Jennice Roberts knows she is Canadian.
Too bad Canada doesn’t.
And too bad that long waits plaguing the government department that deals with citizenship issues have been growing longer, not shorter. The 67-year-old Roberts fears she could face big medical bills and even homelessness as a result.
The Saanich Peninsula woman is far from the only one affected by the bureaucratic logjam. Lawyers say even straightforward requests that used to take several months to process now take a year or two.
Roberts’ case has to do with lost documents, the ones she needs to get health care and otherwise resume the life she had up until a few years ago.
Like almost a quarter of Canadians, Roberts was born outside this country. She came here from the U.S. when she was just five, and became a citizen in her early twenties.
Around 2016, she signed on as a cook on a boat that sailed from Sidney to Antigua. She did that for about a year, then spent a similar amount of time with a sister in Washington state, followed by several months with a niece in Wisconsin.
Somewhere along the line, she lost documents including her Canadian passport and B.C. driver’s licence. When she arrived in Vancouver a couple of years ago, it was her U.S. passport that got her across the border.
Roberts found that without the right Canadian documents, she couldn’t get a new driver’s licence or renew other ID that had expired. So, to prove who she was, she applied for a citizenship certificate from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
Unfortunately, although she mailed her application to the federal department in September 2019, it took until this March for IRCC to reply. Worse, the reply was that the paperwork she had sent was insufficient.
She can produce all sorts of documents — an old marriage licence, school records, tax returns, the nine criminal record checks (with fingerprints) she had done as a foster parent — proving who she is, but not the kind of photo ID recognized by IRCC. It doesn’t help that some of her old records bear different versions of her name.
Roberts found herself in limbo, not knowing where to turn, or even how to contact the department in a speedy manner. Even her MP’s office couldn’t help.
She has now had to cancel a couple of long-awaited medical appointments because, without proof of the health coverage to which she is entitled, she can’t afford to pay for them. Nor can she get a passport. It’s also hard to rent a place to live; she has been staying with a friend for what has dragged into a two-year stay. “The stress now is taking a mental toll on me,” she says.
Contacted this week, IRCC, recognizing the complexity of Roberts’ case, provided an email link that should expedite her file.
The thing is, Roberts is far from the only one waiting. The IRCC website says COVID-related impacts have pushed processing time for citizenship certificates to 15 months. The department says times for all sorts of immigration files can vary depending on resources, the type of application and how long it takes to get and verify information.
Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland says mixed into the equation is the fact that only now is IRCC transitioning from paper applications to an online system. Employees working remotely due to the pandemic can access electronic files, but aren’t allowed to bring paper files home. That adds to the delays.
A statement from the department says IRCC has been trying hard to respond to COVID-related challenges.”We are processing applications as quickly as possible. We are also making great strides in processing more applications virtually, while emphasizing safety and security. We have made many efforts to help employees work remotely. We’ve also revisited some policies and are exploring more ways to adapt to the current situation and create the flexibility to respond to the circumstances in which we now find ourselves. Ultimately, IRCC is quickly trying to innovate and evolve our business.”
Roberts just knows that it has been more than two years since she applied for the document that will give her her life back. How can this possibly take so long?
“This has been such a nightmare,” she says.
