I previously reported that following the issuance of its Ministerial Instructions, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) also revised its IMM 5612 Document Checklist, which is used for the initial filing of Federal Skilled Worker applications with the Central Intake Office (CIO). The revised IMM 5612 imposes a requirement that applicants also submit all documents listed on the specific visa office document checklist applicable to the consular post where the application will be processed.
Based on the current IMM 5612, the applicant would now need to submit a complete application, including all supporting documentation at the time of the initial filing with the CIO. This has the potential to cause considerable delays since documents such as police certificates can take months to obtain. Fortunately, CIC has now clarified that, as police certificates are related to admissibility rather than eligibility, applicants will not be required to provide them when they submit their application to the CIO.
Another serious question that arises from the current IMM 5612 is whether the CIO would forward the supporting documents to the consular post after it had done its initial screening. Prior to this change, the CIO did not forward the application forms to the consular post; it simply entered information contained in the forms into CIC’s database. CIC has now also clarified that documents must only be submitted once and that they will be forwarded to the consular post once the initial screening has been completed.
Henry J. Chang
Blaney McMurtry LLP
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