IRCC to Resume Limited In-Person Canada Immigration Services From Monday September 21

Canada’s immigration authorities are taking the first tentative steps towards in-person services suspended since March due to the coronavirus crisis.

An announcement on September 17 said very limited citizenship, permanent residence, asylum and biometrics services would resume from Monday, September 21.

All in-person services, at select Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) offices, will be available by appointment only.

An IRCC statement said the limited return of services is considered a ‘testing phase’.

“This testing phase will allow us to assess our protocols and procedures, and ensure the safety of our staff and our clients,” the statement said.

“The lessons learned will help us plan for reopening services more widely in the future.”

Services resuming during the testing phase are as follows:

Citizenship

Vancouver Expo is reopening for citizenship-related services, including citizenship knowledge re-testing and citizenship hearings.

Permanent Residence

IRCC offices in Etobicoke and Montreal are reopening for permanent residence-related services including PR card pick up and PR determination interviews.

Asylum

IRCC offices in Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton, and Niagara Falls are reopening for limited asylum-related services, for candidates who need to collect or submit documents, provide their biometric information, or come in for an interview.

If this pilot goes well, IRCC offices in Vancouver (Hornby), Montreal and Etobicoke will open in the future.

Biometrics

Permanent residence applicants in Canada waiting to give biometrics will receive a Service Canada call over the next few months to book a biometrics appointment.

In regions where more candidates are waiting to give biometrics, such as the Greater Toronto Area, it may take longer to receive a call, IRCC says.

Colin Singer

Colin Singer is an international acclaimed Canadian immigration lawyer and founder of immigration.ca featured on Wikipedia. Colin Singer is also founding director of the Canadian Citizenship & Immigration Resource Center (CCIRC) Inc. He served as an Associate Editor of ‘Immigration Law Reporter’, the pre-eminent immigration law publication in Canada. He previously served as an executive member of the Canadian Bar Association’s Quebec and National Immigration Law Sections and is currently a member of the Canadian Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Colin has twice appeared as an expert witness before Canada’s House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. He is frequently recognized as a recommended authority at national conferences sponsored by government and non-government organizations on matters affecting Canada’s immigration and human resource industries. Since 2009, Colin has been a Governor of the Quebec Bar Foundation a non-profit organization committed to the advancement of the profession, and became a lifetime member in 2018.