All about the visa office

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About the visa office

Immigration regulations state where a visa application must be submitted, they do not stipulate where an application must be processed, which can be at any visa office outside Canada or inside Canada.

The GCMS is an electronic business platform. It constitutes one of the major projects undertaken to modify IRCC’s service delivery model and is described as “an automated, integrated case management tool to support [IRCC’s] global business network. GCMS allows files to be transferred electronically, a feature that is helpful when there are huge spikes in demand in a specific office. The ability to process applications anywhere in the world has also allowed the department to triage files and separate the complex from the non-complex cases. Non-complex cases may be processed entirely in Canada, thereby freeing visa officers to concentrate resources on more complex cases.

Visa offices outside Canada

IRCC visa offices are located in Canadian embassies, high commissions and consulates. Find your IRCC visa office.

Visa offices inside Canada

The case processing centres (CPCs), the centralized intake office (CIO), and the Operations Support Centre (OSC) receive and process citizenship or immigration applications. They are not open to the public and do not offer assistance with applications. Read more about the offices inside Canada at this IRCC site and also this IRCC bulletin

Case Processing Centre (CPC) – These are the CPC’s in Canada

Edmonton, Alberta
Mississauga, Ontario
Ottawa, Ontario
Sydney, Nova Scotia

The Operations Support Centre (OSC) located in Ottawa, Ontario processes the following applications:

International Experience Canada work permits,
In-Canada applications submitted online,
Verification of Status (VOS) applications,
Replacement of valid temporary resident documents,
Amendment of immigration documents and of valid temporary resident documents.

What is Local Visa Office (LVO)?

This is the office where you will be asked to submit your passport after your application has been approved. Usually it is the consulate in your home country.

If you do want to find your visa processing office it can be done by simply sending a webform or by requesting your GCMS notes. The GCMS notes below is an example of a file transfer due to workload redistribution.

Can the Local Visa Office (LVO) change?

The LVO only changes when the applicant informs IRCC (e.g. using a web-form) of a change in the country of residence (CoR).

File transfers. Applicant requests for a file transfer

Visa offices are not required to transfer applications for permanent or temporary residence to another processing office upon the request of applicants or their designated representatives. Offices should refuse to transfer files if a transfer would affect program integrity. The onus is on the applicant to demonstrate that the transfer of their file would not compromise the integrity of the application assessment process.

The following are examples of assessments that may affect program integrity if a file is transferred to a different processing office:

ability to effectively evaluate documents
knowledge of local security and criminality environments
familiarity with business practices and procedures

Before transferring a file, officers should consult the potential receiving offices to seek assistance in finalizing the case. Note: There are no fees for file transfer requests.

File transfers. Officer-initiated file transfers

At times, offices may independently decide that program integrity issues merit transferring an application to another processing office. When transferring files, offices should consider the resource implications for the receiving office. Offices should notify the receiving office of upcoming transfers, particularly multiple transfers.

Officers may transfer applications electronically to offices within the global network where capacity exists, which allows IRCC to manage its workload and ensure that service standards and processing times are met. Before doing so, the officer should always make sure a transfer does not affect program integrity.

File transfers. Receiving a transferred file

Offices receiving a transferred file must respect the original date on which the application was received as the “lock-in” date. For processing purposes, all processing steps for the files transferred to an office, including the scheduling of interviews, should be the same as for all other applications received in the office on the date corresponding to the received file’s “lock-in” date. This means that an application that is received in Paris in July 2015 and transferred to New Delhi in March 2016 would enter the New Delhi queue as of July 2015.

What is a Responsibility Centre?

Here are some examples;

RC-6262: Responsibility Centre 6262 (CIO Centralized Intake Office)
RC-6029: New Delhi
RC-9245: OSC Operations Support Centre
RC-9518: CPC Edmonton
RC-3296: Etobicoke IRCC

See the full list of RC codes

What is RROC?

Also referred to as the Rapid Response Operations Centre or Resettlement Operations Centre is in Ottawa, Ontario. This office deals with refugee and existing Express Entry applications and is tasked with processing immigration applications for certain NOC’s (National Occupational Classification) that are deemed essential for Canada.

Visa Office and Express Entry

It does not matter any longer which visa office is processing your immigration application. Since the introduction of the Express Entry program in 2015 the visa office is no longer of relevance. All Express Entry applications now follow this path;

Central Intake Office (CIO) – This office is located in Sydney, Nova Scotia. The completeness check is done at the Central Intake Office (CIO) for all classes (FSW / PNP / CEC). Even criminality checks and review of medicals results are done at the CIO.

These days all applications after starting at the CIO (where the R10 completeness check is done), either start the processing of Eligibility at the CIO itself, or move to the CPC (Edmonton, Ottawa or Sydney), or are straight sent to the LVO. The trend so far has been to complete most of the processing between the CIO and CPC’s. Since the applications are electronically stored, there is no movement of physical files.

A few applications will see Eligibility “Passed”, and then go back to “Not Started” when the application is sent to the LVO. This is because the final review is done at the LVO, and the local agent may decide to conduct an additional review, or identification before Eligibility is finally set to “Passed”.

Immigration files are transferred between visa offices for a wide variety of reasons; due to workload distribution, office specific requirements, such as local knowledge required at the local visa office (LVO) to verify details. In some cases all aspects of an application are cleared at the CPC and the Passport Request (PPR) too is sent, and then the file is sent to the LVO to generate COPR. So there is no point in trying to find out which VO your application is at. Your Eligibility review can even start at the CIO. Most applications which are processed within weeks and receive PPR, are processed at the CIO, and this is a much faster way. Even if you know which VO your application is at, it is of no significance!

If you do want to find your visa processing office it can be done by simply sending a webform or by requesting your GCMS notes.

Canada Visa Status – The only way to know the most detailed information of an application is by requesting GCMS Notes. GCMS is the most comprehensive and up-to-date information that can be obtained to understand the status of a visa application or to learn the details about a visa refusal. It offers far more detail than IRCC’s online system and you can order your GCMS Notes online

Disclaimer – Material contained within this website is intended for informational purposes only and is provided as a service to the Canada visa applicant community. These materials do not, and are not, intended to constitute legal advice.

Visa Office