Thank you.
If the committee could receive information on which offices have actually had resources impacted and how many staffing resources have been impacted as a result of COVID, that will also give us a sense of the lay of the land. The reality right now is that we don't really know. No one really knows what's going on. All people are seeing is a humongous backlog and delay in their applications. Shedding some light and providing some transparency to the situation would be very helpful. I will be looking forward to receiving that information.
The minister said that outbound spousal sponsorship applications are meeting the 12-month processing requirement standards, yet I hear from families all the time that they are in the system for two or three years, indiscriminately. There are just so many people whose applications are stuck in the backlog. These are for outbound spousal sponsorship applications.
Could the officials please confirm that indeed the IRCC is processing these applications within the 12-month standard processing period?