Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, I can tell you additional staff are currently in Damascus, working to help us deal with the number of cases that have been received there. I don't have with me today the total number of what we call temporary duty officers who have been in Damascus in the past year,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The processing time for family class cases in Damascus at the moment is such that 80% of them are finalized within 10 months. I don't have a 2006 figure to compare with the 2007 figure. Again, it's something we could provide.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I certainly would confirm we are trying to reduce our processing times.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would say we are trying to reduce inventories, especially of family class. We are trying to process spouses and children within the six-month timeframe that the government—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm not able to comment on how the U.S. processes its immigration applications.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Not points. We don't use a points system in assessing any refugee, whether they are referred by the UNHCR or are sponsored. What we look at is whether or not that person has a well-founded fear of persecution, and whether or not they meet the other requirements for being resettle

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can certainly tell the committee, Mr. Chair, that in May this year we issued instructions to all visa officers to take into consideration UNHCR's advice that refugees from central and southern Iraq, that is, not from the Kurdish area in the north, were to be considered refugees

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Karygiannis, you're characterizing the situation in a way I have no knowledge of.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For a privately sponsored refugee from a group of five, or from a sponsorship agreement holder, 80% of the cases are finalized in Damascus within 17 months.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I couldn't speculate on--

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, it's for Iraqis who have been displaced into the region covered by our visa office in Damascus. So that includes Jordan and Lebanon.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  They have to be identified. We ask people to write Iraqi—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The inventory of family class cases in Damascus—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, I have the figures for all family class cases.