Program delivery update – May 31, 2017

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

Summary

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.

Updated instructions

• Abandonment