藉着国会移民事务委员会进行服务现代化研究的机会,新民主党移民、难民及公民事务评论员关慧贞向委员会提出11项改善移民部服务的建议。
关慧贞说:「在众多联邦政府部门当中,相信移民部的服务是最有待改善服务的部门。以我所知,在移民聚居的城市,寻求国会议员协助的市民个案大多数都是涉及移民部的。以我的办公室为例,超过七成的求助个案都是跟移民部有关,当中除了移民事务,还有旅游签证等问题。因此,若果移民部的服务能够获得改善,市民将会获益。」
本身也是移民的关慧贞指出,其中一个最常见的问题是,市民未能查询他们的申请,他们致电、发电邮或去函都没有获得回覆,即使是移民律师发信,亦没有回应。在市民填写移民部的表格时,很多时候都会有疑问,而这些疑问亦不知道去哪里找答案。政府不同部门一般都有开设办事处服务市民,唯独移民部没有专门接受市民查询其申请的办事处,因此我建议政府应该开设这方面的谘询办事处,让有需要和想查询的市民能够获得服务。
关慧贞的另一项建议是针对目前移民部向申请人所提供的信息不明确,例如申请人想查询申请的进度,所获得的答案只是正在处理。当申请被拒时,政府亦没有提供很明确的理由让申请人明白和可以怎様再次申请。关慧贞建议政府应该像税局一样,开设网站让市民可以查询其申请的状况。此外,政府官员应该向市民提供有用和准确的信息。这样做不单让市民能够得益,政府的效率亦会有所改善,亦间接可以令市民避免找到不良移民顾问。
关慧贞所提出的11项建议已经递交给国会的移民事务委员会,而政府亦已经接获整份研究报告。关慧贞希望政府能够接纳这些建议,全面改善和提升移民部的服务。
Client Services Modernization Recommendations
1. That Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada provide funding to community organizations that provide support to refugees and other vulnerable persons as they negotiate immigration processes.
2. That Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada provide alternative payment methods for individuals without access to online payment services and credit cards, such as returning to the previous policy of accepting proof of payment at a bank.
3. That Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada first attempt to contact applicants by email and/or phone if documentation is missing or incorrectly filed with appropriate timelines to address the issues prior to returning the entire application package.
4. That Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada create a “Reconsideration Committee” to deal with reconsideration requests within the applicants 15 day deadline.
5. That Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada reestablish open to the public offices for clients to access in-person assistance from immigration officials.
6. That Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada issue work permits concurrently with the issuance of other documents, such as Interim Federal Health Program papers for refugees.
7. That Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada extend the validity period of work permits from six months to one year to take into account IRCC’s processing times.
8. That Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada make publicly available the remaining immigration targets for the year and the outstanding inventories for each immigration class.
9. That Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada establish a clear, standard process for the removal of ‘red flags’ on individuals in the system, once investigations are completed.
10. That Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada undertake a review of all user fees to ensure that fee levels are appropriate based on cost efficiency improvements that have been implemented in service delivery.
11. That Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada establish a process for notifying applicants when forms are changed, and to establish a mechanism to ensure that completed applications submitted with then up to date forms are not rejected due to form changes
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