Questions and responses 44th Parliament, 1st session November 22, 2021, to January 6, 2025

With regard to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, broken down by year since 2020: (a) how many newcomers came to Canada; (b) what is the breakdown of (a) by status (i.e. permanent or temporary); (c) what is the breakdown of (a) and (b) by industry and occupation; and (d) what is the breakdown of (c) by how many newcomers are currently working in that industry and occupation versus how many are currently working in a different industry or occupation?

With regard to the processing of applications by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC): (a) how many applications has IRCC processed each year since January 2017, according to the most recent available data, broken down by visa category and type of application; (b) what is the breakdown of (a) in each province and territory where applicants intend or intended to settle; (c) what are the current processing times and application inventories, in addition to the service standard, for each visa category and type of application; (d) what is the breakdown of (c) in each province and territory where applicants intend or intended to settle; (e) what were the processing times and application inventories, in addition to the service standard, for each visa category and type of application as of October 1 for each year between 2016 and 2021; (f) what is the breakdown of (e) in each province and territory where applicants intend or intended to settle; and (g) how has the Afghanistan crisis in the summer of 2021 specifically affected IRCC’s ability to process applications, and what percentage of staff were reallocated to process Afghan nationals’ files on a priority basis?

With regard to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and the Settlement Program, the Resettlement Assistance Program, the Interim Housing Assistance Program, the International Migration Capacity Building Program, and the Francophone Immigration Support Program, for the fiscal years 2015-16 to 2023-24, broken down by program and by province and territory: (a) what organizations applied for grants, contributions or loans; (b) how much did they apply for on an annual basis; (c) how much did they receive on an annual basis; (d) how much of their funding did IRCC allocate to administrative costs on an annual basis; and (e) what were the actual administrative costs on an annual basis?

With regard to the government’s response to the situation in Sudan: (a) how many people have been evacuated from Sudan who are (i) Canadian citizens, (ii) Canadian permanent residents, (iii) family members of Canadian citizens or permanent residents, since April 1, 2023; (b) what special immigration measures has the government implemented for people leaving Sudan; (c) what additional special immigration measures is the government examining or considering for people leaving Sudan; (d) is the government investigating allegations against any Canadian firms relating to their relationships with Sudanese military or paramilitary groups, and, if so, which firms are under investigation; (e) what is the government’s position regarding (i) the presence of the Wagner Group in Sudan, (ii) calls for the listing of the Wagner Group as a terrorist entity?

With regard to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA): (a) how many migrants does the CBSA currently believe are in Canada without a valid visa; (b) how many of those individuals in (a) are pending adjudication by the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB); (c) how many of those individuals in (a) have had their case resolved by the IRB but are awaiting judicial review; (d) how many of those individuals in (a) have exhausted all legal avenues including the IRB and judicial review, and of those what is the number of those individuals that (i) are currently detained, (ii) are currently awaiting deportation, (iii) the CBSA lost track of; and (e) of those individuals in (d), how many (i) have been convicted in Canada of a criminal code offence, (ii) have been convicted in their country of origin of an equivalent charge to a criminal code offence, (iii) of those convicted are currently being detained, (iv) are set to be deported in 2024, (v) has the CBSA lost track of?

With regard to the Special Immigration Measures for Afghans who assisted our Canadian Armed Forces as interpreters or locally engaged staff, since July 22, 2021, to present: (a) how many of these Afghans have reached Canada; (b) how many of these Afghans have been referred by the Department of National Defence (DND) to Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and received an invitation to apply; (c) how many of these Afghans have been referred by DND to IRCC, but have not received an invitation to apply; (d) of the Afghans referred by DND to IRCC who have not been invited to apply, (i) what database are their names being held in, (ii) who is responsible for making the decision to put their names into the Global Case Management System, assign them an application number, and send an invitation to apply; and (e) what criteria are being used to determine which Afghans should receive an application number and an invitation to apply and when, and are these Afghans being tiered based on the severity of their individual security circumstances?

