Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 15th, 2016

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

In India, most of the marriages take place in the wintertime. In the spring, people come back and they do the sponsorship, especially for the spousal cases. Do we get some extra help or extra resources? Do we hire extra people in the summertime to process these cases in a timely fashion?

[Shannon Fraser]

Yes, I'm well aware that it's marriage season during the winter. The Canadian winter is marriage season in India, so all those people who have gotten married in India will be going back.

First, though, the sponsorship will be submitted to the case processing centre in Mississauga. It is that office that takes the first steps in assessing the sponsor and the sponsorship.

I can add, though, that we have received temporary duty resources during the summer to assist us not only with temporary resident increases, but also for the family class cases. I think the department is on its way in 2016 to meeting our levels for 60,000 family class priority applicants and also for 20,000 parent and grandparent applications.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Are all the people who are processing these applications directly employed by the immigration department, or are they temporary workers?

[Shannon Fraser]

People who are assigned overseas are Canadian-based officers, working for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Any of our locally engaged staff, although they're working for our department and our program, are employees of Global Affairs Canada. We work very closely together to ensure that we have a strong team in place in each of our missions, embassies, and high commissions to deal with the applications.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

In cases of marriage of convenience for the cases in China and India, what is the percentage of marriages of convenience? Do you have a rough guess? Is it 10%, 20%?

[Shannon Fraser]

I wouldn't want to give you the number, because that would be speculating. If you look at our approval rate of 86%, the remaining portion would be refused cases, but not necessarily for marriages of convenience. There could be other inadmissibilities or ineligibilities for the sponsor. It is a relatively small proportion, but it is fairly time-consuming for our office to make sure that we are able to assess each and every application fairly and in a timely manner.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

It's 86% in India. What would be the percentage in China, in Beijing, or in any of the other centres?

[Elizabeth Snow]

It would be in the 80 percent range, as well. As I mentioned in my remarks, we interview 25%, and approximately half of that, somewhere in the range of 12% to 15%, are refusals.

There are more complexities other than marriages of convenience. There can be issues related to admissibility or other factors, but instances of marriages of convenience still exist within our caseload.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

You have 20 seconds.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

We work with you, although it may sound like something different. We both work for the same causes. Is there anything we can help you with on our side that most of us, people born in Punjab, India, or...?

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

A five-second answer, please.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

I guess I'm done.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Perhaps more research.

Ms. Kwan, you have seven minutes.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to follow up on the live-in care workers piece. To my understanding, some of the waits are as long as, on average, about four and a half years. This is in addition to the two-year work requirement that live-in care workers have to complete before the applications are processed. Then they have a wait of four and a half years.

Is it possible for us to get the detailed breakdown of how many applications have come in that are still in process at the moment, just to get a clear understanding of how many are waiting for processing in all the different years that the application has not been completed?

[Elizabeth Snow]

Mr. Chair, we would be happy to undertake to come back to the committee with that information, so that we can give informative advice.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

As to the resources for each of the offices, I'd be very interested in knowing what staffing levels you have to process applications and under what stream, and if we can get that breakdown, as well. In some cases, as in the other offices, we're advised that from time to time they have temporary staff who come in to assist in a particularly busy season or something like that. If you have had additional resources, temporary or permanent, I would like to get that breakdown and what stream they have been put to work in. That would be very useful for us to help understand the situation in your office. Is that possible?

[Elizabeth Snow]

Mr. Chair, we will commit to again come back with that information to help inform the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you once again.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

We focused a lot on spousal sponsorship. I'm interested in getting some information about parents and grandparents. In those instances, there is no question about marriage fraud, yet the wait times for parents and grandparents is exceedingly long as well. For folks in China, for example, I've had constituents come in and they've been waiting close to 10 years, which is unbelievable in terms of a long wait time.

Again to get a better understanding of what you're faced with in your offices, how many applications have come in that are in process, and dating back to wherever outstanding applications have come in for parents and grandparents under different regions?

[Elizabeth Snow]

Mr. Chair, again we will commit to come back to the committee with this information, but I would like to put before the committee that each year we continue to meet our levels as defined.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

When you say you meet your levels as defined, what does that mean exactly?

[Elizabeth Snow]

It means that when we're prescribed a portion of the levels plan, we deliver what our portion is.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Is the delay as a result of the levels plan, or is it a processing question?