‘What do I do?’: 6-year wait for permanent residency leaves Montreal father in limbo

A Montreal couple doesn’t understand why it’s taking so long for the federal government to decide on their immigration application.

Sarah Abou-Nassif sponsored her husband, Mohamad Ataya, for permanent residency after they got married in 2020. Abou-Nassif is Canadian and Ataya is from Lebanon.

At first, it went quickly and Ataya received the Certificat de sélection du Québec (CSQ) in April 2021. With that step completed, all they needed was approval from the federal government for permanent residence. 

“Then it just got stuck,” said Ataya.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) told them security screening still needed to be done. They thought it would take a year, but now they’ve been waiting nearly six.

The delay has caused considerable stress and frustration for the couple who have two children under the age of three. For part of that time, Ataya was travelling back and forth between Montreal — where Abou-Nassif is based — and Beirut. 

Due to visa renewals and work commitments overseas, Ataya has sometimes been away from his family for weeks at a time.

“I solo parented for so long,” said Abou-Nassif. “I’m strong, but the kids need their dad.”

“He had to see a lot of milestones being done through videos,” she said.

According to Quebec’s Ministry of Immigration, the number of people waiting to be granted permanent residence in the family reunification category stood at 42,000 as of May 2026. 

“If there’s a lot of applications, there’s a system failure somewhere,” said Abou-Nassif.

She has repeatedly asked Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada about what is causing the holdup, but keeps getting the same response back — the file is pending security screening.

“I fear the future now because I don’t know what tomorrow holds,” said Ataya. “What if they say, after six years, it doesn’t work. What do I do? My kids are Canadian, my wife is Canadian, my family is based here now.”

If Ataya had applied for permanent residence in any province other than Quebec, he probably would have already received an answer. That’s because processing times in Quebec are two to three times longer, said Marie-Gervaise Pilon, the vice-president of Québec Réunifié, a non-profit organization that advocates for family reunification.

Although background checks do take time, Pilon said typically, she sees applicants wait three to four years for an answer.  

Pilon waited years for her British husband to receive permanent residence and now advocates for others.

“Six years is well beyond what I’d expect to see, even for Quebec,” she said.

Part of the reason for the delay is because under the Canada-Quebec Accord, the province sets its own immigration targets. 

Quebec limits the number of permanent residence applications that can be processed a year. That quota has stayed around 10,000 applications a year, said Pilon.

That cap isn’t in place in other provinces.

Quebec also limits the number of new applications it will accept.

Between June 2024 and June 2026, that number was capped at 13,000.

By July 2025, the ceiling had already been reached.

“It’s just a numbers game, the bucket doesn’t contain enough and the water continues to flow and the lineup continues to grow,” Pilon said.

Quebec resumed taking family reunification applications earlier this month. 

A limit of 15,700 applications has been set until the end of June 2028 and the government said older applications will be prioritized.

Pilon is relieved the province reopened applications, but said it does not address the long waits people continue to face for permanent residence. 

To tackle that, Quebec’s association of immigration lawyers filed a request with the Federal Court to compel the IRCC to resolve the long processing times. 

“I don’t think it’s a question of human resources or to hire more people because we have proof that in other provinces in Canada, they have the capacity to do the security screenings in a reasonable amount of time,” said Mohamed-Amine Semrouni, a Montreal-based immigration lawyer.

The legal action is expected to be heard later this summer or fall. 

Ataya can stay in Canada until the end of 2027 with his work permit, but without an answer on his permanent residency, it’s hard to plan beyond that. 

“The uncertainty is not easy,” said Ataya.

“I genuinely love being here and love to call this home, we just need to reach the finish line.”

6-year wait for permanent residency leaves Montreal father of 2 in limbo

They’ve contacted the Canadian Embassy in Beirut, their member of Parliament and spoken to immigration consultants about the bottleneck. 

They thought about going to Ontario and reapplying for permanent residence there, but worried it would send them to the back of the province’s line and impact Ataya’s ongoing case in Quebec.

They also considered hiring a lawyer, but couldn’t justify the cost.

Frustrated by the lack of answers, Abou-Nassif has twice filed an access to information on her husband’s IRCC file.

Most of what she got back were her own online inquiries to the Ministry of Immigration about why the security verifications were taking so long.

But on the last access to information request, which CBC reviewed, it revealed embassy staff in Lebanon may be having some difficulty accessing files remotely. At one point, their file was sent to Beijing, China.

“Why is our file in Beijing?” said Ataya. 

The IRCC said it is “sensitive to the emotional stress” that can be caused with cases involving family members. 

Security screening is done by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

“These processes operate independently, and their timing is outside of IRCC’s control,” said Jeffrey MacDonald, a communications advisor for the IRCC. 

The Government of Canada is working to address the high volume of applications. To do that, both the CBSA and CSIS are training and onboarding additional officers and improving processes, the CBSA said in an emailed statement.

“These steps are beginning to show results — beginning in 2026 the security screening inventory began to decrease for the first time since 2021 and further reductions are forecast for fiscal year 2026-2027,” wrote Luke Reimer, a spokesperson for the CBSA.

At this point, Abou-Nassif and Ataya hope their application hasn’t been lost.

They empathize with other families who are also stuck waiting in the system.

“Can we just fix whatever is broken?” said Abou-Nassif.