I read the direction. Obviously it's certainly a step in the right direction, because otherwise many visa officers would refuse an application by a spouse outside of Canada to come to Canada and would say, “No, you're coming as an immigrant. You should do a sponsorship application and you won't get the visitor visa.”
Affirming the notion that there is dual intent is a step in the right direction.
Unfortunately, I think there is still a significant risk that in a lot of cases people will still be refused since it still leaves the visa officers with the discretion to say, “Well, I know there is dual intent, but I'm sure you're going to apply for that permanent residence when you get there and I'm not going to give you the visa.”
That might be okay if processing were taking six months or eight months but now, because of COVID, processing is taking double or triple that. I think in those circumstances the minister has to send a much clearer directive to visa officers. We don't want spouses to be separated for years; that's not acceptable. We need to make sure they get together quickly and if they can't be processed outside, then we should let them come and be processed inside, unless there are admissibility concerns.