A flaw in the Canadian immigration system led to the government accepting an additional 7,307 immigration applications, outperform the imposed limit.

This negotiates files from international graduate stream applicants aspiring to change their temporary visa status to permanent residency.

The bug led System to accept 7,307 applications over the limit

Canadian immigration law typically sets an annual limit for the number of immigration applications that can be accepted in a year under each way. For example, eligible international graduates in Canada can apply to adjust their temporary residency status to permanent residence (PR) via an online application.

Our experts reached out to Immigration, Refugees, and the Citizenship Canada to learn more: “Due to a technical concerns, IRCC received application above the limit for the international graduate stream of the temporary pathway to permanent residence,” Philippe Couvrette, a government spokesperson told our experts.    

The flaw also caused the system to treat multiple applications as a single one: 

“In some cases where two or more applications were submitted simultaneously, the electronic application system counted them as a single application.”

“As a result, the electronic application system accepted approximately 7,300 applications above the 40,000 limit for this stream,” Courvette added.

Ministers Execute Temporary Policy to Accept Excess Applications

An editor of CIC News, Shelby Thevenot who initially reported on the technical glitch transmitted additional insights with our experts.

In an internal memo transmitted with our experts, that the government department requested Immigration Minister Macro Mendicino to permit for the extra application to be processed as normal.

Without any judicial approval, as the current law dictates, applications accepted extra due to the flaw would commonly have been returned to the applicants, along with the fees.

The minister also approved the policy on June 28th, 2021, permitting for the 7,303 excess applications above the annual limit to be considered.

The change saved the applicants from unnecessary penalties and inconvenience caused by no fault of their own. “IRCC is processing the applications received above the limit to ensure the 7,300 applicants are not penalized due to a system error. IRCC also made changes to the system to ensure this no longer happens,” Couvrette further told our experts.

“IRCC is transforming the applications accepted more than the limit to make sure the 7,300 applicants are not penalized due to a system error. IRCC also made changes to the system to make sure this no longer happens,” Couvrette further told our security researchers. The government agency said it is devoted to transmitting quality client service across its wide network by making its programs and services more capable, clear, and consistent.

As more people come to Canada and application volumes continue to rise, IRCC must keep developing its operations and provide timely and efficient service to address more immigrants and visitors and remain globally competitive, says the department.

“IRCC has been moving towards a more integrated, modernized and centralized working environment in order to help speed up application processing globally.”

“We move applications around our global network to assure they are processed as efficiently as possible, which means applications may not be processed at or decided upon by decision creators at the office closest to where a client exists, or where an application is submitted,” concluded IRCC in their email to our experts.

IRCC is expected to establish a separate public system for processing appeals from persons requiring an accommodation, details of which are to be declared.

Temporary citizens and foreign students wanting to estimate their acceptability towards one or more colonization streams can check out the online ability tool.