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The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada(IRCC) has issued certain important instructions for the officials and immigrants affected by COVID-19 outbreak. These instructions aim to prevent the further spread of the dreaded virus and help the hopeful immigrants whose applications have been affected by the outbreak. As per the instructions, it has been decided to cancel all citizenship ceremonies and citizenship tests and re-tests until further notice. The IRCC has also closed in-person permanent resident landing appointments and in-person refugee claim appointments till April 13. However, IRCC has informed that Canada immigration applications will not be refused for non-compliance.
Further, all the applications which are currently being processed will continue to be processed. However, the processing will face delays as some visa application centres are closed and some IRCC offices are operating with essential staff only. Those applicants in special circumstances may still enjoy expedited processing, which will be provided at the discretion of the Migration Program Manager of the responsible IRCC office, and the manager of the responsible processing office in Canada.
IRCC will still be requesting additional documents for the processing of applications that may include police clearance certificate, passport, medical exam and documents that need to be issued by authorities in China, Iran or South Korea. The applicants may submit these documents within 90 days of receiving request letter from the IRCC. If the request letter is already sent and the applicant is unable to submit the required documents within 90 days, they will be given another 90 days to fulfill the request. Though the letter from the IRCC instructing to provide biometric details would still ask the applicants to fulfill the requirements within 30 days, they would be given 90 days to complete this step.
IRCC has also informed that more time would be given for applicants to submit complete application for permanent residence, an additional 90 days in certain cases. If an applicant has to submit an incomplete application within the prescribed 60 days, they must include an explanation as to why they could not submit all the required documents in the application. To extend their deadline for an additional 90 days, they also need to pay all the associated fees.
Those who already have confirmation of permanent residence and permanent residence visas can also have extended deadline for further procedures, if they inform IRCC in the prescribed manner.
Canada has temporarily suspended all citizenship ceremonies, knowledge testing and retesting. The new dates to which these events have been rescheduled will be informed in the coming weeks.
Canada immigration would be on full swing as soon as the COVID-19 outbreak is contained. If Canada immigration is in your mind, you can start the preparations right now! Contact CanApprove for the best professional immigration assistance.
