada:

• Academic Excellence: My child, LUO YIHAN, ranked in the Top 1% globally (Group IV Honour Roll) in the 2025 Canadian Senior Mathematics Contest hosted by the University of Waterloo. We are currently preparing for the Fall 2027 intake at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Without PR status, the tuition disparity (approx. $45,000/year vs. $6,000/year) creates a $150,000+ penalty that directly threatens my child’s access to top-tier Canadian education.

• Significant Economic Contribution: Our family consists of high-contributing residents of British Columbia. In the 2024 tax year, our combined total family income was over $200K, and we contributed a total of $60K in income tax to the Canadian government. It is fundamentally inequitable to deny domestic status to a family whose substantial taxes actively fund the very public institutions we are being barred from.

I sincerely hope to resolve this matter administratively and look forward to your prompt response.

Sincerely,
Luo

My journey to secure permanent residency in Canada has turned into a nightmare of bureaucratic inaction and inexplicable delays. I submitted my federal application in November 2022, hoping for a new beginning for my family.

For a while, everything seemed to be on track. In July 2023, I received my Pre-Arrival Letter (PAL). Then came the crucial breakthrough: according to the official Tracker and CBSA notes, my Security Screening passed on December 8, 2023, with a validity date set until December 7, 2025. I felt relief, believing the finish line was near.

However, that relief was short-lived. On January 29, 2024, without any justification or change in my circumstances, my status inexplicably reverted to “Security in Progress” according to CBSA notes.

What followed has been over a year of frustration. I have had to file two Mandamus applications, both of which were dismissed. Despite complaints to CSIS confirming they completed their screening on March 5, 2025, IRCC continues to ignore the facts. I have sent countless emails to CBSA executives, only to receive the same automated, template replies stating “security in progress.” Even interventions by two different Members of Parliament have yielded no results, only empty assurances.

I am an English major with an MBA, worked in the private sector in import/export for auto parts and agricultural fertilizer. I have never traveled to sensitive countries, and my family has no background that would warrant this scrutiny. I am caught in a loop of repeated security screenings for no apparent reason, and IRCC refuses to explain why a passed security check was disregarded.

The impact on my life has been devastating:

Mental Toll: The extreme uncertainty has caused immense mental and emotional distress.

Family Separation: My mother is ill, but because I am on a closed work permit, I cannot leave my job to return to China to care for her.

Financial Strain: Because my status remains pending, both of my children are forced to pay international student tuition fees, placing a massive burden on our family.

I am demanding that IRCC and CBSA stop this injustice, address the facts of my case, and finalize my application immediately.

The Story of My Continuing Education Delayed by Immigration Processing

I am a young software engineer based in Ottawa. Unlike many others, after earning my Canadian credential, I did not immediately continue working in a field directly related to my original area of study. Instead, driven by my passion for computers and coding, I taught myself and eventually, in 2022, secured a full-time software engineering position at a local tech company in Ottawa.

I love the community where I live. I take part in local activities such as volunteering at the food bank. I am also deeply passionate about my profession and hope to create value for my community and for this country through the field I love.

I submitted my immigration application in December 2022, and since then, I have received no updates. At the same time, as my work experience has grown, I have realized that if I want to make greater progress in the field of software development and truly support my long-term career goals, pursuing a master’s degree has become essential.

I began preparing my application materials in 2023. However, in every application cycle, I have had to step back because my current immigration status requires me to pay extremely high international student tuition fees. My application documents have gone through many revisions, but due to the immigration delays, to this day I still have not had the opportunity to submit my applications.

The impact of this delay extends beyond just my career aspirations. Without permanent residency, I am unable to access the same educational opportunities that would allow me to contribute more meaningfully to Canada’s tech sector. The financial burden of international tuition fees makes pursuing advanced education impossible, even though I am already contributing to the Canadian economy and community.

I am asking for transparency and action from IRCC. After 38 months of waiting with no updates, I deserve to know the status of my application and when I can expect a resolution. My future, my career growth, and my ability to contribute more to this country I call home are all being held hostage by bureaucratic delays.

A Physician’s Dream Stalled by Administrative Dysfunction: A Petition to Canada’s Immigration System from an International Medical Graduate

I am an International Medical Graduate from China currently facing the most significant challenge of my career. This struggle is not born of a lack of medical expertise or professional competence, but rather from the profound administrative dysfunction marked by excessive delays and a lack of transparency within Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

I have completed every professional milestone required to serve the Canadian community: I have successfully passed the Medical Council of Canada (MCC) qualifying examinations, received MD equivalence from the Collège des médecins du Québec (CMQ), and am a Licentiate of the Medical Council of Canada (LMCC). Furthermore, through my clinical observership in the Department of Medical Genetics at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), I had the opportunity to shadow senior clinicians and gain firsthand insight into the Canadian healthcare system. This experience also allowed me to witness, from a clinical perspective, the desperate need for specialized medical services.

Despite these qualifications, my immigration application has been stalled for 13 months with no end in sight. This administrative inefficiency has triggered a devastating chain reaction: because my Permanent Residency (PR) status remains unapproved, I am barred from the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS). Consequently, I was forced to miss the 2025 residency application cycle and am now on the verge of missing the 2026 cycle as well.

As a physician, my deepest regret is this: while I should be in a hospital saving lives, I am forced away from the front lines by administrative paralysis. This is not just a personal loss; it is a profound waste of Canadian public health resources. I am currently unable to fulfill my vocation to heal, nor can I contribute my skills as a high-value professional to Canada’s socio-economic fabric.

Canada is currently gripped by a severe physician shortage. By 2030, the deficit of clinical geneticists is projected to be 1.7 times the current capacity; in Quebec alone, 35% of senior practitioners in this field are nearing retirement. I have a deep affinity for Canada. As a doctor in the prime of my career, I am eager to enter the clinical front lines, alleviate the suffering of patients languishing on waiting lists, and give back to society through my expertise.

I am not asking for special treatment. I am simply asking for a fair, transparent, and reasonable processing timeline. Please do not let bureaucratic dysfunction become the “career-ender” for a physician who only wishes to serve the health of this nation.

Thank you for documenting the impact of prolonged security screening delays. We would like to share our experience.

1. Timeline

We submitted our permanent residence application in August 2022. Security screening began in June 2023 and has now been ongoing for over two and a half years, with no updates or clear indication of progress.

As of today, our PR application has been pending for nearly four years.

2. Emotional Hardship – Loss and Helplessness

In 2024, my husband’s father passed away.

At that time, my husband was still under security screening and awaiting renewal of his work permit. Because our permanent residence application had not yet been approved, and his legal status in Canada depended on maintaining continuous work authorization, he could not leave the country without risking his ability to return and continue supporting our family.

As a result, he was unable to travel home to say goodbye to his father in person.

He said his final farewell over the phone while trying to comfort his elderly mother. It was one of the most painful moments for him — and for our entire family.

I tried to console him by saying, “Once the PR is approved, we’ll go home together to visit your father’s grave.”

But another year has passed, and nothing has changed.

The prolonged uncertainty has left us with a deep sense of loss and helplessness. It continues to affect his emotional well-being and our family’s overall stability.

3. Impact on Our Children – Loss of Stability and Belonging

Our 11-year-old daughter has long hoped that we would one day have a stable home of our own.

Each Halloween, she asks if we can decorate “our own house” and invite friends over for trick-or-treating. But because we still live in a shared rental unit, we have to tell her, “maybe next year.”

Over time, she has become quieter and more withdrawn. As parents, it is heartbreaking to see how prolonged uncertainty has affected her sense of stability and belonging.

4. Financial and Settlement Impact

Because our PR application remains pending, we have been unable to make key settlement decisions, such as selling our home overseas.

We continue to pay both a mortgage abroad and rent in Canada, creating significant financial strain. The uncertainty makes it extremely difficult for us to plan our future or fully settle in Canada, despite having already built our lives here.

5. What We Want the Government to Know

We fully respect the importance of security screening.

However, security screening should not become an indefinite and opaque process. Law-abiding families deserve reasonable timelines, transparency, and communication about the status of their cases.

Prolonged silence creates profound emotional, financial, and social consequences that extend far beyond administrative delay.

We hope the government will:

• Establish clearer timelines for security screening
• Improve transparency and communication
• Ensure that applications are processed within a reasonable and accountable timeframe

I submitted the PR application for my parents in November 2022 and was given the Pre-Arrival Letter in August 2023. The endless security check started in the same month even though both my parents were retired and had no sensitive background.

I live in Canada alone without any family support, and I have to deal with moderate depression, anxiety and PTSD due to an incident that happened in 2025. Having my family united in Canada became an unrealistic dream after over 40 months of waiting.

It is so frustrating with the endless waiting and lack of communication from IRCC. It is not reasonable to conduct security check for such a long period of time.

Mandy Yuan
Richmond, BC, Canada
Email: mandylinyuan@gmail.com

Hello everyone, my name is Jingjing Wen. I am a resident here, a parent, and someone who believed deeply in Canada’s system of fairness.

I want to tell you about a single moment. Not the entire process. Not all the paperwork. Just one moment.

In December 2024, I opened the immigration tracker and saw four green check marks. All stages completed. Background verification — completed. Later, official notes confirmed: security — passed. For the first time in a long time, we allowed ourselves to breathe. We told our child, “It’s almost done.” We began to plan. We even looked at school options and future housing again. We believed we had reached the finish line.

Then, in February 2025, without warning, the tracker changed. The green turned blue. “Background verification — in progress.” No request for documents. No new information. No explanation. Just… back. Back to uncertainty. Back to silence. Back to waiting. That was the moment everything changed.

It is difficult to explain what that does to a family. You begin to question every decision. You stop making plans. You stop talking about the future. My husband had been admitted into Ontario teacher education programs. Because our status was not finalized, he must pay international tuition. The financial burden is severe. But the mental burden is worse. For more than six months, he has needed sleeping pills just to fall asleep. We have spent thousands on psychological counselling. Not because we failed a requirement. Not because we broke the law. But because a completed stage was reopened without explanation.

We filed access requests. We asked for clarification. We followed every legal channel. There is no timeline. There is no answer. There is no way to respond.

We respect Canada’s need to ensure safety. But when hope is repeatedly given and then taken away, when the system provides no transparency, families live in a permanent state of suspension. This is not about anger. It is about stability. It is about the basic human need to know where you stand.

We are here today peacefully because we still believe that security and fairness can coexist. We are asking for clarity. We are asking for reasonable timelines. We are asking for a system that does not pull families back from the finish line without explanation.

Thank you.

My journey in Canada began in 2008, when I arrived as an international student to pursue post‑secondary education. After graduating, I entered the Canadian workforce, became a taxpayer, and eventually made Toronto my permanent home. Together with my husband, I have built my family and my life here.

As the only child in my family, I submitted a permanent residence application for my parents under the Parent and Grandparent Sponsorship Program. The application was received on November 1, 2021, and as of February 2026, no final decision has been made. The delay is due to an extended security screening process that began in January 2023.

Over these years, I have watched my parents age from afar and have witnessed the emotional toll that prolonged uncertainty has placed on them. The situation has also deeply affected my own family, especially as my parents have been unable to visit Canada—even temporarily—to see me or their grandchild. The visitor visa refusals tied to the ongoing security screening have left us in a painful and isolating position.

My family are long‑standing, high‑contributing residents of Ontario. In the 2024 tax year alone, we contributed approximately C$120,000 in personal income tax. Yet despite fulfilling every obligation expected of us as residents and taxpayers, we continue to face an indefinite delay that prevents basic family reunification.

The lack of transparency and the extraordinary length of the security screening process create a system that feels fundamentally inequitable. When delays disproportionately affect applicants from specific communities—such as the Chinese community—the impact becomes more than administrative. It becomes discriminatory in effect, even if not in intent. No Canadian resident should be placed in a position where their parents are effectively barred from visiting or joining them because of opaque and unreasonably prolonged procedures.

After more than 52 months of waiting, I am asking IRCC for transparency, accountability, and action. Canadians deserve a system that protects national security while also respecting fairness, clarity, and human dignity. We need a process that allows families to stay connected and that reinforces trust in our institutions—not one that leaves families in limbo without information or recourse.

I respectfully request that IRCC provide clear communication regarding the status of the security screening, expected timelines, and any steps that can be taken to resolve the delay. A balanced system—one that safeguards security while upholding transparency—is essential for maintaining confidence in Canada’s immigration framework.

Family reunification is a core Canadian value. It should not be compromised by bureaucratic opacity or disproportionate delays.

My husband’s work permit application has been under security screening and marked as non-routine for 13 months with no decision. Because of this, our entire PR process has been paused after receiving the PAL in August 2025. He planned to come to Canada to reunite with me and our son; my son and I have been living in Canada for over three years. We love Canada and have built our life here, but the prolonged uncertainty has forced our family plans on hold. We hope for transparency, clear timelines, and fair treatment for families who call Canada home.

Best regards,
Songzhen Xiong

以下是我的真实经历，我为内容的真实性和准确性负责。尤其是文中提到的PR和小签同时安调，导致在加拿大境内的我无法回国看完生重病年迈的亲人。

I. Arrival with Hope (2021)

In 2021, my family arrived in Canada with hope, goodwill, and deep respect for the law.

