Operational Bulletin 405-B – April 17, 2013

Summary

This Operational Bulletin (OB) provides the framework for staff of various departments to understand their roles and responsibilities. It also updates the information concerning the roles and responsibilities of officers from:

• The Centralised Processing Office – Winnipeg (CPO-W)
• The local Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) offices and,
• The Matching Centre

These roles and responsibilities pertain to the Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) sponsorship applications.

Issue

The authorities issued revised procedures for the processing of Private Sponsorship of Refugees sponsorship applications. These revised procedures came into effect from April 02, 2013.

The revised procedures would affect operations of:

•  The Centralised Processing Office – Winnipeg (CPO-W)
• The local Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) offices and,
• The Matching Centre

Background

The Department had recently commenced a modernisation initiative. As part of this modernisation drive, the authorities had centralised the intake and in-Canada processing of PSR sponsorship applications at CPO-W.

The authorities had decided to create a single centre of expertise for the processing of PSR sponsorship applications. They did so to:

• Bring about greater consistency in processing methods and criteria, through the application of standardised procedures
• Enable them to assign officers for processing PSR sponsorship applications only
• Reduce processing times for adhering to the immediate goal of meeting the current standard of 30 working days for:
• Processing PSR sponsorship applications and,
• Viewing the short-term improvements brought about by this initiative

This reduction of processing times was to apply in Canada as well as overseas

• Enhance the tracking and monitoring processes for sponsorship applications

The Roles and Responsibilities

The CPO-W would manage all new PSR sponsorship applications as of now. The authorities have clearly demarcated the roles and responsibilities for the key CIC players. These roles and responsibilities concern CIC staff involved in processing the intake and in-Canada PSR sponsorship applications. This Operational Bulletin (OB) summarises these roles and responsibilities below.

The CPO-W shoulder the responsibility for:

• Receiving and evaluating all new PSR sponsorship applications from:
• Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAH)
• Groups of Five (G5) and,
• Community Sponsors (CS)
• Issuing the Acknowledgement of Receipt (AOR) letter
• Monitoring the limits of Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAHs) under the global cap
• Creating Permanent Resident (PR) files in the Global Case Management System (GCMS)
• Responding to any enquiries on case-specific follow-up requests for any files that officers have approved in Canada
• Processing Visa Office Referred (VOR) and Joint Assistance Sponsorship (JAS) applications
• Evaluating and processing sponsorship withdrawals
• Processing One-Year Window (OYW) or Non-Accompanying Family Member applications and,
• Processing Add Dependants forms

The local CIC officers are responsible for:

• Monitoring sponsors and sponsored refugees
• Providing assistance to people in finding a sponsor for Joint Assistance Sponsorship (JAS) cases
• Mediating between the sponsor and the client in case there is a default or a breakdown in the sponsorship
• Issuing Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) coverage in accordance with:
• Existing local office procedures and,
• The procedures outlined in the IR IFHP Chapter
• Issuing in-Canada immigration loans
• Managing any post-arrival issues that fall within their area of responsibility
• Providing Notification of Arrival Transmission (NAT) information, in case they received these applications prior to April 02, 2012, to:
• Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAHs)
• Groups of Five (G5) and,
• Community Sponsors (CS)
• Initiating the Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP) income support for Visa Office Referred (VOR) cases, in accordance with the guidelines specified in OB 512

The Matching Centre bears the responsibility of:

• Issuing the Notification of Arrival Transmission (NAT) information directly to the following, in case they received the applications on or after April 02, 2012:
• Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAHs)
• Groups of Five (G5) and,
• Community Sponsors (CS)
• Issuing the Notification of Arrival Transmission (NAT) information to the local CIC officers for the following, in case they received the applications prior to April 02, 2012:
• Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAHs)
• Groups of Five (G5) and,
• Community Sponsors (CS)
• Maintaining the Visa Office Referred (VOR) and Joint Assistance Sponsorship (JAS) websites and,
• Coordinating matches with:
• Sponsors
• Local CIC offices and,
• The CPO-W

The Visa Office

The authorities believe that e-mail is the most efficient option of communication. This is especially so if the officers have an e-mail address available on file.

Therefore, the authorities recommend that when officers need to send any correspondence to PSR applicants, they would need to mark an e-mail copy to:

• The sponsors
• The local CIC that processed the application and,
• The CPO-W

The authorities believe that copying the sponsor, the local CIC office and the CPO-W on all PSR case correspondence would increase the likelihood that the applicants would:

• Receive the CIC requests in a timely manner
• Comply with the CIC requests as per the stipulations prescribed, including showing up for the interviews

The typical kinds of correspondence that officers would need to copy the sponsor, the local CIC office and the CPO-W would include:

• Document requests
• Interview convocation letters and,
• Approval or refusal letters 

The authorities believe that at some stage, they would reach a situation where the PSR inventory reduces significantly. At that time, the visa office would only need to copy sponsors and the local CPO-W. The visa office would not need to copy the local CIC offices once this situation arises. This is because the CPO-W would be processing all the applications at that time.

Source: Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)