ARCHIVED – Operational Bulletin 143 – August 4, 2009 (expired)

Procedures for Receiving Canadian Experience Class Applications at Visa Offices

This operational bulletin has expired. Please refer to OP 25 – Canadian Experience Class Manual for current information.

Purpose

The purpose of this operational bulletin is to provide instructions which visa offices (other than Buffalo) will use when receiving applications for permanent residence in the Canadian Experience Class (CEC).

Background

All applications for permanent residence under the CEC are processed at the visa office in Buffalo. However, in cases where applicants have left Canada, they may no longer be eligible to submit their applications in Buffalo, pursuant to section 11 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations.

As a result, they will submit their applications to another visa office. OP 25, section 8, currently instructs the visa office to create a B-file number in the Computer Assisted Immigration Processing System (CAIPS). However due to technical issues, this is not possible.

OP 25 is being modified to include the instructions below to resolve this matter.

Procedure – Receiving the application at a visa office

On receiving an application under the Canada Experience Class, the visa office performs an R10/R11 completeness check. After a positive completeness check, the visa office will:

• date stamp the application;
• create a miscellaneous (MISC) file in CAIPS;
• enter CEC in the Status field;
• cost recover the processing fee and enter this in CAIPS notes;
• write the MISC file number on the paper file;
• print out and attach the MISC file and notes to the paper file; and
• transfer the paper file to the visa office in Buffalo by courier, in line with existing file transfer policies.

On receiving the paper file, the visa office in Buffalo will create a B-file number, maintaining the application received date from the visa office and process to conclusion.

These procedures will allow for efficient file transfer while reducing duplicate data entry and eliminating the need for software modification and electronic transfers. At the same time, the originating visa office will be able to monitor its CEC workload in CAIPS.