On December 12, 2022 CBC News published IRCC data which revealed that 59,456 open, pending or reopened applications were assigned to 779 former employees or dormant computer placeholder codes which have been under processing for quite a long time.
Following the news, IRCC Minister Sean Fraser responded to the matter upon being asked by a journalist.
He provided reassurance that everyone of the cases that are subject of story published by CBC News will be processed.
Furthermore, he explained that this a part of an ordinary processing. As per the minister, codes of inactive/former immigration/visa officers are used as part of their triage strategy.
Codes of inactive employees are used to take cases that have similar commonality to other kind of files.
This is to ensure that files actually go the IRCC’s Global Case Management System (GCMS) to be processed effectively.
Additionally, he said this is part of how IRCC gets cases to the areas where they will be ultimately processed.
Even if the files were attached to codes of inactive/former IRCC employee. Further, he said that immigration files are processed by multiple officers, not only the one employee.
Backgrounder
IRCC officer codes are used in places all over the world, including Canadian airports, border crossings, and processing facilities, as well as consulates and embassies in the United States, the Philippines, India, Haiti, Poland, Brazil, and Tunisia, to name a few.
As per CBC News report, Ottawa has the most inactive visa processing codes, followed by Edmonton, Vancouver, Sydney, and Newfoundland.
It is crucial to know that any visa/immigration application submitted outside of Canada may be routed to offices in a different country/region for processing.
The most heinous code, SM10353, was assigned to 9,540 applicants. This Sydney, Newfoundland-based placeholder or prior employee last used the system on March 23, 2021. Others include the following:
- TD7976, an Ottawa-based company with 5,782 assigned applications, last logged in in October 2020.
- The most recent login for Edmonton-based TH04332, which has 3,937 assigned apps, was in February 2011.
- About 3,756 applications have been allocated to CB01126, based in Sydney, Newfoundland and Labrador.
- With 3,388 assigned applications to CB00580, situated in Edmonton, last logged in in January 2012.
- The last login for RK01404, based in India, had 2,201 assigned applications, was in March 2021.
- With 2,167 assigned applications, CA9999, situated in Edmonton, last logged in in August 2015.
- With 1,897 assigned applications, Sydney, Newfoundland-based LB6660 last logged in in December 2016.
- RA9519, a Vancouver-based with 1,864 assigned applications, last logged in in February 2016.
- With 1,710 assigned applications, RL7901, situated in Ottawa, last logged in in November 2015.
- D9151, an Edmonton-based company with 1,702 assigned applications, last logged in in August 2013.
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