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

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 Passport Canada, as of December 8, 2022: (a) how many passport applications are currently in the queue, waiting to be processed; and (b) of the applications in (a), how many were received more than 17 weeks ago?

With regard to the Canadian Passport Order, since November 4, 2015, in order to prevent the commission of any act or omission referred to in subsection 7(4.1) of the Criminal Code: (a) how many passports has the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship (i) refused, (ii) revoked, (iii) cancelled; and (b) what is the monthly breakdown of (a)(i), (a)(ii) and (a)(iii)?

With regard to the issuing of passports by Service Canada and by passport offices at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada: (a) how many passport applications were submitted and how many passports were issued, broken down by month and year, since January 1, 2011; and (b) how many public servants or full-time equivalents worked to deliver this service, broken down by month and year, since January 1, 2011?

With regard to passport applications received by Passport Canada between January 1, 2022 and June 15, 2022: (a) how many applications were received, broken down by (i) month, (ii) week; (b) how many applications were processed, broken down by (i) month, (ii) week; (c) how many Passport Canada employees have a Flexible Work Agreement in place, broken down by month; (d) how many personnel did Passport Canada employ on January 1, 2020; (e) how many personnel did Passport Canada employ on May 31, 2022; (f) as of May 31, 2022, how many employees have been hired in the last (i) 30, (ii) 60, (iii) 90, days; and (g) what actions is Passport Canada taking to improve service delivery of the Passport Canada program?

With regard to the issuing of passports: (a) how many passports were mailed to the wrong address, broken down by month since January 1, 2022; (b) how many reports of individuals receiving (i) a passport with errors, (ii) another individual's passport, has the government received; and (c) what is the protocol when an individual receives another individual's passport in error, including whether or not the Privacy Commissioner is notified?

With regard to Passport Canada: how many passport applications are currently being processed that were received more than (i) 20 business days, (ii) eight weeks, (iii) three months, (iv) 17 weeks, (v) six months, ago?

With regard to the temporary public policy to facilitate temporary resident visas (TRV) for certain extended family affected by the crisis in Gaza, since January 9, 2024: (a) how many crisis web form applications have been received by the department, and how many sponsored individuals are represented; (b) how many unique reference codes have been issued and how many anchors and sponsored individuals are represented; (c) how many crisis web form applications have been rejected and (i) how many sponsored individuals are represented, (ii) what was the reason for the rejection; (d) how many crisis web form applications are still being processed and how many sponsored individuals are represented; (e) how many unique reference codes have been used to complete TRV applications; (f) how many TRV applicants have completed biometric processing at a biometric collection processing site prior to January 9, 2024; (g) how many TRV permits have been issued to those who have completed their biometrics prior to January 9, 2024; (h) how many TRV applicants have completed biometric processing at a biometric collection service point since January 9, 2024, and how many of them have been issued a TRV permit; (i) how many TRV applications have been rejected, and what was the reason for rejection; (j) how many TRV applications have been stamped and approved; (k) how many successful applicants were sent to the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) to be allowed to exit Gaza to migrate to Canada; (l) how many TRV applicants have had personal details, which were shared in the application process, other than a full name, date of birth, sex, passport or national ID details, mobile phone number, or current location by district, shared with Israeli authorities; and (m) how many TRV applicants have had information disclosed or additional background information forms shared with Israeli authorities?

With regard to the new passport design unveiled on May 10, 2023: (a) what is the detailed timeline of all actions (calls for proposals, designs reviewed, ministerial approval, etc.) associated with the development of the new passport from when the government first considered changing the passport; and (b) for each action in (a), who was responsible for overseeing that particular part of the process?

