Evidence of meeting #30 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was class.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
The backlog was at 165,000, and it has come down to about 58,000.
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
What is the time for processing for these applications at this moment?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
The average processing time at the moment still appears to be 73 months.
We are starting to deal with cases that were received in 2014, so for those cases and moving forward, the processing time will be far shorter than that.
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
Starting in 2011, IRCC introduced a number of changes to increase the efficiency of the parents and grandparents sponsorship program and decrease the likelihood of future backlogs and lengthy wait times. However, there continued to be a backlog.
You have already answered what the current backlog is. What measures have been introduced to address the backlog? Is it basically that we are putting on more staff?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Most importantly, there has been more space within the levels and in the target that we deliver on each year. That has allowed us to work down the backlog over the last couple of years.
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
What is the reported level of annual income for the elderly immigrants in the category of parents and grandparents in comparison to all other categories? Is it higher or lower?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
When we evaluate a sponsorship, we are looking at the sponsor's income. They must meet a minimum cut-off, which is established by Statistics Canada. It looks at the number of people in the household and what is required to meet the basic needs of that family group.
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
What is the level for the use of old age security and guaranteed income supplement allowance for the parents and grandparents, again in comparison to all other categories?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
I do not have that information with me, sir.
Liberal
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
On checking the website on the application processing times, specifically with parents and grandparents, it currently says “working on applications received in January 2014”. There's no further information provided.
I wonder, first off, with respect to applications in 2014, does that mean those that arrived prior to January 2014 are in process already? They are all under way and are in processing.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
That is correct.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Is it the case that there are different times with the processing of each application because of the complexity of each application? Is that correct? Is that why some appear to go faster than others?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
That is largely the case. It's also how quickly people respond to our requests for further information.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Currently I believe the wait time for processing parents and grandparents is 73 months or 79 months, if I have it right. That is over six years, which is a long time.
In that regard, does that include the application processing time from the embassy office overseas? Does that include that period, or is it just for the Mississauga processing centre?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
No, that processing time would be from the date of sponsorship until the date a final decision is made, wherever that might be.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
There have been situations where a person mixes up a submission, and mixes it up within the quota. Formerly it was 5,000 and now it's 10,000, but the application is returned to them because some piece of a document was incorrectly filled out, or a signature was missing somewhere, owing to some inadvertent mistake a person has made.
The previous practice was that those applications were taken out of the process, even though they made it within the quota limitations. Is that still the practice today?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
The practice is that we only accept complete applications within the cap.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
When a person inadvertently makes a mistake, you take their application out. These forms, however, are complicated to fill out. Even though people hire expensive consultants, still sometimes they miss things. Is there any consideration from the ministry to request that information from the applicant so we can have the complete information, especially when it is just some minor piece of information that's missing?
One would have to think that, in a reasonable sense, this is unfair, especially when it's a quota system. You're taken out of the quota system because you missed some line somewhere in the provision of information.
Director General, Centralized Network, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
When we're looking at the parents and grandparents, and when the cap opens at the beginning of January, what happens is we receive tens of thousands of applications within the first few days, and the office in Mississauga has to very quickly do a completeness check. Within a few days, it could be as many as 16,000 applications that are received.
Certainly, the applicants will want to know very quickly if they are within the cap or not. When the department reviews it, it's only the cases that are completed that are entered into the cap. The applications arrive very rapidly, and there's an expectation that a decision on completeness and on the cap-counting will be done very quickly. The department has to look at completed applications.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I appreciate that, but I'm saying there is inherent unfairness in that, especially for those who inadvertently miss one little piece of information. I'll park that for a minute.
The website that's been provided does not provide the wait times country by country for parents and grandparents. It used to do so. That way, people had a sense of how long they might reasonably expect to wait. The average times sometimes are not a reflection of reality, because of where you are.
Is there any consideration towards providing that full information once again so that people know how long they can expect to wait?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We no longer present the information country by country because of the changes in how we process applications. It used to be that all applications went abroad to a mission, and so results were very dependent on how long that mission was working. That's no longer the case. Currently, a large number of cases are dealt with in Canada and never sent to a mission abroad. Thus, it depends on the complexity of the file rather than the nationality of the applicant. The country of origin really is irrelevant in our processing times.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Are you suggesting that a person from India could be waiting just as long as a person making an application from China, because the country of origin is no longer a consideration? According to the constituents I've come across, there seems to be a significant difference in wait times depending on the country of origin.
