ARCHIVED – Notice of Changes to the Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) Program

October 19, 2012 — As part of Canada’s Refugee Resettlement Program, private sponsors, Sponsorship Agreement Holders, Groups of Five and Community Sponsors in Canada may submit applications to sponsor refugees from abroad.

New regulations which change the resettlement program for these groups came into effect today.

Sponsorship Application Changes for all Private Sponsors excluding Quebec

CIC has made regulatory amendments to reduce delays during the processing of PSR applications by:

1. requiring that the permanent resident application and the sponsorship undertaking be submitted together to a designated CIC office in Canada;
2. defining what makes up a complete application so that CIC receives all the information needed to process PSR applications; and
3. allowing CIC to return both applications (permanent residence and sponsorship undertaking) if the required information is missing.

Sponsorship Eligibility Changes for Groups of Five and Community Sponsors

The regulatory amendments also limit Groups of Five and Community Sponsors to sponsoring applicants who are recognized as refugees by either the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or a state.

Note: These regulatory changes do not apply to sponsors in the province of Quebec which has its own process to sponsor refugees.

These changes address stakeholder concerns about processing times and are in line with departmental efforts to manage the intake of applications and improve the efficiency of application processing in the private sponsorship of refugees program.

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