Operational Bulletin 486-A – September 25, 2013

The Global Electronic Applications (e-Apps) for Temporary Residents

Summary

This Operational Bulletin (OB) serves to update the information and procedures outlined in OB 486. The authorities had published OB 486 on December 17, 2012.

The updated information and procedures specified in this OB concern the processing of Electronic Applications (e-Apps) for Temporary Residents (TRs).

The Electronic Applications (e-Apps) enabled clients across the world to have an additional alternative for submitting an application for:

• A Temporary Resident Visa
• A Study Permit or,
• A Work Permit

Clients could submit applications for these programs using the:

• Come to Canada Wizard and,
• MyCIC portal

Readers might need to refer to the descriptions of the Come to Canada Wizard and MyCIC. For this, they would need to go through the details listed in Appendix A, at the end of this document.

The Electronic Applications (e-Apps) register all the information submitted with an application. Thereafter, the Electronic Applications (e-Apps) converts all the information submitted into an electronic format.

Having all data in an electronic format helps officers in the Department to transfer temporary resident applications electronically. Officers transfer these applications electronically to offices within the global network, which have the existing capacity. This enables officers of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) to manage their workload more efficiently.

Issue

The global launch of Electronic Applications (also called e-Apps or Online Submission of Applications [OSAP]) for Temporary Resident programs took place on December 15, 2012. This Operational Bulletin (OB) provides information on the changes and procedures for:

• In-Canada offices abroad and,
• Visa offices abroad

Background

The authorities had conducted a global launch of Electronic Applications (e-Apps) for Temporary Resident (TR) applications in December 2012. Since then, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has received over 300,000 applications. In addition, the use of electronic applications continues to rise with each passing day.

Officers declare that most of these applications originate from within Canada. However, more and more applicants are using the Electronic Applications (e-Apps) from several countries around the world.

This OB contains a selection of information and instructions for Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) offices. In addition, it contains information that offices need to share with clients in certain situations.

The Instructions

1. CIC Global Network Roles and Responsibilities for Electronic Applications (e-Apps)
2. Information and Processing Instructions for CIC Offices
3. Resources for Processing Offices
4. Providing Instructions to Clients
5. Returns and Refunds

Readers would need to refer to the following documents on the CIC website:

• Screen shots for querying in the Global Case Management System (GCMS) to find Electronic Applications (e-Apps)
• The Electronic Applications (e-Apps) Process Maps such as:
• The Client Experience Process Map
• The Case Processing Centre – Vegreville (CPC-V) / Operations Support Centre (OSC) [In Canada Processing] Process Map and,
• Overseas and Case Processing Centre – Ottawa (CPC-O) Process Map

Source: Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)