Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Oct. 4th, 2016

[Robert Orr]

By and large, it's a matter of complexity, because a large number of cases from whatever country are completely finalized within Canada.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Can we get the information from your office listing the countries of origin in the applications and what the wait times are so we can do some comparisons? Maybe there really isn't any difference, but in the cases that have come across my desk, I have to tell you there seem to be significant differences. I would like to see the stats to back that up. If that information can be provided to the committee, that would be great.

You talked a little bit about the threshold, the amount of dollars in sponsorships.

Can you give us a figure, specifically how much?

[Robert Orr]

Those figures are available, but I do not have them with me at the moment.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Can you provide that to the committee?

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Perhaps we can add this data to the previous undertaking to be provided.

Mr. Tabbara, go ahead for seven minutes, please.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

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?

[Robert Orr]

Mr. Chair, there's no doubt that there has been an increase in the processing times for spousal applications. I think the minister referred to three main elements to try to bring those times down: money, which has been given to the department to try to work on this; levels space, which is critically important in this; and efficiencies. I think you are already seeing a change from June 2015 to June 2016 in processing times overall—not necessarily for Beijing in particular but overall—which have come down from 18 to 16 months in the overseas context, and from 26 to 22 months for the in-Canada cases, and we are hoping to bring that down significantly over the coming year.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

My second question refers to another constituent who applied to have their parents stay here. From what this person told me—and you can correct me if I'm wrong—there's a certain window that opens up, I believe, early in January. Last year they applied to have their mother stay. I believe they handed the application in very early in the morning, right away—I'm not sure if they hand-delivered it or mailed it—but they were ineligible for their parent to stay. Their parent is on a super visa, so I informed them to reapply again for 2017 on the day it opens up.

Are there any reassurances for this individual that if they submit their documents for their parent's sponsorships they can be eligible? I know it's being extended from 5,000 to 10,000 in 2017, but do you have any suggestions as to why this process exists? I also heard that even if they do apply right away, the cap is over within a couple of hours.

[Robert Orr]

More or less that is the case. When the cap is opened at the beginning of January—and I believe that in 2017 it will be January 3—there is no doubt that the demand for spaces will be far greater than the 10,000. We receive a large number of applications at that time. I think Mr. Armstrong just spoke of about 16,000 applications for 10,000 places. So yes, unfortunately, some people are not able to get into that cap even though their application is complete and even though it's there right on time. It's just a matter of first-come, first-served. We try to do it in as fair and transparent a way as possible, but inevitably there are some people who are going to be disappointed simply because of the numbers.

I don't know if you would like to add anything, Mr. Armstrong.

[Paul Armstrong]

Mr. Chair, the department is examining options to see how we can better deal with this great intake in a very short period of time, but we do apply the first-in, first-out principle. We're literally counting the applications as they come in. Part of our challenge is to try to find a more effective way to do that, but the fact will remain that there are a limited number of spaces, 10,000, in the cap for parents and grandparents.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

What would your suggestion be then? I'm not familiar with this process, but is it better to submit it right that day when, let's say, it opens up at 9 a.m.? Is it better to submit it electronically or hand-deliver it?

[Robert Orr]

Well, this is exactly what we are trying to figure out at the moment: what is the fairest way to present the document so everyone is on a similar playing field and we're not favouring one group over another? We certainly can't do hand deliveries because, obviously, that's going to favour people who live in Mississauga. So that doesn't work.

We have to try to find the best way to do it. What we have been doing is specifying it go by courier. Everyone has to send it by courier to arrive on that date. It's not a great system, but it's worked for the last couple of years. We are trying to explore if there is a better way, which might be more fair and efficient for everyone.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Mr. Tabbara.

Mr. Tilson, you have five minutes, please.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Orr or others, the government budgeted $25 million for the processing time reductions this year and $50 million in each of the next three years. At least that's what I understand. Can you tell us what the results are thus far?

[Robert Orr]

I think from the $25 million what you're seeing is that a large amount of the money has been put straight into the processing network, both in terms of the international network and the centralized network that Mr. Armstrong runs.

That has allowed us to bring down the inventory of applications quite considerably already on the in-Canada side. I think the minister provided some figures on that. It was at 33,000 and it's come down quite considerably already, and we're also seeing a reduction in the processing times. As I mentioned, the in-Canada applications have gone from 26 months a year ago to 22 months now. I think we are seeing very tangible results from the investment of that money.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

That's what I'm asking, whether you can give us the latest numbers for year-over-year comparisons.

[Robert Orr]

Certainly, that will be available. We can make that information available, the specifics of that.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Thank you, and you'll get back to the clerk.

[Robert Orr]

Yes, thank you.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

The previous government brought in the 10-year super visa for parents and grandparents. Could you give us an update on how that program has been working?

[Robert Orr]

Thus far, as the minister indicated, I think it's been an important contribution, given the stress on the parent and grandparent numbers. People who previously may not have been able to come, because they would not fit into the cap, are able to join their families for extended periods.

It's a 10-year visa, but you can come in for initial entry of two years as opposed to the normal six months. It's possible to extend the super visa beyond that as well. I think I gave the numbers earlier: about 70,000 have been issued, with an 80% approval rate. We understand that, of those super visa holders, about 4,200 have applications for permanent residence in progress. It seems thus far to be a program that is working well and with limited concerns for the social welfare system and so on.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Have any issues arisen as a result of the implementation of this program that you can share with the committee?

[Robert Orr]

We're not aware of any issues, really. I think there's some anecdotal evidence of people with insufficient health insurance, but that's very rare. I think overwhelmingly we have not found any systemic issues with the program.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Has there been a failure rate?