Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a petition on behalf of citizens and residents of Canada concerning the start-up visa program. The petitioners are concerned that in recent years, start-up visa applicants have faced extensive and unpredictable processing delays, often lasting several years, despite having undergone rigorous vetting by designated organizations.
Therefore, the petitioners call upon the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to increase annual permanent residence admissions under the start-up visa program; allocate additional resources to reduce application backlogs; adopt a risk-based triage system to fast-track low-risk applicants; and resume issuing a limited number of work permits to essential founders so that they can build early business traction while their applications are being processed.