My name is Kent Francis and I'm the acting immigration program manager in Manila.
I understand the committee is studying the immigration application backlog in light of the action plan for faster immigration. I will therefore provide you information on this in the context of Manila's operations.
Manila is a large centre for both permanent and temporary migration. Our office currently consists of 17 Canada-based officers, including a medical officer and migration integrity officer, and 77 locally engaged staff. It covers a large territory of Pacific islands, although the vast majority of the applications we receive are from the Philippines.
To give you an idea of the size of our program and to provide some context, on the temporary side we receive some 30,000 temporary resident applications per year. We also receive a large number of temporary foreign worker applications each year, but this number tends to fluctuate with the health of the Canadian economy. For example, in 2008, Manila received almost 29,000 temporary foreign worker applications but the number dropped by half the following year, and further in 2010. The 2009-2010 drop allowed us to reduce our inventory and processing time significantly.
We also have a sizeable live-in caregiver program and are making significant inroads in reducing inventories and processing times in that category.
With respect to permanent migration, we issued more than 27,000 permanent resident visas last year and will issue between 25,000 and 26,000 permanent resident visas this year. Of note is the large increase in the provincial nominee program in Manila over the last few years. Almost 10,000 visas were issued in that category in 2010. For 2011 we will issue more than 10,000 visas, the vast majority processed in less than a year.
Manila also has a large federal skilled worker program. We have been able to process the majority of our skilled worker applications received after July 2010, the so-called C-50 MI-2 cases, and have also processed many of our C-50 MI-1 cases, but only a few of our pre-C-50 inventory. We continue to have a large inventory and we are working to reduce it.
Our economic immigrant programs such as provincial nominees and federal skilled workers will account for about 15,000 permanent resident visas this year. The remaining visas will come from dependents of live-in caregivers and family class.
Manila sees a large and increasing number of applications from dependent family members of live-in caregivers in Canada. For the second year in a row, we issued 6,000 visas in that category in 2010 and will do so again this year. In the family class category, we issued more than 4,000 visas in 2010, and processing times for family class priority cases—spouses, partners, and children—remain within the departmental service standards.
As we moved from the older CAIPS system to GCMS to process cases, we looked at each step to determine if there were ways to cut time and if there were steps that could be eliminated altogether, for low-risk cases. We have made changes that allow some cases to be processed in a matter of a few months. We also took the opportunity to clean up our older inventory. For parents and grandparents and other family class applications, we expect to issue more than 900 visas this year but will continue to have a large inventory, and our processing times are about two and a half years. We continue to recognize the inconvenience this may cause and show flexibility by issuing visitor visas to parents and grandparents who are waiting for their immigrant application to be finalized.
While there is fraud in the Manila immigration program, it is not as prevalent as in other programs. Nevertheless, Manila continues to conduct quality assurance and anti-fraud exercises to detect fraud and reduce our risk. There are, however, challenges that are particular to Manila. For example, communication outside major urban centres is sometimes not reliable. This is particularly true for the postal service to rural areas. There are also other factors that help Manila process applications in a timely manner, including the fact that the majority of our applicants are from the Philippines and can easily travel to Manila for an interview if required.
In closing, Mr. Chair, Manila is in a good position to deliver on its commitment again this year and to further reduce processing times in key categories. However, in a program as large as Manila's with important fluctuations in some categories and the support we provide to other missions in our area, we need to always be prepared to prioritize and reallocate resources as needed and to constantly review our internal procedures to find more efficiencies and to provide better service to our clients, and that is what we're doing.
For example, as part of our efforts at the local level, we have implemented several changes as a result of the global case management system and the suite of electronic services we have, which are beginning to have a positive impact on our work.
Manila has had GCMS for almost a year now, and we already see gains in terms of processing efficiencies, redistribution of work, and tracking of cases. We have leveraged its capabilities so we can better manage our permanent resident cases by immigrant category and processing stage.
We have learned and developed these techniques and shared them with other offices through the CIC Wiki, and we have also benefited from lessons learned and best practices of other offices, such as the one in New Delhi.
Thank you.