On 22 December 2023, the government of Canada had announced a “[t]emporary public policy to facilitate temporary resident visas for certain extended family affected by the crisis in Gaza.” The policy will allow a pathway to temporary residence (up to 3 years) for family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents, and their immediate family members, who are Palestinian nationals directly affected by the crisis in the Gaza strip. Eligible family members as per this policy include spouse, common law partner, child (regardless of age), grandchild, parent, grandparent, or siblings. The policy grants the applicants an exemption from the provisions of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations as long as they meet the eligibility criteria and sponsorship conditions outlined in the public policy. Fiancés and orphaned nieces and nephews of Canadian citizens and permanent residents are not eligible to apply under this policy. The application cost is $100 per applicant or $500 per family unit (irrespective of size). In addition to meeting the above mentioned conditions, the applicant must also submit a notarized statutory declaration signed by their family member who is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident who can attest to their intent to provide financial and community support for their Palestinian family member after the latter has arrived in Canada. This public policy came into effect on 9 January 2024.
At this time, only 1,000 applications will be accepted under this policy. Marc Miller, the Minister for Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship has subsequently stated that this is not a “hard cap.” According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), about 1.9 million people have been internally displaced in Gaza. During the last few weeks, the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) and the Muslim Legal Support Centre (MLSC) has been advocating for a removal of this limit as it severely underestimates the number of people who need assistance in Gaza. The Gaza Family Reunification Project is an ad hoc group of immigration lawyers in Canada who have also been in support of removing this cap, noting that within the group, the team is already aware of over 1,000 anticipated applicants.
As one of the leading asylum countries in the world today, this is not the first policy of its kind in Canada. The Canadian government had previously launched a similar public policy for Ukrainian nationals in 2022 called the Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel. Temporary visas were granted to more than 936,000 Ukrainians (regardless of family connections in Canada) which allowed them to stay in Canada for up to 3 years. These visas were free of cost. As of 28 November 2023, about 210,000 Ukrainians have been able to arrive in Canada since then under this policy.