Vancouver Unitarians Sponsorship Agreement Holder (VanU-SAH) operates under rules guided by the IRCC and we work with co-sponsors to sponsor refugees under the Private Sponsorship of Refugees program.

Interviews were held to screen new co-sponsor candidates for our waiting list on September 1, 2024 and September 8, 2024. Our waiting list is now very long and we are not accepting new requests.

The waiting list is closed until September 2027

Each year the IRCC agency of the Government of Canada allocates a limited number of spaces to VanU-SAH and unfortunately this is already much less than our waiting list. We are sad to say that we cannot help you right now.

In the mean time other avenues may be available to you. You can find information on the IRCC website here:

• General information on alternative paths of sponsorship
• Specific information on sponsorship of refugees
• Specific information on private sponsorship via Group of Five

2024 Intake of new candidates for sponsorship

During the year we received many requests to help with sponsorship and we advised prospective co-sponsors to come to the campus September 1 or September 8 for in-person interviews to make a preliminary assessment of eligibility to join our waiting list. We had an overwhelming response. Based on our expectation of IRCC allocation of spaces and the anticipated size of our waiting list we decided that we will not be accepting new sponsorship requests for some time. We are sad to say that:

The waiting list is closed until September 2027

Update on Recent Fund Raising in August

Refugee Team members had a sale table at the Bizarre Bazaar event organized by BC Society of the Museum of Original Costume (SMOC) at the Van Dusen Gardens. This netted over $1100 for the refugee fund.

Update on Recent or Imminent Arrivals

Long processing times in the overseas embassies mean that arrivals we see now are from applications sent in previous years. Since the previous meeting of the refugee team, VanU SAH and co-sponsors met the following newcomers.

July:

• one Afghan family of four from Pakistan
• single Eritrean from Israel

August

• one Syrian family of four from Saudi Arabia
• two single Eritreans from Israel
• single Afghan from Pakistan
• single Palestinian from Jordan

September

• one Syrian family of five from Saudi Arabia

Update on Ongoing Sponsorships

During each refugee team meeting we hear status updates from team members who are monitoring newcomers still in their first year of settlement. For privacy reasons, we can’t report specifics here but in general:

We currently have 36 ongoing family sponsorships.

Since our last meeting we have 12 sponsorships ending by October 1.

There are several applications that are in the interview stage but we don’t know if anyone will arrive before the end of October.

SAH Association Conference upcoming

This annual meeting will be held in Toronto in October. We will attend virtually in order to hear updates from IRCC and the SAH council and contribute to lobbying efforts by SAHs about operational concerns with the IRCC.