Caring for children and caring for people with high medical needs classes: Admissibility and making a final decision

This section contains policy, procedures and guidance used by IRCC staff. It is posted on the department’s website as a courtesy to stakeholders.

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Determining admissibility

Once the processing office has determined that an applicant is a member of the class, the principal applicant and their family members, whether accompanying or not, must undergo criminal and security checks.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit police certificates up front with their application. However, if the police certificates are not included, the processing office must request a police certificate for the applicant’s current country of residence as well as one for any country where they have lived for 6 months or longer. See Police certificates for immigration and citizenship for more information.

The principal applicant and all their family members, whether accompanying or not, must pass a medical examination. The processing office must instruct the principal applicant and their family members to undergo a medical examination.

Processing family members

Applicants cannot be granted permanent residence if they or any of their family members are found to be inadmissible.

See the section on processing family members in Permanent residence applications from live-in caregivers: Assessing admissibility requirements, as the procedures are the same.

Ineligible family members

See the section on ineligible family members in Permanent residence applications from live-in caregivers: Assessing admissibility requirements, as the procedures are the same.

Inadmissible family members

See the section on inadmissible family members in Permanent residence applications from live-in caregivers: Assessing admissibility requirements, as the procedures are the same.

For detailed information about determining admissibility, see manual chapter ENF 2/OP 18 Evaluating inadmissibility.

Making a final decision

Approving the application

To finalize the case, the case processing centre does the following:

  • confirms in the Global Case Management System (GCMS) that the applicant and all their family members have satisfied all statutory requirements and have valid clearances
  • sends an electronic draft of the Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR) form [IMM 5688] to the appropriate IRCC inland office for the principal applicant and family members in Canada
  • includes the names of family members living abroad, the responsible visa office, the file number and the permanent resident category (CG or HMN)
  • issues an approval letter to the principal applicant, informing them that the processing of their application is now complete and that IRCC will be in contact to arrange a landing appointment
  • if applicable, provides instructions to the principal applicant on how their family members must send their passports to the appropriate visa office
  • if the case processing centre is processing the applications of the principal applicant’s overseas family members, provides instructions to the principal applicant regarding the requirement for the accompanying family members to submit their passport to the appropriate visa office
  • if the case processing centre is processing the applications of the principal applicant’s overseas family members, adds the visa office as the secondary office and removes the application from any active processing groups in GCMS
  • enters a final decision in GCMS

The remainder of the process is completed by an IRCC inland office, who does the following:

  • prints the COPR and requests that the principal applicant and their family members in Canada appear for a landing interview;
  • grants permanent residence to the applicant and their family members in Canada;
  • if the principal applicant has family members overseas,
    • informs the responsible visa office that permanent residence has been granted to the principal applicant so that the visa office may issue permanent resident visas to overseas family members being processed concurrently;
  • sends instructions to the principal applicant on how their family members must send their passports to the appropriate visa office (this is done for all visa offices, except for Manila).

Process at a visa office

Upon notification from the IRCC inland office that the principal applicant has been granted permanent residence, the visa office responsible for any accompanying overseas family members should

  • confirm that the right of permanent residence fee (RPRF) has been paid for all accompanying family members;
  • confirm, when applicable, that all medical and criminality checks and travel documents are still valid and will remain valid long enough for the applicant(s) to be admitted to Canada;
  • if any of the above cannot be confirmed, refer the application back to the processing office for review;
  • issue COPRs and, when applicable, visa counterfoils to all accompanying family members.

See also section 8.6, Roles and responsibilities in the final approval process (PDF, 221.88 KB), of chapter OP 24, Overseas Processing of Family Members of In-Canada Applicants for Permanent Residence.

Refusing the application

When a case is refused, the case processing centre does the following:

  • sends a letter to the principal applicant, explaining the reason for the refusal
  • if the applicant is in Canada and is refused for eligibility reasons but still has valid status, informs the applicant that they must have legal status in Canada to remain in the country legally
  • if the applicant is in Canada and is refused for inadmissibility, takes appropriate actions, depending on the inadmissibility grounds [that is, refers the case to the IRCC inland office to write a subsection A44(1) report, which could lead to an admissibility hearing or a removal order] (see ENF 1 (PDF, 618.98 KB), ENF 2/OP 18, ENF 3 (PDF, 626.22 KB) and ENF 5 (PDF, 421.72 KB) for more information on inadmissibility and the actions to be taken)
  • shows the final decision on the dependants’ files as one of the following:
    • “refused” for accompanying family members
    • “withdrawn” for non-accompanying family members

If the file has been sent to a visa office overseas, the visa office

  • shows the final decision on the dependants’ files as one of the following:
    • “refused” for accompanying family members
    • “withdrawn” for non-accompanying family members
  • informs the case processing centre (or the IRCC inland office, as applicable) of the refused overseas family members

Note: The visa office does not inform family members of the final decision on the case and does not send a refusal letter. Instead, the case processing centre (or the IRCC inland office) is responsible for notifying the principal applicant and sending the appropriate letter.

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