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Who is a refugee?

The United Nations defines a refugee as follows:

“A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so. War and ethnic, tribal and religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries.”

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Learn how the refugee sponsorship process works

Understanding the often lengthy, complicated steps can be half the battle

1. How private sponsorship works: Canadians can sponsor migrants as part of a group of five or more people, through community sponsorship, or through one of the roughly 90 sponsorship agreement holders (a mix of faith groups and secular organizations) that have signed agreein needments with the federal government to receive and sponsor refugees. In 1979, in response to the Indochinese refugee crisis, sometimes referred to as the boat people, Canada became the first country to create a system for private sponsorship.

2. Refugee family: They must be have left their country of origin, meet the refugee definition, have no other “durable solution,” and be able to settle in Canada. One of the sticking points is the requirement for a formal document proving designation of refugee status from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or the state in which they are living. Although it might seem evident that Syrians in neighbouring countries are refugees, the volume of their arrivals mean that getting registered and assessed by the UNHCR is difficult or can take time. “It is possible to get UNHCR registration in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt, but not individual determination, which is what Canada requires for group of five sponsorship.  Nor is it possible in Turkey, which has its own system for handling refugees.

3. Getting a group together: Organizations such as Lifeline Syria and others are encouraging Canadians to form groups of at least five to work together to sponsor refugees. These people must all recognize that they are taking on a serious task and will be responsible for the refugee family and their costs for up to year after arrival. A husband and wife can count separately as members of the group for the purposes of the application. Assembling a group often takes weeks or months. Potential sponsors must be 18, have some financial means, have no criminal record and reside in the community where the refugees will settle.

4. Choosing whom to sponsor: Most citizens who come forward to sponsor refugees have a person or family in mind, often relatives in crisis zones. Those who do not can get connected to a family through a sponsorship agreement holder (SAH) or through Ottawa’s Blended Visa Office-Referred program (BVOR), which places refugees already approved by the Canadian government after a referral from the UNHCR.

5. Filling out forms: Refugee applicants need access to a computer to get Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s application forms. That can be a challenge. Then they have to be able to read and write proficiently in English or French. The forms are complex, typically with more than 150 questions. Applicants must complete the same form any immigrant fills out, an IMM 0008, plus two additional forms known as schedule A and schedule 2.

Inaccuracies in the information on the form would seriously undermine the application when it reaches the interview stage. Refugee applicants often omit dependent family members, thinking that might harm their chances of being accepted (although it would not). In the time between application and evaluation, families often change. People marry, have children, are reunited with dependents. Some people are also sometimes advised by others to submit a particular story of persecution or their escape even if it differs from the truth because another person used that story and was approved by a Western country. The inconsistencies are usually easy to spot at the interview stage and can lead to delays or rejection of the application.

The forms are often filled out collaboratively, with several weeks of back-and-forth writing and checking between the family and the sponsors in Canada. It often takes a month or more.

6. Submitting application to Winnipeg office: The application of the sponsor and the refugee are submitted together to Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s central processing office in Winnipeg. Syrian files are supposed to be expedited, so it is typically a matter of days to weeks before the files are opened and assessed. Many prospective sponsors fill the forms out incorrectly, particularly those not working with a sponsorship agreement holder. If the forms need to be sent back, the process is delayed. It is not uncommon for sponsors to resubmit twice or more.

If the forms are filled out correctly, the file is assigned a number.

7. Application arrives at visa office: Once the documents arrive at the visa office, for example, in Lebanon, Egypt or Jordan, they have to wait until a Canadian visa officer is ready to process them. When the envelope reaches the top of the pile, a visa officer schedules an interview.

8. The interview: This is a crucial step that typically take 45 minutes, during which a Canadian visa officer has the heavy responsibility of determining a family’s fate. The interview is typically done in less-than-ideal linguistic circumstances, as visa officers and refugee applicants might have varying levels of fluency or have to use a translator. The interview verifies and tests the information submitted in the application. Stories sometimes change, new family members are discovered and that can cause delays or even greater problems for the applicant. If they are found to be not credible, their application can be rejected, with no formal appeal mechanism. If the refugee family is approved, they will usually be told at the end of the interview.

9. Security screening: Refugee applicants are checked for criminality in the country where they are living and with Interpol for warrants or other information that might cause concern. Anyone involved in war crimes is not admissible to Canada. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service also must determine if the applicant could pose a threat to Canada. If a flag is raised on security screening and it requires a CSIS interview to investigate, that can delay the process by 18 months to 24 months.

The prospective sponsors are assessed to ensure they have the financial means to support a refugee family for at least 12 months, and must submit current T4 forms. A scale is used to determine how much money needs to be raised to meet this requirement, but it is in the range of $25,000 to sponsor a family of four. Sponsors must have a detailed plan for helping the newcomers adapt to Canada, with specific points such as who in the group will handle which aspects of the family’s integration. The government’s stated goal is to have an approved file out of Winnipeg and sent to an overseas visa office within 30 days.