Over 60,000 applications have been stalled by mismanagement, as revealed by an Access to Information and Privacy request. IRCC allocates thousands of applications to inactive officers.
According to the ATIP request from the CBC – (Canadian Broadcast Corporation), 779 inactive IRCC officers were responsible for processing 59,456 pending and reopened applications. IRCC’s Global Case Management System (GCMS), which handles requests for immigration and citizenship services, is used by inactive officers who can no longer access and use it.
IRCC allocates thousands of applications to inactive officers a number of inactive officers from Canadian border crossing points. Processing facilities, airports, and consulates were assigned active cases in Brazil, the Philippines, the USA, and other countries. In addition to specific symbols that stand in for something else. The ATIP request also included the date when the inactive immigration personnel most recently logged into GCMS. Also the number of applications assigned to them.
Candidates can only identify IRCC officials using placeholder codes that appear on their GCMS notes. An IRCC note on an immigration application is requested by a person under the ATIP. There are many types of notes in this file, including letters sent to and from the IRCC. Applicant documents, in-depth comments from the officers reviewing the case, and other data that may be relevant to the situation.
Nevertheless, CBC reported that IRCC was not able to provide applications to dormant customers owing to the lack of ability to track the applications if it had.
Upcoming Changes
Due to increased scrutiny and the need for immigrants to be welcomed, the IRCC has taken action. A further 1,250 employees have been hired to increase the speed of application processing by implementing more sophisticated data analytics. Also by 2023, the department will spend millions of dollars on developing a new department-wide digital system. It will replace the GCMS.
Additionally, the backlog of applications has been decreasing recently, and as of December 9th, 2022, it was at 2.2 million.
As the IRCC manages a huge backlog of applications, it still strives to comply with prior service standards. A lottery-based selection process, for example, is used for PGP. And its impact is more noticeable when there are smaller immigration aims involved. Unlike prior processes, the IRCC has spent the last two years just recycling proposals. It was submitted to its 2020 pool. PGP(Parents and Grandparents Program) applicants over the age of 50 have disproportionately negative impacts from this change.
It is evident that IRCC has not yet achieved the number of applications. It had prior to the pandemic. As well as it must continue to work on this to bring back service standards and normalcy to its application processing. Despite the department making improvements in 2022, they have pledged to undertake additional measures in the upcoming years.