One client applied for a study permit in July but couldn’t be fingerprinted until last week.

A woman takes part in a citizenship ceremony at the citizenship and immigration building in Kirchner in Dec. 2019. Immigration lawyer Jennifer Roggeman says there’s a massive backlog of people waiting for their paperwork to processed so they can move this country.

The government’s plan to bring 400, 000 immigrants into the country this year is a good goal, but they also need to address a massive backlog created during the pandemic of people waiting in the system, says a Kitchner immigration lawyer.

Jennifer Roggemann said every person immigrating to Canada has to do a fingerprint. That has to be done in person and between March and July of 2020, the building where people could do that were closed. Even after they were open, there were people waiting for their turn.

She said one client who applied for a study permit last July couldn’t give a fingerprint safely until last week.

“So the last six, eight months, that file was just pending,” she said.

She said the federal government has changed the way it does business and must all be done virtually. And other rules put in place to curb the spread of Covid-19 are impacting people who want to come here.

“The travel restrictions, there’s no doubt there has been incredible impacts,” Roggemann said.

No flights to sun destinations doesn’t just impact people seeking vacations away from the snow, she said. It also impacts people who want to immigrate to Canada from those countries.