By Nicholas Keung Toronto Star July 16, 2026

A court ruling has opened the door for immigration applicants to challenge inordinate processing delays caused by the immigration minister’s policy decisions.

Over the years, the federal immigration minister has increasingly wielded so-called “ministerial instructions” to make changes to programs without consultation or parliamentary oversight.

In a judgment released last week, Federal Court Justice Michael Battista said the minister, despite the legal authority to set priorities, still has the duty to provide “transparent and intelligible justification” for application processing delays.

“What Justice Battista is saying is that implementing ministerial instructions in itself doesn’t make them reasonable and doesn’t justify a delay,” said Ottawa-based immigration lawyer Jacqueline Bonisteel, who is not involved in the case.

“It’s not enough for you to have suddenly pivoted and said, ‘Now this is the processing time.’ They still need to provide a reasonable, intelligible justification for the delay … (this ruling) allows us some fuel to push back on the use of these instructions in all different areas.”

Child-care provider at centre of case

The case before the court involved Yu Dai, who applied for permanent residence under the home child-care provider program, which allowed qualified caregivers and their families to come to Canada and ultimately become permanent residents. Processing only began a year after she applied, on Jan. 1, 2023.

After initial processing steps, the application was stalled from November 2024 to last September, and from that time to April 16, 2026. That’s when Dai filed her case and asked the Federal Court to order the Immigration Department to make a decision on her application due to what she said was an unreasonable delay.

According to the court, immigration officials told Dai in June 2025 that the processing time for her application would be 23 months. Nearly a year later, in May, her remaining processing time shot up to 39 months, with 38,800 applicants in the queue, including 18,300 who were ahead of her.

The government defended the delay by pointing to the changing priorities it made to the program under the minister’s directives.

The changes introduced in March and December 2025 were related to the intake and processing of applications in the program, which the judge said is meant to fill labour gaps. Processing delays put eligible applicants in limbo, he noted.

What the federal court said

The court agreed it’s within the minister’s authority to issue instructions that eliminate prior processing systems, instructions and timelines. While the 23-month processing time initially cited by the department was not binding, the court said the suggested timeline indicated a feasible time frame estimated for processing such applications.

“The applicant has waited over 42 months for her application to be finalized, and was advised that as of May 2026 a further 39 months of processing could be expected,” Justice Battista wrote.

“This amounts to a total processing time of over 79 months, which is over six years. In my view, the nature of the program, combined with its purpose, evidence of previous service standards, statutory objectives and the program’s impact on those affected indicate that the delay experienced by the applicant is longer than that required by the nature of the process.”

In an interview, Dai said she came to Canada from China with her daughter in 2019 as a visitor and received her work permit in 2021 as a child-care worker. She applied for permanent residence in January 2022 after she fulfilled the work hours required.

She said the processing delay has been difficult because she has to keep renewing her work permit, unsure if she can remain in the country. It also means her daughter, now 22, has had to pay international tuition fees for university.

“I’ve suffered a lot,” noted Dai, who has a master’s degree in biophysics and worked in a hospital in China. “I feel so relieved and grateful for the court decision. The wait was so stressful. I worried about my work permit. I worried about my family. I worried about this case and so many other things.”

It has also prolonged the separation from her husband, who has remained in China to help support the family. She has only been home twice to see him.

The court said the minister’s directives issued in December contained no transparent and intelligible processing policy, leaving a processing vacuum.

“The applicant does not even have an assurance that her application will be processed in the order in which it was received,” Battista wrote. “The only potential justification provided … is justification for an open-ended delay.”

How the case could affect other applicants

Lawyer Junqing Ren, who represented Dai, hopes Battista’s ruling will put the use of ministerial instructions under closer scrutiny, pushing back on the minister’s and department’s power.

Bonisteel, the Ottawa lawyer, said she could see care workers in Dai’s situation and applicants in some other immigration programs coming forward to challenge processing delays that are related to changing ministerial instructions.

“There’s a case to be made,” she said. “There are several MIs out there that are similar that we can now challenge.”

The court has given the Immigration Department 60 days to make a decision on Dai’s permanent residence application.

Source: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/court-ruling-opens-door-for-canadian-immigration-delays--and-ministers-power--to-be-challenged/article_586be97d-1043-41e4-a9b6-5e9622ce8c10.html