Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. As Bob was saying on the balance of reviewing the various factors in a file, certainly that is part of the consideration. Would this individual choose to go underground once in Canada, or make a claim for asylum? We've certainly seen that in the past.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Our colleague Dawn Edlund, the Associate Assistant Deputy Minister of Operations, serves as a liaison between the department and the tourism industry. She speaks with representatives of the tourism industry, airline companies and the hospitality sector across the country almost o

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. Currently—I'm just looking at the comparative charts, which we're happy to provide through the clerk—we have the differential fee of $150 for a multiple and $75 for a single-entry visa. For the U.S.A., it's $164 plus a local issuance fee, which depends on the local market. F

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Bob may want to add, but my recollection of my time as a visa officer is that if an individual reapplies, a different officer would review the application, if possible. That's why we try to have at least two officers in each of our missions, so that we can accommodate those types

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As Bob mentioned, comparatively speaking our costs are very competitive and in fact on the low side, when we look at five country conference partners. There is a question of commitment to the program in the degree of subsidization that the government provides. As we've indicated,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We work in partnership with the Canada Border Services Agency, which is in charge of coordinating all the checks our officers refer to it. Initially, the Citizenship and Immigration Canada officers on the ground decide whether we can approve an application in a specific region o

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In general cases with no particular issues, we expect a response from the agency within one to two weeks.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, the same indicators are used. We transmit information on temporary and permanent residents, but security services carry out all the required work.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Misspellings or dates for where they travelled in the past.... People forget they were in the States a year ago or two years ago—things like that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, we have looked at appeal mechanisms in both the U.K. and Australia. In terms of their applicability in the Canadian context, based on our review and conversations with our colleagues, we find that these processes are expensive, time-consuming, and not responsive to the timel

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As a matter of policy we look at a number of comparators, including what other countries do, as well as the opportunities that Canadians have when they travel abroad. From our perspective, in terms of risk management—and I'm sure Bob would like to add to this as well—six months s

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think Bob will be able to speak to the operational statistics. I will just open by saying that the number has been increasing year over year, exponentially in some markets, particularly in China, India, and Brazil.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to be here again. My colleague Bob Orr and I are happy to assist this morning with testimony that we hope will be helpful to you as you undertake your study on temporary resident visas, or TRVs, for visitors to Canada. As the assistant de

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, definitely.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We do, in fact. We have a rather systematic approach to the sharing of information—administrative data, largely, between CIC and provinces and territories, so admissions data, category by category, that sort of thing, gender, province of intended destination, etc. These are long-