Like many newcomers, we believed in Canada’s values — fairness, dignity, and humanity. We came to study, work, invest, pay taxes, serve the community, and build a future through honest effort. We treated people with kindness and trusted that our goodwill would be met with fairness.

As of March 2026, that trust has been profoundly shaken.

II. Indefinite and Prolonged Security Screening

As of March 2026:

• Permanent Residence (PR) application: pending 35 months
• PR security screening: ongoing 25 months
• Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) security screening: ongoing 12 months

There has been no clear explanation, no timeline, and no meaningful accountability.

This is not a routine delay. It is an indefinite suspension of a family’s life.

III. Humanitarian Consequences

1. Forced Separation from a Gravely Ill Parent

My elderly parent in China is seriously ill. As a son, I have a moral duty to return and be present.

However, because I live legally inside Canada — working and contributing — yet cannot obtain a valid re-entry visa, I am effectively trapped.

• Leaving Canada risks losing my livelihood and future.
• Staying means abandoning my family in their most vulnerable moment.

This form of security screening operates in practice as an indefinite travel ban, imposed on a lawful resident without explanation or end date.

It is not security. It is inhumane forced separation.

2. Life in Permanent Uncertainty and Psychological Harm

Indefinite PR security screening destroys a family’s ability to plan: housing and settlement, career development, children’s education, financial stability and investment.

Living for years without certainty has caused constant anxiety, insomnia, and psychological exhaustion. Every day is lived in limbo.

No family should be forced to exist indefinitely without answers.

3. Severe Financial and Educational Damage

Our child attends a Canadian university as an international student. International tuition represents decades of savings. Ongoing security screening blocks access to programs and careers that require Canadian status. Our child cannot freely plan education or future employment.

This is not only financial loss — it is lost opportunity, lost time, and lost dignity.

IV. Systemic Harm Beyond One Family

Conducting duplicated security screenings on the same individual across both PR and TRV applications creates unnecessary harm: waste of public resources, increased backlogs for others, reduced efficiency within the immigration system, and damage to public trust in government fairness.

When procedures lose proportionality, individuals suffer — and institutions weaken.

V. A Call for Humanity and Accountability

We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for:

• Humanity in decision-making
• Proportionality in security processes
• Accountability when delays become indefinite

Families like mine came to Canada with trust. We remain here — contributing, waiting, and hoping — but increasingly broken by silence.

Security should protect society, not quietly destroy families.

Canada can do better. And we are asking — peacefully and publicly — for it to do so.

My partner and I applied for permanent residence in May 2023. In August 2023, my application entered security screening with CSIS and CBSA. Since then, it has remained “in progress” for over two and a half years, with no requests for additional documents, no explanations, and no timeline.

For more than 29 months, we have simply been waiting in silence.

During this time, we have done everything asked of us. We have complied with every requirement, paid our taxes, worked full-time, and built our lives in Canada. We are a same-sex couple who chose Canada because of its values of fairness, safety, and equality. We believed that if we followed the rules and contributed to society, the system would treat us with basic transparency and respect.

Instead, we have been left in limbo.

This delay has affected every part of our lives:

• Financially – We purchased a pre-construction home years ago to build our future here, but without PR status we now face the risk of hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional taxes and penalties.
• Professionally – Career planning is nearly impossible when we do not know whether our status will be resolved.
• Emotionally – The hardest part is the uncertainty. There are no updates, no accountability, and no one who can explain what is happening. It feels like our lives are paused indefinitely.

We have contacted IRCC, CBSA, the Prime Minister’s Office, and ministerial offices. Each department tells us the other is responsible. We receive template responses, but no meaningful information.

We understand the importance of security screening and respect Canada’s need to protect public safety. We are not asking for shortcuts. We are simply asking for reasonable timelines, transparency, and basic communication.

No family should have to live for years without knowing when their life can move forward.

We hope the government recognizes that behind every “in progress” file is a real person, a real family, and real consequences.

I am a permanent residence (PR) applicant under the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP). I have been on a closed work permit the entire time, meaning I am only allowed to work for one employer. Because of the ongoing security screening, I have now been working for this same employer for four years. The financial pressure on our family is becoming overwhelming. We have been holding on to the hope that once we receive PR, I will have more flexibility in planning my employment — for example, taking on an additional job to help ease our financial burden.

At the same time, we have two children in middle and high school. We had planned that once we receive PR status, they would be eligible to apply for student loans to attend university. However, with the security screening dragging on indefinitely, we are gradually losing hope. We have already lived in Canada for four to five years, contributing our labour and paying taxes. It feels as though Immigration is exploiting and misleading us. The process feels deeply unfair and inhumane.

Neither my husband nor I have ever worked for government departments or state-owned enterprises in our home country. The only possible factor we can think of is that my husband has a second degree certificate from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in Business Administration. However, that was not his primary graduating institution. He later worked in network operations at a bulk commodity exchange, which was a private company. We are not members of the Communist Party, nor have we ever been involved in politics.

We truly cannot think of any other reason that would make our case “sensitive.” Yet because of this, our entire family has had to endure such a prolonged and uncertain wait. It feels incredibly unfair.

My name is Mengzhuo Liu, and I am writing to share my experience as an inland spousal sponsorship applicant currently facing prolonged security screening.

My Timeline

I submitted my inland spousal sponsorship application on December 4, 2024.

As of now, I have been waiting for over one year. On January 29, 2026, my application entered security screening. The normal estimated processing time was approximately one year, but my case has now exceeded that timeline and remains in extended background checks.

Impact on My Family/Career/Finance

I hold a dental degree from China. After getting married and moving to Canada, I planned to continue my education and pursue professional licensing so that I could build a stable career and contribute to our household income.

However, the prolonged security screening has significantly delayed my academic and career plans. Many educational pathways and licensing programs require permanent residency status for long-term planning. The uncertainty makes it extremely difficult to commit to multi-year programs or make financial decisions.

In addition, I am unable to travel freely to visit my family in China. Being separated from parents and loved ones for an extended and uncertain period has caused emotional stress for both me and my family.

This prolonged delay affects not only my career progression, but also our family stability, financial planning, and mental well-being.

What I Want Government to Know

I fully respect Canada’s need for security screening. However, prolonged and indefinite delays without transparency create deep uncertainty for families like mine.

We hope for:

• Greater transparency about the stages of security screening
• Reasonable timelines and clearer communication
• Fair and timely processing for applicants who have already waited beyond normal processing times

We came to Canada with the intention of building our lives here, contributing professionally, and integrating into society. We are not asking for special treatment—only for fairness, clarity, and timely decisions.

You may share my story publicly with my name and I would like to join the WeChat group to stay updated.

I am a permanent residence applicant under Express Entry (FSW).

After completing my doctoral studies in Europe, I chose Canada because I believe in bilingual education, innovation, and openness. I planned to build a language-focused technology project aligned with Canada’s bilingual environment and long-term workforce needs. Canada represented opportunity, contribution, and stability.

I submitted my permanent residence application in April 2024. A few months later, my file entered background verification. Since then, there has been no meaningful progress and no clear timeline. I have now been waiting for nearly two years in extended screening.

This prolonged uncertainty has had serious consequences.

My professional plans have effectively been frozen. Potential collaborations in Canada cannot move forward because I cannot provide clarity regarding my long-term legal status. Strategic decisions that define a growing venture — investment, long-term partnerships, operational planning — all require stability. Without immigration certainty, everything remains suspended.

Time-sensitive opportunities do not wait. When momentum is interrupted for this long, it cannot simply be restored later. Even if a decision is eventually made, the years already lost to uncertainty cannot be recovered.

Financially, the delay has created increasing pressure. Long-term planning becomes impossible under indefinite screening. Major commitments must remain on hold. This creates structural instability, not merely inconvenience.

The psychological impact has also been significant. Living in an open-ended administrative process without transparency or foreseeable completion has intensified anxiety and depression. It is difficult to sustain hope when there is no visible movement and no communication about what remains outstanding.

I respect the importance of background and security screening. National security matters. However, screening should be completed within a reasonable and transparent timeframe. There should be accountability and clear communication about what stage a file is at and what remains to be done.

I am not asking to bypass security checks. I am asking for transparency, accountability, and reasonable timelines.

— Startup Founder

25 Months in Limbo: When Tracking Car Seat Foam Becomes a “National Security Threat,” Why Is My Canadian Dream Stalled?

It’s been over 25 months since I submitted my Permanent Resident application. For the last 13 months, my family’s life has been completely frozen in “Comprehensive Security Screening.” Although I fully respect Canada’s emphasis on national security, being stuck in an indefinite investigation for someone with my background feels confusing and helpless.

For 20 years, my IT career has been strictly in the private, traditional manufacturing sector. My work does not involve any sensitive data or military technology. My software is solely used to manage the flow of physical materials — specifically metal reeds, electrical contacts, plastic particles, copper wires, and foam padding. These materials are used to manufacture North American UL-certified electronic components or ordinary car seats. What is the national security threat in tracking foam padding and plastic particles? Instead of targeting actual risks, this open-ended screening is trapping ordinary professionals, revealing a process unable to tell the difference between a civilian factory and a real threat.

This prolonged delay also directly affects my daughter. Today, she is 16 and a half years old, having spent the past 4.5 years living continuously in Canada. She considers this her permanent home. Yet, while her high school peers are securing part-time jobs and gaining independence, she is legally barred from obtaining a Social Insurance Number (SIN). From her perspective, this system is teaching her a cruel lesson: that Canada is a country that divides people into different classes. In school, she is taught the Canadian values of equality and inclusion, but in reality, institutional barriers force her to live as a marginalized, lower-tier resident. This stark contradiction is quietly crushing a hardworking teenager’s faith in the very country she wants to belong to.

Our family submitted our permanent residence (PR) application in May 2023, and we are still waiting for a final decision from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

As the main applicant, I passed all four stages of assessment very quickly. However, my husband and our 7-year-old son have been stuck in security screening since August 2023.

What Does Prolonged Security Screening Feel Like?

It feels like an emotional cycle that never ends:

Anxious → trying to distract ourselves → trying to “live like locals” and forget about the application → anxious again.

We try to carry on with daily life. We tell ourselves to think like Canadians, to settle in, to stop checking updates. But every time we hear that someone who entered security screening much later than us has already passed, the anxiety returns — mixed with confusion and frustration.

Isn’t there supposed to be a line? First in, first out?

The Real Impact on Our Lives

Because of the ongoing security screening:

• My husband and I could not follow our original plans to study with domestic tuition fees.
• Some job opportunities require PR or citizenship, so we were not even eligible to apply.
• We can only rent, and frequent moves have become unavoidable.
• Our son has already changed three elementary schools. Each time we move, he gives us that innocent look — the look of a child who doesn’t want to lose his friends again. He loves Canada. From the very first day he arrived, he loved going to school. He loves his teachers and classmates, who are kind and welcoming.

Sometimes he asks me, “Mom, I really wish we had PR. When will we get it?”

I don’t know how to answer him.

The Practical Difficulties

Because of the prolonged security screening, we already renewed our Bridging Open Work Permit once, and the renewal took nearly 6 months.

Each work permit renewal means:

• Updating our health card
• Updating our SIN
• Uploading documents to CRA
• Waiting up to six months for the new permit

During the renewal period, although we have maintained status and can legally continue working, we cannot leave Canada. Even worse, our child benefits are paused during that time, putting additional financial pressure on our already tight budget.

All of these inconveniences — we can accept.

What we cannot accept is the uncertainty.

Life on Pause

We do not know when the security screening will end. There is no timeline. No deadline. No visible finish line.

Our life feels like it has been paused. Our original plans were disrupted. We cannot make new plans.

How many three-year periods does a person have in life?

We understand that security screening is an important and necessary part of the immigration process. We respect that. What we hope for is simple: a clear deadline.

A date that allows us to look forward. A timeline that allows us to plan our future.

Still Holding Hope

Our Canadian friends often ask us, “Did you get your PR yet?” When we say we are still waiting after almost three years, they are genuinely surprised. They cannot understand why it takes so long.

Like many immigrants, we chose Canada wholeheartedly. We came with hope and without a backup plan elsewhere. We did not expect the waiting process itself to last this long.

And yet, we still have faith in the Canadian immigration system. We sincerely hope that IRCC can provide a clear deadline for security screening. We hope to regain the ability to plan our lives. We desire — and we deserve — certainty about our future.

I am the primary applicant of a PNP program under the business investment pathway. I am also a mom with a teenage daughter and an 11-year-old son. I have fulfilled all requirements from my immigration program with more than qualified investment and continuous contributions to local business and community.

Impact on Our Family

I have been suffering from enormous burden to take care of my two children as well as my small business alone in Canada for the past three years. My husband had to remain in China to take care of his parent with stage III cancer and also support us financially.

My children are suffering from the loss of quality time with their father, which undermines their emotional stability and sense of security.

There has been no update from IRCC since April 2024. The silence is like a black hole hanging over my family and sucking our hope for a clear family reunion plan.

My daughter is going to college this September. Without PR, the international student tuition is a huge financial burden for the family.

What I Want the Government to Know

This prolonged security screening process is unfair and lacks justification and transparency. There is no reason explained, no response and no deadline in between. It is a torture for applicants and their families with great hope and expectations for this country.

