A year after moving to Canada, Fran Hiebert is still waiting to receive her permanent residency card — something that is supposed to take about 10 weeks.
Hiebert, who returned to Canada last June filed an application to renew her card last August but, owing to multiple delays, it is still not in her hands.
“I need that card to function as a normal person in society,” Hiebert said. “It feels like I’m stuck in a problem and they don’t have a process to help me out of it.”
RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS
Fran Hiebert is be reliant on her husband — who’s a Canadian citizen — because she can’t access her own bank accounts or financial services without the card.
The posted processing time for card renewals on the federal government’s website is 73 days.
The delays have forced Hiebert to be reliant on her husband — who’s a Canadian citizen — because she can’t access her own bank accounts or financial services without the card.
Hiebert said banks have refused opening an account for her, phone companies denied her a plan, and she can’t take out a mortgage.
“If I didn’t have that (my husband), the government has just put me in a situation of complete vulnerability,” Hiebert said, adding she’s worried for other people in the same situation who don’t have the support she has.
Hiebert first moved to Canada from the U.K. in 2013. She moved back to the U.K. with her husband in 2015 before returning to Winnipeg in 2023 to be closer to relatives. When she came back to Canada, she had to file a permanent resident travel document since her card was expired.
Hiebert said she tried every possible avenue to get information on her card. She filed an urgent request with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and an Access to Information and Personal Information request. She has called the immigration department every four weeks since January. She also contacted her MP’s office. All was to no avail.
In an email shared with the Free Press dated July 30, a representative from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada wrote: “We have verified the status of your file. It was sent to the local office responsible for your area. The office will contact you to tell you when to pick it up.”
Hiebert went down to the immigration office on Main Street but was told she needed to make an appointment.
“I appreciate that there’s going to be a certain amount of processing time, but to be in this situation for almost a year now makes me feel like I’m beyond help,” Hiebert said. “It’s really exasperating.”
After the Free Press requested information about her case, Hiebert finally received an email from the immigration department with an appointment to pick up her card.
‘The processing of (permanent residency) cards is taking far longer that it should,” Kenneth Zaifman, immigration lawyer and founding partner for Zaifman Law, said.
He said there’s no effective mechanism to communicate with the immigration department to find out the status of an application. Urgent processing requests is available for people with no other options, but it doesn’t always work, he said.
Much like an expired passport, an expired card still means the individual is a permanent resident. The biggest issue Zaifman has seen is those with expired cards can’t travel outside of Canada by plane. He also said some banks require a valid card for services.
“It really should be a very expedited process. It should be one that can be done in week, not months,” Zaifman said, adding that it shouldn’t require a lawyer to help someone get their card.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller wasn’t available for an interview on the card delays.
“The times may vary depending on how many applications are received, and if an application is complex,” Julie Lafortune, spokesperson for the immigration department, said in an email. She said Hiebert’s application was referred to another unit for more details because of her absence from Canada.
matthew.frank@freepress.mb.ca