With regard to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the temporary special measures for extended family in Gaza due to the Israel-Hamas war, since the December 21, 2023 announcement: (a) how many applications have been (i) received, (ii) accepted, (iii) denied, (iv) pending or under review; (b) what is the breakdown by male and female; (c) what is the breakdown by age range; (d) how many were study permits; (e) how many were open work permits; and (f) how many IMM 5992 statutory declaration forms have been filled out?

With regard to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and applications to the temporary resident to permanent resident pathway during the program's dates of May 6 to November 5, 2021, broken down by province and territory: (a) how many applications (i) were received, (ii) have been completed, (iii) were approved, (iv) have been refused, (v) are currently outstanding; (b) how many agents are working on the program; (c) on an average weekday, how many processing agents were working at the Whitehorse, Yukon, IRCC office on these files during this time; and (d) what was the budget for processing the applications?

With regard to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada's Humanitarian and Compassionate immigration category, in 2023: (a) what is the total amount of applications under this category that (i) have been submitted, (ii) have been accepted, (iii) have been rejected, (iv) have been withdrawn, (v) are still waiting to be processed; (b) what is the total number of individual names and the total number of applications under this category that (i) have been submitted, (ii) have been accepted, (iii) have been rejected, (iv) have been withdrawn, (v) are still waiting to be processed; (c) what is the total amount of applications of Ukrainian origin under this category that (i) have been submitted, (ii) have been accepted, (iii) have been rejected, (iv) have been withdrawn, (v) are still waiting to be processed; (d) what is the total number of individual names and the total number of applications of Ukrainian origin under this category that (i) have been submitted, (ii) have been accepted, (iii) have been rejected, (iv) have been withdrawn, (v) are still waiting to be processed; (e) what is the total amount of applications of Haitian origin under this category that (i) have been submitted, (ii) have been accepted, (iii) have been rejected, (iv) have been withdrawn, (v) are still waiting to be processed; (f) what is the total number of individual names and the total number of applications of Haitian origin under this category that (i) have been submitted, (ii) have been accepted, (iii) have been rejected, (iv) have been withdrawn, (v) are still waiting to be processed; (g) what is the total amount of applications of Sudanese origin under this category that (i) have been submitted, (ii) have been accepted, (iii) have been rejected, (iv) have been withdrawn, (v) are still waiting to be processed; (h) what is the total number of individual names and the total number of applications of Sudanese origin under this category that (i) have been submitted, (ii) have been accepted, (iii) have been rejected, (iv) have been withdrawn, (v) are still waiting to be processed; (i) what is the total amount of applications of Hong Kongese origin under this category that (i) have been submitted, (ii) have been accepted, (iii) have been rejected, (iv) have been withdrawn, (v) are still waiting to be processed; (j) what is the total number of individual names and the total number of applications of Hong Kongese origin under this category that (i) have been submitted, (ii) have been accepted, (iii) have been rejected, (iv) have been withdrawn, (v) are still waiting to be processed; (k) what is the total amount of applications of Colombian origin under this category that (i) have been submitted, (ii) have been accepted, (iii) have been rejected, (iv) have been withdrawn, (v) are still waiting to be processed; (I) what is the total number of individual names and the total number of applications of Colombian origin under this category that (i) have been submitted, (ii) have been accepted, (iii) have been rejected, (iv) have been withdrawn, (v) are still waiting to be processed; (m) what is the total amount of applications of Venezuelan origin under this category that (i) have been submitted, (ii) have been accepted, (iii) have been rejected, (iv) have been withdrawn, (v) are still waiting to be processed; and (n) what is the total number of individual names and the total number of applications of Venezuelan origin under this category that (i) have been submitted, (ii) have been accepted, (iii) have been rejected, (iv) have been withdrawn, (v) are still waiting to be processed?

