Thank you.
I'd like to thank the department staffer for being here.
I have two questions that relate to individuals who have come into my constituency office.
One is an individual sponsoring his common-law partner. In 2007, he applied to the application centre in Mississauga and 23 days later he was notified that he qualified as a sponsor for his partner's application, which was then forwarded to the Beijing visa office. A month later he was notified for an interview and an appointment. He was interviewed in Beijing and issued a permanent resident visa. All together the timeframe was three months. Today, however, IRCC's website states that the estimated processing time for sponsoring a spouse or common-law partner from China is 13 months.
What happened to the processing times from nine years ago, and how can we get back to those earlier levels?