Mr. Chair, I want to speak in favour of this motion.
I have noticed that we turn down about 20% of the applicants for visitors' visas. That's about 200,000 each year—we bring in 1,000,000. There seems to be a variation in some visa offices. In Chandigarh or Islamabad the refusal rate is very high, whereas in other visa offices the approval rate is extremely high. The officials send out a standard answer form on which there's just a check box that says “you do not have sufficient ties”; I'm sure all of us have seen these kinds of forms.
Often we are asked as members of Parliament to intervene. The applicants and the relatives here in Canada should not have to call upon their member of Parliament to intervene in these cases.
I think, if nothing else, we should examine this matter and look at how other countries, such as Australia and England, deal with this. They have an appeal process, but we haven't. At a bare minimum, the process needs to be more transparent; it needs to appear fairer. Right now, many applicants who are rejected have no reason for having been refused. It's very difficult for them to understand why Canada is turning them down.
We're talking about 200,000, which is a very large number of applicants, and their relatives here in Canada. I would definitely support studying this issue.
I know we are dealing with foreign credentials this Thursday, and a few weeks later we're dealing with family class wait times. My understanding, Mr. Chair, is that after we do the family class wait times we do not have a matter in front of the committee. This would fit perfectly after we do the family class wait times. I would support this as a priority after the two issues in the next few weeks. I think we're ready to look at this issue.