“Flagpoling” is the nickname for when foreign nationals with temporary status in Canada leave across the border, enter the United States, and then immediately re-enter Canada to obtain same-day immigration services.
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Flagpoling is a completely legal practice. It can be done at any point of entry, but is usually done at land border crossings, particularly in the Niagara region of Ontario.
The main advantage of applying for a visa through flagpoling is that you avoid processing times, which can be long, depending on the type of visa and where you apply. By comparison, during flagging, your visa application is processed on the spot, so you don’t need to wait to see the outcome of your application.
Also, when you put up the flagpole, you hand over the required documents to a person in front of you. If there is a problem with the application, the immigration officer can let you know and the error can be corrected. When applying through the regular application routes, an error or mistake may cause your application to be delayed.
Data from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) shows that 21,452 people settled in 2022. CBSA encourages people to apply online through Canada Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship‘s (IRCC) and avoid publicity, as immigration applications are not their primary mandate. However, it has become so common that CBSA has set certain dates and times at some border crossings to accommodate people intending to go up the flag pole.
The practice is becoming even more common as the accumulation of IRCC persists.
IRCC Accumulation and Service Standards
IRCC service standards Please provide an expected timeline of how long the application should take to process. However, the service standard is different from the actual amount of time it takes IRCC to process requests. Requests not processed within the standard service time are classified as late.
IRCC aims to process 80% of your requests across all lines of business within a reasonable period of time, depending on the type of request. For example, the processing time for a Spousal and Family Class sponsorship is 12 months, while an application through Express Entry is six months.
As of March 31, IRCC backlog of apps it was around 2 million people in all categories of immigration, work, study and sponsorship. Of those 2 million, about 1.1 million requests are within service standards and nearly 900,000 are behind schedule.
For applications like temporary residency and permanent residency, about 50% of the applications fall within the service standards. By comparison, 75% of citizenship applications They are within service standards.
IRCC has said that they are taking steps to reduce backlog and process 80% of requests within their service standards. According to a CBC article On flagging, the IRCC said it is trying to reduce backlog by “digitizing applications, hiring and training new staff, and leveraging automation technologies.”
reference: www.cicnews.com