I submitted my permanent residence application on August 4, 2023, and entered security screening in March 2024. Since then, there has been no feedback. It has been over 23 months since the security check began, and over 30 months since my application submission.

Impact on My Life

This endless screening has had a devastating impact on every aspect of my life. Because of this process, I haven’t been back home to see my parents for almost 7 years — 3 years of COVID, 1 year waiting for provincial nomination, then security screening until now. I have no family, no relatives here, and my girlfriend also left me during this time.

I am afraid to change jobs and live under a huge amount of pressure almost every day. I have lost multiple opportunities to become an assistant professor, since I cannot leave my current province.

What I Want the Government to Know

I need a clear decision on my application as soon as possible. Although I work in computer science, which may be considered a sensitive field, I have no sensitive work or study experience. The security check asked for a one-page resume — and it has taken over two years with no result.

I believed in Canada during the dark time of COVID and chose to stay. I am asking for the same faith in return: transparency, accountability, and a timely decision.

I came to Canada with my older daughter in 2018. Our family submitted our PR application in April 2021. Then after 17 months, IRCC returned our application because they believed the agent had signed for us. In October 2022, we submitted the PR application again. My husband entered security screening from June 2023. Two years later, IRCC asked for additional documents — and after that, nothing.

During these 7 years, my husband applied for visitor visas and work permits, but unfortunately all were refused. Our family has been separated, and our two little kids cannot meet their mother in person.

Our family is facing enormous challenges — not only to our marriage but also to the growth of our children.

Only the final decision can determine when our family can reunite. We urge IRCC to pay attention to the people who are working hard and contributing to Canada.

I will reach 35 months of waiting by March for my inland PR application — a process that should take less than 6 months. My inland TRV has been stuck for 30 months as well.

I have been unable to leave Canada for almost three years because both my PR and TRV were placed into “security screening,” with no updates and no timeline. CSIS has already confirmed they completed their part early in 2025, yet IRCC still refuses to finalize anything or even explain why the delay continues.

This endless wait has destroyed my life.

I have not been able to see my parents, who have been seriously ill, for three years. My marriage has faced severe strain because we have been living under constant uncertainty. My mental health has collapsed; every day feels like being trapped without control over my own life.

I am a software engineer who has worked full-time in Canada since 2021. In five years, I was unemployed for only two months. I have followed every rule, paid taxes, worked full-time, maintained legal status, and contributed to Canada. But the system has trapped me in a cycle of silence and indefinite delay, with no accountability and no path forward.

I’m sharing my story because no one should suffer like this. I hope it helps raise awareness of how badly the security-screening backlog is hurting real people and real families.

Although this platform focuses on Chinese applicants, the Security Screening delay is a systemic issue affecting many of us. I am sharing my story to show that this is a broader crisis of IRCC/CBSA accountability that affects the integrity of the entire Canadian immigration system.

I am writing to express my profound frustration regarding the indefinite delay of my Permanent Residence application (Express Entry - STEM #274), submitted in December 2023. While every other stage — Eligibility, Medical, and Criminality — was cleared long ago, my life has been placed in a state of administrative paralysis due to a “Security Screening” ongoing since April 2024.

The human cost is immeasurable: my wife and two children remain in Iran, caught in a cycle of painful separation exceeding two years, while I am forced to watch my children grow up through a screen.

This bureaucratic inertia has even trickled down to my eldest daughter’s Post-Graduation Work Permit, now delayed over 280 days, jeopardizing her professional future and our family’s stability.

Despite inquiries through MP offices, we are met with nothing but cold indifference and templated “in progress” notifications.

The government must realize that keeping immigrants in this indefinite “limbo” yields nothing but a dysfunctional, high-stress, and psychologically fractured society; you are not “screening” for security, you are systematically breeding hopelessness and clinical depression among those who arrived with the highest aspirations for Canada.

Security screening should be a tool for safety, not a mask for administrative incompetence or a humanitarian failure that leaves long-term scars on the social fabric of this country. We demand accountability, transparency, and an immediate final decision.

The irony of this “security screening” is as glaring as it is painful. While Canada struggles with rising crime rates and the strain of fraudulent asylum claims on taxpayer resources, my family — who arrived with impeccable legal standing, full financial independence, and a commitment to contributing to this economy — is held hostage behind an impenetrable wall of bureaucracy. What “security” is being protected when a high-achieving Master’s graduate from one of Canada’s top universities is forced into a part-time barista job instead of a specialized career, simply because her work permit is trapped in administrative limbo? There is no logic in a system that invalidates the health cards and credit of the very professionals it invited to build its future, while ignoring real threats.

This is not a security measure; it is the systematic sabotage of talent and the deliberate destruction of a family’s dignity.

In the summer of 2021, my family and I walked out of the airport in Canada with heavy suitcases and big hopes. We honestly believed we were starting over.

It took time to understand we’d stepped into something else—a long season of “security screening.” The door isn’t locked, but somehow you still can’t leave.

The first months were tough and messy: new country, new language, new routines, and a winter that doesn’t forgive. Eventually we found our footing. From the outside it might sound like an immigration story. From the inside it was simply life—one day after another.

And yes, it’s cold here. But people can be unexpectedly warm. When my car got stuck in the snow, strangers pulled over and pushed me out. During a power outage, a neighbour knocked with candles and a lighter. Once we came back from a short trip and found our lawn quietly mowed. Small kindness doesn’t fix the big problems, but it keeps you going.

In October 2022, our provincial nomination was approved. In November 2022, we submitted our federal PR application. I truly believed the hardest part was behind us.

In February 2023, we got our file number. The relief felt real—like things finally clicked into place. For a few days, I let myself dream: once the PR card arrives, I’ll fly home. Let my child see the grandparents. Share a simple meal. Sit on that old couch and do nothing. I didn’t want a grand reunion—I just wanted to go back once and make up for the time we’d missed.

Then in June 2023, security screening began. On paper it sounds procedural. In real life it becomes one word: waiting. At first you guess—six months, a year. Later you stop guessing. You stop asking. You stop planning.

The hardest part isn’t even the delay. It’s the uncertainty. No timeline means life becomes impossible to schedule. We don’t dare buy plane tickets. We don’t even dare let “going home” become a real plan—because one unexpected request, one small change at work, one tiny shift in circumstances can make everything feel fragile again.

So we live in an in-between: we work, pay taxes, pay rent, raise our child, smile at strangers—yet we’re never fully settled. It feels like standing on a threshold: not completely in, and not really able to leave. At first you think you’re waiting for a result. After a while you realize you’re putting your life on pause, piece by piece.

When we left home, we told our family, “Once we get PR, we’ll come back to visit.” We believed it.

At the end of 2023, my father passed away. I didn’t make it home in time to see him one last time. Real life doesn’t give you a goodbye scene—no last hug, no last words. Just a message, and a distance you can’t close.

That’s when “32 months” stopped being a number. It became time taken from family.

For my wife, nearly five years without going home has become a constant restraint: without PR she can’t take long leave; she worries about her job and work permit renewals; she worries one small change could undo years of effort. It’s not that we don’t want to go home—we’re scared to risk what we’ve built.

Some winter nights I drive through the City. Rock music plays—songs about freedom and open roads. And I catch myself thinking: sometimes freedom is only local. You can move around, keep life organized, even take a spontaneous weekend trip… and still not reach the one place you truly want to reach.

People say immigration is a fresh start. I’ve come to feel it’s also a long unbuilding—of language, confidence, control, and the belief that “we’ll have time.”

If the PR card finally arrives, I don’t think I’ll celebrate. I’ll probably stare at the mail for a long time. Then I’ll pour a small drink for my dad. Even if he’s gone, I still want to tell him: I made it this far.

The wind is still blowing. Canadian winters are still cold. And I’m still waiting—for an ending, and for a chance to make “going home” real again.

My Story and Timeline

I came to Canada alone in 2009 as a young student, carrying hope and determination. Over the past 16 years, I worked hard to build my education and career, and I later immigrated through the economic class in 2015. I built a life in Canada, the country I poured my heart and soul into because I deeply believe in its promise of equity, inclusiveness, and compassion.

After being eligible to sponsor my parents to come to Canada for over 7 years, I was finally selected in the annual lottery draw to apply for them in October 2022. As of February 2026, it has been over 40 months since I applied. Their file remains in “comprehensive security screening”, with no explanation, no meaningful updates, and no timeline.

My parents have been retired for years. They have no criminal history or background that would reasonably raise any national security concern. Yet year after year, they remain stuck in this invisible process that no one can explain. They have previously been to Canada, gone through the immigration processes multiple times and were cleared through security screening as recently as 2020. There were no concerns all these years, which makes the current indefinite screening even more difficult to understand.

I spent most of my professional life working in the public sector in the GTA, focusing on development and housing, one of Canada’s most urgent national priorities. Every day, I work to help Canadian families build homes and find stability. Yet while I contribute to strengthening communities here, no one seems to be taking care of my own family.

My partner, who is the co-sponsor for my parents, is also a working professional contributing to Canada’s economy. Together, we are long-term taxpayers and active members of our community. We pay substantial income and property taxes, make charitable donations, and contribute in every way expected of responsible citizens. We built our future in Canada with the expectation of stability and fairness.

Impact on Our Family

The human cost of this delay is not abstract:

• It is watching my parents get older through a screen, missing milestones in their lives.
• It is the worry that if they were sick or something unexpected happened, I may not be there when they need me the most.
• It is planning our lives in short increments, a few months at a time, because we cannot rely on the system to operate within its own stated standards.
• It is never being able to answer a simple question: when will we finally be together again?

The prolonged uncertainty has taken a significant toll on my mental health. Over the years, I have lived with depression and anxiety as a result of this situation. It affects my personal life daily, and my overall well-being. Carrying this emotional burden while continuing to serve my community has been incredibly difficult.

Through this experience, I’ve connected with a network of hundreds of other retired parents who are also placed in prolonged security screening, whether for permanent residence or a basic visitor visa. Many have waited for years without answers, and some tragically passed away during the wait. They simply want to spend their later years with their children and grandchildren. They should not have to suffer because of a failed system that lacks accountability.

What I Want the Government to Know

We respect the importance of national security. However, security should not mean indefinite silence. When screening extends years beyond official service standards, and families are given no transparency or recourse, it stops feeling like due diligence and begins to feel like a strategy.

Family reunification should never come at the cost of dignity or basic humanity. I chose Canada in 2009 because I believed in its values. I still want to believe in those today. I hope the government will recognize the human cost of these delays, provide reasonable timelines and transparency, so families like mine can finally live with certainty and be together.

Hello everyone,

I stand here today not as a number, and not just as an immigration file ID.

I am a father, a husband, and an ordinary person who works in a kitchen every single day. Three years ago (Jan 22, 2023), my family and I applied for Canadian permanent residency. We believed that as long as we worked hard, followed the law, paid our taxes, and lived honestly, we could build a future here.

But three years have passed.

Our application has been placed under “Security Screening.” No explanation. No timeline. No end in sight.

Many who applied much later than us have already received their results. Yet we remain stuck in place.

I am a chef. My job means I am not home on weekends, not home on holidays, and not home on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve. When other families are gathered around the dinner table, I am in the kitchen. When the fireworks go off on New Year’s, I am at the stove.

My child once asked me: “Daddy, can you stay home for Christmas this year?” I didn’t know how to answer. It’s not because I didn’t want to. It’s because I cannot change my job. I cannot switch careers. I cannot go back to school to upgrade my skills. I am tied to this single position by my status—unable to move up, unable to grow.

In 2024, due to a delay in processing my work permit, I was unemployed for nearly half a year. For six months, I had zero income. Every morning, the first thing I did was calculate exactly how much longer our bank account could last.

My wife is trapped in the same waiting game. Twenty years ago, she was just an ordinary student majoring in English. After graduation, she worked as an administrative clerk—answering phones, booking flights, and organizing meeting rooms. But years later, these completely ordinary experiences have become the reason she is being subjected to an indefinite security screening.

She has a dream. She wants to be a baker. She loves baking and hopes to one day open a small shop of her own. But for three years, she hasn’t been able to study or plan for the future. She can only wait.

Wait. And keep waiting.

Since my father passed away in 2018, I haven’t been back to China. My mother is getting older, and I don’t know how many years she has left. But I cannot leave Canada, because my status is suspended in a state with no answers.

The hardest part is not a rejection. The hardest part is a wait that has no end.

We are not criminals. We are not a threat. We are just an ordinary family.

We work. We pay our taxes. We follow the law. We send our child to school. We believe in Canadian fairness and justice.

We aren’t here today to point fingers. We are simply asking that an application should not hang in the air indefinitely. A family should not be frozen for three years by administrative silence.

We are not asking for a privilege. We are asking for:

A decision.

A timeline.

A future.

Thank you.

I submitted my Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) permanent residence application through Express Entry as an inland applicant in 2024. As of today, the application has been in process for approximately 15 months, with no substantive update. I have been living in Canada continuously since 2019. I completed my studies in Canada and, following graduation, have worked continuously for my current employer for several years.

