Canadian visa applications are being processed at a faster rate.

According to the latest figures released by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, people who applied for visas to move to Canada found that their visa applications were being processed at a rate twelve percent faster in 2008 than the previous year.

The result will be welcomed extremely cautiously by the critics of the government who have time and again said that the slow paced processing of applications discourages highly skilled, talented and educated immigrants from coming to Canada.

But things have improved at least in comparison to previous years. Last year eighty percent of applications were processed within a period of 33 months whereas in 2007, it was processed within a period of 37 months.

People who are applying for marriage visas are also faring well, as eighty percent of applications in this category were processed within a period of just eleven months. However, in this case the duration was higher than previous year when the average application time in this category was only eight months.

Another criticism that the Department has to face is that it there has been discrepancies when it comes to applications from different countries, for instance, applications of Canadian visas from applicants who are from the United States wait for 21 months, whereas those from Asia have to wait for 55 months on an average.

Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney said that the improvement in the processing time is a positive step and termed it as a huge development in an interview. He said that it has been more than two decades that the waiting time as only increased and this is the first time it has decreased.

Kenney however expressed his concerns over the fact that skilled migrants select New Zealand or Australia as their prime destination just because of the application time.