Maple News reports that the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration has released a detailed report outlining the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the country’s immigration system. Titled “Immigration in the Time of COVID-19: Issues and Challenges,” the study offers a comprehensive review across economic, family, and refugee immigration streams and includes 38 recommendations for system improvements.
Committee Chair Salma Zahid tabled the report on May 13, following months of testimony from newcomers, immigration advocates, legal experts, and other stakeholders. The committee itself is made up of members from all major political parties, ensuring a broad, representative perspective on the issues at hand.
Among its key findings, the report tackles longstanding issues that worsened during the pandemic—including application backlogs, family separation delays, disruptions for approved permanent residents (COPR holders) stuck abroad, and challenges facing asylum seekers and international students.
While the Liberal minority government is not required to act on the report, it must table a response within 120 days. Encouragingly, several of the proposals are already being implemented or are currently under review.
A core recommendation from the report is the modernization of Canada’s immigration system. The committee advocates for full digitization of application and adjudication processes to improve efficiency and accessibility. This includes enabling online submissions, virtual interviews, and electronic visa issuance with scannable barcodes rather than physical passport stamps. Canada had already committed $430 million in its 2021 budget toward immigration system modernization, highlighting alignment with these goals.
Other recommendations span key areas such as improving transparency and communication within immigration services; expanding permanent residency pathways for essential workers; and offering clearer procedures for work permits, international students, family reunification, and vulnerable groups including Hong Kong residents and asylum seekers.
The report classifies its recommendations into clear categories such as modernization, accountability, temporary measures for documents, and program-specific improvements like the Parents and Grandparents Program. It seeks to guide not just reactive changes to COVID-19 disruptions, but structural reforms to build a more resilient and accessible immigration system in Canada.
As the government reviews the committee’s findings, stakeholders across the immigration spectrum await specific measures that could reshape policy in a post-pandemic world.