Operational Bulletin 502 – February 21, 2013

Amendment to the Return of Incomplete Citizenship Applications Submitted by Minors who Became Permanent Residents Under the Refugee Category   

Issue

In certain situations, minors can submit applications for a grant of citizenship to the Case Processing Centre – Sydney (CPC-Sydney). These minors are individuals, who became permanent residents under the refugee category. Currently, these minors can submit applications for a grant of citizenship to the Case Processing Centre – Sydney (CPC-Sydney) without submitting an accompanying:

• Birth certificate or,
• Adoption certificate

Officers often need to assess a minor grant application. To establish the parentage between the parent and the child, officers rely on the birth or the adoption certificates. This is in accordance with the provisions specified in the citizenship policy manual (Section 2.14 of Chapter CP 4 Grants).

This Operational Bulletin (OB) provides guidance to officers. It instructs them in the manner in which they would need to manage these applications. This is necessary because some minor refugees do not have:

• Birth certificates
• Adoption certificates or,
• Any other documents

Thus, it would be difficult for officers to establish the parentage between these minor refugees and their parent(s).

The authorities had published OB 300b on November 08, 2011. Officers would need to refer to this OB for more information on the return of incomplete citizenship applications.

Background

Officers often need to refer to a document checklist for a minor grant application. This document checklist states that officers would need to return the application of minor refugees in case the applicant fails to provide the required:

• Birth certificate or,
• Adoption certificate

A minor child, who is a permanent resident, can become a Canadian citizen. However, for this the minor child would need to have a living biological or an adoptive parent, who:

• Is already a Canadian citizen or,
• Will become a Canadian citizen at the same time as the minor

As per existing policies, officers would presume the establishment of parentage for citizenship purposes if:

• The applicant cannot furnish any documents that establish parentage between the parent and the child and,
• Officers have assessed parentage for immigration purposes

This is in accordance with Section 2.13, Chapter CP 4 of the current citizenship policy manual. The authorities have done this to avoid duplication of work by citizenship processes. This is especially so in cases where officers have conducted the same exercise previously, during an immigration process.

The New Procedures

Currently, the Case Processing Centre – Sydney (CPC-Sydney) does not return the application to the minor when:

• It receives a minor grant application of citizenship without a birth or adoption certificate and,
• The immigration document highlights the fact that the child’s immigrant category falls under one of the refugee categories
• The immigration document could include one of the following documents:
• The Record of Landing
• The Confirmation of Permanent Residence or,
• The Permanent Resident Card

Instead, CPC-Sydney does not allocate the fee. In addition, it refer the application and the proof of payment to a Level 1 decision-maker. The Level 1 decision-maker works on establishing the parentage between the parent and the minor.

The Level 1 decision-maker would attempt to establish the parentage between the parent and the minor, by taking the following steps. The Level 1 decision-maker would check whether:

• The immigration document successfully establishes the parentage between the parent and the minor
• In case the immigration document successfully establishes the parentage between the parent and the minor, the Level 1 decision-maker would allocate the fee and continue the processing of the case
• In case the immigration document does not establish the parentage between the parent and the minor, the Level 1 decision-maker would check whether the Global Case Management System (GCMS) or the Field Operations Support System (FOSS) can establish the parentage between the parent and the minor
• In case the Global Case Management System (GCMS) or the Field Operations Support System (FOSS) establish successfully the parentage between the parent and the minor, the Level 1 decision-maker would:
• Allocate the fee and continue the processing of the case and,
• Complete Part A of the File Requirements Checklist (CIT 0508) to confirm that parentage was established through:
• The immigration document
• The Global Case Management System (GCMS) or,
• The Field Operations Support System (FOSS)
• In case the Global Case Management System (GCMS) or the Field Operations Support System (FOSS) fail to establish successfully the parentage between the parent and the minor, the Level 1 decision-maker would:
• Allocate the fee and,
• Refer the application and proof of payment to a Level 2 decision-maker for further assessment
• These situations would usually arise because of:
• A lack of information in the Global Case Management System (GCMS) or the Field Operations Support System (FOSS) or,
• A lack of complex notes in the Global Case Management System (GCMS) or the Field Operations Support System (FOSS)

The authorities envisage that the Level 1 decision-maker would be able to resolve the issue of parentage for the vast majority of cases. Therefore, not many applications would reach the Level 2 decision-maker through escalations.

