I don't think the concept is all that difficult. You have the application filed, and what happens now is that you get a stay. You get to stay, I think it is, six months, at which point in time you have to go and apply for an extension until they render a decision. The department can easily render a decision within that six months or before. What we don't want to see happen is somebody getting to stay for six months and then the department being slow doing its work because it has backlogs everyplace else so now they have to get an extension. And before they get the extension, they end up being removed, and in the meantime they cannot work.
If the department has any grounds to say that this relationship is not legitimate, then they would do that by coming to a decision and saying this application is a bogus application, at which point you can remove the person. But I just don't see why we would allow somebody to be able to stay for six months and then get into having to apply to extend that stay, and in the meantime they are deported when the department has not made a decision.
Put the onus on the department. If they think this situation is not legitimate, then they can issue that report and deny it. But if it's legitimate, it doesn't make any sense. The department has the ability to come up with the report and deny the application by saying this is not a legitimate situation. In that sense, I don't see what the problem is.
I do know that right now it's a real pain for people who have to go through the process. And also, to make it worse, these people are now not allowed to work.
When you have young people who just got married, they're out of school, and God knows they're carrying a debt, you want them working, because you don't want to create financial hardships right at the start of their life together. It doesn't make any sense.
If there is something illegitimate going on, all the department has to do is say this is not a legitimate relationship and turn it down. And the onus will be on them to do the work and not on getting the people here caught up in a timeline.