Windsor woman protests spousal sponsorship delays as application sits in limbo

Ashtar Altamim hasn't seen her husband for more than a year and says it's getting increasingly difficult being apart from him with each passing day.

Altamim and her husband, who is in Saudi Arabia, applied for spousal sponsorship last December, but she said their application has been in limbo, partly due to the impact of COVID-19. Her husband also applied for a visitor visa twice, but was denied both times.

As a result, she's been holding demonstrations over the last few weeks outside of the offices of Windsor West MP Brian Masse and Windsor-Tecumseh MP Irek Kusmierczyk, protesting the immigration system for both herself and other families in similar situations.

By doing so, Altamimi hopes to get the attention of the government and speed up the process of her husband`s sponsorship application.

"It's been really hard for me. I've been trying to see him. I've been trying to start a family with him," she said.

Altamimi, who's been married to her husband since 2017, is physically impaired and says she needs her husband's support.

"I'm so depressed. I'm so sad. It's killing me. And I see everyone here like, you know, they celebrate holidays, birthdays, anniversaries together and I can't be with him," she said.

Altamimi's said she doesn't want to put her and her family's health in jeopardy by travelling to Saudi Arabia during the pandemic to visit him.

She's been sending emails, trying to contact the federal government for assistance but isn't hearing back.

"It's my right. I'm not asking for something that's forbidden. It's my right to love whoever I want. To marry whoever I want. Why are they stopping me?" She said, adding that she's not the only person experiencing this heartbreak.

Adding staff to speed up process

It's a situation many families are facing and the federal goverment says it is making efforts to speed up a process that has been delayed by many COVID-19 related challenges.

In an email statement to CBC News, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said it's "processing applications as quickly as possible."

It says it has increased the number of staff working of spousal applications in Canada by 66%, to try to speed up the process, estimating that about 49,000 decisions will be made by the end of this year.

"With these initiatives, IRCC aims to accelerate, prioritize and finalize approximately 6,000 spousal application decisions each month from October until December 2020."

In the statement, IRCC acknowedged the "external factors" it has faced that are beyond its control, which has resulted in application processing delays, but it could not specify how much longer applications have been taking to get processed.

Emilia Coto, an immigration lawyer with Sisu Legal, said the normal wait time is usually, on average, 12 months, but it can vary depending on the country because applications are processed by different visa offices.

She said there's been a backlog of applications pre-COVID, but that's increased due to the pandemic. So, wait times are longer than 12 months and Altamimi has likely been caught up with this backlog. 

"I think even a year is a long time to wait when your partner is abroad and especially for countries or for partners who can't get visas to come into Canada during the waiting period. That can be a really painful time," she said.

Coto believes electronic filing will help with speeding up the processing times.

Shakeel Haroon, who's been living in Canada for 20 years, lost his first wife to cancer last year. He remarried in Pakistan in March and has spent six of the seven months of his second marriage apart from his wife.

They filed for spousal sponsorship months ago, but he says the application also hasn't been processed yet, despite sending letters to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino.

"They don't respond to you. They don't take your calls, no emails, nothing," he said.

Haroon said he's been having difficulty juggling all his responsibilities, which include working full-time, supporting his three children by himself and managing his long-distance marriage.

'I am a human being,' says one applicant

He suffers from anxiety, depression, insomnia and high blood pressure and says he needs his wife during this difficult time.

"I am a human being. I need somebody to share my feelings. I need somebody when I come from home beside me," he said, adding that he hopes by sharing his story, he and other families can be reunited with their loved ones sooner.

Fight isn't over

During one of Altamimi's demonstrations, Masse spoke with Altamimi, saying she's "doing everything right."

"It's not easy to come out and demonstrate and to show to people what's going on in your life and  the challenges," he said.

"People wait for months, sometimes years for cases to get resolved. It's very traumatic on them, but also reinforces that this also hurts the community. We have a lot of people that need their families reunited that actually will be going to school, will be working, paying taxes, contributing to our community, and they're in a state of limbo. And that's one of the hardest things about these situations."

Masse said Altamimi's only option now as she waits is to "continue to follow the broken process that is in place right now, raise public awareness" and use her voice and pressure the federal government to help her.

Altamimi said the fight isn't over and hopes to bring her husband home with her in the near future.