Chapter CP 6 - Prohibitions

Section 5 - Immigration and security

5.1 This section is about

Procedures for Immigration and security clearances.

This section describes the procedures regarding communication between citizenship offices and immigration offices. These procedures came into effect on September 1, 1998.

5.2 Background

In the past, CPC Sydney (Special Categories) was responsible for following up on immigration clearance issues. With the advent of CRS, and the implementation of the principles outlined by citizenship renwal, the responsiblity for following up on immigration clearances was transferred to the local offices.

Immigration often has access to information which is relevant to the citizenship application. Also, citizenship offices often have crimial record information which is relevant for immigration officers who may want to pursue enforcement action against a client. These instructions outline procedures which will assist immigration offices and citizenship offices in sharing this relevant information.

These instructions for communicating client-specific information to and from immigration and citizenship offices emphasize the close links between both processes, and our shared commitment to program integrity.

Procedures

5.3 Active Applications - Immigration Clearance Exceptions

Special Categories at CPC Sydney will review all client histories highlighted by the Query Response Centre and determie if follow-up action is required. In many cases, FOSS will have an NCB entry "CITALERT - HOLD PROCESSING". If follow-up action by the local offices is required, the client will be placed under "Immigration Investigation", and QRC will enter a file note in CRS. The file note will include: a short description of the problem, the local immigration office file number, and the initials of the CPC contact person. It is imprtant to note that the immigration office which is handling the investigation may not be located in the same city where the client currently resides.

The local office will then check FOSS to determine when the last update on the case took place. If there is no indication in FOSS as to when the case will be conducted, the local office should contact the local immigration office responsible for the case; Immigration will respond within 60 days to the request for an update. If the investigtion is ongoing, the file should be BF’d for six months.

Integration and Enforcement are monitoring compliance with these guidelines. If you do nt receive a response from Immigration within 60 days of the query, please re-send the query to the local manager responsible for enforcement, with a cc to, Investigations and Removals, NHQ.

If a response is received that indicates the client is clear to proceed with the citizenship process, the local office will enter the immigration clearance in CRS, and proceed with processing. If a negative response is received, the local office will continue to BF at six month intervals, verifying on FOSS (and if necessary, with Immigration) until Immigration indicates all enforcement action has been completed.

These procedures also apply if information affecting the immigration clearance is received after all clearances have already been completed. If the information is received before the grant or oath of citizenship is completed, the immigration clearance should be cancelled, the processing on the citizenship application suspended until the local immigration office advises that all enforcement action against the client has been completed.

5.4 Active Applications - Information relevant to citizenship processing

Immigration has been advised to indicate in FOSS when information has been received that is relevant to citizenship processing, but which does not affect the immigration clearance (for example, an interview with a Port of Entry Officer indicates that the client has significant absences from Canada). This notification will be in the form of an NCB - "CITALERT - FOR INF ONLY". QRC will ensure that this information is communicated to the local office; the local office will handle the processing of the case as required. Information should be evaluated by the local office and included on the file for consideration by the citizenship judge.

5.5 Active Applications - Information relevant to Immigration Enforcement

Citizenship should inform immigration when information is gathered during the cizenship process which may be of interest to Immigration enforcement. The following information has been determined by NHQ Enforcement to be of interest to local enforcement offices, and could also affect the citizenship application:

• Permanent Resident ever convicted of an indictable offense;
• Permanent Resident ever given a term of imprisonment exceeding six months’
• Permanent Resident who has provided personal information which differs from FOSS (for example, undocumented aliases, undocumented changes to dates of birth);
• Permanent Resident in possession of valid US Resident Alien Card (green card), or a Permanent Resident who indicates that he/she is a permanent resident of a country other than Canada;
• Permanent Resident who cannot verify that Terms and Conditions of Landing have been met (verify on FOSS).

This information should be transmitted to Immigration enforcement, and processing on the citizenship application should be suspended for 30 days. If no response advising to hold the citizenship application for a longer time period is received from enforcement within 30 days, processing on the citizenship application should resume.

CSIS clearances

5.6 File referred to Case Management Branch

Any file that interests the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) is referred to Director, Case Review, Case Management Branch.