PACP - Q-1729 Inquiry of Ministry - December 5, 2023

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Question no.

Q-1729

By

Ms. Ashton (Churchill-Keewatinook Aski)

Date

September 19, 2023

Paul Chiang, M.P.

Question

With regard to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and the prolonged visa application wait times for applicants from francophone countries:

(a) what are the mean and median wait times to process a permanent residency application from francophone countries between 2020 and 2023, broken down by country, including, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Algeria, Chad, Djibouti, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Togo, Haiti, Martinique, and Lebanon;

(b) which of these countries have average visa application wait times above the IRCC recommended guidelines;

(c) how many applications for permanent residency did the IRCC process from francophone countries between 2020 and 2023, broken down by country, and how many were (i) accepted, (ii) rejected;

(d) what are the mean and median processing times for applicants that filed for permanent residency in
(i) French, (ii) English; and

(e) does the IRCC currently have plans to recommend additional visa application centers in francophone countries, and, if so, which countries?

Reply

Insofar as Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is concerned:

IRCC undertook an extensive preliminary search to determine the amount of information that would fall within the scope of the request. While most is able to be provided, identifying processing times that exceed service standard by francophone country and the mean processing times for these same countries would be too large to provide in the time allotted for this response and could lead to the disclosure of incomplete and misleading information.

Please refer to IRCC’s Building a stronger immigration system - Canada.ca website for an up-to-date breakdown of the Department’s entire application inventory, which includes the number of applications currently being processed within regular service standards. While processing times vary across different permanent resident lines of business, IRCC has made significant progress in reducing its backlog and is committed to returning to service standards as quickly as possible. Application processing service standards can be found at the IRCC Service Standard – Canada.ca website. It is important to note that not all services provided by IRCC are subject to a service standard.

Application processing times by country can be found at the IRCC Check Processing Times – Canada.ca website. Country breakdown is available for selected categories. The Department aims to process all applications received, regardless of country of origin, within committed service standards. There are factors outside of IRCC’s control that may affect the processing time of an application (e.g., type of application, immigration levels space, client response time to follow-up questions). These factors are equally applicable, regardless of the applicant’s country of origin.

The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) standard for reporting processing times is using the 80th percentile methodology. Specifically, this refers to the number of days in which 80% of applications were finalized by IRCC, from the date the application was received to the date final decision is made. Reporting based on the 80th percentile presents the maximum time it took to finalize most applications and represents the experience of the majority of applicants.

In August 2022, IRCC began publishing monthly data on its website to inform the public of our efforts to reduce the backlog of applications. We continue to work towards our goal of reducing the backlog of applications, while processing 80% of new applications within service standards. Despite the progress made to date, the Department recognizes that there is still work to be done to reach its target.

Please refer to Annex A for available data for parts (a) to (d).

(e) As of September 30, 2023, Canada has one of the most extensive Visa Application Centre (VAC) networks in the world, with 164 VACs located in 110 countries. VACs are operated by third-party service providers under six individual contracts with the Canadian government. VACs are authorized to provide specific administrative support and biometric collection services to IRCC applicants. In 2022, 95% of applicants who provided their biometrics had a VAC in their country of residence. IRCC has 14 VACs in the francophone countries listed, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, France (2), Guinea, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, and Tunisia. VACs do not represent the Government of Canada, nor do they play any role in the decision-making process and are expressly forbidden to provide any visa-related advice to applicants.

Canada is constantly monitoring its VAC network to ensure it meets the needs of applicants and may decide to open new additional locations at a later date. VAC locations are selected based on various factors, including geographic distribution of clients and past temporary resident application trends, with the goal of limiting inconvenience for applicants. That said, it is not always possible to open a VAC in certain locations, due to a number of factors, such as volumes, the security situation in the country, and cost of VAC services to applicants and Canada. The procurement process for the next VAC contract is currently underway. Until the process has been finalized, IRCC cannot provide any further comment on VAC locations or services that will be offered.