Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. We will keep our opening comments as brief as we can. In addition to the individuals you already introduced, accompanying me today is Diane Johnston, who is senior program officer in the operational management and coordination branch in the operations secto

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

Citizenship and Immigration committee  They are inland spousal and common-law applications, yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It is five to six months for the process.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm not in a position to comment on what the longest time is, because as you can appreciate, each application has to be assessed on its own merits. So it's a question of--

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We'll follow up with that number for you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That is my understanding, yes.

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  How many of those were actually removed?

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  They wouldn't be applying in this class; they would be applying in the out-of-Canada spousal 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 p