Ottawa-Canada needs immigration to drive our economy, help address labour shortages, and keep our communities thriving. The Government of Canada understands that to keep attracting talent as a destination of choice, we must remain committed to improving our client service and providing the best experience possible for people who see their future in Canada.
The Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, today announced the launch of a new digital case status tracker that will allow some family class permanent residence applicants, sponsors and their representatives to more easily check their application status online. This builds on the Government of Canada's recent announcement on modernizing Canada's immigration system to support economic recovery and improve client experience.
For the initial launch, the tracker will be available for permanent residence applicants in the spouse, partner and dependent child categories. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is working on providing similar solutions to additional applicant groups as we continue to improve and introduce new tools to support our clients.
As we implement measures to improve the client experience, we're also focused on reducing processing times for applicants. Efforts to date have allowed average processing times for spousal sponsorship applicants to return to the service standard of 12 months for new applications.
The decision to choose Canada is not taken lightly, and the process can be both exciting and stressful. This tool will enable clients to keep track of their application and any needed actions required to keep it moving as quickly as possible. It also increases transparency by giving them access to all of the same information they would get if they contacted an IRCC client service agent.
IRCC interacts with millions of clients in Canada and around the world every year, and we receive a high volume of application update requests by phone and by email at our Client Support Centre. We want to make sure clients can get timely answers to their application inquiries online. The development of digital case status trackers is part of IRCC's ongoing efforts to provide meaningful and transparent information to clients, and to modernize our services to better respond to their needs.
