On August 01, 2014, the authorities made a change to the definition of “dependent child” in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR). The change became effective the same day, as did another change to the date at which the system locks in a child’s age.

The regulatory amendments included a transitional provision for the Provincial Nominee Program. Based on these amendments, officers needed to process all complete nomination applications received by the province or territory before August 01, 2014 under the pre-amendment definition of “dependent child”, when Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) processes the permanent resident application (refer to Appendix C).

In case, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) receives permanent residence applications in the provincial nominee class before August 01, 2014, the lock-in date for the age of the applicant’s children would be the date that Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) received the complete permanent resident application. The child would need to meet the former definition of “dependent child” at the time the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) receives the complete application for permanent residence. Only then would the child be eligible for processing as a dependent (refer to Appendix C).

If Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) receives permanent residence applications in the provincial nominee class on or after August 01, 2014, the lock-in date for the age of the applicant’s children would be the date the province or territory received the complete application for provincial nomination.

Officers could refer to OB 588 for more details about the definition of “dependent child” and the lock-in date.

 Source: Citizenship and Immigration