My PNP nomination includes an employment restriction. As a result, my bridging work permit is a closed work permit, fully binding me to my current employer. This restriction prevents me from changing employers, even when the working environment becomes increasingly stressful. While I continue to meet all employment and immigration requirements, the lack of mobility has had a serious impact on my mental well-being.

I have contacted IRCC multiple times regarding the status of my application. While the responses have been polite and consistent, they have not provided meaningful clarity. The following is a hypothetical but representative exchange illustrating this experience:

Applicant: May I know if there is any update on my permanent residence application?
Agent: Your application is in progress. We do not require any additional information from you at this time.

Applicant: The standard processing time for Express Entry is six months. My application has now exceeded the standard timeframe (~15 months). May I know approximately how much longer it may take?
Agent: Unfortunately, we are unable to provide a timeline. Please wait patiently.

Applicant: My job is not secure, and I may be affected by layoffs this year. This makes me very anxious, as my permanent residence application is based on a job offer and my work permit is closed.
Agent: We understand your concern; however, we are unable to provide a timeline. At this moment, no action is required from you.

Applicant: I am willing to wait, but if I lose my job due to circumstances beyond my control, my ongoing PR application may be lost. This is especially distressing because, under normal processing times, my PR should have been finalized about a year ago.
Agent: Unfortunately, we are unable to provide a timeline.

This type of interaction creates significant emotional strain for applicants whose permanent residence applications are fully dependent on continued employment. When processing times extend far beyond published standards, applicants are left in a prolonged state of uncertainty without any practical way to mitigate risk.

For individuals with employment-restricted nominations, a closed bridging work permit further limits their ability to respond to unexpected employment changes. If their position is eliminated due to company reorganization, budget cuts, or other uncontrollable factors, they may lose both their legal status and their permanent residence application simultaneously—despite having complied fully with all requirements.

This prolonged uncertainty also affects long-term planning. Applicants may be unable to pursue further education, change career paths, or make personal and family decisions while their future remains unresolved.

Applicants whose permanent residence applications are directly tied to employment face a unique and often overlooked form of psychological stress. Extended processing times combined with restrictive work permits can unintentionally place these individuals in a highly vulnerable position. Greater transparency, flexibility, or protective measures in such cases would help ensure that applicants are not unfairly penalized for delays beyond their control.

My Timeline

PR application submitted August 26, 2022 → Security screening since December 2023 → CSIS sent security advice to IRCC on August 5, 2025 → February 2026 still no final decision → 42+ months waiting → Son paying international tuition; partner (Canadian citizen) affected; parents (80+) left without support → Two Mandamus filings (January 2025 & August 29, 2025).

Impact on My Family, Career, and Finances

As a single mother, the prolonged delay in my permanent residence application has created deep and far-reaching hardship across every part of my life. I am solely responsible for supporting my two sons, caring for my elderly parents, and maintaining our household, yet my ability to provide stability has been severely undermined by more than 42 months of uncertainty.

The unresolved PR status has placed enormous financial pressure on our family. My eldest son began university in September 2025 but must pay international student tuition, a burden I must shoulder alone as the only income provider. The delay also prevents me from accessing more stable career opportunities or planning long-term financial decisions, while repeated legal costs, ATIP requests, and two Mandamus filings continue to accumulate without any progress from IRCC.

My family life has been equally affected. I have been living with my partner, a Canadian citizen, since December 2023, yet we cannot plan our future—housing, finances, and long-term commitments all remain frozen. At the same time, my parents are now over 80 years old. As their only child, I face constant emotional stress because I cannot make decisions about their care, support, or potential reunification. My children also feel this uncertainty, worrying about both their grandparents and our future in Canada.

Emotionally, the prolonged limbo has caused persistent stress, anxiety, and exhaustion. As a single mother, I must remain strong for my children, but the lack of clarity from IRCC makes it increasingly difficult to provide them with the stability and reassurance they deserve. Even after CSIS confirmed on August 5, 2025 that its security advice had already been provided to IRCC, my application remains stalled with no explanation.

What I Want the Government to Know

I want the government to understand that this delay is not just an administrative backlog—it is a deeply human issue that affects every part of my life as a single mother who carries the full responsibility for my children, my elderly parents, and our future in Canada.

For more than 42 months, I have lived in uncertainty despite doing everything required of me. I submitted all documents, responded to every request, filed eight ATIP applications, contacted my MP five times, and filed two Mandamus applications. I have followed every rule and complied fully with the process. Yet my life remains frozen without explanation, even after CSIS confirmed that its security screening advice was already provided to IRCC on August 5, 2025.

I am not asking for special treatment—only for fairness, transparency, and timely processing. I hope the government will recognize the human impact of these delays and take meaningful action to ensure that applications like mine are reviewed and finalized without further unnecessary delay.

Hello!

I’d like to share my story of being security checked for both my PR application and TRV application.

I submitted my PR application on January 17, 2024, and it was placed into security screening in March 2024. Since then, my life has been in a constant state of uncertainty.

My first work permit was a closed work permit, which meant I could only work for my designated employer. From July 2024 to July 2025, I endured an entire year under a toxic manager. Because I was legally unable to change jobs, I felt trapped. That year was the darkest period of my life. For the first time, I experienced severe depression and even had thoughts of ending my life. I felt completely powerless—tied to a job that was destroying my mental health, while my immigration status remained in limbo.

During that time, I desperately reached out to IRCC, pleading for help and asking for my PR application to be processed. I received no response. I felt invisible.

In October, while my Bridging Open Work Permit (BOWP) had already been in process for nine months, I was laid off. Because my PR application was linked to my employer, I was suddenly facing the reality that I might have to return to China and abandon everything I had worked so hard to build in Canada—my career, my stability, my life.

Fortunately, I managed to secure another position within the same company, and after nearly ten months, my BOWP was finally approved. It felt like a small light at the end of a very long tunnel. I immediately applied to extend my TRV.

Although I still live with the constant fear that losing my job could mean losing my right to remain in Canada, I tried to stay hopeful and believe that things would gradually improve.

However, my TRV application was placed into security screening once again. As a direct result, I had to cancel my flight back to China. I have not seen my family for two years. Now, I am facing the possibility of not being able to see my parents for several more years. The emotional toll of this prolonged uncertainty is overwhelming.

Over the past two years, I have endured continuous stress, instability, and psychological suffering due to repeated delays and security screenings without explanation. I fully respect Canada’s security procedures, but I sincerely hope to receive a reasonable explanation and fair consideration for the extraordinary hardship this process has caused.

I am not asking for special treatment—only for transparency, compassion, and a timely resolution.

My name is William Zhang, and I am currently working and living in Vancouver, BC. I submitted my PR application in April 2024, and it entered security screening in August 2024. Since then, more than 19 months have passed without any update. During this time, my life has been in a constant state of uncertainty.

Over the past two years, I have experienced significant stress and instability due to repeated delays and extended security screening without explanation. The delay in PR approval has also affected important family decisions, including whether to relocate my son to Canada for his education. He is about to complete elementary school in China, and we are planning for him to begin his studies here. However, the ongoing uncertainty surrounding my PR status makes long-term planning extremely difficult.

This year, I must also renew my work permit and Temporary Resident Visas for my family. These repeated processes require additional time, effort, and financial resources.

I fully respect Canada’s security procedures and understand their importance. However, I sincerely hope to receive greater transparency, reasonable explanation, and fair consideration for the hardship this prolonged process has caused.

I am not requesting special treatment—only clarity, fairness, and a timely resolution.

Thank you for your consideration.

My wife and I submitted our MPNP non-EE application in December 2022. Our file entered the security screening stage on September 29, 2023. Since then, more than two years have passed without any progress, explanation, or meaningful updates. We have submitted four Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) requests, and each time the status remains “CBSA: in process.”

Our background is entirely transparent; we have no criminal records or political involvement and have consistently complied with all Canadian laws. We have spent years working and integrating into our community, and there is no apparent reason for a background check to take this long.

This delay has caused us serious personal and professional hardship. The prolonged uncertainty has resulted in chronic anxiety and health issues. Furthermore, my wife has lost valuable career opportunities, and we are unable to plan for long-term employment, housing, or family stability. It is emotionally painful for our family to live in this state of constant frustration.

We are seeking transparency and a clear timeline regarding the progress of our application.

Long Wait, Longing for Reunion

Since we submitted the Canada self-employed immigration application on December 22, 2020, I thought the wait would have an end. I believed that moment marked the start of getting closer to my family and to reunion. Yet I never expected this journey to be so long and tormenting, making me doubt late at night if I had made the wrong choice.

Time has passed, and now it is 2026. Our application entered security screening in February 2024. From that day on, time seemed to slow down, every minute feeling heavy. Every morning, the first thing I do is check my email and refresh the system, hoping for that one message from the immigration office. But the screen always shows the same familiar page: no updates, no progress, only endless “Processing”.

Anxiety has been our most constant companion over these years. It is not like a violent storm, but a continuous drizzle, quietly soaking into every corner of life. During the day, I try to stay calm, focusing on work, life, and daily chores. But once I quiet down, that unsettling feeling surges immediately. I cannot help wondering: how much longer? Will something go wrong? Countless thoughts circle in my mind, draining me. This endless waiting wears away at people the most.

What pains and guilt me the most are my two daughters.

My eldest daughter went to Canada alone for high school in 2019. Back then, the younger daughter, born in 2017, was only two years old, still babbling, not yet understanding what separation meant. She only knew that the sister who played with her, held her, and comforted her every day was going far away. I thought the immigration process would go smoothly, and before long, we would take the little girl to Canada, reunite as a family of four, and let the sisters grow up side by side, never apart again.

But reality turned out differently. From the moment the elder sister set foot in Canada, they have been separated by distant mountains and seas, time difference, an application with no result in sight, and an endless security screening.

In the blink of an eye, my eldest daughter has grown from a nervous high school student to someone about to graduate from university. She truly loves this country, enjoys the life and academic atmosphere in Canada, and sincerely hopes to contribute to its development with her knowledge and profession. She has dreams, plans, and high hopes for the future. Yet all of this has been held back by this long security screening.

With her immigration status still pending, she faces severe limitations in choosing her career. Many positions she desires and is qualified for have clear requirements regarding immigration status. Despite being excellent and capable, she feels powerless simply because of the uncertain outcome. She cannot confidently sign long-term job offers, plan her long-term career, or even pursue many regular internships and further study opportunities. She can only finish her studies while waiting passively, setting aside her dreams and passion for the time being.

I missed my elder daughter’s high school graduation, her first time facing difficulties alone, and countless moments when she wanted to share joy or pour out her troubles. She tried her best to adapt to a new language, new environment, and life on her own, while I could only watch her smiling face through the screen, listening to her pretending to be strong, feeling utterly helpless.

The younger daughter has grown from two years old to nearly nine. Her memories of her sister mostly come from videos, photos, and rare short visits. Due to the pandemic, border restrictions, and especially the long security screening, the time the sisters have spent together is very limited. Every time they video call, the little girl leans close to the screen, calling her sister softly, asking when she will come home, when they can sleep together, go to school together, and play together. Deep in her little heart, there is only one wish: to be with her sister every day, to hold her hand while growing up, and for the family never to be separated again.

She often takes out her sister’s old clothes and toys, holds them carefully, and tells me they belong to her sister. When she draws, she always draws two little girls holding hands, proudly saying one is herself, the other is her sister far away in Canada. Every time this happens, my heart aches.

The sisters, who should have grown up together, have missed out on entire childhoods because of this long wait. The younger daughter’s growth lacks the daily care of her sister; the elder daughter’s youth lacks the warmth of her little sister by her side.

Because of the security screening, what we have lost is far more than my companionship with the elder daughter, or even the irreplaceable time between the two girls. We have also lost the smooth, bright future that my eldest daughter rightfully deserves. She works so hard and loves so deeply, yet at a crucial turning point in her life, she is stuck, unable to move forward.

The family has endured invisible pressure because of this long wait. Our once stable life is disturbed by uncertainty about the future. Every time there is no update, every time there is no news, our hearts sink. We dare not make long-term plans, or set our expectations too high, fearing that the greater the hope, the deeper the disappointment.

I know the elder daughter is waiting: waiting for her status to be confirmed, waiting for a future where she can chase her dreams without fear. The younger daughter is also waiting: waiting for her sister to return, waiting for the day they can finally be together day and night. They never complain, but I can see they are quietly bearing the loneliness of separation and the confusion ahead.

There were times I broke down, felt lost, and even wanted to give up. But the thought of my elder daughter far away, my younger daughter eagerly waiting for her sister, and the picture of the four of us hugging tightly keeps me going. I tell myself: just wait a little longer, hold on a little more. All the suffering will come to an end; all separation will lead to reunion.

I still believe that this long wait is not meaningless exhaustion, but fate saving up tenderness for us. I believe the security screening will finally end, the approval will come, and the long-awaited email will arrive one ordinary morning. On that day, all anxiety will fade away, all regrets will be made up, and all the lost time and delayed future will gradually return.

Long nights will pass, and dawn will come.

Even if the wait is hard and longing is long, I still choose to believe that all our perseverance is worthwhile.

May every long wait be rewarded with a perfect ending.

May we soon lay down our anxiety, cross mountains and seas, and embrace a future where we are never apart again.

