The Refund of Fees Procedures for Applications Where the Officers Have Already Processed the Payment
Officers might come across situations where they find applications with payments already in process. In many cases, they might subsequently identify these cases as meeting the conditions for the remission order. In these situations, the applicant file might be in the Case Processing Centre in Sydney, at the Case Management Branch or at the local office.
The Local Office Procedures for the Refund of Fees
The local office might come across a case that is eligible under the remission order for a refund of the fees paid. In addition, it might find that no one has yet refunded these fees. In this scenario, the local office would need to complete the presentation of the certificate and the oath taking. Thereafter, it would need to:
- Place the file in a container clearly identified as remission order cases
- Forward the container to the Case Processing Centre in Sydney Program Support for processing and,
- Add a case note explaining that the officers have forwarded the file to the Case Processing Centre in Sydney Program Support for the refund of fees under the 2007 Citizenship Fees Remission Order
The Case Management Branch Procedures for the Refund of Fees
The Case Management Branch might come across a case that is eligible under the remission order for a refund of the fees paid. In addition, it might find that no one has yet refunded these fees. In this scenario, the Case Management Branch would need to:
- Inform the local office of this situation when it sends the file to the office for the presentation of the certificate and the oath taking
- The local office would identify this as a remission order case when it returns the file to the Case Processing Centre in Sydney (refer to the procedures given above)
The Program Support Officer Procedures for the Refund of Fees
As mentioned above, Program Support would come across cases when it receives files from local offices that have been identified as remission order cases. In this scenario, the program support officer would need to:
- Complete the remission template
- Forward the file to the Case Processing Centre in Sydney for processing the refund and,
- Archive the file after the Case Processing Centre in Sydney has acted and returned it
The Case Processing Centre in Sydney Finance Procedures for the Refund of Fees
The Case Processing Centre in Sydney would typically receive files with completed remission templates from Program Support. On receiving these files, the Case Processing Centre in Sydney would need to:
- Issue the refund under the remission order
- Record all the necessary information for reporting purposes and,
- Return the file to Program Support
The Refunds for Integrated Payment and Revenue Management Systems (IPRMS) Payments at Local Offices
In some situations, the officers could find that National Headquarters (NHQ) centrally issues refunds for Integrated Payment and Revenue Management Systems (IPRMS) payments accepted at local offices. National Headquarters (NHQ) would typically refund payments made online by credit card to the same credit card, where possible. Similarly, National Headquarters (NHQ) would refund payments made at Canadian financial institutions by cheque. The refund process has been given below:
The local office would typically trigger the refund process in the Global Case Management System (GCMS). Global Case Management System (GCMS) users would be aware of the instructions on how they would be able to record refunds in the Global Case Management System (GCMS).
- The local office would need to complete the standard refund form and sign section 20 of the refund form
- Thereafter, it would need to send the refund form and a copy of the Integrated Payment and Revenue Management Systems (IPRMS) receipt to Integrated Payment and Revenue Management Systems (IPRMS) Production
- The Revenue Accounting team in National Headquarters (NHQ) would need to process the refund within three to four weeks and confirm the issuance of the refund to the local office
- The local offices bear the responsibility for following up if they do not receive any confirmations from the Revenue Accounting team beyond processing delays
It is worth noting that only the office that reserves a receipt would be able to allocate that receipt or initiate its refund. In other words, in some situations, officers at a case processing centre (CPC) might cost recover a receipt at the case processing centre (CPC). Thereafter, the case processing centre (CPC) would need to allocate that receipt before transferring the file to the local office.
Similarly, officers might come across refunds that they need to do on a receipt reserved at a case processing centre (CPC) rather than at a local office. In this scenario, they would need to send back these receipts to the case processing centre (CPC) for processing.
Source: Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)