New processing procedures for Gulf residents

Gulf residents applying for Canadian Permanent Residency in pre-defined categories will be processed through the Abu Dhabi Embassy, instead of the previous London (UK) Visa Office beginning on January 1, 2006.

The affected countries are:

Bahrain
Kuwait
Oman
Qatar
United Arab Emirates
Saudi Arabia
Yemen

Applications that will be processed through Abu Dhabi are:

Family Class (all categories)
Protected Persons
Quebec Cases (all categories)
Provincial Nominees
Dependants of the Live-in Caregiver Class in Canada

London will continue to process all applications from these classes that it receives prior to January 1, 2006. All economic class applications will continue to be processed through the London office.