Changes to the United States of America (U.S.) Processing Network

Operational Bulletin 496 – January 29, 2013

Changes to the United States of America (U.S.) Processing Network  

Summary

This Operational Bulletin (OB) provides information about the further changes made to the United States of America (US) processing network. These changes include the closure of the visa sections in the Canadian Consulates General in:

• Detroit and,
• Seattle

Background

The authorities restructured the United States of America (US) processing network on January 29, 2013. They did this to streamline the processing of Temporary Resident and Permanent Resident applications abroad. As a part of this restructuring drive, the authorities have:

• Closed the visa offices in Detroit and Seattle and,
• Transferred their workloads to other offices

In addition, the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC would cease processing:

• Temporary Resident Permit (TRP) applications
• Rehabilitation applications and,
• Authority to Return to Canada (ARC) applications

Therefore, applicants would now need to submit the above-mentioned applications to either of the visa offices located in:

• Los Angeles or,
• New York

Further to this, certain United States of America (US) and Canada based individuals would need to submit various applications like the:

• Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) application
• Study Permit application and,
• Work Permit application

These individuals would need to submit these applications:

• Online or,
• At the appropriate visa office

This change is operational with immediate effect.

The visa office in Los Angeles would process all study permit applications. Similarly, the visa office in New York would process all work permit applications. Thus, the east-west divide along the Mississippi would cease to be a determining factor when it comes to submitting applications. The authorities alluded to this in OBs 427 and 435. However, both OBs 427 and 435 have expired. This OB supersedes OBs 427 and 435.

Instructions for Temporary Resident Visas (TRVs), Study Permits and Work Permit Applications

Currently, the offices in Detroit and Seattle would be processing some applications. These offices would continue to process and finalise these applications. A situation could arise where both these offices are unable to finalise certain cases. In this scenario, the offices in Detroit or Seattle would transfer any cases that they cannot finalise to the visa offices in New York or Los Angeles for processing, respectively. Further, situations could arise where the offices in Detroit and Seattle receive applications submitted by mail. In case the applications bear a postmark dated after February 05, 2013, these offices would return such mail to the sender.

Applicants can submit the following applications online:

• New United States of America (US) based Temporary Resident applications and,
• New Canada based Temporary Resident applications

Effective immediately, the visa office in Los Angeles would process all study permit applications. Similarly, the visa office in New York would process all work permit applications. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) would communicate any changes to these instructions, as and when required.

Instructions for Temporary Resident Permits (TRPs), Rehabilitation, Authority to Return to Canada (ARC), Permanent Resident Travel Document (PRTD) Applications

The staff currently processing applications in the Detroit, Seattle and Washington DC offices would transfer these immediately to the New York office. The New York office would continue processing these applications.

Situations could arise where the offices in Detroit, Seattle and Washington DC receive applications submitted by mail. In case the applications bear a postmark dated after February 05, 2013, these offices would return such mail to the sender. In addition, the office in Washington DC would return any applications submitted in person as of January 29, 2013 to the sender.

Applicants would need to submit new applications to the visa offices in New York or Los Angeles. However, these applications must be one of the following applications:

• Temporary Resident Permit (TRP) applications
• Rehabilitation applications
• Authority to Return to Canada (ARC) applications and,
• Permanent Resident Travel Document (PRTD) applications

Situations could arise where applicants had submitted the following applications to the visa offices in Detroit, Seattle or Washington DC:

• Temporary Resident Permit (TRP) applications
• Rehabilitation applications
• Authority to Return to Canada (ARC) applications and,
• Permanent Resident Travel Document (PRTD) applications

However, these offices might have requested the applicants to submit further documentation. This documentation would have served to support the above-mentioned categories of applications. However, at the time of this change, the applicants might not have provided the supplementary documentation requested by the visa offices. In this scenario, the applicants would need to submit the additional documents directly to the visa offices in New York. The mail delivery system to Detroit or Seattle no longer exists. Therefore, the visa office in Washington DC would return any documents it receives, to the sender if:

• The applicants mail the documents to the visa office in Washington DC and,
• The documents bear a postmark dated after February 05, 2013

Another variant of the above-mentioned situation could be one, where the applicants provided the additional documents to the visa offices in:

• Detroit
• Seattle or,
• Washington DC

In this situation, these applicants do not need to re-submit the documents. The visa offices concerned would automatically transfer these documents to New York or Los Angeles, as they deem appropriate.

Instructions for Permanent Resident (PR) Applications

The visa office in Buffalo closed in May 2012. Therefore, the staff at the visa office in Buffalo transferred all Permanent Resident (PR) applications and all new Permanent Resident (PR) processing cases. They transferred these cases to the Case Processing Centre – Ottawa (CPC-O). The staff in the visa office in Seattle did likewise. They sent all their Permanent Resident (PR) applications to the visa office in Los Angeles for processing. The staff in the visa office in Detroit also acted in a similar manner. They sent all their Permanent Resident (PR) applications to New York for processing.

No one would send any new Economic Class Permanent Resident (PR) applications for processing to the offices in the United States of America (US). The sole exception would be for cases, where these offices need to:

• Conduct interviews
• Conduct investigations and,
• Finalise applications

This change comes into force with effect from January 29, 2013.

Applicants would need to submit all Economic Class applications to the Centralized Intake Office in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada (CIO-S). Similarly, applicants would first need to submit all Family Class applications to the Case Processing Centre in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada (CPC-M).

People residing in the United States of America (US) could submit the following applications to the visa office in Los Angeles for processing:

• Applications for Family Members of Protected Persons (DR2)
• Applications for Dependent of a Live-in Caregiver (LC2)
• Applications for Adoption (Citizenship and Permanent Residence) and,
• Applications for One Year Window (OYW)

An Overview of the United States of America (US) Network

The following table depicts an overview of the restructured United States of America (US) visa office network, along with their new processing responsibilities. 

External Client Enquiries

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) would take all efforts to minimise processing delays. This is especially so during the transition period. During this time however, applicants and their representatives would need to avoid contacting the visa office. The visa offices would contact applicants directly. They would do so as soon as they complete the processing of the application.

Applicants could however, direct their enquiries to the appropriate visa office. Moreover, if the applicants are in Canada, they could send their enquiries via e-mail to question@cic.gc.ca.

Applicants could refer to the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) website for further details.

The Expiry of Directives

These directives would remain in force until further notice. If applicable, the authorities would communicate further instructions as and when they come into effect.

Source: Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)