Canada promised to bring 40,000 vulnerable Afghans to safety in the Fall of 2021, in an initiative being called Operation Afghan Safety. To carry out this lofty promise, our immigration system has turned to refugee organizations known as "SAHs" - or Sponsorship Agreement Holders - to carry the weight of selecting refugees and submitting applications on their behalf.
While SAHs have been doing this work for decades, they have been given a large but limited number of spots that are reserved for Afghans who are vulnerable - because of their work as humanitarians or artists or journalists, because they are female or LGBTQ+, or because they belong to a religious or cultural minority, including Shias and Hazaras.
Those lucky enough to have their application submitted by an SAH can expect to come to Canada in a much shorter timeline than usual - in months, rather than years. And you don't have to be in Pakistan or Tajikistan to be eligible. Refugees in Indonesia, Iran and Malaysia, for example, should try as well.
The key to successfully connecting to an SAH, as Dave explains, is that you make it easier for them by having both funds and an application ready. If that sounds like you, time to start networking with SAHs! That might mean reaching out to the head office, or it might mean contacting a local church in Canada that has a background in private sponsorship.
And now... links. These are the SAHs in Canada, organized by location: www.canada.ca/en/immigration-...
And here is Dave... Based in the US, Dave Lee is known both for his humanitarian achievements and track record as an investment guru and angel investor. He developed his wider horizons as a humanitarian while travelling through Afghanistan and the surrounding region in his 20s.
To learn more about how Dave helped 170 vulnerable Afghans find safety in Canada, watch his video: • Video
It's featured on his popular KZfaq channel: / @dave_lee
You can follow Dave Lee on Twitter, where he's known for his posts on investing: / heydave7