ALERT!! Thousands of Permanent Residency applications assigned to Former/Inactive IRCC Employees
According to CBC news, IRCC allocated 59,456 open and pending applications to 77 former employees resulting in the applications getting stuck. This raises an alarming question about transparency and how IRCC plans to completed these pending applications.
The Department of Immigration Canada has assigned tens of thousands of applicants to immigration officers that are inactive and no longer active in its system – some last logged in and processed files as much as 16 years ago and from airports and visa offices around the world.
The department told CBC once a user is set as inactive, “it means they are no longer using the system and their access is no longer available.”
In October, the department finally sent the data that showed a list of hundreds of codes — “a mix of former employees who are no longer active and computer placeholders” as of February 2022.
Those codes are based all around the world — from Canadian airports, border ports and processing centres, to embassies and consulates in the U.S., Philippines, India, Haiti, Poland, Brazil and Tunisia, to name a few.
Ottawa had the most number of inactive codes, followed by Edmonton, Vancouver, then Sydney, N.S. (CBC did not include unknown locations in this calculation.)
Code SM10353 had 9,540 assigned to it, most amongst all. This former employee or placeholder based in Sydney, N.S., last used the system on March 23, 2021.
What can you do in this Situation?
The applicants can identify the visa officer code that was assigned to work on their application. The code could be found in any IRCC communications or Immigration letters. You can also determine the visa officer code by ordering GCMS notes.
Here is Step-by-Step points on how you can order GCMS notes today:
- Click on https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/transparency/access-information-privacy/requests-information-act.html.
- This link will take you the page where you can fill out your information and request for GCMS notes to be sent to you.
- Once you fill it out, there would be 5$ fee associated with it and when the order is placed you can receive them on the email address that you entered.
- Once you have a clarity who your visa officer is, you can reach out to your local MP or contact IRCC and notify them about this situation.
Once you receive the GCSM notes, you can then identify the visa officer code and check with the table mentioned above.
If you have any immigration related questions or would like to speak to one of our professionals, please contact us today at info@amica-immigration.ca or can call directly at +1 514-234-6132.
Applications assigned to inactive immigration officers, computer codes across Canada
Figures represent assigned applications that were “open,” “pending,” or “re-opened” according to data retrieved between Feb. 15-17, 2022.
