The “Hong Kong Pathway” permanent residency applicants will visit the Canadian Immigration Department (IRCC) offices in Vancouver, Calgary, and Ottawa on May 14 and May 21 to submit petitions urging authorities to increase the immigration targets for the “Hong Kong Pathway” program. They also request IRCC to process applications received in 2023 within two months and ensure that eligible applicants thereafter receive permanent residency status within six and a half months. About 350 participants are expected to join the three petition events.
The petition action is initiated by the Canadian Association of Hong Kong Elite and the Moving Hong Kong Lifeboat Delayed Group 2023, coordinated by the Canadian Association of Hong Kong Monitoring, contacting members of Parliament and IRCC officials.
On May 7, IRCC announced the introduction of open work permits for “Hong Kong Pathway” permanent residency applicants, for which the organizers of the petition activities expressed gratitude for assisting applicants who lost legal status due to extended waiting periods.
The “Hong Kong Pathway” program for Hong Kong residents includes Study Immigration Plan (Stream A) and Work Immigration Plan (Stream B). Starting from May 27, 2024, permanent residency applicants under Stream A and Stream B of the “Hong Kong Pathway” program can immediately apply for open work permits.
However, representatives admit that the temporary policy is a temporary measure and fails to address the backlog of pending cases. Therefore, they will continue to urge IRCC to increase immigration targets.
IRCC sets annual quotas for each immigration category, with the Humanitarian and Compassionate Immigration category of the “Hong Kong Pathway” program having 13,750 quotas for 2024, shared with other immigration projects in the same category.
As of February 29 this year, there were 9,217 pending “Hong Kong Pathway” permanent residency applications. Due to the current immigration quotas not aligning with the number of permanent residency applications, the approval process is slow, with some applicants waiting for over a year, far exceeding IRCC’s previously stated processing speed of six and a half months.
Furthermore, the number of permanent residency applications under the “Hong Kong Pathway” program continues to increase. Representatives believe IRCC needs to expedite the approval of permanent residency applications to prevent the situation from deteriorating.
Moreover, an online parliamentary petition has received significant response, with over 14,000 signatures of support.
Event Details:
– Date: May 14 (Tuesday)
– Time: 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Pacific Time, PT)
– Location: Vancouver IRCC Office (1148 Hornby St, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2C3)
– Date: May 14 (Tuesday)
– Time: 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM (Mountain Time, MT)
– Location: Calgary IRCC Office (Harry Hays Building, 220 4th Ave SE, Calgary, AB T2G 4X3)
– Date: May 21 (Tuesday)
– Time: 1:30 PM onwards (Eastern Time, ET)
– Location: IRCC Headquaters in Ottawa (235 Queen St, Ottawa, ON K1A 0H5) & Parliament Hill