flyboi1:
Why is CIC so slow and what are their employees doing all day?

Martin Levine, former Canadian Foreign Service Officer at Government of Canada (1978-2009)

As I have said in other answers, I am a retired visa officer (Canadian overseas immigration officer). I worked for CIC and its predecessors for many years.

Concerning “slow”, are you speaking of applications for visitor visas or applications to immigrate to Canada? Processing procedures and processing times are very different depending on what sort of visa you are applying for.

Visa applicants so often seem to imagine that CIC and its programming must be the most important activity conducted by the Government of Canada. It’s not even close. Historically immigration and visas have been much lower priorities than other Government of Canada activity, such as Employment Insurance, National Defence, international trade relations, income tax collection, implementing bilingualism legislation, regulating and ensuring the safety of the transportation industry, the pharmaceutical industry etc. After all, immigration applicants don’t vote.

The Government of Canada has a central budgetary agency called the Treasury Board. Each fiscal year every Government of Canada department must apply to the Treasury Board for its funding. The Treasury Board is responsible for advising the Prime Minister and the federal Cabinet about priorities for disbursing Government of Canada funds. The Government of Canada never has anything near the funds to resource every department to the hilt. There is no real reason to identify CIC as a special priority to receive large amounts of funding and resources.

The funds paid by visa applicants do not go into a special CIC account. Those fees are paid to the Receiver General for Canada. The Receiver General ‘s accounts are a central repository for all sorts of fees paid to the Government of Canada. It is mostly there where the Treasury Board finds the funds it will disburse.

I would almost suggest that the revenue producing parts of CIC ( principally the skilled worker program) be spun off into what in Canada we call a “Crown Corporation”.

Wikipedia describes what a Crown Corporation is:

Crown corporations of Canada - Wikipedia

Essentially a crown corporation acts in some ways like a private company but is owned by the Canadian federal or a provincial government. They operate “at arms length” from the federal or provincial bureaucracy and make most of their own business judgements. Unlike federal departments they collect and allocate their own revenues. Were a crown corporation operating the federal skilled worker selection program you might see much more efficient and timely operations.

The visa application program operated by CIC happens in the context of a rather rigid, hierarchical bureaucracy. Also, since the 1960’s a strong objective of Canada’s immigration selection legislation has been to limit the discretion of visa officers in order to reduce subjectivity and restrict the ability of visa officers to make such subjective and racist decisions. Even in the case of visitor visa applications visa officers are expected to note up the reasons for their decisions in the GCMS electronic visa processing system. This takes time, sometimes a lot of it.

I should note that, due to technical and infrastructural limitations GCMS sometimes stops and does not work. (Perhaps it could work better if more resources were devoted to operating it but there aren’t such resources.) In a situation like that the visa officer has no alternative but to stop work and look helplessly at their computer screen.

When I became a visa officer in 1978 the immigration program was to a large extent beyond the Canadian public eye. There was little attention in the Canadian media to visa matters. The immigration bar (those lawyers who specialize in immigration matters) was small and not always very professional. Now things are very different. In particular litigation is now very common. A visa officer’s notes have to be adequate enough to withstand review by the Federal Court. A visa officer would want to think very carefully and take extra time with their notes, and never have them become a source of derision by the Canadian media. This type of publicity can easily destroy your career.

I have mentioned in another Answer that, in my opinion, there has been intense pressure to reduce the cost of Canada’s visa operations. One of the results is to take as much as the processing as possible and “dumb it down” so it can be done by lower-paid clerical staff in Canadian processing centres, not more experienced and better paid visa officers. One of the unintended results is a substantial number of processing errors. This increases processing time.

So many applicants do not understand that CIC does not have full control of the visa application process. CIC has to rely heavily on CSIS, the RCMP and CBSA for security and criminal clearances. These federal agencies have many other, more important priorities than visas.

