Human Resources committee  I would have to see individual cases, sir, but certainly the approval rate in express entry for international students who apply is very high. We would have to look at explicit cases to see whether an error has been made or whether the individual is indeed not eligible.

Human Resources committee  It depends on which program they are applying under. Under many provincial nominee programs, there is no such requirement. Under the express entry system, a labour market opinion-approved job offer gives you additional points, so it is helpful. It is not a requirement, and an increasing percentage of those who qualify under express entry do not have a labour market opinion-supported job offer.

Human Resources committee  I'll speak briefly to the changes that were made in 2014, and Mr. Thompson might speak to your question about actual applications. The changes that were made were primarily to the permanent resident access route for caregivers. We ended the old live-in caregiver program and replaced it with two new programs with no live-in requirement.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. Mr. Chair and committee members, my name is David Manicom and I am the associate deputy minister for strategic and program policy at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. The Immigration Act and regulations set out the framework under which foreign nationals are authorized to work in Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I would just add that the refusal rate is historically significantly higher in Chandigarh over a large number of years with a large number of different officers. There's relative consistency in the refusal rate, regardless of which particular staff member is there. It's the nature of the caseload.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think the main step the government has taken in recent periods is to eliminate the live-in requirement. The live-in requirement was seen for many caregivers as creating a power imbalance situation which led to a higher incidence of either abusive situations or non-payment of overtime.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Because at this time we don't have exit controls, we don't know the precise number of people who don't return. What I was referring to is the visa violation rate. Those are known violations, whereby someone commits a crime in Canada and comes to our attention as having overstayed their visa and so forth.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't have it with me. I could find it.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. We could provide it to the committee.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, we have not conducted the same degree of formal visa review that we have done in other circumstances. We have engaged in a number of technical trips to Mexico and, in combination with the Canada Border Services Agency and Global Affairs Canada, we are working with Mexican officials to identify elements we can undertake to reduce the risk of a visa lift and mitigate security and other concerns.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mexico's visa refusal rate is still somewhat above the rate of our objective criteria. The visa violation rate is also somewhat above the normal rate. In many other regards, with regard to socio-economic indicators, Mexico is meeting, or close to meeting, the indicators.