The Canadian Security Intelligence Service says it's dealing with a growing number of immigration security screening requests — and immigration lawyers say their clients are coping with long delays as a result.
The intelligence agency says in its latest annual report it received over 538,000 screening requests from immigration and border officials in 2024. The agency began to see a significant increase in requests in 2023, when it received over 493,200 requests. Before that, CSIS received roughly 300,000 security screening requests annually over the previous five years.
The latest CSIS report says that while there "continues to be a high volume of applications awaiting security screening," the intelligence agency will "take the time required" to complete them.