As part of the completeness check, the officers would need to verify that the applicant for permanent residence under the provincial nomine class appears on the monthly nomination spreadsheet received by the Centralised Intake Office (CIO) from the province or territory via Entrust.
The Confirmation of Provincial Nomination
The province or territory is responsible for sending the encrypted provincial nomination certificate (or the monthly nomination spreadsheet) directly to the Centralised Intake Office (CIO). They do this via Entrust. The spreadsheet includes confirmation and details of all the nominations issued by the province or territory each month. Thus, the authorities accept it as proof of nomination certificate issuance by the province or territory.
However, the Centralised Intake Office (CIO) needs to be satisfied that the sender of the spreadsheet is the responsible provincial or territorial government authority. Therefore, it will check that the sender’s e-mail address corresponds to the provincial or territorial government department that processes provincial nominations.
The authorities also accept the provincial nomination certificate to be valid as long as the applicant submits a complete application for permanent residence on or before the expiry date of the nomination. However, it is worth noting that applicants do not require nomination extensions for nominations that expire during the processing of the permanent residence application.
Situations could arise where the nominees do not apply for permanent residence before the expiry of their nominations. In this scenario, the province or territory might issue a nomination extension to the nominees. This would enable them to utilise the additional time for submitting their permanent residence application. Provinces and territories typically notify Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) of all the nomination extensions they have issued via the monthly nomination spreadsheet.
The nominating province or territory issues the nomination approval letter to the nominated individuals. Applicants would need to include a copy of this letter with their permanent residence applications. Nominees would also need to submit a copy of this letter to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). This is especially so if the nominees plan to:
- Apply for a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) – exempt work permit for a job offer in the nominating province or territory (refer to Appendix C) or,
- Apply for a bridging open work permit
Officers could study this in detail in Appendix D.
Provincial Nomination Streams
Applicants would need to first apply for and receive a nomination from one of the provinces or territories. Only after this would they be able to apply for permanent residence. This is in accordance with the specifications prescribed in the Provincial Nominee Program. Each province typically has its own set of criteria and nomination streams and programs.
Therefore, the authorities have broken down the province or territory nomination streams and programs into six categories in the Global Case Management System (GCMS). These comprise:
- Worker – Job offer
- Worker – No job offer
- Business
- Family Support
- Students and,
- Community Support
The Global Case Management System (GCMS) stream breakdown list contains the breakdown of the Global Case Management System (GCMS) category that each provincial nomination stream falls within.
The Lock-in Date for Age of Dependent Children of Provincial Nominees
On August 01, 2014, the authorities made a change to the definition of “dependent child” in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR). The change became effective the same day, as did another change to the date at which the system locks in a child’s age.
The regulatory amendments included a transitional provision for the Provincial Nominee Program. Based on these amendments, officers needed to process all complete nomination applications received by the province or territory before August 01, 2014 under the pre-amendment definition of “dependent child”, when Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) processes the permanent resident application (refer to Appendix C).
In case, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) receives permanent residence applications in the provincial nominee class before August 01, 2014, the lock-in date for the age of the applicant’s children would be the date that Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) received the complete permanent resident application. The child would need to meet the former definition of “dependent child” at the time the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) receives the complete application for permanent residence. Only then would the child be eligible for processing as a dependent (refer to Appendix C).
If Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) receives permanent residence applications in the provincial nominee class on or after August 01, 2014, the lock-in date for the age of the applicant’s children would be the date the province or territory received the complete application for provincial nomination.
Officers could refer to OB 588 for more details about the definition of “dependent child” and the lock-in date.
The Minimum Language Standards and Mandatory Testing for Provincial Nominees in the National Occupation Classification (NOC) Skill Levels C and D
Applicants would also need to include a copy of their language test results with their application for permanent residence – refer to Appendix E.
Note:
- It is worth noting that the pre-amendment lock-in date for age also applies to these transitional cases
- The lock-in date for age is the date on which Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) received the permanent residence application
- Therefore, while the dependent might fall under the pre-amendment definition of “dependent child”, the old lock-in dates also apply
- Because of this the person would still need to meet this definition on the day that Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) receives the permanent residence application
Source: Citizenship and Immigration
