Temporary residency program for Palestinians fleeing Gaza starts taking applications

The federal government has officially launched its special immigration measures program for extended family members of Palestinian Canadians trying to escape the war in Gaza, allowing 1,000 of them to move here on a temporary basis.

The program's website went live Tuesday afternoon. It says applicants are required to have up-to-date passports and results of DNA tests, and must show they will be supported by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident for a year.

Successful applicants will receive temporary visas good for three years.

The government has capped the number of successful applicants at 1,000, citing the volatile situation on the ground in Gaza and the obstacles it has faced in getting people out.

In an interview with CBC's on Tuesday, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said the government would show some flexibility.

«It would be pointless to shut things down once a thousand applications come in of varying quality,» he said.

«We want to get a sense of what that volume is and we will be flexible. You know, we don't have a sense of what the numbers are that we're dealing with. We're speculating.»

The National Council of Canadian Muslims, which had been advocating for such a program, has said it is in contact with the families of more than 1,000 potential applicants.

A similar program for Ukrainians fleeing the country after Russia invaded in 2022 had a much larger cap of 200,000 applicants.

Miller has pointed out that the Canadian government doesn't decide who gets to leave Gaza. In announcing the program last month, he cited the authority exercised by Egypt and Israel over the Rafah Gate crossing between the two countries.

Miller said Canada has yet to secure assurances from the two countries that those Canada selects for