Admissibility and making a final decision (Interim Pathway for Caregivers)

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

Determining admissibility

Once the processing office has determined that an applicant is a member of the Interim Pathway for Caregivers, medical examinations, and criminal and security checks are required from all of the following:

the principal applicant
their family members, whether accompanying or not

Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit police certificates up front with their application. Should the police certificate(s) not be 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 more. Refer them to Where to get a police certificate for more information.

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

Inadmissibility and non-accompanying family members

The Case Processing Centre – Edmonton (CPC-E) should review Global Case Management System (GCMS) notes from the initial work permit application at the visa office to verify that the visa officer confirmed the applicant’s marital status.
The CPC-E may ask the visa office to confirm the statutory declaration or other information provided by the live-in caregiver concerning their marital status at the time of their application for permanent residence.
A non-accompanying family member may become an accompanying family member only if requested by the principal applicant before permanent residence has been granted and if the appropriate fees are paid at the time the request is made.

Processing family members

The CPC-E is responsible for completing the eligibility of all family members. If after reviewing the triage criteria, the eligibility or admissibility assessment of an overseas family member is deemed complex, a verification activity will be created in GCMS and assigned to the responsible overseas mission. That mission will also be added as a secondary office.

The application at the CPC-E will be removed from any active processing until the overseas verification activity is completed.

Once the verification activity has been completed by the mission, the CPC-E will resume processing of the application, including any follow-up action such as procedural fairness letters, issuance of medical instructions and making other admissibility decisions.

Ineligible family members

If, after reviewing an application, an officer believes that the declared spouse or declared dependent children are not members of the family class as defined in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, they should apply procedural fairness, outline their concerns to the applicant and provide a deadline for the applicant to submit additional information about the ineligible spouse or dependent children.

If, by the deadline, the officer still believes that the spouse or dependent child is ineligible, the officer should remove the ineligible dependant and continue to assess the admissibility of the remaining family members. The officer must send a removal letter explaining why the ineligible family member can no longer be included in the application and cannot be issued travel documents.

If the family members are being processed outside Canada, the visa officer must also inform the CPC-E (or the IRCC inland office, as applicable) of the removal of the declared dependant.

If the ineligible family member is being processed on the Caregiver application, this family member should be disassociated from the application with the reason listed as “Ineligible family member”.

Inadmissible family members

If, after reviewing an application, an officer believes that a family member of the principal applicant is inadmissible, they should apply procedural fairness, outline their concerns to the applicant and provide a deadline for the applicant to submit additional information about the possible inadmissibility.

If no additional information is provided by the deadline, or the additional information does not change the inadmissibility assessment, the officer must refuse the application.

If the family members are being processed outside Canada, the visa officer must notify the CPC-E (or the IRCC inland office, as applicable) of the inadmissible family member. The CPC-E (or the IRCC inland office) is always responsible for notifying the principal applicant of the inadmissible family member and, subsequently, the refusal of their application, even when the family members are processed by a visa office.

On Caregiver applications, while the office processing the inadmissible family member will set the admissibility activity as “Failed”, the CPC-E (or the IRCC inland office, as applicable) will enter the final refusal decision.

Non-compliant family members: requests for information or medical examinations

Officers must ensure that procedural fairness (PDF 597.29 KB) has been respected before closing an application. Although the person is inadmissible when failing to comply, the principal applicant must have been given an opportunity to provide documents or information in response to the original request.

Therefore, the principal applicant as well as the CPC-E (or the IRCC inland office, as applicable) should be included in all procedural fairness correspondence sent to overseas family members. Correspondence should also be recorded and uploaded in GCMS.

When there is non-compliance by overseas family members and sufficient opportunity has been given to submit the information or undergo a medical exam, the officer must assess the application based on the information on file and find the applicant inadmissible per section A11 (pursuant to subsection A16(1) or (2), or paragraph R30(1)(a), as applicable).

If the overseas family members are being assessed on a separate caregiver application, a new eligibility activity should be created and set to “Failed”, and the final disposition should be set to “Refused”. Subsequently, the CPC-E (or the IRCC inland office, as applicable) must be advised.

If the overseas family members are being assessed on the Caregiver application, the CPC-E (or the IRCC inland office, as applicable) must be advised immediately of the inadmissible family member and that processing of the overseas family members has been completed.

In either case, the CPC-E (or the IRCC inland office, as applicable) must take the appropriate action.

If the CPC-E determines that the principal applicant has been adequately notified of the request, they should assess and conclude the application based on the information on file and refuse it on non-compliance.
If the non-compliance is determined by a visa office, the CPC-E should send another procedural fairness letter notifying the principal applicant of the non-compliance by overseas family members.
If the CPC-E determines that the additional time requested by the principal applicant or their family members is unwarranted, they should assess the application based on the information on file and refuse it on non-compliance.

Assessment of overseas family members

If, after reviewing the application, a visa officer determines that all overseas family members are admissible and have met statutory requirements, the visa officer should send an email to the CPC-E (or the IRCC inland office, if applicable) to advise them.

If the overseas family members are non-accompanying, the final disposition of the caregiver application should be set to “Withdrawn” and a note should be entered indicating that the file was closed because the overseas family members are non-accompanying. A non-concurrent closure letter must be sent to the family members.

If the overseas family members are accompanying, the officer should await notification from the IRCC inland office that the principal applicant in Canada has landed before issuing travel documents to the overseas family members. If applicable, the officer should also ensure that the “Declaration from Non-Accompanying Parent/Guardian for Minors Immigrating to Canada” form [IMM 5604] and a signed photo identification is on file for minor dependants.

If this form – or an appropriate document in lieu of consent (court order or custody agreement) – cannot be provided, the minor cannot be issued travel documents and will be changed to a non-accompanying dependant. A final decision of “Approved” should be entered on caregiver applications for accompanying overseas family members only after the principal applicant on file has landed.

For further guidance on consent, refer to sections 5.7 and 5.8 of chapter OP 1, Procedures (PDF, 597.29 KB).

Applicants cannot be granted permanent residence if they or any of their family members are found to be inadmissible. When the principal applicant and their family members are being processed concurrently by both the CPC-E and a visa office, a final decision cannot be made until it has been determined that all applicants are not inadmissible.

Making a final decision

Approving the application

To finalize the case, the CPC-E does all of the following:

confirms in the 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 form (COPR) [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
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 CPC-E is processing the applications of the principal applicant’s overseas family members
- it provides instructions to the principal applicant regarding the requirement for their accompanying family members to submit their passports to the appropriate visa office and
- adds the appropriate 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, which does all of 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)^{Footnote i}

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 does all of the following:

confirms that the right of permanent residence fee has been paid for all accompanying family members
confirms, 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, refers the application back to the processing office for review
issues the COPR and, when applicable, visa counterfoils to all accompanying family members

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

Refusing the application

When a case is refused, the CPC-E does all of 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
- informs the applicant, if they still have valid status, that their status and work permit will not be extended and that they should leave Canada at the end of their authorized stay
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 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 disposition on the dependants’ files as either of the following
- “refused” for accompanying family members
- “withdrawn” for non-accompanying family members

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Date modified:: 2019-04-26

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