Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good evening, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting me today.
My name is Rajesh Randev. I am a regulated Canadian immigration consultant and a member of ICCRC.
Today I would like to shed light on some of the emerging immigration issues that need to be addressed on a priority basis to improve our current immigration system. The discussion topics concern the challenges faced by the applicants for temporary resident visas, in particular the case of visitor visas, and the functioning of overseas visa posts. Later I would like to put forth some practical solutions to the problems faced by the applicants, which will improve our current system.
First of all, I would like to discuss the opening remark that appears on the CIC website:
Visitor visas allow people to stay in Canada temporarily. For tourists, whether you are looking for nightlife in a large cosmopolitan city or vast natural park land, the country offers something for everyone!
True indeed: our beautiful Canada has a lot to offer, with amazing landscapes, national parks, and great tourist attractions. Our people share diverse cultures, and their roots stretch far across the globe. People want to visit Canada for weddings, tourism, ceremonies, funerals, and to connect with families, but they face high visa rejections. This has discouraged people from applying for similar sorts of visas for Canada, and they prefer other countries over Canada for travel and pleasure.
The recent report in BC Business this year shows a sharp decline in international tourism from the period of 2000 to 2010. According to a report from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the contribution of international travellers to Canada’s total tourism revenue has dropped from 35% in 2000 to only 20% in 2010. One of the primary reasons for this decline in tourism is the high refusal rate in visitor visa applications overseas.
The CIC website further says the following:
Visitor visas also allow people to connect with family who have immigrated to Canada.
I am not fully convinced by this statement, since eligible families often face refusals even in the case of funerals or emergency situations. For example, the majority of immigrants of Indian origin in Canada are from Punjab, and the visa post is in Chandigarh. From Chandigarh, the refusal rate is 53%. The situation is quite similar in other visa posts. The actual figures for visitor visas alone are quite shocking; rejection rates go as high as 80%.
I doubt that families can stay connected if the majority of the applications are refused with pre-set refusal grounds. The applicants are frustrated not only because of the rejection but also because of the unclear refusal grounds, which sound generic for several rejections. Although every case is unique, the cases processed in such visa posts are treated with a generalized opinion rather than with a case-by-case analysis.
I will brief you on two of the numerous cases that reflect the anomalies of our existing system. Three years back, Mrs. Kaur was suffering from cancer. Her last wish was to see her mother from India. Unfortunately, her mother's visitor visa was refused. Mrs. Kaur died before seeing her mother in Canada. In another case, Mr. Enbo Cui, an only child and an accounting student in Australia, was twice refused a visitor visa to attend his mother’s funeral. His mother was stabbed to death while she worked in a restaurant in Toronto. Cui was not granted a visa until this was published in the Toronto Star and other media, when it caught the attention of immigration authorities in Canada. Unfortunately, there are several other unpublished cases that suffer from the same kind of problem, where those at visa posts make cold decisions.
I'd now like to discuss some irregularities happening in visa post operations overseas. If a person is paying $150 Canadian for a TRV application and the application is refused, I think the applicant has a right to know, and it is the visa officer’s duty to give, the detailed reason for their refusal.