Evidence of meeting #49 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was months.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:40 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
They come in as they come in, in terms of first come, and we have to make sure the applications are complete. Those are the ones that we count, those that have all the documents necessary.
Mr. Orr, you may want to add to that.
9:40 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Yes. We monitor very closely on a first-come, first-served basis, on the basis that we receive them. We then go through a completeness check, and it's the first 5,000 applications that are complete.
9:40 a.m.
NDP
Jasbir Sandhu NDP Surrey North, BC
For the record, Mr. Chair, the constituent I'm talking about did mail his application on January 2. The very first day it reached there, the quota was filled. His application was marked down as number 6,000 and whatever it was. The minister pointed out—
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
For the record, the chair is having the same problem in his riding.
9:40 a.m.
NDP
Jasbir Sandhu NDP Surrey North, BC
Thank you.
My second question is that the minister pointed out earlier that when it comes to spousal applications, we've seen that the amount of time it takes to sponsor a spouse from another country has been steadily increasing. I don't want to blame the Liberals, because they've been out of government for nine years and they don't have any hope of forming the next government—
9:40 a.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
9:40 a.m.
NDP
Jasbir Sandhu NDP Surrey North, BC
—but we'll certainly be working towards reducing that time period.
I do want to ask this question on what the minister was talking about, which is that the department had difficulty in predicting the number of applications coming in and that somehow the applications have been more than anticipated. Would that be correct? Is the department having difficulty providing resources and predicting how many applications they're going to be getting? Has this been going on for just one year, or for two years, three years, four years?
9:40 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We try to forecast as best we can. Certainly, as I think the minister noted, in the last couple of years the number of applications that have come in certainly has been more than what we have in our levels space, in our annual immigration levels plan. The numbers are higher.
9:40 a.m.
NDP
Jasbir Sandhu NDP Surrey North, BC
What about the next year? What are the predictions? Are you predicting more than anticipated, or are you predicting more than the year before? Are there any additional resources that are being provided to your department?
9:40 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We can only assume that the number, as I say, may increase, but we do have an inventory now that we have to work through. We're trying to find space within our levels plan in terms of how we can put more effort into spousal applications.
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
Devinder Shory Conservative Calgary Northeast, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
To the department officials, once again, thank you for your hard work to reduce the backlog, and also, thank you for implementing innovative programs, like express entry, to ensure that we do not have to deal with backlogs in the future.
Before I ask questions on express entry, I want to clarify something Mr. Sandhu raised. I understand clearly that when we talk about 5,000 applications, those are applications, not the total number of potential immigrants. Is that correct? If yes, then approximately how many, in numbers, are we talking about for 5,000 applications? Would it be 12,000 immigrants, or 15,000, approximately?
9:40 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Yes, we're talking about 5,000 principal applicants, 5,000 applications, and thus they would be coming with dependants. For parents and grandparents, it's probably just over two people per application.
9:40 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We'd be talking about 10,000 to 11,000 people.
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
Devinder Shory Conservative Calgary Northeast, AB
Okay. How much time could we expect for these applications to be processed?
9:45 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Well, we continue to work through the applications on a first-come, first-served basis, so it may be some time before we are actually able to process those applications. We will be accepting, processing up to 20,000 parent and grandparent applications this year.
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Devinder Shory Conservative Calgary Northeast, AB
I understand that the 70,000 over the last three years, which Ms. Biguzs mentioned, includes the backlog and some work on the new applications as well.
9:45 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
That is correct.
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Devinder Shory Conservative Calgary Northeast, AB
Okay. Thank you.
I'll come back to express entry. I know the department worked closely with New Zealand when developing express entry. Now that it has been launched, do you still talk to your counterparts there? Do you continue to consult with them as express entry grows?
9:45 a.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Mr. Chair, we consult very closely with our colleagues in New Zealand, and not just New Zealand but certainly Australia also. We learned many lessons from Australia's launch of the express entry system there.
As I say, we have an ongoing dialogue through what we call the Five Country Conference. We meet at the deputy level annually with our Five Country colleagues, which include New Zealand, Australia, the U.K., and the United States. We also have, below that, many working-level committees and groups that include my colleagues on either side. We have very close collaboration and we benefit from their experience, and they benefit from our experience in terms of how we launch these new programs.
We look overall, globally, in terms of the trends, in terms of the movement of people. We benefit from a very constant and ongoing dialogue across all the range of immigration activities.
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Devinder Shory Conservative Calgary Northeast, AB
The minister also mentioned the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games. We are very excited that we are hosting the 2015 games in Toronto. This is an exciting time for our country, of course.
How many visa applications do you expect? I believe the minister mentioned 7,000 and something. Does CIC expect this will bring revenue to our tourism industry and the Canadian economy in general?
9:45 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Indeed, it's going to be a major boost for the Canadian economy, and the Toronto economy particularly. Yes, we're very excited about hosting the Pan Am Games and look forward to doing that.
CIC's role in that is processing the applications from the individuals who are going to be involved. We anticipate probably around 23,000 individuals who are coming within the family.... We've already processed just over 13,000 of these applications through the process, and so far it's going very well.
There are a variety of processes in place to expedite the applications, and so far it's going well. The approval rate at the moment is 98.5%.
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Devinder Shory Conservative Calgary Northeast, AB
I want to go back to visas for parents and grandparents again.
Once the backlog is eliminated, how long do we expect it to take to process these applications?
9:45 a.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Mr. Chair, I believe there will continue to be some cases in the backlog, so I'm reluctant to put a particular time on it or to talk about what processing times will be.
We continue to work through the applications within the level space we allocate to the parents and grandparents category each year, and we make sure we reach that target each year. That is important.
I would also point out that there is the option for a super visa, which is issued to people as a multiple-entry visa for up to 10 years for individuals who would otherwise qualify in the parents and grandparents category.
We have issued 50,000 of those super visas over the last few years, and the acceptance rate is about 82%.