Thank you.
We are seeing larger families, and we have been seeing that over the past maybe year and a half or so.
To give you an example, two weeks ago, we had a client who came into our office wanting to sponsor his parents from the Middle East. He has seven children. He and his wife, the family, make up nine people. For him to sponsor his parents will make it an 11-person family. The staff member came back and said, “How do I tell him that he will not be able to get his parents here?” He wanted his parents to come in to assist with the children, to help with the children and with child care.
My recommendation would be to lower the requirements from what it is right now. Lower the threshold and lower the basic requirements from what they are at the moment, and, as well, lower the sponsorship years, the undertaking that they're going to be taking on for 10 years. Quite often, we see that the parents pass away before the 10 years is over.
We would like to see it lowered to five years, if possible, for the parents and the grandparents. The table of funds that is available for them to be sponsored needs to be lowered for many of our clients. They're in need of their parents to come in. They feel that they are not complete. As with many other cultures who come here, a family does not only include the mother, father, and the children, so you've left a part of you behind.