Evidence of meeting #97 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 number.
A video is available from Parliament.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We can provide that number to the committee. I don't have it with me today.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Could I receive that information and when the application was received by IRCC? If we can have that broken down by the country of origin, that would be appreciated.
February 15th, 2018 / 1:30 p.m.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
It has been noted.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you.
Turning to parents and grandparents, the 2018 lottery has taken place. Can you advise the committee if all 10,000 spots have been taken up?
Dr. Harpreet Kochhar Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
The first part of that process is the notice of intent to apply, and we have received applications for that. The draw for the first tranche of that is going to be pretty soon, and we will do two or three rounds so that we can fill up the 10,000.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
So families have not been notified as to whether or not they have been selected through this lottery process. Did I hear that correctly?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
The notice to apply just finished on February 2, and we are now sorting out the duplicate applications and the incomplete ones. Then, we will be going out, pretty soon, this week only, for that purpose.
NDP
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
People will be notified that we are doing a lottery system in which we actually invite those who are selected in two or three portions so that we get to the 10,000 number. For example, the first 5,000 will be invited so that they can put in a full application and go through that process, and then the second round will be another 5,000 applications.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
In last year's process, then, the people were notified that they were eligible or, as you say, had been chosen through the lottery. Have all 10,000 slots been utilized for the parents and grandparents reunification process?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
That is true. We actually got around 15,000-plus people. Out of that, we completed approximately 9,500 applications.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Yes, I know it is always oversubscribed because there are lots of people who want in on this program, but because of the lottery system, we don't know if they qualify or not through that process.
You're saying that out of that 10,000, 9,500 met the requirements. That means that there were 500 slots that were not subscribed. What happened to those 500 slots?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We actually invited the 10,000, and then we went through the process of making sure the applications were complete. Sometimes when we invite them they do not actually apply.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
That slot is actually up to the end of the year, so we have—
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We have that gap, but the multi-year immigration levels plan provides us with the opportunity to catch up.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Will that 500 be applied to this year, then, so that this year there will be 10,500 people invited to submit their full application?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We generally keep a cap on the 10,000. However, the total number of people who line up may increase over time, for sure.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Okay, so the 500 slots will not be utilized for 2018.
I'm just trying to figure out what happened to the 500 slots.
Deputy Minister, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
The 500 slots were not utilized last year. It was the first year we had done this process, and it was not clear. I think it was a bit of a surprise to us, actually, that some of the individuals who had been invited to apply did not submit applications in the end.
This year, we will be able to take that into account in order to reach the 10,000 limit, but our goal this year, as tabled in the multi-year immigration levels plan, is 10,000 for the year.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
We actually put all the efforts towards bringing in those 10,000. However, if the applicants have failed to fill out the application and we do not have the completed application, we are unable to process them further.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
I'm afraid I need to end that there. That was seven and a half minutes.
Mr. Anandasangaree, you have seven minutes.