With regard to the answer given by the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship on November 26, 2024, in the House of Commons, and his statement that there are about 4.9 million people with temporary documents that are set to expire throughout 2025, of which many may be duplicates: (a) how many are duplicates; (b) by comparison, how many documents expired throughout 2024; (c) of the documents in (b), how many are duplicates; (d) how many documents are set to expire throughout 2026; (e) of the documents in (d), how many are duplicates; (f) in 2024, how many individuals with expired documents left Canada voluntarily; (g) in 2024, how many individuals left Canada due to the Canada Border Services Agency issuing (i) a departure order (ii) an exclusion order (iii) a deportation order; (h) what specific methods does the government use to track individuals and their documents; (i) how does the government draw the conclusion that there is a significant number of duplications of these documents; (j) what specific actions and methods does the government take to eliminate the duplications of individuals' files; (k) what specific technology and methods to track immigrants in Canada with temporary visas has the department deployed to improve the tracking of temporary resident visas and people within Canada in the past two fiscal years; (l) how has the government communicated to the holders of these documents their responsibility to leave the country when their permits expire and the consequences of overstaying their allotted time; (m) what actions has the government taken, and what future steps will it take, to address temporary permit holders who refuse to leave after the end of their restoration period; and (n) how will the government respond to protests by temporary residents who believe they have a right to stay within Canada despite their documents expiring?

With regard to passport processing offices, since March 1, 2019, broken down by month until June 21, 2022: (a) how many public service employees or full-time equivalents were working in person at each passport office; (b) how many requests were received for (i) new passports, (ii) passport renewals, (iii) childrens' passports, (iv) urgent passports; (c) what service standards were communicated to the public about when they would receive their passports; (d) how many passports were issued; and (e) what was the number of unprocessed passport applications?

With regard to the Minister of Veterans Affairs: (a) when did the minister become aware of the government's plan to remove the images of the Vimy Ridge Memorial and Billy Bishop from the Canadian passport; and (b) did the minister do anything to stop the removal of these images, and, if so, what specific action did the minister take?

With regard to the proposed redesign of the Canadian passport: (a) which minister and government department initiated the passport redesign project; (b) what public consultations were held on the new illustrations to be contained on the redesigned passport pages; (c) who determined, and on what basis, the replacement of the former pages of the passport; and (d) how much did the redesigned passport project cost?

With regard to visas for international students in Canada: how many international students (i) are currently studying in Canada, (ii) are studying at institutions accredited by Universities Canada, (iii) are in post-graduate studies, (iv) have transferred institutions within Canada during their period of study, (v) have completed their program of study in the last year, (vi) dropped out of their program of study in the last year, (vii) died in the last year, (viii) died by suicide in the last year?

With regard to visas for international students in Canada: how many international students are (i) currently studying in Canada, (ii) studying at institutions accredited by Universities Canada, (iii) in post-graduate studies, (iv) studying at institutions accredited by the National Association of Career Colleges?

With regard to visitor visa applicants and assessments done by the government, including agencies such as the Canada Border Services Agency at border crossings: what are the criteria used to assess the admissibility of applicants, including the amount of funds that applicants must have, broken down by type of visa?

With regard to the statement by the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development on April 25, 2023, in the House that "The law dictates what is an essential service, and passports are not considered essential under the law.": what is the specific law and subsection which dictates that passports are not considered essential?

With regard to the new passport's development, design, production, and distribution: (a) other than the $284 million contract with the Canadian Bank Note Company, were any other contracts awarded related to the passport, and, if so, what are the details of each, including the (i) vendor, (ii) value, (iii) date, (iv) description of the goods or services provided, (v) manner in which the contract was awarded (competitive bid, sole-sourced)?

With regard to asylum claims made by individuals who arrived in Canada on a student visa, since 2018: how many claims (i) were accepted, (ii) were rejected, (iii) are still being processed, in total and broken down by the school in which the claimant was enrolled when the asylum claim was made?

With regard to individuals requiring an urgent passport for travel commencing within two business days or less being turned away or told to return to passport offices another day, since March 1, 2022: (a) on how many days, broken down by month and by passport office location, were individuals turned away due to (i) lack of capacity, (ii) other reasons, broken down by reason; and (b) does the government have estimates on the number of individuals who were turned away in (a), and, if so, what are they?