Program delivery update – May 31, 2017

Update to the instructions related to abandonment procedures for the citizenship program

The instructions have been updated to reflect the following:

Abandonment should be used sparingly and as a last resort after all other reasonable actions have been taken.
A new form, Notice of Review of Explanation, is to be used by officers to notify applicants that an unavailability explanation for an event or reason for non-submission of documents was not accepted.
Decision makers must provide an assessment if they deem an explanation to be unreasonable.
Time frames have been adjusted for providing reasonable explanations for events and requests for documentation.
Specific instructions have been added on sending first and final notices for events and requests for documentation.
Further instructions have been added for application closure in the Global Case Management System, including sample notes of acceptable levels of detail.
New instructions have been added on closing an application with an associated concurrent minor application.
The instructions on how and when abandoned applications can be reactivated have been updated.