Citizenship and Immigration committee  Largely it is the same staff who were doing it previously. They're visa officers who would be involved in monitoring the work with the visa application centres. It is a client service initiative that has proven itself significantly. The deputy minister made reference to the lines outside the Delhi office, as an example.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Certainly.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In the long run, there are savings from that, but initially there can be an issue of foregone revenue. For instance, we are charging a certain amount per visa and that money is no longer coming to the Consolidated Revenue Fund. That is one significant issue. Then there is a second part.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's one of the real conundrums we have because we would like to provide more information but it's also a matter of the time we have to be able to get through the volume of applications. If we gave a detailed list to each person of what was required, it would be a very time-consuming, difficult task.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  When these officers are looking at an application they are looking at a composite picture of risk. They are weighing a whole variety of different factors. There are the admissibility issues that they deal with, which are reasonably straightforward, but then there is a question of intent.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It is used but it's relatively rare. I believe in 2011 the figure was 64 cases brought to the Federal Court.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't have the actual results from that. We can try to provide that for you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, we can certainly try to provide that information. Right off the bat, I see that the acceptance rate is 84% in our offices in Kiev and Manila, which is a little higher than the average. We've already spoken about Chandigarh. We can certainly try to get the comparators for the United States and the U.K.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would just add that I think visa officers are extremely sensitive to those sorts of compelling situations, and they want to try to facilitate where they can. Often in those circumstances, the use of temporary resident permits is used where a visa is not possible. It doesn't resolve all the situations, but I think it goes a long way towards doing so.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm sorry, I don't have those statistics on hand. I think we could probably get you the information on the number of permits issued. We may not have the reasons for their being issued, though, so we may not be able to give you a precise figure. But we can give you something helpful, I hope.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm very reluctant. I think we can investigate exactly what the figures are and try to provide you with something specific.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much. That is an important area that we should explore. One of the things we are trying to do is to give as much information as possible up front so that individuals have a very clear idea about what is required and present the right information. We're also hoping that through the use of these application centres people there will be able to give advice on what is missing from an application.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The statistics for Chandigarh are in fact quite impressive. The normal service standards for a visitor visa is 14 days, and 80% of cases in Chandigarh are dealt with in 11 days.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think there is an argument to be made there, sir, yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's often an issue.