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Two Quebec-based rights groups say the federal government has done little so far to help Haitian refugees come to Canada following the devastating earthquake there.

On Saturday, the federal government said it would expedite immigration applications for Haitians with family in Canada. Haitians on a temporary visit would also be allowed to extend their stay, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced.

But to date, those changes have made little difference to those who are seeking to bring loved ones to Canada, according to Rivka Augenfeld, director at TCRI, a refugee and immigrants' rights group in Quebec.

"The so called special measures that have been announced so far do not even begin to address the particular needs of Haitians trying to sponsor their families to Canada, whether it's files already in the pipeline or new files that might be coming forward in the next days," Augenfeld told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel Tuesday afternoon.

"Other than maybe looking at files that are almost complete being put on top of the pile, we don't see what has been announced by the minister that makes any difference," she added. "None of the usual criteria have been waived. Nothing, whether it be processing fees, whether it be proof of identity, whether it be medicals that have to be done in Haiti."

The Jan. 12 earthquake leveled much of the area in and around the Caribbean nation's capital city of Port-au-Prince. About 3 million Haitians are believed to need emergency assistance in the form of water, food, medical care and shelter.

Expediting the process for Haitian refugees to immigrate to Canada has been touted as one arm of Ottawa's multifaceted response to the humanitarian crisis in the Caribbean nation.

But Augenfeld said additional measures are needed. For instance, the extent of devastation caused by the quake means that some of the "formalities" of bringing Haitian refugees to Canada should be handled once they arrive, she said.

"If their documents are under the rubble, how are they going to provide them? There's no government office right now that's going to give it to them," Augenfeld said. "Medicals can be done here in Canada, much more safely and more cheaply, and without cutting into the resources down in Haiti."

There is a precedent for waiving immigration fees and relaxing the definition of immediate family, she said, including measures taken by Ottawa during the Kosovo war in 1998-1999 and after the tsunami that devastated parts of Southeast Asia on Boxing Day of 2004.

Keder Hyppolite, who is with the national coalition for citizens of Haitian descent, said his group hasn't been able to provide informed advice to those who are seeking to bring family members to Canada from Haiti. That's because Ottawa hasn't been specific enough regarding changes in how immigration applications from Haiti are being handled, he said.

"The government informed us that the process will be sped up, but they didn't say how," Hyppolite said.

"Those who are living in Canada should get papers by which they can identify their relatives in Haiti," he added, because government records have likely been destroyed in Port-au-Prince.

Both Augenfeld and Hyppolite also warned those seeking to bring relatives to Canada from Haiti to be wary of any unscrupulous operators who may be seeking to profit off their desperation.

According to immigration lawyer Stephane Handfield, delays for processing applications from Haiti were "excessively long" before the earthquake struck the country. Sponsorship cases took up to five years to process and refugee claimants had to wait up to three years to have their cases heard.

More than 100,000 people in Canada identify as being of Haitian origin. Many have family in the devastated island state, and have been trying desperately to bring them to Canada in the wake of the disaster.

In Montreal, which is home Canada's largest Haitian community, concerned residents lined up on Monday outside the office of an immigration consultant's office who had advertised free assistance for applicants from Haiti.

"We have people here who are waiting for family, who are willing to help them," Augenfeld said.

"The question is, what is the political will here? If you're announcing to a community in distress that you are somehow accelerating a process, you have to tell them in what way it's going to make any difference in the processing of their files," she said. "Otherwise it's just giving people false hopes."

With a report from CTV Montreal's Caroline van Vlaardingen