Let me explain that the legal basis for decisions on temporary resident visa applications is established in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. It's known in plain language as the bona fide test: whether to the visa officer someone has demonstrated in the balance of probabilities the likelihood of their returning to the country of origin at the end of their authorized stay. The officers are trained to look at such criteria as assets, employment, income, family connections, and so on in their country of origin. Do those outweigh the pull factors that might cause them to overstay in Canada? That's basically the system we've always had.
I should say that last year, I believe, we approved 82% of temporary resident visa applications. There were 920,000 applications, which was up from 800,000 in 2005. We're issuing more temporary resident visas with a slightly higher acceptance rate.
I'm simply saying that I think biometrics will give visa officers a little bit more certainty that they know for sure the person is who they claim to be and that they do not represent a possible risk in terms of inadmissibility or criminality. That should result in greater confidence in approval decisions. That, I believe, is the department's view.