OTTAWA — 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.
Ali Abuhannoud, a Jordanian refugee who is applying for Canadian citizenship, said he has been waiting for his security screening result since May 2024 after filing his application in July 2023.
"I do not know what they are screening, but you can imagine the amount of stress and anxiety that is going through my head due to that," he told The Canadian Press from Halifax.
Abuhannoud said this is the third time he's gone through the security screening process. He said he was first screened when he came to Canada as a refugee in 2018 and again when he applied for permanent residency.
Abuhannoud said he fled to Canada because of his "homophobic family" and fears for his life.
The increase in screening requests is being driven in part by a spike in the number of asylum seekers coming to Canada, all of whom must be screened.
Immigration and border officials can ask CSIS to conduct a security screening as part of a visa or citizenship application. The federal immigration department makes a final decision on admissibility based on this screening.
Immigration lawyers in B.C. and Ontario told The Canadian Press more of their clients are facing extended delays due to security screening and no one is explaining why.
"The kind of common refrain we get from the government is that there are third-party background checks that need to happen and it takes time for these to be completed, which we understand," said Adrienne Smith, a Toronto-based immigration lawyer.
"But our issue is we're not seeing what action is being taken by the government to justify the delay."
Will Tao, an immigration lawyer in Burnaby, B.C., said his office began getting "an influx" of calls about immigration applications being delayed by security screens in January 2024.
"The ones that were getting security-screened more closely were from countries that I would classify as having some sort of geopolitical proximity to a concern of Canada," Tao said.
He said those nations include Middle Eastern countries like Jordan, along with Ukraine, Russia, China, Iran and "in some cases" India.
"The goalposts have shifted. We know this because we have applicants, for example, who were permanent residents in Canada years ago, or who had visas for many, many years coming and going for some up to 15, 20, 30 years, suddenly being caught in and swept up into this," Tao said.
CSIS declined an interview request.
CSIS spokesperson Magali Hébert said in an email that the screening program is a "critical function of Canada's national security."
Hébert said CSIS is working "diligently" to assess the high volume of screening applications.
"CSIS and its security screening partners continue to take the necessary time with the information available at the time to process each file seriously and ensure the security of Canada and its citizens, in accordance with the security screening mandate of the CSIS Act," Hébert said.
The 2024 CSIS report says the need to screen all applications coming from Gaza due to the presence of Hamas there "led to a significant increase" in demand for screening staff services and resources.
CSIS says it also "proactively prioritized" applications from Lebanon in anticipation of a possible escalation of the Hezbollah-Israel conflict.
CSIS, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency are reviewing the immigration screening process after CSIS passed a father and son — Ahmed and Mostafa Eldidi — through a security screen before they were charged with terrorism-related offences linked to ISIS in July 2024.
The report says that CSIS conducted the security screening based on information received at the time.
Tao said that with the federal government looking to reduce the number of permanent and temporary immigrants coming to Canada, he doesn't think it's inclined to clear the security backlog.
"I see this kind of … lack of motivation to process this," Tao said.
Abuhannoud said he's seen friends who filed their applications after he did receive their citizenship before him.
"I feel like I am being punished by something that I was not even able to choose. Like, I did not choose where I come from," he said.
"I chose over here to come for freedom, for free speech, for all of the great values, but I feel like I am being punished for something that my parents are believing."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2025.
David Baxter, The Canadian Press
