Questions and responses 45th Parliament, 1st session May 26, 2025, to present

With regard to the temporary public policy announced by the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship on November 20, 2023, to reunite previously resettled Yazidis and other survivors of Daesh in Canada with their family members in northern Iraq, excluding any applications received before October 31, 2023: (a) how many applications have been received under this specific public policy since November 20, 2023, broken down by month and by the location of the processing office; (b) how many applications (i) have been accepted, (ii) have been rejected, (iii) have been withdrawn, (iv) have been deemed incomplete, (v) are still in process; (c) how many principal applicants and how many dependents are included in each of the categories listed in (b); (d) what is the average and median processing time for complete applications under this public policy, including those that were rejected or withdrawn; (e) what were the five most common grounds for rejection under this public policy; (f) how many times has the department used its discretion to waive documentation or admissibility requirements due to the applicant's circumstances under this public policy, and in what types of cases or contexts were these waivers applied; (g) how many applications under this policy have either been (i) voluntarily withdrawn by the applicant, (ii) closed by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, (iii) abandoned by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada; (h) for each case in (g)(i) to (g)(iii), what were the reasons or grounds cited by the department; (i) how many of the 400 allocated spots under the policy have been filled to date, and does Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada anticipate filling all 400 before the expiry date of December 31, 2026; and (j) has Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada communicated any eligibility criteria, quotas, internal directives, or guidance to visa officers or Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada staff related to prioritizing, triaging, or refusing certain types of applicants under this public policy, and, if so, what are those instructions?

With regard to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada programs, and the Sudanese family reunification program: (a) how much money in processing fees has been collected from Canadian families and Sudanese applicants through the Sudanese family reunification program; (b) why is Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada able to prioritize processing some pathways above the Levels Plan, but not for Sudanese applicants; (c) for the Sudanese family reunification program, what is the average time (i) from application submission to approval, (ii) from approval to arrival in Canada, (iii) from application submission to arrival in Canada, (iv) between submission of medical information and approval of security checks, or vice versa; (d) what are the details of the policy, directive, instruction, or other instrument that determines the pace of applications for Sudanese individuals versus applications from other programs or streams; (e) has a minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada ever provided directives or instructions to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada with respect to the Sudanese family reunification program in any form, and, if so, what are the details of each instance; (f) how many pending applicants are awaiting approval in the Sudanese family reunification program; (g) how many of the applicants in (f) does Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada expect to have their applications processed to completion by January 1, 2027; (h) by what date does Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada expect applicants who applied for the Sudanese family reunification program in 2024 will have their applications processed to completion; (i) by what date does Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada expect applicants who applied for the Sudanese family reunification program in 2025 will have their applications processed to completion; (j) what is the total amount of funds that anchors have been required to set aside to fulfill application requirements for applicants through the Sudanese family reunification program; (k) how many deaths of Canadian anchors or deaths of applicants while their Sudanese family reunification program applications were awaiting processing are Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada aware of; (l) what impact has the deaths of Canadian anchors or deaths of applicants while their applications are awaiting processing had on Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada decision-making within the Sudanese family reunification program; (m) for each year since January 1, 2015, what have been the average times for an application to be processed to completion for applicants under family-based pathways from countries in Central America, the Caribbean, Ukraine, and Sudan; (n) since 2022, for applicants through the Sudanese family reunification program, how many cases is Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada aware of in which Canadian children were born to Sudanese mothers outside of Canada and for whom one or more of the child's parents has subsequently died; and (o) what actions were taken to expedite the applications, approvals, or arrivals of children and mothers indicated in (n) and, in each case, what were the details?

With regard to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada's pathway for Colombian, Haitian and Venezuelan nationals: (a) how many individuals have been admitted to Canada under this special immigration measure to date, broken down by nationality; (b) what are the initial settlement locations of individuals admitted under the special immigration measure, broken down by province and territory; (c) what specific eligibility criteria were applied to assess applicants under this policy, specifically regarding evidence of displacement or vulnerability to displacement; (d) was there any mechanism implemented to verify whether applicants had been displaced or forcibly displaced or otherwise affected by conditions cited as justification for this policy; (e) why did the government reduce its initial commitment for this humanitarian measure from 15,000 persons to 11,000 persons, and what were the factors that influenced this decision; and (f) did the government consult with international organizations, humanitarian organizations, or Canadian civil society in the development of this policy, and, if so, (i) which organizations were consulted, (ii) what was the extent of those consultations, (iii) what feedback or recommendations from those consultations were incorporated?