Anonymous Submission – Prolonged Processing Under Home Child Care Provider Pilot

I am submitting this statement anonymously regarding the prolonged processing of my permanent residence application under the Home Child Care Provider Pilot.

I submitted my application on January 1, 2022. It has now been more than four years—over 50 months—without a final decision.

My application entered comprehensive security screening (A34) on March 2, 2024. As of today, the security screening alone has been ongoing for 24 months.

According to my GCMS notes, the following stages have been completed:

• Medical examination: Passed
• Criminality: Passed
• Information sharing: Completed
• Eligibility: Recommended passed (since November 2023)
• Security: In progress

There have been no procedural fairness letters and no outstanding document requests. Aside from security screening, all major components of my application appear complete.

To maintain legal status in Canada during this prolonged process, I have applied for multiple LMIA-based work permits:

• First LMIA work permit – 2021
• Second LMIA work permit – 2023
• Third LMIA work permit – 2025

Each renewal cycle requires months of employer advertising, LMIA preparation, paperwork, government fees, and work permit processing. Nearly every year has been consumed either by waiting for approval or preparing the next application. I am now preparing to apply for a fourth LMIA-based work permit. I do not know how many more temporary renewals will be required before a final decision is made on my permanent residence application. The uncertainty is no longer measured in months—it is measured in repeating cycles of temporary status.

The prolonged delay has severely affected every aspect of our family life.

I must continue working in order to support my family. My son must attend school here, and my husband needs to remain in Canada to help care for our children and support our household. However, without Approval in Principle (AIP), he is not eligible to apply for an open work permit. As a result, he cannot work.

At present, I am the sole income earner in our household.

Our daughter is currently in university, and each year we face substantial expenses for tuition and accommodation. Managing these costs on a single income has placed immense financial pressure on us. Rising living costs, housing expenses, and education fees make it increasingly difficult to sustain our family.

Beyond the financial burden, the emotional impact has been profound. I have experienced chronic insomnia and ongoing anxiety, with symptoms consistent with depression. Living year after year without a clear timeline or certainty makes it impossible to plan for the future or feel secure.

The impact extends to my child. My child has begun expressing fear about whether we will be allowed to remain in Canada. As someone who works professionally caring for children, it is deeply painful to witness my own child absorbing this uncertainty. I try to reassure them while managing my own fear and exhaustion.

No parent wants their child to grow up feeling unstable or uncertain about their home. The emotional burden of not being able to provide clarity has been overwhelming.

I fully respect the importance of security screening in protecting Canada. However, extended processing times without transparency or reasonable timelines create significant hardship for families who are complying with every requirement and contributing meaningfully to Canadian society.

Behind every file number is not just an applicant, but a family living in prolonged limbo.

My Story: I Help Newcomers Feel Welcome, But I Do Not Feel Welcome

I came to Canada in 2021 as an international student.

In my home country, I was an English teacher. Education has always been my passion. I chose Canada because I believed in its values of fairness, inclusion, and opportunity.

I completed a Graduate Certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language at Algonquin College. After graduation, I began working as a Language Assessor at the YMCA. My role was to help refugees and new immigrants find appropriate English programs so they could integrate into Canadian society.

Every day, I met people from different parts of the world, including Ukraine and Haiti. Many arrived with uncertainty and fear. When I assessed their language levels and placed them in the right programs, I felt a deep sense of purpose. I wanted them to experience Canada as a warm and welcoming country.

Later, I worked as an ESL teacher, helping newcomers improve their English so they could find jobs, pursue education, and build new lives here. I felt proud of the work I was doing and grateful to contribute to this country.

In 2025, I applied for Permanent Residence, but my application became stuck without explanation. There was no letter, no clear reason, and no timeline. After months of waiting, I discovered that my case had been placed under security screening.

The impact on our family has been significant. I had planned to continue my studies in Applied Linguistics at Caledonian University, but I had to defer my program because of the uncertainty.

My daughter will begin university this September. Because we do not have Permanent Residence status, she must enroll as an international student, which brings a heavy financial burden to our family.

Last year, my father-in-law was diagnosed with cancer. In January, he passed away. My husband was unable to return home to see his father for the last time. This has been one of the most painful experiences in our lives.

Security screening is not just an administrative step. It affects real families in very real ways. It delays our plans, creates financial pressure, and causes deep emotional stress.

What hurts the most is this. I help refugees and newcomers feel welcomed in Canada every day. Yet I do not feel welcomed myself.

We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for transparency, fairness, and reasonable timelines. We are skilled workers. We contribute to Canadian society. We pay taxes. We follow the law. We deserve clarity and dignity.

This is not only about my family. It is about many families living in prolonged uncertainty.

If you believe in fairness and transparency, please stand with us. When we speak calmly and collectively, change becomes possible.

Who We Are

My spouse and I applied for Canadian permanent residence through the EEPNP OINP program in September 2023. We are not a security threat. We are two people who did everything right, followed every rule, submitted every document, and placed our trust in Canada’s immigration system. In November 2023, we passed our eligibility check. And then the system abandoned us.

What We Were Told

The IRCC website promised an estimated processing time of 6 months. That was the only guidance we were given. So we acted on it. We sold our appliances. We cancelled our insurance. We arranged for our pets. We gave up our home. We quit our jobs. We dismantled our entire lives in good faith, trusting that the Canadian government would hold up its end of the process.

It didn’t.

What Actually Happened

One month after submission, in November 2023, our file was silently transferred into security screening. No notification. No email. No letter. No portal update. Nothing. The government knew exactly what was happening to our application—and chose to tell us nothing.

Six months passed. Silence. A year passed. Still silence. We were left to scour online forums and immigrant community groups just to understand what had happened to our own file. When we formally requested information from IRCC, CBSA, and CSIS, we were met with the same wall. No timeline. No explanation. No accountability. Three government agencies, and not one of them could—or would—give us a straight answer.

This is not an administrative delay. This is a systemic failure, and we are furious.

The Consequences

At around the one-and-a-half year mark, we could no longer afford to keep our lives on hold for a government that had stopped communicating with us. We had no choice but to try to rebuild, but the damage was already done.

This is not a minor inconvenience that can be set aside and ignored. Immigration is not a casual decision. It is one of the most life-defining choices a person can make—one that touches every dimension of existence: career, home, family, identity, and future. When you commit to it, you reorganize your entire life around it. You cannot simply pretend it isn’t happening and carry on as normal. Every single day lived under this unnecessary, government-imposed uncertainty is a day stolen from us. The life we had before is gone. The life we were promised has not arrived. We are suspended between two worlds, with no ground beneath our feet—and no end in sight. That is not living. It is enduring.

Professionally: Re-entering the job market after an unexplained gap of over a year and a half is devastating. In an already brutal economic climate in China, a prolonged employment gap is a mark against you. Without social insurance, employers treat you as unstable and unreliable—ironically, a status this very process has forced upon us. The longer this drags on, the fewer doors remain open. My spouse has finally found a position after a grueling search, but the professional damage to both of us is real, significant, and entirely the result of this government’s failure to communicate.

Financially: We re-signed leases at inflated costs. We spent money we should not have had to spend on legal fees, hiring lawyers just to file a mandamus application, because that was the only way to force the government to even acknowledge our existence.

Personally: We have fallen into depression. We have lost months of sleep. We have broken down under the crushing weight of uncertainty that this government has imposed on us. For 30 months we have been living in limbo, not because we did anything wrong, but because a system that invited us to apply has left us to rot in silence.

What We Are Demanding

We are done waiting quietly. We are demanding answers—not reassurances, not form letters, not automated portal messages. Real answers.

We demand that the Canadian government:

1. Immediately provide transparency on what security screening entails and what criteria determine its duration
2. Issue a communicated timeline to every applicant currently trapped in this process
3. Take accountability for the professional, financial, and psychological harm inflicted on hundreds of families by this silence
4. Reform the process so that no future applicant is left uninformed and abandoned the way we have been

We passed our eligibility check 28 months ago. We have done nothing wrong. We have been given nothing in return but silence, uncertainty, and suffering.

30 months of silence is not due process. It is negligence. And we will not stop until it is acknowledged.

My name is Yujie, and I currently live in Kamloops, BC. I came to Canada in August 2022 to pursue my Master of Education. Thanks to my French language proficiency, I received my permanent residence invitation much earlier than we had expected. We submitted our PR application in August 2023, and we have been waiting for 926 days—around 30 months. Normally, through the French language proficiency pathway, the process takes only two to three months. For example, a friend who was invited on the same day as me received her PR approval in October 2023 and was able to begin her career at the Canada Revenue Agency.

In contrast, my career and professional development have been completely put on hold due to the ongoing security screening for my spouse.

We have not left Canada since arriving—I have been here since August 2022, and my husband since April 2023. We came with the hope of building our life here once we obtained permanent residence. However, everything now feels uncertain and stalled. Recently, there was a job opportunity in our city with Service Canada. As a trilingual candidate, it would have been an excellent opportunity for me to contribute and grow professionally. Unfortunately, without PR status, I am not eligible to apply. I had also hoped to pursue professional training in French teaching, but the tuition fees for non-PR applicants are significantly higher and simply unaffordable.

This uncertainty has also deeply affected our personal lives. Our parents often ask when we can return to China, but my husband cannot obtain a visa while his application is under security screening. At the same time, we are afraid that traveling could lead to additional document requests, such as medical exams or police certificates, which could cause further delays. We cannot consider buying a home due to the foreign buyer tax, and we cannot plan to start a family because our future remains unclear.

We feel frustrated, anxious, and powerless. We have contacted IRCC, CSIS, and our local Member of Parliament, but we have only been told to wait, with no transparency and no timeline. It feels as though our lives have been placed on indefinite hold.

I am asking for fairness, transparency, and timely processing. I sincerely hope the government will recognize the human impact of these prolonged delays and take meaningful action to ensure that applications like ours are reviewed and finalized without unnecessary delay.

In the summer of 2023, I moved to Calgary with my two children to begin a new chapter of our lives in Canada. In early 2024, I began working and have been paying taxes as a responsible and law-abiding resident. We have done everything we can to integrate into Canadian society and build a stable future here.

However, my husband submitted a simple visitor visa application in September 2023. It has now been two and a half years without a decision. During this time, we have made repeated attempts to follow up through every available channel, yet we have received no meaningful response. What should have been an ordinary short-term visit application has stretched far beyond the official processing times—several times longer—with no explanation and no clear end in sight. It is difficult to understand how such a routine application can take this long.

In order to maintain our family bond, we have had no choice but to travel back to China during school breaks or meet briefly in a third country, such as the United States. Each reunion comes at significant financial and emotional cost. And each time, after only a few days together, we must face another painful goodbye. These short visits do not solve the daily realities of raising children alone. They do not replace a father’s steady presence in everyday life.

My son is entering adolescence—a critical stage when guidance from a father is deeply needed. He is facing questions about identity, responsibility, and emotional growth, yet his father can only support him through a screen. My daughter is still young. When she becomes sick with a fever, I must comfort her while also worrying about missing work. There is no second parent to share the burden, no extra set of hands in moments of exhaustion or crisis.

In Canada, I am both mother and father. I carry the full weight of parenting, employment, and emotional responsibility alone. During holidays, when we see other families traveling together, celebrating together, taking photos together, the absence becomes even more painful. My children sometimes ask, “Why can other children’s fathers be here?” I struggle to give them an answer that makes sense.

This prolonged separation is not only affecting our daily lives—it is gradually eroding the father-child relationship, straining our marriage, and impacting our family’s mental health. The uncertainty, the silence, and the lack of transparency make it even harder to endure.

We are not asking for special treatment. We are an ordinary family. We follow the law. We pay taxes. We simply hope that my husband may receive a fair and timely decision on his visitor visa, so that he can visit us periodically, participate in his children’s lives, and share in the warmth and stability of family life.

Family unity, compassion, and fairness are values Canada has long upheld. It is difficult to reconcile those values with an indefinite and unexplained delay for a simple visitor visa application.

A family’s right to be together—even temporarily—should not become an endless wait.

I completed my high school, undergraduate, and graduate education in Canada.

Timeline

• May 2023: I applied for non-Express Entry with the nomination letter from the Ontario Master Stream.
• July 2023: I received my federal AOR (Acknowledgement of Receipt).
• December 2023: IRCC requested additional documents and my application entered security screening.
• 2024–2025: I contacted my Member of Parliament multiple times to check the status. Each response indicated that my application was still under security screening.
• Now in 2026: The security screening has lasted over two years, and the total processing time is approaching three years.

I am also the co-founder of a technology startup, Spero Analytics, which was established in 2023 based on research from my graduate studies at the University of Toronto. Our company works with multiple Canadian landfills and petrochemical companies to reduce methane emissions using our technology.

Over the past few years, we have received several environmental innovation grants from the Canadian government, including support from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). The total funding for these projects is close to CAD $500,000.

My Post-Graduation Work Permit will expire in May 2026. Due to the long delays in my PR application, the future development of our company now faces significant uncertainty. As the technical lead of the company, these delays could also negatively affect the government-funded projects that we are responsible for delivering.

I hope the government understands that prolonged delays in security screening do not only affect individuals—they can also undermine innovative projects and companies that Canada itself has chosen to support.

