Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Chair. We have seen a significant increase since Bill C-6 came into force. The numbers have doubled or tripled over the weeks, but now it is coming to a plateau. We put in place enough—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't have that exact number here, ma'am.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Just as the minister said, it will be 80% of them before December 2018 and I do want to mention that the inventory, which we are addressing very carefully, would be reduced by another 10% to 20% in the coming.... That will take us to the point where, by the end of December 2018,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We could provide you with that information.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, in that regard, we are trying to put together a way to intake all those applications that are to be processed. Our intake methodology is through visa application centres. Most of our visa application centres are located at a convenient location where people can go and

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The permanent residency component that we are piloting is to have them land by phone, but obviously they would have to come to an office so that we can have all the paperwork done. The phone landing is a kind of pilot that would allow us to look at those people who are in Canada

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The first part of that process is the notice of intent to apply, and we have received applications for that. The draw for the first tranche of that is going to be pretty soon, and we will do two or three rounds so that we can fill up the 10,000.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The notice to apply just finished on February 2, and we are now sorting out the duplicate applications and the incomplete ones. Then, we will be going out, pretty soon, this week only, for that purpose.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  People will be notified that we are doing a lottery system in which we actually invite those who are selected in two or three portions so that we get to the 10,000 number. For example, the first 5,000 will be invited so that they can put in a full application and go through that

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That is true. We actually got around 15,000-plus people. Out of that, we completed approximately 9,500 applications.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We actually invited the 10,000, and then we went through the process of making sure the applications were complete. Sometimes when we invite them they do not actually apply.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That slot is actually up to the end of the year, so we have—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We have that gap, but the multi-year immigration levels plan provides us with the opportunity to catch up.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We generally keep a cap on the 10,000. However, the total number of people who line up may increase over time, for sure.