In Canadian embassies, high commissions and processing centres all over the world, visa officers make decisions about which applications are successful and which are not. These decisions allow some applicants to follow their ambitions or meet their needs—and frustrate the ambitions and needs of others, often at significant personal cost. They occur in the context of larger legislative and legal decisions, program criteria choices, funding and processing priorities, settlement options and enforcement interventions—a network of choices and evaluations that inevitably favour some types of applicants over others.

This report examines outcomes in Canadian immigration decisions and in the Canadian immigration system that may systematically and unjustifiably disadvantage certain populations based on characteristics such as race and country of origin. It follows a 22 March 2022 to 4 May 2022 study on differential outcomes in Canadian immigration decisions by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration (the Committee).

This report is organized largely by what types of outcomes immigration decisions may affect. Chapter One draws from testimony on the differential outcomes for applicants caused by, and based on the application of, law and policy. This includes addressing different processing times and inventories for different streams and populations. Chapter Two explores potential effects of decisions about processing technology, the location and funding of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) visa offices and global network, and settlement funding on applicants or newcomers. Chapter Three examines potential outcomes of conscious and unconscious bias or racism for IRCC employees—outcomes that ultimately also affect refusals, processing times, and infrastructure for applicants.

In the following pages, all the Committee’s recommendations for the Government of Canada to implement are listed.