I have been under security screening for 6 months for my in-Canada TRV and 1 month for my PR application. I submitted my common-law PR in December 2024 and applied for a TRV in July 2025, hoping to visit my parents and prepare for my wedding. My TRV entered security screening in August 2025, and my PR entered screening in January 2026.

I haven’t been able to leave Canada for nearly three years. My wedding has been repeatedly postponed, and I’ve missed the chance to reunite with my parents. The TRV exceeded the expected processing time, causing my flight to be canceled and resulting in over CAD $3,000 in financial loss.

It is unreasonable for an in-Canada TRV to be under security screening and linked to a PR application. This has caused immense stress and hardship for applicants who have always followed the rules.

I respectfully request the government to:

1. Provide the specific reasons for security screenings of in-Canada applications.
2. Clarify the exact timeline for my PR and TRV security checks.
3. Publicly release security-screening statistics by country, so applicants can better understand the process and expected delays.

I hope these steps will improve transparency, reduce uncertainty, and prevent families from enduring unnecessary hardship.

— 安瑾 (Jin An)
Chemical Analyst

My partner and I applied for BCPNP+EE PR. We received our AOR on May 2023 and entered the security screening in July 2023. So far, it’s been 969 days. I filed the mandamus by myself in February 2025 but was dismissed by the court at the end of last year.

This prolonged waiting has been incredibly stressful for us. Our job opportunities have been limited due to the delay, and now more and more companies are requiring PR status. We’re constantly worried about our eligibility to stay and work in Canada. The uncertainty has caused significant problems in our daily lives and our mental health. We are constantly under the stress from our parents and others. They don’t understand why we spent a lot of money studying here and living for 10 years but still can’t have a valid status to stay. We’re also uncertain about buying a house (due to the overseas buyers tax) and moving to a new place (what if we can’t stay or work legally in Canada soon?). Now, we are spending more money and time to file another round of mandamus by working with a professional lawyer.

I’ve noticed that my colleagues who have different nationalities are getting their PR quickly. Some of them studied the same major as I did in university, and some have more than one dependent in their application. None of them have been in the security screening phase for as long as we have. Only my friends and I, who share the same nationality as me, are experiencing this! Every time a recruiter reaches out to me and declines our conversation because of the PR issue, I feel incredibly unfair.

I want the government to know that we are not harmful to this country. We simply want the opportunity to live and work here, to contribute our skills and knowledge to various industries. We shouldn’t be treated like prisoners! This is inhumane! I understand the importance of the major I studied, but my partner and I both came to Canada as 18-year-old students with no criminal record in any country. I don’t see any reason why this procedure can take this long, especially for a simple security check.

Case Summary – 26-Month Security Screening Delay (OINP Masters Stream)

I am an applicant under the Ontario Masters Graduate Stream (OINP). Having lived and studied in Canada since my senior year of high school, I have established my professional life in Toronto. However, my PR application has been stalled in a “Security Screening” status for over two-and-a-half years without any updates.

Case Timeline

• March 2023: Entered the OINP pool; nomination received.
• August 2023: Federal PR application submitted.
• December 2023: FN received; medical and biometrics completed.
• January 2024: Required to submit a CV; entered security screening.
• March 2026 (Present): Zero progress or communication for 26 consecutive months.

Concrete Negative Impacts

Career disadvantage: My 3-year PGWP has expired, forcing me onto a Bridging Open Work Permit (BOWP). The lack of PR status creates a glass ceiling in the job market, as many high-level roles and promotions are effectively closed to those without permanent status.

Financial penalty (NRST rebate): I closed on a pre-construction property in late 2025. Due to the PR delay, I faced significant complications during the title transfer. Furthermore, I am now being disqualified from the Non-Resident Speculation Tax (NRST) rebate because the government has failed to grant me PR within the 18-month policy window. I am being financially penalized for an administrative delay that is entirely beyond my control.

My Position

I understand the necessity of security protocols, but a two-year “black hole” for a candidate who has been in Canada since high school is not due diligence—it is administrative negligence. The lack of accountability between CSIS, CBSA, and IRCC is unacceptable.

What I Demand

1. Transparency: A clear, real-time update on the status of security screenings.
2. Accountability: A mandatory processing timeframe for applicants with no sensitive backgrounds.
3. Fairness: Policy adjustments to ensure applicants are not financially penalized (e.g., NRST rebates) due to government-induced delays.

Hello everyone, my name is Guannan Li (Joe), and I am a licensed Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner and acupuncturist practicing independently in Markham, Toronto.

In 2019, I left my stable job in my home country to study in Canada. After graduating, I worked hard and officially earned my license to practice in 2023. Over the past seven years, I have built my life here step by step—studying and working legally, treating local patients in my clinic every day, paying taxes, and truly making Canada my home.

In August 2024, I submitted my permanent residence application full of hope. However, since November 2024, my file has been thrown into the black box of so-called “security screening.” A full 19 months have passed without a single explanation or update.

This completely non-transparent delay is tearing my family apart and strangling my professional future.

Because of the prolonged uncertainty regarding our status, my wife lost her healthcare coverage here and was forced to return to China alone for her pregnancy, resulting in us being separated for nearly a year. Furthermore, because she had to leave, she also lost her job teaching Chinese to local children here in Canada. To remain compliant while waiting, she even had to miss her grandfather’s funeral. And now, to be able to fly back this July to be with her for the delivery, I am facing the devastating reality of being forced to interrupt my medical career and leaving my local patients behind. This is essentially a soft deportation by the system of a healthcare worker who simply wants to heal people here.

Furthermore, my alma mater, Humber Polytechnic, just received approval for Ontario’s first Bachelor of Science in TCM, and will open a bridge pathway for early graduates like us in January 2027. This should be an amazing opportunity for me to upgrade my medical skills and better serve the community. But if IRCC’s unreasonable delay leaves me without PR by then, I will be forced to pay exorbitant international student tuition fees all over again. As a professional who has been paying taxes in Canada for years, this is not just absurd—it is a crushing financial burden!

We are not just cold file numbers; we are real families actively contributing to this society. We stand here today demanding basic fairness from IRCC: stop the black-box operations, and give us a transparent, reasonable processing timeline!

A PhD Dream Deferred: One Year of Silence from Canada’s Immigration System

I am an ordinary young woman from China with a simple dream: to pursue a PhD in Computer Science and dedicate my life to research and learning. I have no criminal record. I have no history that would give any authority reason for concern. I am just a student who worked hard, earned an offer from a Canadian university, and has been waiting ever since.

To prepare for my doctoral studies, I had already taken one gap year before applying. I accepted that sacrifice willingly. What I never anticipated was a second year swallowed entirely by administrative silence.

I submitted my Canadian study permit application on March 5, 2025. At first, things moved smoothly. My biometrics were acknowledged the same day and cleared by March 7. By late March, a re-examination was triggered, and I was asked to complete a medical exam. I attended on April 8 and passed on April 12. Everything pointed toward approval.

Then, on April 10, my application entered security screening. I confirmed this through the tracker’s backend code, where the security flag appeared as 17. Since that day, I have been met with silence. I submitted an Access to Information request on April 11, which returned no meaningful result. I sent a webform inquiry on April 23 and received a generic, templated response five days later. On May 2, my ATIP result came back officially confirming what I already feared: I am in security screening, with no timeline, no explanation, and no end in sight.

Two years of my life are now on hold. My academic future is suspended. My career has not yet begun.

But the weight of this wait is not mine alone to carry.

My 85-year-old grandfather suffers from hypertension and diabetes. My 75-year-old grandmother has begun showing early signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Every day that passes is a day I may never get back with her. I think about the window of time that remains, the memories she is slowly losing, and my hope that she will still recognize my face the day I finally have something to celebrate. I wanted her to be proud of me while she still can. That hope is what keeps me going, even as the waiting chips away at it.

I still remember the joy I felt the day my PhD offer arrived. That joy has since gone quiet. What remains is a kind of numbness: the exhaustion of waiting for a system that does not respond, of submitting inquiries into what feels like a void, of watching time pass while life stands still.

I am not a threat. I am a student. I am a granddaughter. I have a program waiting for me and grandparents growing older without answers.

I am not asking for special treatment. I am asking only for transparency, a reasonable timeline, and the basic dignity of being seen as a person rather than a file left waiting in the dark.

— A Chinese PhD Applicant

Timeline

• Mar 5, 2025: Study permit application submitted
• Mar 7: Biometrics cleared
• Apr 8: Medical exam completed
• Apr 10: Entered security screening (confirmed via tracker backend, security code 17)
• Apr 11: ATIP request submitted; no substantive result returned
• Apr 12: Medical exam passed
• May 2: ATIP result returned; security screening officially confirmed
• Present: 12+ months of total delay; two gap years; no timeline or explanation provided

A Plea for Procedural Fairness: The Human Cost of IRCC’s “Security Screening” Black Box

To the Honorable Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship,

Our family’s journey toward becoming Canadians began in late 2023. By January 2024, our application for Permanent Residency entered the “Security Screening” phase. Since then, for over 25 months, we have lived in a state of total administrative silence. No updates, no requests for information—only the crushing weight of a “black box” process that has effectively put our lives on indefinite hold.

This is not merely a statistical delay; it is the systematic erosion of a family’s future.

Our story is rooted in the spring of 2022. During the months of harsh lockdowns in Shanghai, we looked toward Canada as a beacon of stability, human rights, and the rule of law. We chose Canada because we believed in its values of fairness and inclusion. To reach this dream, we did everything asked of us—and more.

The most profound sacrifice was made by my wife. While pregnant, she spent her days commuting across Shanghai on crowded subways, clutching her English study guides. Even as she was wheeled into the delivery room, she refused to let go of her vocabulary book, telling me that the focus required to learn English helped her endure the physical pain of labor. She viewed her IELTS score not just as a requirement, but as the first gift she would give our newborn child.

When the pandemic restrictions suddenly lifted in a wave of chaos, our entire five-member household fell ill with high fevers. With medicine in short supply, we had to rely on a few tablets of paracetamol mailed from friends in Beijing. Despite her postpartum exhaustion and illness, my wife never stopped studying. In May 2023, still breastfeeding, she walked into the IELTS exam center with a breast pump in her bag, utilizing the short breaks between modules to manage her physical pain. I remember kissing her forehead at the gates, moved to tears by her grit. We did our part. We proved our commitment.

However, the “Security Screening” process has turned our commitment into a nightmare.

For over two years, we have lived in a state of “suspended animation.” We cannot change jobs for fear of disrupting the file; we cannot plan for our child’s education; we cannot move forward. Our initial enthusiasm for Canada is being replaced by the realization that we are trapped in an opaque, unaccountable, and seemingly arbitrary system that disproportionately affects Chinese applicants.

We understand that national security is paramount. But security must not be a pretext for administrative incompetence. Our demands are firm and clear:

1. A Definitive Timeline: Administrative processes cannot be “life sentences.” Every applicant deserves to know when a decision will be rendered.

2. Procedural Transparency: Security screening must not be used as a tool for “silent rejection” or profiling. We demand the right to know the status of our files and the reasons for such extraordinary delays.

Time is the most precious resource a human being possesses. We have offered our skills, our loyalty, and our resilience to Canada. In return, we ask for the very thing Canada prides itself on: Procedural Fairness.

Do not let our lives rot in a black box. We are ready to contribute to Canada’s future; we only ask that you allow us to begin.

Respectfully,

On behalf of a family waiting for justice.

I submitted my PR application through the Quebec Skilled Worker Program in July 2020. Now, after 68 months of waiting, my life remains on hold due to the interminable security screening process.

During these six years, I identify the first phase as the period from 2020 to the end of 2022. During this time, we responded promptly to IRCC’s requests, completed our medical examinations on time, and submitted all required documents. Although two years had already far exceeded the typical processing time for PEQ program PR applications, I did not raise any concerns with IRCC, taking the pandemic situation into consideration. However, when the estimated completion date displayed on IRCC’s website passed without any news, I contacted IRCC by phone for the first time, only to receive an absurd response: my husband’s documents had been filed under a separate PR application as an individual applicant, when in fact he should have been included as the secondary applicant in my application.

This marked the beginning of the second phase of my application. From late 2022 to early 2023, IRCC required my husband to resubmit all documents and pay fees again. This meant that all our waiting prior to this point had been invalid due to this administrative error. We spent nearly another year fulfilling IRCC’s requirements and submitting various documents. After December 2023, our application entered its third phase—endless waiting with no meaningful responses.

Whether through webform or phone communication, IRCC consistently offers nothing but the response: “Please be patient.” Over these six years, I have submitted six ATIP requests, with a timely response rate of only 50%. One response was delayed by nine months, and my two most recent requests (submitted in September 2025 and early February 2026) have yet to receive any response at all.

Two years of invalid waiting and over two years of security screening have consumed most of my application timeline. During this period, due to the pandemic and the repeated, time-consuming process of renewing our temporary status, we have been unable to visit our parents in our home country for five years. We couldn’t even attend my grandmother’s funeral. Our property replacement plan has been shelved, our professional skill development has been forced to stop, and we’ve missed several career advancement opportunities. Amidst our busy daily work routines, we remain in limbo, waiting day after day for a decision that ought to have been made within one to two years, anticipating that once we receive our result, we can finally begin the next chapter of our planned lives. Instead, we feel like athletes held behind the starting line, never hearing the starter’s pistol, while other applicants who submitted around the same time have long since run kilometers ahead.

