Undocumented youth in Canada say they’re feeling worried and hopeless as they face decades-long processing times for permanent residence under the humanitarian and compassionate pathway — often the only immigration stream open to them.
Lawyers and advocates say they fear more vulnerable minors will lose their legal immigration status in the coming years and will be forced underground, leaving them unable to legally work, study at many post-secondary institutions or access medical care. They could even face removal from Canada.
People can become undocumented when their temporary status lapses. That can happen if they fail to qualify for another status, if their application is denied, or during long waits for their application to be processed, according to Ottawa immigration lawyer Heather Neufeld.
In October, processing times stretched to decades for some immigration streams including the humanitarian permanent residence (PR) pathway, a program that accepts applications based on special considerations such as hardship or the best interests of children.
For those children, the danger is amplified, Neufeld said.
“They face the risk of being deported before their humanitarian application is ever decided,” she said. “They risk being removed from perhaps the only country they’ve ever known, the only country they’ve ever called home.”
Meanwhile, annual admission targets have been slashed at a rate lawyers say are unprecedented.
“This humanitarian stream was not broken,” Neufeld said. “This is something that the Liberals have broken all of a sudden at this particular moment by deciding [to reduce it] … to a teeny, tiny number per year — unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”
Estimates in the spring showed 55,074 applications in the queue under the humanitarian stream.
Next year, Canada aims to accept 1,100 applicants under the humanitarian program, followed by 1,000 in 2027 and 1,000 more in 2028, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) latest plan.
“This is my home,” said Anna, a high school student in Kingston, Ont., who’s currently undocumented.
Anna is not her real name, and CBC is protecting her identity because she’s a vulnerable minor who’s at risk of deportation.
She came to Canada as a toddler, but now the 17-year-old lives apart from her family after those relationships broke down.
“It’s very stressful, like, not knowing that you could just be uprooted at any point,” Anna said.
While her immediate family and other relatives are Canadian citizens or permanent residents, Anna discovered a few years ago that she has no legal status in Canada because of a complex and troubled family situation.
“I first found out when I was getting housing and getting connected with services,” she explained. “They couldn’t really help me the way that they helped other kids.”
With the help of a legal aid lawyer in Ottawa, Anna submitted her permanent residence application in October under the humanitarian pathway — the only stream for which she’s now eligible.
When she applied, the estimated wait was two years. A few weeks later, that skyrocketed to more than 10 years.
“I was like crying,” she recalled.
Anna said she’s been working hard and plans to graduate from high school in two years, then apply for nursing school.
“I’ve done CPR on someone that was like overdosing and stuff, and it’s just a really good feeling … to help someone,” Anna said. “So I want to do it properly.”
In Ottawa, 16-year-old John and his younger sibling are facing similar worries. As with Anna, CBC has given John a pseudonym and is protecting his identity because he’s currently without legal status and could face deportation.
John’s parents came to Ottawa for diplomatic work when he was a toddler, and years later decided to apply under the economic PR stream. The family lost their status during the COVID-19 pandemic when their application became entangled in red tape. They have since reapplied under the humanitarian program.
“It really hit me last year,” said John, who was unable to get his driver’s licence due to his precarious immigration status.
For the same reason, he’s also been unable to join his team for basketball tournaments in the U.S.
“I couldn’t really live the regular teenager life,” he said. “I feel like I was behind on life.”
Now, John says he’s worried about his plan to pursue an engineering degree, should the PR process take a decade or more.
“It’s a little heartbreaking … and I hope that it changes,” he said.
Neufeld, the family’s lawyer, said this is a case where they “did everything right,” yet they still slipped through the cracks.
Neufeld says under both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and its own immigration law, Canada is obligated to act in the best interests of children.
“We are sort of avoiding our obligation to look at children’s best interests by simply deferring [their immigration status] so far in the future,” she said.
Neufeld, who’s also an executive with the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, is among those calling on IRCC to triage vulnerable youth cases and expedite the initial approvals process so they can at least obtain work and study permits while they wait.
“[Or] we’re going to become just like the U.S., with an underclass of undocumented people whose talents and work abilities and skills and taxpaying ability we’re just wasting,” Neufeld warned.
Liz Okai, manager of the Child Welfare Immigration Centre of Excellence (CWICE), says her organization has been helping an increasing number of unaccompanied minors from such countries as Ukraine, some of whom are at risk of losing their legal status due to Canada’s unviable wait times.
“It was no fault of theirs,” said Okai, who noted children are placed in these situations because of decisions made by adults.
Okai said that precariousness can harm a young person’s mental and physical health, especially when it prevents them from accessing essential services.
“You’re leaving them in limbo. There’s uncertainty, there is fear,” Okai said. “Their friends are moving on and they are stuck.”
In a statement to CBC, IRCC said the humanitarian and compassionate pathway is a “last resort” for “exceptional cases, who have exhausted all other options.”
Asked how vulnerable youth are expected to wait more than 10 years, the department reiterated that the processing times posted online are intended to give applicants “a more transparent and predictable experience.”
“While not determinative, the best interest of the child is an important consideration in all [humanitarian and compassionate] cases involving children,” the department wrote, adding that officers consider a child’s “emotional, social, cultural and physical welfare” when rendering decisions.
“Applicants can request urgent processing in specific circumstances. An explanation letter and documents supporting the explanation are required. Requests are evaluated on a case-by-case basis,” IRCC wrote.
Anna says she’s currently studying hard and keeping busy with babysitting and cleaning jobs, but knows she could soon find herself in a state of limbo that could last years.
“I’m scared … because if I finish school, then I’m not gonna really have anything to do,” she said. “[It’s] like a losing hope moment.”