With regard to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and the temporary public policy creating permanent resident pathways for Hong Kong residents since 2021, broken down by month and year: (a) how many individuals of Hong Kong origin have immigrated to Canada, broken down by immigration stream; (b) how many individuals of Hong Kong origin have applied for permanent residency on humanitarian and compassionate grounds separate from the temporary public policy permanent residency pathways since 2021; (c) with regard to the figures in (a) and (b), how many have received permanent residency; (d) with regard to figures in (c), what was the average processing time; (e) what is the breakdown of the application numbers since 2021, broken down by Permanent Residency category for (i) Stream A, (ii) Stream B; (f) with regard to the figures in (e), how many applications have been (i) approved, (ii) rejected, (iii) are under review; (g) of the rejections in (f), what are the categorized reasons for rejecting the application, broken down by number; (h) of the cases under review in (f), how many of them are (i) individual applications, (ii) family applications; (i) of the approvals in (f), were any tied to existing departmental quotas for the temporary public policy or allocations made within annual immigration levels targets; (j) of applications for the open work permits for applicants of the Hong Kong permanent resident pathways, how many were made by individuals with “HKPPTR” inputted for the job title since the program was instituted in 2021; (k) of the applications in (j), how many were (i) accepted, (ii) rejected, (iii) under review; (l) of the rejections in (k), what is the breakdown of rejections by IRCC office or processing center; and (m) how many applications were rejected based, at least in part, on a labour market impact assessment?

With regard to the applications for the resettlement of refugees from Afghanistan, submitted to Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC): (a) how many applications were filed under the special immigration program for Afghan nationals, and their families, who assisted the Government of Canada; (b) how many of the applicants in (a) remain in Afghanistan; (c) how many applicants in (a) have been refused; (d) how many applicants in (a) have come to Canada; (e) what is the breakdown of (d) by month, since July 2021; (f) how many applications submitted under the Special Immigration Measures (SIM) program, the Afghan humanitarian Government-Assisted Refugees (GAR) program, as well as the Afghan humanitarian Privately Sponsored Refugees (PSR) program have yet to be processed by IRCC; (g) what is the average amount of time that those applications in (f) have to wait before being processed; (h) how many applications submitted under the SIMs, GARs, and PSR have completed biometrics; (i) how many government employees have been working on applications filed under the SIMs since July 2021; (j) what is the breakdown of (i) by month, from July 2021 to February 2022; and (k) how many IRCC employees were in Afghanistan from August 15 to 27, 2021?

With regard to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the government's "Check processing times" webpage, broken down by application type, sub-type, when applicable, and by country: (a) what is the service standard for processing each type of application, measured in days; (b) what is the actual time it takes to process each type of application, measured in days; and (c) during the current fiscal year, broken down by month, how many individuals have been processed (i) within the service standard, (ii) outside the service standard?

With regard to the Special Immigration Measures for Afghan Nationals who assisted the Government of Canada: (a) broken down by unique email address, how many applications were received via email or webform for this program, to date; (b) how many application names did not appear on Department of National Defence (DND) or Global Affairs Canada (GAC) referral lists; (c) were the applicants in (b) notified that their application was not referred to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada; (d) if the answer to (c) is affirmative, what recourse options are available to the applicant to demonstrate their eligibility; and (e) what guidance or internal policy has DND and GAC used to determine eligibility of Afghan Nationals that applied for this program?

With regard to the Canada Border Services Agency's (CBSA) immigration detention and alternatives to detention (ATD) programs: (a) how many individuals are currently detained, broken down by detention type and facility, including (i) immigration holding centres (IHCs), (ii) provincial jails, (iii) federal prisons; (b) of the individuals currently detained in (a), broken down by detention type and facility, how many are (i) failed refugee claimants, (ii) individuals with criminal convictions, broken down by specific offense type, (iii) individuals classified as a danger to the public; (c) how many individuals are currently subject to ATDs, broken down by type of ATD, including (i) reporting conditions, (ii) financial bonds, (iii) community supervision programs; (d) of the individuals in (c), broken down by type of ATD, how many (i) have breached their conditions, (ii) are failed refugee claimants, (iii) have criminal convictions, broken down by specific offense type; (e) how many minors have been detained or housed in IHCs in the past five years, broken down by year, and of those minors, how many (i) were unaccompanied, (ii) were accompanied by a parent or guardian, (iii) remained in detention for more than 14 days; (f) how many deportations have been executed since 2019 for individuals detained in (i) IHCs, (ii) provincial jails, (iii) federal prisons, broken down by year and by the top country of deportation; and (g) what contingency plans has the CBSA developed to address a potential increase in irregular migrants or asylum seekers from the United States due to changes in U.S. deportation policies, including (i) the establishment of additional detention facilities, (ii) resource and staffing requirements, (iii) operational capacity enhancements?