Visa applicants do not always understand that immigration visas are subject to rationing by the annual immigration levels system. CIC has to allocate resources to each visa office according to the contribution that office is expected to make to the annual level. A given visa office is only expected, or allowed, to issue a certain number of immigration visas per year. They are not allowed to issue as many visas as they can. At times they must delay or stop processing certain categories of visas.

I have alluded in the Answer I mention above to problems in the working environment and career system for visa officers. Put yourself in a visa officer’s shoes. How productive would you be?

Martin Levine

SOURCE : QUORA

Pls I want u to give me an advice. I applied July 22nd, online application. The program am to attend was November 9th to 11th which has pass now. Do I still have grace of given visa? It was Aug 7th my bank contacted me and asked me some question. It was later they told me it was Canada embassy that contacted the bank to know if my statement of account is valid or fake but bank told me they replied the embassy my account statement is genuine. So why the consular still delay the application? Am counting close to 4 months now. Do I still have chance?

snoop4dem:
Hey guys, I have a q member or gotten married after they have submitted their application but before PPR.

I look forward to comments

If you don't see all the Info here

https://www.nairaland.com/4472519/canadian-express-entry-federal-skilled/277#68364817

Just come back I might just liquidate my POF to sponsor your wedding

Je m'appelle SERIOUS

cutiep:


My hubby's WES will take us to 445 I.e after they cut off 5 points for my birthday but NECO has not verified since 22 October. Its just so frustrating. Can anybody give me a contact in NECO who can help us out pls

YESS what a joy to hear this.

Speed in Jesus name.

Happy birthday in advance. Invite us ooo. let's come and chop small POFPOF money ..

runsaway

Chicagomum:
Good day All,

I applied for ECA with ICES. I am evaluating B.SC and MSc. I was just informed that my MSC transcript was sent to ICES on Tuesday.

Kindly confirm if ICES will notify me if they receive my transcript. I am confused and worried.

Please help. Thank you and God bless us all!

..

Why not just MSC - save 200CAD

Wow! Part 6 already. Well done @Smslive2.


Congratulations to all ITA and PPR recipients.


I wish all members of this thread the best. May the Lord of the 11th hour grant you all your heart desires before the end of this year. Amen!

Thank you!

OgechiBae:

Congrats

GlitteringStar2:
Wow! Part 6 already. Well done @Smslive2.


Congratulations to all ITA and PPR recipients.


I wish all members of this thread the best. May the Lord of the 11th hour grant you all your heart desires before the end of this year. Amen!

Amen

THanks man you have been a great help

Ramj:


If you don't see all the Info here

https://www.nairaland.com/4472519/canadian-express-entry-federal-skilled/277#68364817

Just come back I might just liquidate my POF to sponsor your wedding

Je m'appelle SERIOUS

Congratulations to all ITA clinchers. Tiwa na a de l'agbara Olorun

maworld:
Moyin o logo..az  it's PPR people....You amaze me Lord

Oluwaseunara

Congrats @maworld
Congrats @naijaismyown
Congrats @toskeO
Congrats @ebi12
Congrats @ boco2126 on your ielts result, reavealhidden,
Congrats to @Hephgirl, OgechiBae, Dannyko, gbengaolu360, pejuhazel, adebee16, Barryston and other ITA grabbers today

Hephgirl:
Ita finally... God is great

Wow! Congrats dear. I wish you God's favour and speedy processing time.

ontarioissauga:

Elfmann?

cocococo:

Chai.....I don miss oo.

Nay, they are not looking down on us. The government here is very supportive. There is no discrimination. There are so many government programs, grants and subsidies to assist people especially the low income earners. My sister aby na brother, if you are hardworking here in Canada, the sky will be your starting point.


God bless Canada. God bless Justin Trudeau. I love my new country, Canada.

Ifeoma77:

Lol....Ifeoma!

Thank you.

Negotiate:


Delivery is often between 5-7 days.
Once You submit your request, you application status becomes APPLICATION SUBMITTED
when they open a file for you, it becomes APPLICATION RECEIVED. You get a mail when your transcript has gotten to them.

