The Return of Fees for Certain Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) Applications

The authorities were processing certain applications made under the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) program prior to February 27, 2008. They ceased processing these applications with effect from June 29, 2012. Thereafter, as required by law, the authorities have needed to repay the fees paid to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) in respect of the affected applications to the applicants who paid them.

Overview

National Headquarters (NHQ) Finance would be implementing a phased approach for the return of fees for the terminated Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) applications. They would be giving first priority to those applicants who:

• Responded to the general notice on the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) website as affected by the terminating provision of the Act and,
• Submitted the Return of Processing Fee, Right of Permanent Residence Fee or Right of Landing Fee form and,
• Provided the contact information as directed

National Headquarters (NHQ) Finance would subsequently follow up with all the affected applicants for confirming their contact information in advance of issuing the relevant fee returns.

To facilitate the compilation of data that the National Headquarters (NHQ) Finance requires for initiating the return of fees, the visa officers would need to take certain actions. In addition, unsuccessful applicants who had paid the Right of Permanent Residence Fees (RPRF) would continue to be entitled to a return of that fee in accordance with existing procedures.

The Returning Fees Paid to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)

National Headquarters (NHQ) Finance would be responsible for centralising the process of returning fees paid to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) concerning the termination of the affected applications. For this, National Headquarters (NHQ) Finance would consult the visa offices as required. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) would initiate the fee returns and communications with the affected applicants in due course of time.

National Headquarters (NHQ) Finance would typically use the POS+ data available at missions as the basis for the amounts it needs to refund. It would also communicate with the affected missions in due course for providing further instructions on the extraction of the required data. Thereafter, National Headquarters (NHQ) Finance would match the POS+ data with the eligible cases extracted from the Computer Assisted Immigration Processing System (CAIPS) or the Global Case Management System (GCMS). This will eventually form the baseline data for the purpose of returning the fees to the payee.

In addition, National Headquarters (NHQ) Finance would also communicate with the eligible applicants in due course for confirming contact and payee information prior to initiating any return of fees paid to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). They will provide the applicants with a reasonable period of time for responding to these confirmation notices.

In some cases, the possibility exists that applicants might not respond to any initial and subsequent follow-up communications. In this scenario, the authorities would terminate the applications. However, they would still be able to take action at a future date for returning the fees to the person who paid them.

National Headquarters (NHQ) Finance would issue fee returns in the appropriate currency for the country in which the person who paid the fees resides. For this, it would use the daily exchange conversion rate in effect on the date of issuance. In addition, unsuccessful applicants who had paid the Right of Permanent Residence Fees (RPRF) would continue to be entitled to a return of that fee in accordance with existing procedures.

Source: CIC