With regard to the refusal of applications submitted to Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada: (a) how many applications were submitted between January 1, 2014, and January 31, 2021; (b) how many applications in (a) were refused; (c) what is the breakdown of (a) and (b) by (i) country of applicant, (ii) line of business being applied to, (iii) month; (d) how many applications in (a) were processed using Chinook; (e) what is the breakdown of (d) by (i) country of applicant, (ii) line of business being applied to, (iii) month; (f) of the visa offices using Chinook, what is the refusal rate of applications, broken down by line of business; and (g) what is the breakdown of (f) by year from 2017 to 2021?

With regard to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada: (a) what is the number of applications (i) received in total, (ii) accepted, (iii) rejected, for visitor visas to Canada, broken down by year since 2016, and by reason for visiting; and (b) what is the breakdown of (a) by country of applicant?

With regard to the current processing delays of immigration applications: (a) what are the current standards for processing times of applications for the Federal Skilled Worker Program; (b) what is the government's target date for when service standards will return to normal; (c) what are the current standards for processing times for applications for Canadian Experience Class permanent residency; (d) what is the government's target date for when service standards will return to normal; (e) how much did the government pay out in overtime to employees working on permanent residence applications between March 1, 2022, and May 4, 2022; and (f) how many employees are or were working at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada on permanent residence files as of (i) January 1, 2016, (ii) January 1, 2020, (iii) May 4, 2022?

With regard to Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC): (a) since January 1, 2020, how many applications have been (i) received, (ii) approved, (iii) rejected, (iv) are in inventory, broken down by month, stream (e.g. Home Child Care Provider, citizenship, etc.), and whether the application was inland or outland; (b) how many applications have passed eligibility, criminality and security, but do not have a final decision since January 1, 2020, broken down by month, stream, and whether the application was inland or outland; (c) for applications in (b), what is the average time that has passed since passing the most recent of those steps, broken down by stream, and whether the application was inland or outland; (d) how many first-stage decisions on applications for the Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker pilots have been issued between January 1, 2021, and June 30, 2021; (e) broken down by year and reason for refusal (including reason for not passing eligibility), what is the number of Humanitarian and Compassionate applications that were refused since 2015; (f) for how many applications in (e) did an officer request additional information from an applicant prior to issuing a refusal; (g) broken down by stream, how many applications submitted to bilingual streams (Stream A, Stream B and International Graduates) of the temporary resident to permanent resident pathway were issued refusals for failing to submit French language test result; and (h) how many applications in (g) received a positive eligibility assessment following a reconsideration?

With regard to the current backlog of applications received by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, broken down by immigration stream and type of application: (a) what is the length of the backlog; and (b) what is the number of backlogged applications?

With regard to immigration, asylum, and refugee measures and programs established since September 2001: (a) what is the number of Afghan nationals that have been admitted to Canada, in total, and broken down by year, month, and program or measure; (b) what is the total number of Afghan nationals that have been granted permission to travel to or enter Canada by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC); (c) what is the total number of applications from Afghan nationals that have been accepted by IRCC; (d) what is the total number of Afghan nationals contained within the applications in (c); (e) with respect to the applications in (c), what is the number that received a negative decision from IRCC, broken down by year, month, and program or measure; (f) with respect to the applications in (e), what (i) is the number of Afghan nationals contained within the applications, broken down by year, month, and program or measure, (ii) were the reasons provided for the negative decisions, (iii) is the number of applications that received each reason, broken down by year, month, and program or measure; (g) what is the number of Afghan nationals that have been granted permission to travel to or enter Canada by IRCC, broken down by year, month, and program or measure; (h) what is the number of applications from Afghan nationals that have been accepted by IRCC, broken down by year, month, and program or measure; (i) what is the date of the establishment of each program or measure; (j) what is the date of each program or measure’s closing to applications; and (k) what is the date of each program or measure’s termination?