Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to all the presenters.
My questions will go to Jatin.
Jatin, first of all, my apologies that I was not part of your wedding celebration, even though your auntie, my wife, Roni, was there. I wish all the best to you and your wife in the coming years.
Jatin, in the business you are in and the area you are coming from, I'm sure you are hearing the same things that I do. If we look prior to 2015 and moving forward to 2021, when it comes to parents and grandparents, the number of applications we can take has increased sixfold, from 5,000 applications all the way to 30,000 applications, and we have increased the age of a dependent child from 18 to 22. Last year, in 2019, the number of spouses, parents and grandparents...27% of the immigration was from that category.
When it comes to wait times, they have gone from several years to two years for parents and grandparents, and from almost over two years to one year for spousal applications. That is the reduction in the wait times. To reduce these wait times, which were historically inherited and are because of COVID, we're going to process 49,000 spousal applications by the end of December.
Jatin, I would like you to comment on how you see these developments for reducing the backlog that was inherited historically and because of COVID, and also comment on the number of applications we are going to accept.