Roles and responsibilities (SAH)

(REF-OVS-11-2)

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

The roles and responsibilities of all parties associated with sponsorship agreement holder (SAH) caps are outlined below.

IRCC

Refugee Affairs Branch (RAB) is the departmental lead for setting the annual SAH sponsorship global cap.

Resettlement Operations Division (ROD) determines the specific annual individual SAH allocations and prepares an annual Frequently Asked Questions document for SAHs to explain the allocations methodology and rules surrounding cap space usage and tracking. It also manages a contingency pool and new SAH reserve pool.

The Resettlement Operations Centre in Ottawa (ROC-O) is responsible for:

  • receiving, tracking, verifying and assessing all new privately sponsored refugee (PSR) applications submitted by SAHs
  • working with the SAH Secretariat to track SAH cap space allocations to ensure that SAHs have not exceeded their annual allocated cap space

SAHs

SAHs are responsible for managing their sponsorship applications. This includes tracking approved and pending sponsorship applications so that they do not exceed their individual cap allocation. Over-submissions may have implications for allocations in the following year; as such, SAHs are strongly encouraged to track their space usage accordingly.

SAH Secretariat

The SAH Secretariat is responsible for tracking SAH application submissions to ensure they do not exceed their annual allocation. The Secretariat also provides assistance by locating cap spaces for SAHs that may have insufficient space for future applications.

The SAH Secretariat also does the following:

  • confirms trades of cap spaces between SAHs
  • manages the SAH reserve pool
  • ensures that SAHs have sufficient cap spaces for all newly added dependants

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