Evidence of meeting #16 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 39th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was removal.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Those who already have status in Canada, or those who are out of status?
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
They do not have an opportunity to work or study, to receive a work or study permit, until they have received approval in principle of the application. The attempt of that is to avoid the risk of fraudulent claims for the purpose of obtaining a work permit.
Conservative
Conservative
Nina Grewal Conservative Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Does anyone up here have a question?
Please go ahead.
Conservative
Wajid Khan Conservative Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Thank you very much.
How do you determine the legitimacy of a marriage? Ms. Chow said, why would somebody marry...? It has come to my attention that there are plenty of people who do get married, and they even have children, in an effort to stay here.
Also, for an inland application you require people in common law relationships to be living together. People who are sponsored from outside the country are not living together. Lots of them are abandoned at the airports or otherwise. How do you remove them, or what do you do about those people, or the fraudulent marriages?
Director, Social Policy and Programs, Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
To speak to your first question about how we detect fraudulent relationships, interviews take place with applicants if there are questions concerning the evidence. The first stage would be to examine the evidence that the applicant has put forward with respect to the legitimacy of the relationship, and then there may be interviews to further examine where there may be specific questions.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Khan, and Ms. Grewal.
Mr. Telegdi, five minutes, please.
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Stewart, you said that there are 17,000 applications in process, and prior to that you said 19% of the people who apply are approved.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
That was 90%, nine zero.
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Right. That doesn't count the ones who were removed, because previously you said that you don't know how many got removed and didn't go through the process. Then you said that you didn't know how many of those who were then removed applied again to come back and were successful, because you don't have those numbers either.
So is your 19% the percent of all the people who apply?
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Of all those who applied, 90%--nine zero percent--were approved in the last couple of years. So 10% had their applications refused or rejected.
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Well, how about the ones who were in the process but who got removed before they got approved? I'm trying to get a feeling for the numbers here.
Director, Inland Enforcement, Canada Border Services Agency
Before anyone is removed, we would consult with the other department. Removal is a long process, so there's--
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Well, just a minute now. I was listening to Mr. Stewart, and I don't want to be confused here.
Liberal
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
The 10% remainder includes individuals whose applications were refused or failed or denied--for reasons of a lack of a bona fide relationship, or security, or medical--or were withdrawn. That's a residual category.
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Don't you have any in there for people who got removed before they got approved? I mean, that's who we're talking about, the people who got removed before they could have their application done.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
In circumstances where that did happen, they would be counted as part of that withdrawn category. That gives you a 100% counting.
Liberal
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
No, unfortunately I do not.
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
You know, it isn't rocket science to figure out that when a committee of Parliament has a hearing on something, they probably would like to have some statistics instead of having a process that's like pulling teeth.
I really hope, Mr. Chair, we send a message to the department that in future, when they come before the committee, we would like to have some statistics on the areas that we might be asking questions on.
So we're operating within the 10%, and those are the people who are denied on security grounds, medical grounds. Now, all of the 100%, I take it, minus the ones where you don't approve their relationship, end up getting medical tests, criminal checks, security checks, right?