I previously reported that Citizenship and Immigration Canada (”CIC”) had published Ministerial Instructions, which affected the Federal Skilled Worker Class. These Ministerial Instructions imposed a mandatory language proficiency assessment on all Federal Skilled Worker cases, even those submitted by native English or French speakers and even where they did not require language points to qualify.

I also previously reported that, following the issuance of these Ministerial Instructions, CIC also revised its IMM 5612 Document Checklist, which is used for the initial filing of Federal Skilled Worker applications with the Central Intake Office (”CIO”). The language proficiency assessment was an expected addition to IMM 5612. However, what was not expected was the requirement that applicants also submit all documents listed on the specific visa office document checklist applicable to the consular post where the application will be processed.

Based on the current IMM 5612, the applicant must now submit a complete application, including all supporting documentation at the time of the initial filing with the CIO. This had the potential for causing considerable delays since documents such as police certificates could take months to obtain. Fortunately, CIC has now clarified that, as police certificates are related to admissibility rather than eligibility, applicants will not be required to provide them when they submit their application to the CIO.

Another serious question that arose from the current IMM 5612 was whether the CIO would forward the supporting documents to the consular post after it had done its initial screening. Prior to this change, the CIO did not forward the application forms to the consular post; it simply entered information contained in the forms into CIC’s database. CIC has now also clarified that documents must only be submitted once and that they will be forwarded to the consular post once the initial screening has been completed.