The Exception

In some situations, officers could come across cases where they need to assess incomplete applications. These applications could be incomplete for other reasons and not because of a missing:

• Birth certificate or,
• Adoption certificate

For such cases, officers would:

• Not assess the parentage and,
• Return the application along with the proof of payment to the applicant

This is the current process for dealing with the return of incomplete citizenship applications.

The Assessment of Parentage by the Level 2 Decision-maker

As mentioned earlier, the Level 1 decision-maker would refer the case to the Level 2 decision-maker if the Level 1 decision-maker is unable to establish the parentage between the parent and the minor through:

• The immigration document
• The Global Case Management System (GCMS) or,
• The Field Operations Support System (FOSS)

The Level 2 decision-maker would access the Computer Assisted Immigration Processing System (CAIPS). By accessing the Computer Assisted Immigration Processing System (CAIPS), the Level 2 decision-maker would try to establish the parentage.

The Level 2 decision-maker would need to review the system notes in the Computer Assisted Immigration Processing System (CAIPS). The Level 2 decision-maker could come across a certain situation, where the system notes do not provide conclusive results for establishing parentage. In this situation, the Case Processing Centre – Sydney (CPC-Sydney) would refer the file to the relevant local office.

The relevant local office would assess various alternate documents. The relevant local office would review these alternate documents. Then, the relevant local office would check whether a parent-child relationship exists. In certain cases, they could find that a parent-child relationship exists. In this scenario, the relevant local office would obtain a statutory declaration from the parent. This is in accordance with Sections 2.15 and 2.16 of CP4 – the current policy.

Note:

• Alternate documents assessed by the relevant local office would typically include:
• Photographs
• School records or,
• Medical records

The Instructions Concerning Minor Children, Who are Not Eligible for Citizenship

Officers could come across situations where they find notes in:

• The Global Case Management System (GCMS)
• The Field Operations Support System (FOSS) or,
• The Computer Assisted Immigration Processing System (CAIPS)

An examination of these notes indicates that the applicant included the minor as a dependent in the permanent resident application. They could also find that the minor is not the natural or adopted child of the:

• Principal applicant or,
• Principal applicant’s spouse

A typical scenario could be a situation where an orphan is accompanying relatives or extended family members.

In this scenario, the officers would:

• Not process the application
• Refund the fee and,
• Return the application to the applicant

They would do so because these children are not eligible for receiving Canadian citizenship. This is in accordance with subsection 5 (2) of the Citizenship Act. The ineligibility of these children stems from the fact that they do not have a living biological or an adoptive parent, who:

• Is already a Canadian citizen or,
• Will become a Canadian citizen at the same time as the minor

However, in some cases, the minor child might still want to become a Canadian citizen. Therefore, the Case Processing Centre – Sydney (CPC-Sydney) would send a letter to the minor child. The letter would inform the child of the following options. To become a Canadian citizen, the minor child would:

• Need to wait until it becomes 18 years of age and then submit an adult grant application via subsection 5 (1)
• Need to resubmit a minor grant application under subsection 5 (2) if the child was subsequently adopted by a person, who:
• Is already a Canadian citizen or,
• Will become a Canadian citizen at the same time as the minor
• Need to submit a citizenship application as an adopted person under section 5.1 provided that the adoptive parent – at the time of the adoption – was a Canadian citizen or,
• Need to submit a grant application for adults under subsection 5 (1), requesting a ministerial waiver for certain adult requirements, based on compassionate ground under subsection 5 (3) of the Act – in case the family feels that the case warrants this action
• Subsection 5 (3) of the Act deals with:
• The age of the minor
• The length of the minor’s residence in Canada and,
• The minor’s knowledge of Canada and its official languages
• Section 3 of the manual chapter of the citizenship policy contains further information on the manner in which officers need to process adult applications submitted by a minor
• Officers could refer to it for finding answers to their queries

In certain situations, officers could come across instances where the applicant submitted two or more applications concurrently. In this scenario, officers would need to return the application of the minor child. This application would belong to the minor, who is not eligible for citizenship. In addition, they would need to refund the processing fee to the applicant too.

Source: Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)