In-Canada Itinerant Services – Procedures and Parameters

Colin R. Singer
September 19, 2014

Operational Bulletin 483 – June 19, 2013

In-Canada Itinerant Services – Procedures and Parameters

Summary

The In-Canada operations network offers various itinerant services. This Operational Bulletin (OB) provides information, guidelines and procedures for the establishment and use of these itinerant services.

Background

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) had introduced certain amendments as part of its Modernisation Agenda. This is because the CIC is committed to providing simpler and more accessible high quality services.

The Operations Sector utilises various itinerant services. These services are invaluable in places where the CIC has no office. These services include:

Citizenship Testing
Citizenship Interviews
Citizenship Ceremonies
Immigration Interviews
Immigrant Landings and,
Permanent Resident Card Distribution

Currently, the Department is:

Piloting various initiatives and,
Amending several processes

The objective of these initiatives and process changes is to enhance the levels of client service. At the same time, the CIC continues to explore other efficient ways of providing services to its clients. This is especially the case in areas where the CIC has no office. Therefore, the CIC is attempting to provide services to its clients via partnerships with other departments.

The formalisation of these initiatives would naturally, take some time. Therefore, until this takes place, Regions would need to continue providing itinerant services. This would enable the Department to provide continued accessibility and quality services. However, these services would remain framed in the current context of the prevalent financial environment.

The General Guidelines

The guidelines given in this section apply to both, the citizenship and the immigration lines of business. However, they mainly concern the establishment and the implementation of itinerant services.

The Regions would need to offer itinerant services in locations where the workload warrants the service

Therefore, these itinerant services could apply to one activity or several activities
Typically, the authorities would need to consider aspects like:

Wait times (must be in line with the prevailing service standards)
Inventories
Cost efficiency (one trip should be sufficient for both the citizenship and the immigration lines of business)
Achievement of targets
Operational capacity
The distance that clients would need to travel and,
Community considerations such as:

Special events
Historic occasions
Momentous occasions
Special circumstances

Generally, the Regions have the authority to provide itinerant services in any location, as long as one trip does not take place for a group comprising less than 10 clients

The Regions could take a distance of 150 kilometres from the office as a generic guidelines when they determine whether or not they should schedule an itinerant service
However, the Regions would need to ensure that they do not base their decision only on the basis of the distance from the office

The clients would want to access quality services. Hence, the Regions would need to provide clients with the option of being able to choose to travel to a CIC office. This is especially so, if the clients do not wish to wait for the next planned itinerant service offering.

Therefore, the Regions would need to adopt a two-pronged approach
This approach would take into account the different historical context of citizenship and immigration processing
The Procedures section below carries further details on this subject

The Regions would need to utilise the local volunteer presiders for citizenship ceremonies for maximising the use of the time of the judges (wherever possible)
Local volunteer presiders would include the:

Recipients of the Orders of Canada
Recipients of the Orders of Military Merit and,
Recipients of the Royal Victoria Order

In addition, the Regions would need to continue following the applicable procedures as prescribed in Section 4 of CP 15 Guide to Citizenship Ceremonies
These procedures include:

The Registrar’s approval to authorise a person (other than a citizenship judge)
The Registrar’s approval to preside over a ceremony
The Registrar’s approval to administer the oath
The Registrar’s approval to present the citizenship certificates

The Regions could use office space from closed offices for providing itinerant services

However, there will be no extension provided for lapsing leases and,
Once the formal transfer of office space to the Public Works and Government Services Canada has taken place, the Regions would not receive the authorisation for using that space for providing itinerant services

The Procedures

The Regions would need to develop and implement itinerant service plans on a quarterly basis
They would do this in accordance with the parameters established in the earlier section
The Regions have the responsibility for determining and analysing the needs associated with itinerant services
The Regions would need to contact the Operational Performance Management Branch for obtaining data for determining and analysing itinerant services
The Regions are also responsible for all the costs associated with the provision of itinerant services

This includes ensuring that travelling for itinerant services falls within the existing caps for travel
The Regions would need to coordinate the travel facilities for citizenship judges through:

The Citizenship Commission
The Citizenship Program Delivery and Promotion Division of the Operational Management and Coordination Branch (OMC)

On establishing their itinerant services, the Regions would need to send their itinerant service plans to the Operational Management and Coordination Branch (OMC) at the beginning of each quarter
In addition, the Regions would need to include a justification for any planned itinerant service that does not comply with the mandated threshold of meeting less than 10 clients in a single trip
To provide accessible quality services, the Regions would need to provide clients with the option of being able to choose to travel to a CIC office. This is especially so, if the clients do not wish to wait for the next planned itinerant service offering.

Citizenship:

The Regions would need to continue scheduling clients for:

Appointments
Testing
Ceremonies

They would do this based on the residential address of the clients
The Regions would need to offer the option of scheduling at a CIC office for clients served by itinerant services
The Regions would offer this option, in case the clients do not wish to wait for the next planned itinerant service offering

Immigration:

As soon as the files become ready, the Regions would need to schedule clients for appointments at the nearest CIC office
The Regions would offer clients served by itinerant services the options of:

Accepting the appointment or,
Waiting for the next itinerant service offering, which is closest to their location

The CIC would publish a calendar that enlists all the upcoming planned itinerant services on the CIC’s external website
The Operational Management and Coordination Branch (OMC) would have the responsibility of ensuring that this information remains updated based on regional quarterly inputs
The clients would simply need to refer to this web page to find out the available itinerant service options
The Operational Management and Coordination Branch (OMC) will also be responsible for ensuring that the verbiage on the web page is so clear that clients could only contact the CIC if:

Their applications have exceeded the service standards for normal processing times and,
Their application status on the eCAS indicates that the applicants are waiting for an appointment of some kind