Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all of our witnesses for appearing before us today.
Quite often, perhaps, the easiest thing to say is that visa officers are to blame for a lot of things. The fact of the matter is that they are very highly trained, very qualified people working with significant workloads; they have an experience level that allows them to do their job properly. However, no system is a perfect system.
I want to highlight a couple of statistics for you before I get into my questions. You know that Canada is one of the most welcoming countries in the world. We certainly see that when we compare our system to other peer countries with which we have good working relationships. We welcome a growing number of visitors, foreign workers, international students. In fact, over the last several years, that number seems to be increasing. In 2012, we issued over a million visitor visas—that's a 40% increase over 2004—and a record 100,000 international student visas, which is a 60% increase over 2004. We believe that these individuals play an important role in fostering Canadian economic development through tourism, trade, commerce, educational, and research activities. The approval rate for visa applicants in 2012 was 82%. So far in 2013, it's 83%. That leaves 17% of the people who get rejected.
Looking at the appeal process, about 48% of those who appeal are successful in getting in. My experience in my office, and certainly for a lot of my colleagues who I speak to, is that quite often the applicants themselves have not properly filled in their applications; there is missing information. When they are told what the missing information is, they bring it in. The success rate is considerably higher.
Visa officers are the first line of interaction we have with somebody who wants to come into the country. Some might think they are the first line of defence, because they're really screening who comes into our country, who walks on our streets, who shops in our malls, and who's around our children, our schools, and our families.
This week we heard from CIC officials the numerous ways that people attempt to gain fraudulent entry into Canada. Some of the fraudulent activities officials named were purposely giving incorrect information—fraudulent bank statements, fraudulent educational statements. There are cases where you have someone coming in presenting themselves as someone else. We've seen people try to get in here five and six times under different names. As you are all aware, misinterpretation is a serious offence under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, IRPA, as we all call it.
What actions do you suggest can be taken up front to avoid these cumbersome cases from reaching an officer?
To follow up on that and open it up for all three of you to answer, have you seen any cases where individuals have attempted to circumvent the process of getting into Canada by cheating? What types of cases and documents have you seen firsthand? Of course, I realize you can't name your clients, but we're speaking in general terms.
Perhaps I can start with you, Ms. Taub.
Welcome back, by the way.