I speak out now only hoping for fair and equal treatment. During our residence in Canada, we have abided by all laws, actively participated in community building, devoted ourselves fully to our work, and never ceased paying school taxes, property taxes, and income taxes. We look forward to a more transparent, reasonable, and fair processing system with defined timelines.

In 2022, my wife and I chose to come to Canada to begin a new life. We left behind everything we had built over ten years of hard work—our social network, our jobs, our property, and all the familiar ties. Of course, we didn’t leave our cat. He’s simply too adorable to give up.

We adapted quickly to life in Canada and soon found new direction and hope for the future. My wife had worked in human resources for more than a decade, and here in Canada she is proud to have started a new career in carpentry. I had been an English teacher for over ten years, and now I’ve learned even more languages—Python included—and I’m already able to train my own language model. As for our cat, every day he can freely watch brand-new “friends” from the balcony—foxes, squirrels, raccoons, and even deer.

We work, study, and live seriously and earnestly, and everything has been moving in a better direction. In 2025, we received the Nova Scotia Provincial Nomination and applied for permanent residence. I also found my own path and began preparing to start a small business in Nova Scotia, promoting AI-related products locally. Every day we checked the status of our PR application, imagining the day things would finally be settled—where we might buy a home, which gym membership we would choose.

But all those hopes were shattered by the security screening we received in January 2026. We went through a few traumatizing days, and then we pulled ourselves together. PR is indeed important; it brings certainty and a sense of safety. But a good life still depends on our own effort. As painful as it was, we accepted the result.

Then an even greater blow came in February 2026. I learned that my uncle—the one who had raised me since I was little—had become seriously ill. He has given me so much, and I wanted to go back immediately to be with him and take care of him. Only then did I realize the more terrifying impact of security screening: if I return to my home country, to enter Canada again I would need to apply for a TRV, and TRV applications often face security screening that can take more than two years—or even have no clear timeline at all. That means if I go back right away to care for my uncle, I may have no idea when I’ll be able to return to Canada. IRCC’s security screening policy puts people in an unbearably inhumane dilemma: either abandon your loved one, or abandon everything you have built in Canada.

This is only my story. I believe that tens of thousands of dreams have been shattered in the same way—perhaps in even more ruthless ways. Many are separated from their families and cannot reunite, living with constant guilt and self-blame. For people who come to Canada full of hope, and whose hearts are full of love, this is a truly cruel ending.

During the Winter Olympics that just passed, my wife and I watched a hockey game for the first time. We witnessed the miracle comeback in the semifinal against Finland. At the moment of the winning goal, we were so excited that we jumped up. Then in the final, watching the heartbreaking loss in overtime, we were so angry that we turned off the TV. I comforted my wife: it’s okay—at the next Winter Olympics, we’ll win it back. My wife asked me, “By the next Winter Olympics, will our security screening be over?” And honestly, I don’t know either. Four years from now, will we be able to cheer for Canada without fear—truly as residents of Canada?

I’m a parent and a grandparent who has been stuck in the security screening, with no answer from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

I initially submitted an interest to sponsor form in 2020 for the parents/grandparents sponsorship program, and was eventually invited through the lottery draw to apply in October 2023. I submitted my complete application on October 22, 2023 and have been waiting for the final decision from IRCC ever since. It has been a full 29 months now. It is reported that my application has been put into the security screening.

Previously, the IRCC requested a medical examination, and I immediately completed the task as required. But there has been no further progress since then. My wife and I attempted to seek answers through the IRCC website, but unfortunately, the information provided did not help us clarify our questions.

This ongoing uncertainty poses great confusion and anxiety for us. We long to reunite with our only daughter, who is currently serving the Canadian government, and be able to accompany our 5-year-old granddaughter during her critical growth periods. The emotional pressure brought by this distance is quite heavy, and we are eager to know when we will receive a decision—or at least the latest news about our application status.

In addition, my Canadian tourist visa has expired, and if I reapply for a new visitor visa, I will also be put into security screening. This means I will have no means to enter Canada to reunite with my family!

What I want the government to know:

We acknowledge the importance of national security, but it should not lead to indefinite screening. We demand transparency and a reasonable timeline.

I landed in Saskatchewan in August 2020 because I truly admired Canada and was attracted by the Saskatchewan Entrepreneur Immigration Program. My family of four came with hope and trust. I operated a small business in a small town and we tried to build a stable life.

In the second half of 2021, we submitted our federal PR application. In the summer of 2022, all four of us completed our medical exams immediately. We believed that within about one year, our PR would be approved.

But nothing happened.

By the summer of 2023, there was still no update from IRCC. Then in April 2024, the tracker suddenly showed that three members of my family had entered security screening, while only my elder daughter showed “passed.”

I still cannot understand this. Why would my family need security screening? Why would my younger daughter, who was only 13 years old, also be placed under security screening? And why did this start two and a half years after we submitted our PR application? We followed every rule, but we are still stuck in the system.

This endless waiting has seriously damaged our family. I became irritable and lost my temper at home. My daughters felt the pressure. Both of them experienced depression and even needed medication. Our lives have been frozen by uncertainty.

The delay has also hurt my parents in China. In my first year in Canada, my mother fell and broke a bone after missing me deeply, and her mobility is still limited. Later my father also had a serious fall. I wanted to go back, but I kept hearing that leaving Canada during security screening could make the process even longer. Every year I told myself, “PR should come soon,” so I waited again. Year after year, I could not go home.

Meanwhile, my husband, my younger daughter, and I have already renewed our work permits and study permit twice, and now we are facing a third renewal. Our lives have been filled with paperwork and anxiety: visa renewals, waiting, expired documents while the new ones are not approved, temporary driving privileges, and health cards that cannot be used normally, then re-applying again once approvals come. This is not a normal life.

My elder daughter has also been trapped. Because our PR has been delayed for so long, she graduated and started working, but she is now over 22 and cannot renew status with us as a dependent, so she had to apply for a PGWP just to work. Even worse, under current rules, if a child included in the PR application gets married before PR is approved, they can lose the chance to obtain PR with the family. My daughter is now afraid to get married. She worries she may be forced to choose between her family in Canada and her future husband, and even return to China and separate from us. A delay should not decide whether a young woman can marry.

What I want the government to know:

We came to Canada with trust in the system. But after years of silence, that trust is being tested. What we feel now is helplessness, frustration, and honestly, a sense that we have been misled.

I’m writing to share my experience and the impact that prolonged security screening delays have had on my life.

My Timeline:

• Program / stream: PNP (OINP)
• PR application submitted: September 2023
• Security screening status: In progress since January 2024
• Current status as of today: No clear timeline or substantive update.

Impact:

The prolonged security screening delay has made it difficult to plan major life decisions and commit to housing, since non-permanent residents often face less favorable mortgage terms and additional tax implications. It has also created ongoing financial strain through repeated work permit extensions, while the uncertainty has caused prolonged anxiety and prevented me from making long-term career plans.

What I want the government to know:

I understand security screening is important. However, the lack of transparency, predictable service standards, and meaningful communication has created prolonged uncertainty for applicants who have already built lives in Canada.

I want the government to consider:

• Clear service standards (with reasonable timeline) for security screening stages
• Regular and meaningful status updates (not generic “in progress” responses)
• A mechanism to escalate files that exceed reasonable timeframes

I hope our concerns will be acknowledged and lead to meaningful reforms toward a more transparent, accountable, and fair process.

A PR Dream on Hold: 3 Years in Security Screening

Hello,

I would like to share my story about my permanent residence application delay.

I applied for permanent residence through the Alberta provincial nominee pathway. It has now been 1124 days since I received my AOR (since 2023-02-07), and I have been in security screening for 971 days (since 2023-07-10).

During this time, I have received very little meaningful information about the progress of my case. The process has been extremely long, opaque, and uncertain, and it has caused significant stress in my life. This delay has seriously affected my future planning and my normal life.

I came to Canada in 2016 to attend university. I graduated in 2020, and since then I have been working continuously as a FullStack Developer in Canada. I have now lived, studied, and worked in Canada for nearly 10 years. I have invested a great deal of time and effort into building my life here and contributing through my education and work.

I had originally planned to get married. However, marriage would require updating my marital status, and I am deeply worried that this could make my already extremely slow immigration process even more complicated and uncertain. As a result, I feel forced to keep waiting until my PR is finalized before making one of the most basic and important life decisions.

In addition to the PR delay, I also have to keep renewing my work permit. My grandmother suffered a stroke and now has difficulty eating, and her condition is getting worse. I had planned to visit her during the Christmas holiday this year. However, my work permit will also expire around the end of this year, and the current work permit extension processing time is as long as 8.5 months. Because of this, I do not dare to take the risk of leaving Canada as originally planned. I am worried that traveling at that time could affect my ability to return to Canada or make my immigration situation even more complicated. It is heartbreaking to know that I may not be able to see my grandmother when my family needs me most.

What I want the government to know is that long security screening delays are not just an abstract waiting period. They are causing real harm to people’s lives, families, and future plans. I understand that security screening may be necessary, but the process should have fairness, transparency, and a reasonable timeline.

If the processing time were short, people would still have some room to recover from mistakes or unexpected changes in life. But when one application takes 3 or even 4 years, especially for a young person who has only recently graduated from university, those years are some of the most important years of their life. Such a long period of uncertainty forces us to be extremely cautious and afraid of making any mistake, because one mistake could mean having to start over and go through another 3 or 4 years of waiting. How many 3- or 4-year periods does a person have in their life?

Applicants should not be left in limbo indefinitely, and they should not be forced to put marriage, family reunions, and other major life decisions on hold because of these delays.

You may share my story publicly on an anonymous basis.

Thank you for your work and for giving affected applicants a voice.

Sincerely,
Jingyuan Ma, Edmonton, AB

Dear Jiaqi,

Thank you very much for organizing the “PR Justice Now” movement and the upcoming procession to Parliament Hill.

I am writing to share my story as a high-tech professional caught in an indefinite security limbo. I hold a PhD in Electronic Engineering from SJTU and have been working as a senior professional in Ontario since June 2021. Despite my contributions as a taxpayer and a specialist in Canada’s tech sector, my life has been on hold for years.

1. My Timeline

• TRV Submitted: February 2023 (Pending for 37+ months under security check).
• PR Submitted: December 2023 (Pending for 27 months under security check).
• Actions taken: MP assistance, numerous webforms, calls, ATIPs, Mandamus.

2. The Impact on My Life

• “Imprisoned” in Canada: I have been unable to leave the country since 2022 because I lack a valid TRV. I am a resident, yet I have no freedom of movement.

• Prolonged Family Separation: My wife remains in China, unable to join me or plan her own career because of this indefinite wait. We have lived in separate countries for years with no end in sight.

• Childhood Trauma: Most heartbreakingly, my son has lived in Canada for three years without his mother. He is missing her during his most formative years, and this prolonged separation is becoming a traumatic experience for him.

• Economic & Professional Stagnation: This uncertainty prevents me from fully committing to the long-term strategic projects that are vital to my company’s success in Canada’s tech sector. Canada is effectively sidelining the very talent it recruited.

3. My Message to IRCC

I understand that IRCC claims security checks involve “third-party agencies,” but 37+ months of silence (nothing extra required) is not a process—it is a failure. As a resident who has proven my commitment to Canada through five years of continuous work, I demand that IRCC provide a “Target Completion Date” or move this case into a transparent supervisory mode. This “indefinite” wait is a waste of Canadian administrative resources and is causing irreparable harm to my family’s well-being.

4. Permission to Share

I welcome you to share my story anonymously to help the public and the government understand the reality of this crisis.

I fully support the movement. While my work and childcare responsibilities may prevent me from attending the Ottawa procession in person, my heart and my story are with you on Parliament Hill.

My Story — 94 Months of Waiting Under Quebec Investor Immigration

Name: Shawn Tong
Address: Montreal, QC

We submitted our Quebec Investor Immigration application in 2017, and it has now been under federal processing for 94 months.

We obtained our CSQ in March 2018 after completing the required investment and submitted our federal application in May 2018. Since then, we have complied fully with all requirements and have patiently waited for a decision. In 2023, our Member of Parliament confirmed that our file had entered security screening. However, after continuous follow-up through the MP’s office, no progress or timeline has been provided. The process has remained uncertain and unresolved.

Our family has lived in Montreal since 2019 in order to adapt to studying and working in Canada as soon as possible. We wanted our child to grow up and study here, and for our family to adapt to life, education, and work in Canada while waiting for the final decision. But we didn’t expect to wait so long. Over the past seven years, our child has attended local elementary and secondary schools, learned French, built friendships, and become deeply connected to this community. This year, he will graduate from high school and begin CEGEP.

Unfortunately, because our permanent residence has still not been finalized after so many years, he must enroll as an international student. This not only results in significantly higher tuition fees, but also requires a much more complex admission process, additional documentation, and ongoing uncertainty about status. For a student who has spent most of his formative years studying in Quebec and considers Canada his home, this situation has created considerable psychological pressure at an already important stage of his life.

