Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm sorry, which takes longer?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Under the scope of the public policy?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  How many of those were actually removed?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The approval rate for the spousal and in-Canada applications is about 90%.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It varies a little bit from year to year, but it's about a 90% approval rate.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  They wouldn't be applying in this class; they would be applying in the out-of-Canada spousal class.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That is my understanding, yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  These are applicants who are in the country, so it's zero.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's 0% of the 90% of applicants who apply in Canada and whose applications are approved in Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If anybody were removed from the country, they would have to apply for spousal reunification outside the country. They wouldn't be applying in this class.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  To go back to my comments, if these people are subject to removal, at the point at which CBSA alerts or informs them of removal proceedings it will inform CIC, and we will pull their application out of the queue and provide expedited processing for those applicants who face the possibility of being removed.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  So in those cases, we will have reached a point of a determination of the validity of their relationship before removal is affected.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm not in a position to say absolutely whether or not anybody was removed, but in those cases where they have already filed an application for spousal reunification before removal action was initiated, we will work with CBSA to defer the removal for a period of 60 days to provide the CIC with the opportunity to pull that file out of the queue of all the applications we receive, and to expedite the processing of the application to make a determination of the validity of their relationship within 60 days, before removal.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Unfortunately, the systems we have do not have that specific figure. But again, I will go back to the comments that both Susan and I made. In a case where we have not completed a decision within 60 days, we will confer with CBSA with a view to deciding whether or not to proceed with the removal, depending on where the process is.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The process for approval in principle of this class, in general, takes five to six months.