Last Updated on August 20, 2016

In many cases, the officers will typically use Microsoft Outlook for e-mail communication with the clients. They will use this application for all correspondence with the clients. Such correspondence would typically include:

• Requests for additional documentation
• Convocations for interviews
• Approval letters and,
• Refusal letters

While using e-mail communication for corresponding with clients, offices would need to ensure that:

• The e-mail address they insert in the recipient line is identical to the one provided by the client or immigration representative
• The e-mail requesting additional documentation or convoking clients for interviews provides a reasonable duration of time for the clients to respond by providing the request submissions or attending the scheduled interviews
  • It is worth highlighting that the situation in each country often remains unique
  • As such, there could be a variety of issues that affect the applicants’ communication with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)
  • Therefore, the authorities encourage officers to set reasonable time limits for receiving the documentation once the consider the local communication arrangements in each instance
• They send the e-mail from the generic mailbox at the office for facilitating e-mail management
• They upload the e-mail sent via Microsoft Outlook as an eDoc and attach it manually to the outgoing correspondence record in the Global Case Management System (GCMS)
  • By saving all the e-mails sent to the clients as eDocs, the offices make it easier for themselves to trace and retrieve these e-mails at a later date if needed, along with the content and the attachments
• They remain mindful of situations where the offices do not receive any response from the applicants within the stipulated span of time
  • In this scenario, the offices would need to make an annotation in the Global Case Management System (GCMS) that reads:
    • “An email was sent to the applicant [requesting additional documentation/convoking them for an interview]. The applicant was advised that failure to [provide the requested documentation/attend a scheduled interview] may result in a [refusal/abandonment] of their application. The applicant [failed to comply with the request/requested an extension to provide the requested information].”
• They remain mindful of situations where the offices receive undeliverable messages when they send e-mail communications to clients
  • In this scenario, the offices would need to verify whether there have been any changes or updations to the e-mail address in the Global Case Management System (GCMS)
  • Thereafter, they would need to re-send the e-mail to the updated e-mail address supplied by the client
  • In some situations, the offices might find that they had sent their initial memo to the most up to date e-mail address of the client, but have still received an undeliverable message
  • In this case, the offices would need to use an alternate method of communication for sending the correspondence to the clients such as paper mail etc.
• They do not treat or consider the read notification function as a means of verifying that the client has received the e-mail
  • It is worth pointing out that the authorities do not consider read notifications a reliable method of confirming the receipt of an e-mail sent by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)
  • This is because oftentimes these notifications do not function once the e-mail leaves the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) system and reaches an external server

Source: Citizenship and Immigration