February 17, 2022
New Platform to Track Family Class PR Applications
On 8 February 2022, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (“IRCC”) announced a new online platform to track permanent resident applications made under the family class, specifically under the spouse, partner and dependent child categories.[1] This comes in light of the Government of Canada’s recent move to modernize the immigration system, support economic recovery, improve client experience, and limit the volume of status update requests via phone and email. The tracker, available to some self-represented applicants and their representatives, is meant to make tracking the progress of an application under one of these classes more transparent, efficient, and monitor for any outstanding requests or actions.[2]
The announcement also includes screenshots from the tracker, which show that an individual is able to view their application history, see when their medical results are received by IRCC, and also track which actions or steps remain in progress on their application, which have been completed, and confirm their contact details.[3]
However, there are some limitations to the tracker. For example, the tracker is only available to individuals who have provided an email address to IRCC, and who have access to that email address in order to retrieve a code.[4] Through navigating the tracker, it appears to be missing a function for representatives to request an existing application in process be linked, similar to the other online representative portals, so the information provided is limited to what IRCC links to the tracker on your behalf. What also remains to be seen is how up-to-date the information provided through the tracker is – are live or delayed updates provided?
This is certainly a positive development and signals a move towards modernization overall, and hopefully in the near future IRCC will provide these online services in a more streamlined and efficient fashion, rather than requiring individuals or their representatives to make several accounts to access different services.