PETITION TO ELIMINATE UNREASONABLE VISA PROCESSING TIME IN CANADI

We, the undersigned, petition the Right Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, the Hon. Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration,  Leader of the Opposition,  Opposition Critic for Citizenship and Immigration, and all federal and provincial members of the Parliament regarding the fair treatment of Iranian citizens seeking study permit, temporary resident visa, visitor visa, and business visitors.

We wish to bring to your esteemed attention that currently the processing time of visitor visas by Canadian Consulate and immigration authorities in Iran is about sixteen weeks which is very unreasonable especially when the processing time of other visa offices may take as low as a few days!! This processing delays is dramatically affecting every single applicant for a visitor visa either if one is applying to visit their immediate family members’ who might be sick or wish to attend to an important ceremony like a wedding or a graduation. Aside from family members suffering the processing time, Canadian Consulate in Iran has always ignored time sensitive invitation for every applicant from provinces or Quebec to attendant in Canada to their selection interviews or exploratory visits.  

This trend of increasing visa processing time and many arbitrary refusals to Iranian citizens and prospective students, namely on the subjective ground of “limited ties to Iran”, has significantly increased since January 2011. We firmly believe that, in the absence of any reasonable justification, this restrictive policy and these subjective limitations are only amounting to a blatant violation of the fundamental human rights of a group of people based on their nationality, and in patent disregard of our own rights (such as the right to family reunification), as Iranian-Canadians.

All Canadian take pride in the international recognition of Canada’s achievements in supporting human rights. However, we the undersigned, remain profoundly concerned at the current unjustified discriminatory treatment of Iranian citizens by Canadian authorities in frequently making the usual procedures of obtaining one extremely difficult or denying them visa.  We respectfully demand that you investigate any violations of administrative fairness arising from this matter and take appropriate corrective measures in this regard.