does CIC outsource?

[mameelynn]

So I have a few questions about CIC offices and practices and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas or answers to them. I'm confused as to why when we send in our forms they look at them in Canada to approve the sponsor but then send it back to the country of origin to approve the PR. Does that mean that CIC pays to send Canadians to live in those places to work in the office or are they run by locals of the area?  wouldn't it be easier and faster to have all the applications processed in the same place as the sponsorship approval?  That way all places would have the same processing time due to the fact that the applications would be done in order of arrival just like the sponsorship part of the process is done now and then the satellite offices would just have to handle the interviews and PPR's. just some of my thoughts....   I'm really thinking of finding out how to get involved with working to improve CIC once we are all done with this process.

[steaky]

I think most staff are locals.  Sometimes, I can see their employment advertisement in local newspapers.

[ddobro2]

CIC has very good reasons for having its internal offices (Mississauga to handle Family Class PR outand applications, Vegreville to handle inland PR applicants, and Sydney to process PR cards and anything dealing with citizenship) and its visa offices outside of Canada.

The sponsorship portion is reviewed by CPCM because it does not have to do with the principal applicant but with the sponsor, who is a Canadian PR or citizen. They forward the PR portion of the application to the visa office that has jurisdiction over the case, assuming the sponsorship undertaking has been approved, because that portion has to do with the principal applicant. The short answer is that CIC puts visa offices in various countries because laws and procedures vary from country to country in so far as how they affect CIC's job to assess an applicant for PR. The staff at a particular office are specifically knowledgeable about the laws and procedures in their jurisdiction, and yes, they're also knowledgeable about the countries they deal with from the cultural and linguistic perspective.

Everyone who works for the visa offices outside of Canada works on the CIC payroll. They are all, if not Canadian citizens, then certainly citizens and PRs. I have no idea how they get selected for the locations where they get posted.

So I have a few questions about CIC offices and practices and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas or answers to them. I'm confused as to why when we send in our forms they look at them in Canada to approve the sponsor but then send it back to the country of origin to approve the PR. Does that mean that CIC pays to send Canadians to live in those places to work in the office or are they run by locals of the area?  wouldn't it be easier and faster to have all the applications processed in the same place as the sponsorship approval?  That way all places would have the same processing time due to the fact that the applications would be done in order of arrival just like the sponsorship part of the process is done now and then the satellite offices would just have to handle the interviews and PPR's. just some of my thoughts....   I'm really thinking of finding out how to get involved with working to improve CIC once we are all done with this process.

[scarycemetery]

Well, if all of the applications from all over the world were done in one place, don't you think that would take forever to go through all applications? Our application is in Damascus which currently takes 13 months to complete, and that's only covering about 4 countries! Imagine if one place was responsible for everyone...it would take years and years to go through everyone.

[mameelynn]

Well, if all of the applications from all over the world were done in one place, don't you think that would take forever to go through all applications? Our application is in Damascus which currently takes 13 months to complete, and that's only covering about 4 countries! Imagine if one place was responsible for everyone...it would take years and years to go through everyone.

not if they had the same amount of people working on it all. I would think it would atleast make it so all the places took the same amount of time instead of the huge differences like there is now because if one area had a higher amount of applicants they could shift staff to help the higher flow areas.

[scylla]

One big reason why applications from some regions take longer is that there is a much higher level of immigration / marriage fraud in these locations. To deal with immigration and marriage fraud, you need officers who are well versed in that region's practices and customs - and keep up with the latest local trends (i.e. knowing that a new way of forging a certain official document has recently become popular). I don't think centralization would be the ideal model for spotting and dealing with fraud since you would lose so much of the local knowledge and expertise. In other words, I don't think shifting people back and forth between regions to deal with volumes will work because you'll end up having officers working on files that have no knowledge of the region (i.e. can't speak the local language(s), don't know the local customs as they relate to relationships and marriage, etc.).

Plus - how would interviews be managed? Flying the officer from Canada to the interview location would be cost prohibitive for both Canada and Canadian tax payers (or do we increase application costs significantly and pass this cost on to those applying for PR?). Forcing the applicant to fly to Canada and then back home just to attend an interview would be cost prohibitive for many applicants. Holding the interview by phone / video conference would put both the applicant and the interviewer at a disadvantage since nothing is quite the same as face to face - especially if a relationship is being questioned and additional evidence is being presented. The last option would be for the Canadian visa officer to hand off the file to a local visa officer to conduct the interview. Once again, this would put both the interviewer and the applicant at a disadvantage since the person conducting the interview wouldn't be as familiar with the file and evidence as the original officer in Canada.

[kuku]

Each country has its own laws and regulation. Visa officers posted at different locations are highly trained according to that country's laws and regulation.
Each country has different traditions and rituals too as far as marriage is concerned. i.e marriage traditions in India would be totally different than that in USA or Pakistan. So Visa officers are trained according to marriage traditions too..so they can figure out fraudulent marriages easily.. This is not possible sitting in Canada and assessing applicant's file..

[ddobro2]

Or for many sponsors, as it were. I can't imagine the administrative effort and cost that would go into making sure said applicant got back on the plane and flew back home after the interview, which we all know nobody would be interested in doing once they were already in Canada. True, there are some VOs and some instances in which the person being interviewed is issued the visa immediately after the interview, but that's obviously not a rule.

Forcing the applicant to fly to Canada and then back home just to attend an interview would be cost prohibitive for many applicants.

True, although for appeals at the IAD of PR applications refused by CIC, the foreign national being sponsored is allowed to testify via telephone.

Holding the interview by phone / video conference would put both the applicant and the interviewer at a disadvantage since nothing is quite the same as face to face - especially if a relationship is being questioned and additional evidence is being presented.