This family waited years for a visa others get within weeks. Now they want answers
Victoria Clarke, 78, waits in Gambia, hoping to visit family in Ottawa soon
After waiting almost two years for her mom's Canadian visitor visa, one Ottawa woman is asking why her application fell through the cracks and is pleading with Canada's immigration department to speed up the process.
Charlotte Clarke helped her 78-year-old mother Victoria Clarke apply for a visit from Gambia in West Africa in October 2020. Charlotte's father and Victoria's husband Malcolm died of COVID-19 in August of that year.
The daughter said she wanted her mom to take a break and see her two children and grandchildren in Ottawa after being her ill husband's main caretaker for years.
"[We thought] she should come over and just relax and sort of take it easy and, you know, grieve and be with us," Clarke said.
"[I'm] just begging for somebody to take pity on us and do something about her case because it's been too long. It's just a visitor visa."
The family last heard from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) — which processes immigration applications and visas — in December 2020, after her mom travelled to neighbouring Senegal to submit biometric information such as fingerprints.
Twenty-one months later, she's still waiting for the temporary visa which will allow her to visit Ottawa for a few months.
According to IRCC's website Tuesday, the average wait time to process a visitor's visa from Gambia is 43 days.
"I'm just, you know, feeling helpless, feeling guilty, you know, that you're not doing enough — that there's nothing you can do," said Clarke, who's exhausted her efforts.
With no answers from IRCC, Clarke reached out to her MP Marie-France Lalonde several times. Through updates from Lalonde's office, Clarke has heard various reasons for the delay from IRCC — ranging from COVID-19, to how she may have applied for a super visa instead.
Super visas allow parents or grandparents to stay for up to two years, but take longer to process — 152 days on average from Gambia, according to IRCC.
According to an internal government note obtained through access to information laws, Victoria Clarke's application is categorized as a regular temporary resident visa, not a super visa.
"It's taken its toll on all of us. On her, especially, she's been waiting to come. She's sometimes confused about whether she's coming," said Clarke.
Through a WhatsApp video chat, Victoria Clarke greeted her only two grandchildren and daughter at the kitchen table in their home in Orléans.
"Two years is an awfully long time," said Victoria Clarke, from Gambia. "But these days, I say to myself, I'm close to the grave, so there's no point in being mad at people for the little things."
Victoria Clarke spoke about being an educator who founded a private school in Gambia in 1998, which she still helps run to this day.
She's hoping for the best, but wishes for her Ottawa vacation soon.
"If it's within their power to give me a visa, I would love to have it."
Lawyer sees quick turnaround for visas
"I've never heard of people waiting two years for a visitor visa," said Tamar Boghossian, an Ottawa immigration lawyer with Boghossian Morais LLP.
Most of the firm's clients have recently got their visas within weeks and in some cases, within one week when the estimated processing time for them was 150 days on IRCC's website.
"Overall, we've been seeing a very positive turnover rate at our office," said Boghossian.
She explained how a number of factors can affect processing times and how each application is processed case-by-case. They can take longer due to factors such as an applicant's background, location of residence, location of their primary visa office, criminality and whether they've been refused before.
"It's very circumstantial," explained Boghossian.
However, she's seen some applicants "fall through the cracks" due to backlogs during the pandemic.
"In this particular case, what it sounds like is that [Clarke has] perhaps fallen through the cracks because she had applied 20 months ago."
One woman CBC Ottawa spoke to said it took her parents less than a month to receive their visitor visa from South Africa. They applied in October 2021, a year after Clarke submitted her mother's application.
Charlotte Clarke wonders why her mother is left waiting nearly two years for a visa that others are getting within weeks. Meanwhile, she's planning on buying a ticket to Gambia at the end of this month to keep her mom company.
"I just want to plead with them [at IRCC]. We just want her to come and visit. That's it," she said.
IRCC says to reapply
In an email response to CBC News, Canada's immigration department told Clarke to reapply for the visitor visa.
"Applicants who applied for a visitor visa before September 7, 2021, and who have not been contacted by IRCC with instructions for next steps after they applied, have the option to submit a new visa application," an IRCC spokesperson wrote.
"Ms. Clarke's application would fall into this category."
IRCC said it recognizes "that timely decisions are essential" on visa applications, but didn't comment further on why Victoria Clarke's visa has not been processed after 21 months.
Charlotte Clarke told CBC she's "stunned" by this response, questions whether the family has to pay the $100 fee again to reapply, and wonders if they'll have to wait just as long.
"I am really quite devastated by the thought of having to start all over again," she wrote, about helping her mom reapply. "Going back to Square 1 is infuriating."
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