Large delays in family reunification in Quebec have become a hot political issue, as after the formal notice sent last week to Quebec's Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette, and her federal counterpart Mark Miller, CBC learned that a legal appeal is being prepared and could be submitted to the Federal Court soon.

This would be an appeal for an injunction, an exceptional procedure in which a higher court can order a lower authority to exercise its jurisdiction.

The appeal will also combine files from about twenty Quebec residents who consider the delay they face before being able to reunite with their foreign-born spouses to be unreasonable.

If the Federal Court agrees with them, it can then compel Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to complete processing these files, which could set a precedent for thousands of other similar cases.

Currently, there are nearly 40,000 pending family reunification files in Quebec. Some cases also involve children. However, the Legault government has set a maximum limit of about 10,400 annual acceptances in this immigration category.

This imbalance between supply and demand causes congestion and exploding processing times, where a Quebec citizen waiting to reunite with a spouse living in another country must wait an average of 42 months, compared to only 12 months for other Canadians.

"We have tried, in many possible ways, to work alongside the different governments to provide solutions. And we know that there is a way on their side to move thresholds or advance pending files," Mrs. Lachapelle said with regret.

Quebec's move comes shortly after regional Minister of Immigration Christine Fréchette and her federal counterpart Mark Miller received a formal notice ordering them to resolve the problem of files exceeding delays in the rest of Canada within 60 days or less.

If Quebec refuses to review family reunification quotas or if Ottawa continues to abide by them, the lawyer behind the formal notice promises to also resort to the courts.

Thus, both cases could be submitted to the court at roughly the same time, which is not a problem in Laurent Lachapelle's view.