Canadian Immigration and adopted Haitian children

Canadian immigration is working hard to bring adopted Haitian children to Canada. It should be noted that these were children already in the adoption process before the Port-au-Prince earthquake in Haiti.

Given the current situation in Haiti Canadian adoptive parents are understandably worried that their children are in Canada as soon as possible. In response Canadian immigration is trying to expedite the adoptions.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has advised adoptive parents who were in the adoption process before the Haiti earthquake to contact haiti@cic.gc.ca for more information.

30 January Flight:

39 Haitian children are due to arrive in Ottawa, Canada to join their new Canadian parents on Saturday afternoon on 30 January. Despite the difficult situation in Haiti the Canadian Government is trying to put as many children as possible on the flight. CIC will contact those adoptive parents whose children are on the flight.

Canadian immigration also released the following statistics:

• The Haiti Government has so far given permission for 217 children to come to Canada. These children were already in the adoption process before the Port-au-Prince earthquake.


• So far 85 children have joined their families in Canada.


• On Sunday 24 January, 24 Haitian children arrived in Ottawa. The age of the children ranged from 11 months to 14 years of age. They were accompanied by 15 Air Canada representatives, five CIC officials, and a medical team.


• A Haitian child arrived on a Canadian Forces evacuation flight on 26 January.


• On recent American evacuation flights eight children arrived in the United States on the way to Canada.


• On Wednesday, 27 January 52 children arrived in Ottawa. The age ranges for the children were from six months to 18 years of age. The children accompanied by Air Transat staff, CIC officials, and a medical team will be living in the following Canadian provinces:

1. Quebec – 24.
2. British Columbia – 4.
3. Alberta – 11.
4. Saskatchewan – 8.
5. Ontario – 1.
6. New Brunswick - 2.
7. Nova Scotia - 2.

Special Canadian immigration measures for Haiti:

• Canadian immigration applications for Haitians with family in Canada are being expedited.


• Haitians in Canada on a temporary basis will be allowed to extend their stay.


• Canadian immigration's Call Centre received more calls than normal with 37,849 calls per day from 18 to 25 January. This represents a 50% increase over normal call volumes; Call volumes are now returning to normal. In addition over 2,800 emails were received since 18 January.


• CIC is holding information sessions for the Montréal Haitian community and the Toronto Haitian community to provide details of special immigration measures to help their communities during this difficult time. This includes special arrangements to sponsor immediate family members who were seriously affected by the earthquake in Haiti. These information sessions have proved popular with over 1,650 people attending the Montréal information sessions.