Citizenship and Immigration committee  For the post-September 7 temporary resident visa application, right now the processing times are approximately 59 calendar days. That's as of February 2022. We recognize there is a significant backlog predating that, which has built up during COVID as a result of the border res

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Unfortunately I don't have an exact statistic for you. Depending on the program, the models would yield different results. For example, as the deputy minister has stated, when we use advanced analytics for visitor applications, we are looking for low complexity versus more comple

Citizenship and Immigration committee  IRCC's advanced analytics models are compliant with the Treasury Board directive on automated decision-making, and algorithm impact assessments are done on the models. Those are available on the Open Government website. As part of the development of the model, there is definitel

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As part of our quality assurance work we do quality assurance across all processing from all countries. Pilots have been done to improve the types of QA done. There has been continuous improvement to ensure that results are accurate in informing future improvements. There is qual

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. To add to that, we take oversight of decision-making very seriously at IRCC. Quality assurance exercises are undertaken annually for decision-making. Our officers have all undergone unconscious bias training and are trained on immigration legislation. In addition to

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For family class applications—spousal, conjugal partner and common-law relationships—the requirements under IRPA indicate assessment of a genuine relationship, and there are different qualifications for each of those three subcategories in family class. For the most part, the as

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for the clarification. With regard to the ETA, the electronic travel authorization, it is a means for visa-exempt clients to confirm for entry. However, it doesn't have the same eligibility requirements as the temporary resident program. Clients who are applying und

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Whether an officer is reviewing an application in Chinook, in GCMS or on paper, we always indicate factual information for the officers' awareness. For example, a flag is not necessarily a negative statement; it could be positive as well. Word indicators could be things like that

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, for the question. As mentioned in earlier testimony, Chinook is an Excel-based software. Since Excel is used widely and for a variety of purposes across the department, it has not changed how applications are processed. We don't actually provide lists of

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. In terms of the data for any officer review, whether they are doing so in Chinook, in GCMS or on paper, the determinations they've made and the notes of their decision are recorded in the global case management system. That is also where the refusal ground and the re

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Could you clarify what the working notes would be?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, for the question. Any notes that an officer takes that are in support of assessing the application and such are recorded in GCMS. Officers may write down something on the side, like on a piece of paper. However, if it is at all pertinent to the decision,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Certainly I can do so. All international students, regardless of which stream under the international student program they are applying through, must demonstrate that they have proof of financial support for their first year of studies. That includes both tuition and living expe

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That is correct. For student permits writ large, globally, the most common reason for refusal is that they're not able to demonstrate that they can support themselves while in Canada. That leads to the conclusion around not being able...the dual intent of not departing at the end

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, for the question. The department is very much committed to facilitating the mobility of bona fide students. The most common reason for refusal is that the applicant was not able to show the officer that they were able to support themselves while in Canada