CSIS immigration screening standards

AI summary

The petitioners say immigration security screening involves IRCC, CSIS and CBSA and that delays at CSIS—which they contend lacks a public service standard—are creating backlogs that delay CBSA and IRCC decisions; they cite CSIS’s 2025 public report and CBSA’s 107‑day target and say such delays have caused family, career and legal harms. The petitioners ask the government to require CSIS to publish measurable service standards and aggregate performance data, establish an escalation and review process for overdue cases, and issue a time‑bound backlog‑reduction plan; no government response is included in the petition.

AI summaries describe petitioners’ requests and claims. Consult the official record for the full text.

Official petition

Petition to the Government of Canada Immigration security screening is shared by IRCC, CSIS and CBSA; For applications requiring CSIS screening, CBSA has confirmed that its work begins only after CSIS completes its review, so delays at CSIS delay CBSA screening and IRCC’s final decision; CBSA strives to complete permanent-residence security screening within 107 calendar days after CSIS finishes, while CSIS has no comparable public service standard; CSIS states in its 2025 Public Report that its immigration-screening inventory remains at a historic high and that NSIRA complaints increased by 290% between 2024 and 2025, with over 91% relating to alleged delays in CSIS immigration security screening; Prolonged screening can cause family separation, career and financial harm, repeated access requests, oversight complaints and court proceedings; Without a CSIS service standard, Parliament and Canadians lack a benchmark to assess the timeliness and performance of CSIS immigration screening; and Measurable CSIS standards and reporting would improve accountability and efficiency without compromising national security. We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to: 1. Establish and publish measurable CSIS service standards, from receipt of a security screening referral to delivery of advice to CBSA and IRCC; 2. Establish a documented escalation and review process for cases exceeding the applicable service standards; 3. Require CSIS to publish aggregate data on referrals received, completed and outstanding, inventory age, median and 80th-percentile processing times, and performance against the service standards; and 4. Develop and publish a time-bound CSIS immigration-screening backlog-reduction plan with measurable targets and progress reports.

Government response

No government response is available yet.