Citizenship and Immigration committee  COVID-19 or coronavirus is obviously having an impact on travellers coming to Canada. We'll start with China. As you know, we use visa application centres in China to help facilitate the arrival, particularly of temporary residents. At the end of January, around Chinese New Yea

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In Italy, we have one visa application centre. As you know, Italy has visa-free travel to Canada. What's required is an electronic travel authorization, but we do have one visa application centre that's helpful in collecting biometrics. That's in Rome. Because of the actions of t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for your question. Francophone immigration outside Quebec is very important to the department, as you mentioned. I would like to make three points regarding our strategy to increase the number of francophone immigrants in Canada. First, there's recruiting. Destinatio

Citizenship and Immigration committee  A personal thank you for your support of resettled refugees in the Syria movement. You're right. We have had a number of conversations with the minister about sponsorship agreement holders, and we want to make sure that we maintain that appropriate balance. We've continued to wo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  What we want to do is to continue to work. We've redoubled our efforts on this. I think we can probably invest in some capacity building here as well, to make sure that sponsorship agreement holders are in really good stead. The second part is to really focus on the needs of the

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can absolutely assure the honourable member that those are discussions we have had with the minister.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I was going to give you a one-word response, which is “excellent”. We have good co-operation with Ontario on the provincial nominee program, and we work very closely with them.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We continue to examine it. We look really closely at what happens under express entry as to who is coming through, what the point score is and what we offer points for. The changes you talk about really focused, I think, on some specific occupations. If I cast my mind back far

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think it's important to look at things in conjunction with one another. In the global skills strategy, which enables employers to bring in workers in high-demand occupations quickly to Canada—within two weeks—the pathway between temporary and permanent on that side we think is

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Madam Chair, there is a specific category under express entry that focuses on skilled trades to make sure that we have a good pathway for skilled trades workers to come into Canada on this. The global skills strategy attracts a variety of talent, but it's not the only pathway for

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for your question. First of all, it depends on the country. Funds are one key reason. I think one of the biggest source countries we have for student movement where that was an issue is Nigeria. In Nigeria, we have gone to great lengths to put in a new program where

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. That's a good question. The reality is that we admit over 300,000 students a year. It would be really nice for all of them to stay, but we don't have level space around 300,000. We want to continue to ensure that we have a decent pathway for students to do well under

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Dr. Kochhar, would you have an answer for that?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Open work permits are absolutely open work permits. Yes, they could work for multiple employers. Study permits are also provided to immediate family to help families when they come to Canada. As for the expiry...Harpreet?