Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Oct. 29th, 2009

Evidence of meeting #31 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was applications.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

Immigration Application Process Wait Times

MPs speaking

Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac

Also speaking

Claudette Deschênes Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Clerk of the Committee Mr. Andrew Chaplin

Imran Qayyum Chair, Canadian Migration Institute

Marc Audet Vice-Chair, Immigrant Investor Program, Desjardins Trust

9:10 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Tilson

I didn't say that.

9:10 a.m.

Liberal

Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON

Let me finish, Chair.

Discussing it and the departmental officials coming back, making a public commitment to come back to really tell the real story, is another thing, because the real story is the waiting times on immigrant children and spouses. So today, although they're here and we thank them, and they were supposed to come in with the real story, they're giving us another story.

The challenge, Mr. Chair, to you is, will they come back? Would you invite them to come back to really talk about what we have as a motion on paper?

9:10 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Tilson

That's not a point of order.

We're going to proceed.

Thank you, and I'm sorry for the interruption. We'll continue on with your presentation.

9:10 a.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration

Claudette Deschênes

I will now describe the ways in which we have improved program performance.

In mainland China, we are processing study permit applications faster by giving students the chance to undergo a medical examination before submitting their application at our visa office in Beijing. Despite being implemented late in the peak season, students quickly started taking advantage of this procedure. Accordingly, more than 30% of applications received in August and September 2009 were processed this way.

Applications were processed in 16 days in 80% of the cases, compared to 43 days for regular applications. We anticipate that more than half of student applicants will use this procedure by the next summer peak season intake. Our service improvements are helping to promote Canadian education abroad. Since we launched the Student Partners Program with the Association of Canadian Community Colleges, our visa offices in India have received over 1,500 student applications.

This program has several checks and balances. Applicants are required to provide complete and verifiable documentation, and there is a feedback mechanism allowing colleges to report on whether students show up. In 2008, 80% of applications were processed in six months or less overseas, and in 10 months or less at CPC Vegreville.

Last year, CIC processed more than a million and a half visa applicants. To meet this growing demand on our services, in June 2008, we launched the successful pilot project called e-services, which allows international students in Canada who wish to apply for off-campus work permits to confirm their eligibility and submit their applications on line.

Since February 2009, students using e-services have been able to extend their study permits online. Soon workers and visitors will also be able to extend their status online. AIl institutions participating in the off-campus work permit program have been using the electronic notification system to exchange information with CIC regarding student eligibility for work permits.

In April 2008 we introduced a business express program in New Delhi that provides fast-track visa processing and simplified application procedures to business visitors employed by a number of large corporations with important trade and investment relationships with Canada. More than 80 companies have been invited to participate and 50 have been enrolled. Since the program's inception, over 1,800 visas have been submitted, with a refusal rate of less than 1%.

We face some challenges in processing applications. While we control the number of visas we issue, we cannot control when visa holders will actually exercise their right to come to Canada. In 2008, fewer parents and grandparents arrived than we had projected, which resulted in lower numbers for this category. The trend is continuing in 2009.

We have seen some increases in processing times, for example, for spouses and partners sponsored by Canadians and permanent residents. Visa offices in Colombo, Hong Kong, and Islamabad have reported increases from eight months at the end of 2007 to 11 months at the end of 2008 and 12 months as of June this year.

In the past three years, the average processing time for spouses and partners in Colombo has increased due to a special effort by CIC and processing partners to prioritize and complete older and more challenging cases. Since 2007, Hong Kong has processed approximately 10% of the global total of spouse and partner applications. This has increased processing times in the office and affected global processing times.

In 2008, the Hong Kong visa office established a family class team dedicated to rooting out fraudulent applications and relationships of convenience and screening for security and criminal inadmissibility. The challenges associated with focused processing in this high-volume office have added time to the application process and to global processing times.

Finally, global processing times for spouses and partners were further compounded by similar increases in two other offices, namely Islamabad and Nairobi, which together processed approximately 16% of the global total of spouse and partner applications in 2007 and 2008. Both of those offices operated in environments of significant civil unrest during those years.

Mr. Chair, there are major demands on Canada's Immigration system. It took many years for the application backlog to build up, and it will take many years to draw it down. Exactly how long that will take will depend on a number of factors, including the total number and mix of immigrants we admit every year.

We continue to consult with provincial and territorial governments and stakeholders to learn their needs. And as I mentioned earlier, we are controlling and monitoring the flow of new applications to avoid creating another backlog.

Thank you. I am ready for your questions now.

9:15 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative David Tilson

Mr. Karygiannis, you have seven minutes.

9:15 a.m.

Liberal

Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON

Thank you.

Thank you for coming. When the department contacted you about coming to present today, what specifically did they ask you to present? Did they ask you to present about investor class, business class, independent applicants, or family class?