I am fine o, yet to register.... Just started my Annual Leave & studying. Taking my time to get it right this time.

Richness1104:
Hello you, how far with ielts now?

I worked 1 yr 2013-2014 as an admin officer before going back to school full time and obtaining my bsc and MSc. I would like to apply for express entry and was wondering if the 1yr work experience will qualify for job experience. Thanks

Thanks dear.
You can also send them an email with your ref no to confirm if they have received your transcript.

So how do you know when the ECA is ready?

Negotiate:


Delivery is often between 5-7 days.
Once You submit your request, you application status becomes APPLICATION SUBMITTED
when they open a file for you, it becomes APPLICATION RECEIVED. You get a mail when your transcript has gotten to them.

debbydee:


please how do i correct the mistake

also do i needr to request for transcript for my bsc.

My dear,It's not a mistake. Just open a new application process with ICES,pay the normal fee and evaluate your B.sc.

All the best.

Congratulations Hephgirl, God will perfect what He started. I decree speedy processing to COPR for you.

Eraytee, Relax; God will surely do it for you at the appointed time.

Congratulations to all ITA and PPR recipients.

Snillous:


Pls I want u to give me an advice. I applied July 22nd, online application. The program am to attend was November 9th to 11th which has pass now. Do I still have grace of given visa? It was Aug 7th my bank contacted me and asked me some question. It was later they told me it was Canada embassy that contacted the bank to know if my statement of account is valid or fake but bank told me they replied the embassy my account statement is genuine. So why the consular still delay the application? Am counting close to 4 months now. Do I still have chance?

Hmmmmmm! The bitter truth is that, having passed the scheduled appointment for the program, the probability that they will give you is extremely slim.

God does miracle sha, stay hopeful but prepare your mind for the worst. All the best.

Hephgirl:
Ita finally... God is great

A big congrats to you and good luck all the say

mcstan18:


I took particular note of your post. It must've been a heartbreak seeing the cut-off today. Are there other ways still available to you too make up for the points that would be lost on Sunday?

Do cheer up, we shall all get there someday soon

Awnnn..thanks....It actually broke our hearts and it was a sad evening.. But we are waiting for NECO to verify my hubby's result. With hubby's WES our score goes up to 445. Also, with the perfect IELTS score for me, we get additional 3 points is 448.

muta18:

PM for a contact .

I sent a pm pls accept

MrOba:
I see you are still expecting your hubby’s ECA - that’s an additional 8/10 points that should cover for the points you will lose on your birthday so all hope is not lost. I heaved a sigh of relief on your behalf. May all our heart desires come to fruition.

Amen...thanks

Ramj:


YESS what a joy to hear this.

Speed in Jesus name.

Happy birthday in advance. Invite us ooo. let's come and chop small POFPOF money ..
B
runsaway

Lol

Insha Allah this part 6 is for me. Expecting both ITA and PPR in this part.

Ielts -done
Eca- done
Work reference letter - In progress
POF- being gathered.

Need to get a new passport. Current passport won't expire until 2020 but I have been advised that it is damaged.

I got an ADR request on the 10th of October and submitted by the 14th . My worry is that up till now it's still reading " the additional documents you provided is being reviewed" . I'm in IP2 . I'm really getting worried . Don't know oh f this is normal .

Oqprstwytuwymvty.

Gabriel411:

Rather than waste time checking my previous posts,answer the simple question if u can...

cutiep:


I beg to defer jare....they haven't responded to hubby request from WES since 22 Oct. Pls do you have a contact there?

That's was the same date a friend's own was sent and it has been verified. The contact I have is in there lag office and he kept telling us we should chill that if truly Wes send the quality dept at minna will surely do it, he never collect my friend's detail. WES updated his status on Nov 7th that NECO is verified.

DonTee07:


Hmmmmmm! The bitter truth is that, having passed the scheduled appointment for the program, the probability that they will give you is extremely slim.

God does miracle sha, stay hopeful but prepare your mind for the worst. All the best.

Well, thank u so much. I can't wait to hearing from them