As the principal applicant, I have many years of professional experience and have taken additional steps to prepare myself for the Canadian workforce by completing several professional certifications in Canada. I am ready and eager to work and contribute to Canadian society. However, without permanent resident status, I have been unable to secure employment despite repeated efforts.

This situation has left our family in a prolonged state of instability. The inability to work legally and establish a stable career has created significant financial pressure, uncertainty about our future, and persistent anxiety. Over the past several years, this prolonged lack of resolution has severely disrupted our family’s long-term planning, including our child’s education and our ability to build a stable life in Canada.

After years of compliance, patience, and good-faith efforts to follow the process, we respectfully request that IRCC facilitate the completion of our application and provide a final decision as soon as possible. This prolonged delay has placed a significant and ongoing financial and psychological burden on our family.

Applicant Information

• Name: Rosenberg Zhao
• Occupation: Engineer

My PR Application Timeline

I submitted my PR application to IRCC via the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) in April 2023 and submitted all the required documents in time.

I have been waiting for the final decision for almost 36 months, whereas the standard processing time for my application stream is just about 18 months.

I have called IRCC, sent webforms, and asked for help from my local MP. But all these actions cannot really urge IRCC to process my application in reasonable time.

Impact on Me and My Family

The severely delayed processing of my PR application has caused terrible impact on me and my family:

• During the waiting time, my father passed away. Now, my elderly mother is still living in my hometown alone. She is already over 77 years old. I really miss her but am not allowed to apply for a super visa for her before getting my PR.

• As an engineer with a master’s degree from a Canadian university, I have better working opportunities in some public enterprises. But those opportunities are only open for Canadian citizens and permanent residents.

What I Want to Tell the Government

• I demand a final decision on my PR application as soon as possible.

• As most immigrants, we come here because we believe Canada is a country built by immigrants and respecting human rights. What we want is just a democratic and peaceful place to live.

• Most of us have got excellent education and degrees from Canadian universities. We study hard, work hard, and continuously contribute to Canadian communities, society and economy.

Waiting in a Security Screening with No Timeline

Hello everyone,
My name is Silvia. I would like to share the experience my family has gone through while waiting for the security screening process in our Canadian permanent residence application.

My husband, our daughter, and I are currently living in Canada. We came here with the hope of building a stable life through hard work and by following the law.

Our permanent residence application was submitted on March 4, 2021.

During the application process, we completed all required steps, including medical examinations, police certificates, and background checks. All of these requirements were successfully completed. However, in 2023, our application was sent for Security Screening, and it has remained “In Progress” ever since.

As of today, we have been waiting for nearly three years, without any clear progress and without any timeline.

Although the security screening is mainly related to my husband, as part of the family application, our daughter and I have also been drawn into this indefinite waiting process.

This long period of uncertainty has had profound impacts on our careers, our family life, and our child’s education.

Professionally, I have been working at the same school in Canada for nearly three years. Since arriving in Canada, I have remained loyal to my employer and have not changed jobs. I have always tried my best to demonstrate my commitment and dedication to my workplace.

When I submitted my PR application in March 2021, I shared the government’s estimated processing timeline with my employer, and both my employer and I expected that the process would be completed within a reasonable timeframe.

However, because my status remains that of a temporary resident, and because the PR application has been delayed indefinitely in security screening, my employer cannot be certain that I will be able to remain in Canada long-term. As a result, the organization is unable to place me in core management roles that require long-term stability.

This means that even though I have the relevant experience and the ability to take on greater responsibilities, I am still unable to advance professionally.

In terms of family life, we must apply for and renew our daughter’s study permit every year. Each application comes with uncertainty. We constantly worry:
What if the processing takes too long?
What if the permit is not approved before school starts?
What if it is refused?

Our daughter is now eight years old. She came to Canada when she was very young and has been studying here for more than four years. Canada is the place where she has grown up and gone to school.

However, because our PR application has been stuck in security screening for such a long time, we constantly worry about a very real possibility:

If one day her study permit application encounters problems while our PR application still has no result, she may no longer be able to continue studying in Canada.

Even more concerning, if we are forced to return to China, she does not currently have a Chinese school registration, which could make it difficult for her to enroll in school there.

This means that a child who is currently studying normally could suddenly face an educational crisis simply because an immigration process has no time limit.

At the same time, our immigration status has brought increasing psychological pressure.

If the security screening continues without explanation and our work permits eventually expire, we may have only one choice — to leave Canada and return to China.

At that time, we will have to face questions from friends and family: Why, after working so hard in Canada for so many years, have you still not obtained permanent residence?
Did you fail to meet some requirement?
Is there some problem?

But we have no way to answer these questions.

Because we have followed Canadian laws and immigration policies completely. We have not violated any rules. All application materials, background checks, and medical examinations have been completed. Yet our application has remained stuck in security screening for years, with no result and no explanation.

This situation can even lead others to wonder whether there might be some kind of security issue.

But in reality, we ourselves have no idea why this is happening.

Even now, while we are still living in Canada, friends, colleagues, and relatives both in Canada and in China have asked us the same question: “Why haven’t you received your PR after so many years?”

And we truly do not know how to explain.

In our personal life, we had planned to buy a home and settle down in Canada. However, because of our unresolved immigration status, the decision to buy a home has remained uncertain.

As a result, we continue to face the instability of renting, while also being unable to contribute to the local housing market and broader economy in the way long-term residents normally would.

In terms of financial and civic responsibility, we have always tried to be responsible residents. From the very first year we arrived in Canada, we have filed our taxes every year as required, without interruption.

I’m a resident living in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

I work for the Government of New Brunswick. I pay my taxes. I serve my community. I run a small business at the local farmers market. I have given this country everything I have.

And I have been waiting.

My permanent residency application has been in security screening for 32 months. The official standard is six months. Most people receive their answer in two to four. I have been waiting eight times longer — with no explanation, no timeline, and no end in sight.

My husband holds a Master’s degree in Materials Science Engineering. When we came to Canada, we were promised that PR would open doors — that he could study, earn his credentials, and build the career he worked so hard for. That promise has not been kept. For three years, a highly educated engineer has been forced to work as a labourer. His hope has been worn down. His spirit has been deeply affected. The weight of this waiting has placed enormous strain on our marriage, and on our family.

We have been in Canada for five years. Five years. We have not been able to return home once — because we are afraid that if we leave, we may not be allowed to come back. My parents are in their seventies. They are ill. They need care. I cannot go to them.

My daughter came to Canada at the age of six. She is eleven now. She has not seen her grandmother — the woman who raised her — in five years.

We cannot plan for the future. We survive on bridging work permits, renewed again and again, because a decision that should have taken six months has taken nearly three years — and is still not made.

This is not a story about security. This is a story about a system that has forgotten the human beings inside it.

We did nothing wrong. We followed every rule. We contributed to this country with everything we had.

All we are asking for is an answer.

Canada — please keep your promise.

My name is Lily. I immigrated to Canada in 2010. For years, I had been trying to apply for the Parent and Grandparent Program (PGP) through the First-In System / Randomized Lottery without success. Finally, I was fortunate to be selected in the 2022 lottery. In November 2022, I submitted a permanent residence application on behalf of my parents. Unfortunately, their application was assigned to the Vancouver office and remained untouched for 18 months.

Finally, in May 2024, their application began processing and passed all requirements. They even received an Invitation to Pre-arrival Services Letter on July 30, 2024. However, in August 2024, their application was placed into security screening. It has now been 40 months since the initial submission, and their application remains in progress. We have no idea how much longer we must wait, as there is no defined timeline for security screening. I have applied for ATIP notes, sought assistance from my Member of Parliament, and done everything within my effort, yet there has been no progress or explanation on the security screening, as if the case has disappeared into a black hole.

As sponsors

I and my husband are both skilled professionals who have lived and worked in Canada for over 10 years. We work hard, have stable careers, and own a home. We pay significant amounts of income tax, property tax, and consumption tax each year. Additionally, we volunteer in our community, contributing to Canadian society and the economy. We are law-abiding and exemplary citizens.

As applicants, my parents are both 81 years old this year. Given their advanced age and the fact that they are being sponsored by such outstanding citizens, I cannot help but wonder: what makes their case so exceptional? Why does IRCC deem it necessary to conduct such an in-depth and prolonged security screening? What possible threat could they pose to Canada’s national security? Moreover, they have previously visited Canada as visitors and have a clean record. Why are they now suddenly subjected to indefinite security screening?

Impact on our family

Due to the endless security screening, my parents’ PR applications remain unresolved. They are also unable to obtain visitor visas, as the same prolonged security screening applies to visitor visa applications as it does to the PGP program. They cannot enter Canada to reunite with our family. My husband, son, and I are forced to take frequent leaves from work to visit them in our home country, which has severely impacted our careers and lives in Canada, while also placing a significant financial burden on us. With no end in sight to the security screening and my parents aging day by day, the guilt of being unable to accompany and care for them, coupled with concerns about their loneliness and health, has driven me to increasing levels of anxiety and depression. I have even had to seek psychological counseling.

Impact on my parents

As applicants, my parents are also enduring immense physical and emotional distress due to this prolonged wait. During the years of security reviews, some previously approved documents with expiration dates have expired. As a result, many parents are forced to spend time, energy, and money repeatedly obtaining and submitting new documents. For example, some 2022 PGP applicants have had to undergo medical examinations four times in the past four years as required by IRCC because their approved medical examinations had expired. This creates unnecessary waste of time and money for both applicants and IRCC, while also taking a severe toll on the physical and mental well-being of elderly applicants.

We are not alone

My family is not alone in this struggle. Many PR and visa applicants are experiencing the same pain of prolonged separation from their loved ones due to indefinite security screenings. This is especially true for PGP applicants, who are elderly parents that have already waited years to reunite with their children. At such an advanced age, how many more years can they afford to wait? To my knowledge, some 2022 PGP applicants have already passed away while waiting for the prolonged security screening to conclude, never having the chance to reunite with their families. Every time I hear such news, I feel deep sympathy and sorrow, but also immense fear that the same humanitarian tragedy could happen to my own family.

We understand, respect, and support the need for security screening. However, we hope the process can be transparent, fair, and just, with clear communication channels, accountability measures, and a reasonable timeline—not a system that remains indefinitely stalled and without an endpoint.

My parents had visitor visas before their passports expired. I talked them into applying for a super visa and I did all the materials myself. Before they left, during their last visit, we went to showings together, and I finally bought my own place so they could come live with me instead of having to share the rented house. We planned everything together. I was so excited.

Then I submitted the super visa application in June last year. When I realized it took much longer than the 60 days posted processing time, I applied for the profile with IRCC and CBSA and realized that my father was in security check. And my mother was flagged with a suggestion to be interviewed, with no progress ever since.

I blamed myself a lot for choosing super visa and not paying to have materials prepared by an agency, thinking it might end up differently. I look at all the furniture unpacked, feel sad about the no longer possible family time together within at least two years, stopped planning everything, and pretend nothing is serious with my family. My family is not wealthy and I saved for a long time for this. I am alone here, always waking up in the middle of the night from a dream where they were both here in my new home with me.

My father did not serve in the army or the government. I have no idea why they selected him. Lack of transparency and not knowing why them is another pain point for me. I know compared to others, my case is only 9 months—still a long time to go, given it usually takes much longer to get out of it. But by reading all the posts, realizing so many people are still stuck in it when they have waited since 2023, or even longer, I feel more desperate and I don’t know when will be my turn if those people haven’t been processed yet.

I need IRCC and CBSA and CSIS to respect the timeline and treat us seriously and equally. We are paying taxes here—why can they randomly flag us with no reason just because we are Chinese? My parents are over 60; how many years can we waste? What about all those expenses in travelling and medical checks, which all end up expiring because of this—who will compensate us?

I genuinely hope this event could be a start to have all of us heard, and we will be united and fight together until we are treated with due respect. Hope it will be a success. Thank you again for organizing.

My name is Wenkang, and I am an ASIC Design Engineer based in Kanata, Ontario. I submitted my permanent residence (PR) application in July 2024 through family sponsorship under the common-law partner category. Since August 2025, my application has been under security screening.

The prolonged and uncertain nature of this process has had a significant impact on my life. Earlier this year, my grandfather suffered a stroke, and his condition has been deteriorating day by day. He played a central role in raising me while I was growing up, and I have always hoped to be there for him when he needed family the most.

However, because my PR application is under security screening, I feel unable to leave Canada to visit him in China. The uncertainty surrounding my immigration status makes international travel extremely risky, and I fear that leaving the country could negatively affect my application. This situation has left me feeling helpless and heartbroken, knowing that I may not have the chance to spend meaningful time with my grandfather during what may be the final stage of his life.

I am also confused about the situation because my partner who sponsors me is Canadian and was born and raised in Canada. I have complied with all immigration requirements and have tried to follow every rule of the process.

For applicants like myself, the lack of transparency surrounding security screening creates tremendous stress and uncertainty. I respectfully request that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC):

• Provide reasonable timelines for applicants whose cases enter security screening.
• Offer clear and valid explanations for why certain applications are placed under security screening.
• Publicly release statistics on security screening by country of origin, so applicants can better understand the process and potential delays.

Greater transparency and accountability would help ensure that families are not left in prolonged uncertainty during such important moments in their lives.

Wenkang Zhou