Operational Bulletin 431 - June 1, 2012

In-Canada Office Closures and the Elimination of Front Counter Service

Issue

To provide information on the closure of 19 local Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) offices and the elimination of front counter service at domestic CIC offices across Canada as of June 1, 2012.

Background

Effective June 1, 2012, the following offices are closed: Kelowna, Nanaimo, Prince George, Victoria, Lethbridge, Regina, Barrie, Kingston, Oshawa, Sault Ste-Marie, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Gatineau, Québec, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières, Saint John, Moncton, and Charlottetown.

In addition, local CIC offices across Canada that remain open will no longer provide front counter service and clients will only have access to these offices by appointment. Signs have been posted at all offices inviting clients to access CIC services through CIC’s website or by contacting CIC’s Call Centre.

CIC continues to explore with partners measures to provide service to clients in remote areas, including directed interviews, video conferencing and itinerant services.

New Applications

As of June 1, 2012, new applications that would normally be sent to a closed office will be referred according to the table below. Note that closed offices may continue to receive files sent to them prior to June 1.

Note 1: CIC Moncton will continue to receive and process files until October 2012 while remaining fully closed to the public. As of October 2012, processing will be transferred to CIC Fredericton.

Citizenship Files

Changes to GCMS to support new jurisdictions due to office closures are unlikely to be implemented before December 2012. Further instructions on workarounds will be provided at a later date.

Applications for Permanent Residence with Humanitarian and Compassionate Considerations

All Backlog Reduction Office HC1/HC2 cases for local referral are currently and will continue to be referred to the network based on local office capacity, and not with respect to the applicant’s geographic zone. FCH files will be referred to remaining offices currently processing these cases, which are geographically closest to the client.

Permanent Resident (PR) Card Applications

New PR cards and PR card applications referred for investigation will be sent to the remaining local CIC offices and processed using existing procedures.

Refugee Claim Intake

The 19 closed offices did minimal refugee intake (less than 1% of all intake). Refugee claimants should be referred to the closest CIC office that continues to accept refugee claims.

Private Sponsorship of Refugee Applications

These applications are all now being received and processed at the Central Processing Office – Winnipeg.

Grants and Contributions

Management of existing contribution agreements (CAs) in locations that are closing will be coordinated through the respective CIC offices as follows: Vancouver for agreements in British Columbia, Winnipeg for agreements in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Toronto for agreements in Ontario offices, and Halifax, for agreements in Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces. Each of these offices will make individual decisions with respect to which specific agreements will be managed by which specific location under their jurisdiction. Each office will take the necessary steps to ensure that services to holders of CAs (such as the receipt and payment of invoices) are not disrupted.

Applications In-process

Applications currently in process will be transferred as per the workload transfer table above. Clients who have already sent documents to any of the closed offices do not need to re-send them.

Urgent Enquiries

Applicants who require urgent processing due to an emergency situation should be advised to contact the Call Centre at 1-888-242-2100.

Disposition of Physical Files

As cases are being finalized, offices should continue to follow retention and disposition procedures and ensure file locations are annotated in the appropriate systems. Further instructions on disposing permanently of physical files will be provided at a later date.

Signs Posted as of June 1, 2012