'You have no help': Winnipeg woman frustrated with long wait times for Iranian visa application

Saeideh Mirzaei has been waiting eight months for her sister-in-law's visitor visa application to be processed and her patience is wearing thin — an experience that community members say is common for Iranians.  

Mirzaei applied for her sister in Iran to come to Canada in May last year to help Mirzaei with her six-month-old son. The visitor visa would allow her sister to stay in Canada for six months. 

"We have no one around, no one from close family and when you have a child … it becomes very hard," she said.  

Mirzaei said her sister completed biometrics — fingerprints and photo — by May 31, and she hasn't received status on her application from Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada since. 

In October, when she visited the IRCC website, it recommended that people who submitted a visitor visa application before Sept. 7 with certain conditions to apply again. Mirzaei says she fell into that category so she has to resubmit a new application. 

At the time, the IRCC said on its website processing times would take 200 days, and in November, that number changed to 300 days, she said. 

"I feel very desperate, very disappointed and it's depressing because you feel you have no help. Like, sometimes I'm so tired," said Mirzaei, who is also a PhD candidate in civil engineering at the University of Manitoba. 

In an email statement sent to CBC in November, IRCC said it can't comment on specific cases, but application times vary due to a number of factors, including how quickly applicants provide biometrics and medical examinations and how easily IRCC can verify information.

As of January this year, the processing time for a visitor visa application from Iran is estimated to take 43 days, according to the government's website. 

Despite the shortened estimate, Mirzaei says she still hasn't heard word on her new application she submitted on Dec. 13, which cost her another $100. 

Randy Boldt, president of VisaMAX and an immigration consultant who worked in the industry for two decades, said a typical visitor visa application should take no longer than two to four weeks. 

"I don't understand why it should be longer than that," he said. "If you don't want it for somebody with a visa, then say no."

Boldt says delays for Iranian applications could be caused by lack of staff and security clearance, although most visitor applications shouldn't require one. 

He said typically applicants who have connections with Iran's military, paramilitary and police require a security check before coming to Canada, but that's nearly impossible to verify without a Canadian embassy in Tehran — which shut down in 2012.