ALL ABOUT GCMS - HOW TO ORDER, READ, & GENERAL QUESTIONS ANSWERED

[penn302]

Hi @legalfalcon hope you can help me interpret my gcms notes

AOR: Aug 11 with one in-land dependent

Primary office: CPC-Ottawa
Secondary office: OSC-Operations Support Centre

Assessments:
Eligibility: Passed (Sep 22)
Security: Not Started
Criminality: Passed (Sep 22)
Medical: Passed (Sep 14)
Info Sharing: In Progress

For eligibility, the status "Passed' actually came from a Case Analyst. I guess it still needs the officer to finalize? The only thing I worry is my current remote work in Montreal (I graduated outside QC, went to QC for work 2 years, then came back recently because of my partner's job and keep working remotely). There are no any adverse comments or concerns in the notes from the case Analyst and program assistant. Will the officer have a different view on my file?


Also, under the section of Biometrics, why it shows "Review Required"?
Assessment: Review Required
Enrolment class: Partial-Figureprints
Info: received-NRT
Review: blank

 

[bergfrue89]

@caipsnotes @legalfalcon I had ordered my GCMS Notes on 19th Sep 2021 and today I reminded them of the delay that had been taking in the notes. Today, they responded with the generic message - ""(...) We acknowledge that your request has been received and is in processing. According to our records, your request was due on XXX. (...) Please note that we have flagged your request as priority and the information will be forwarded to you as soon as possible.""

I saw your post -#3258- where you listed how we can escalate the request. Could you please elaborate on how to do so as I don't quite understand the options available to me apart from sending the email to ATIP general inbox?

 

[legalfalcon]

A question on a similar note. In the GCMS notes we obtain from CBSA, if the security has already started, does that indirectly mean "Eligibility" is passed ?

There will be a detailed note pertaining to eligibility and the assessment on page 2 will show eligibility as passed.

Also, in most cases, security is only initiated after eligibility is conclusively passed.

See https://bit.ly/3qLtbuE

 

[legalfalcon]

@legalfalcon I had ordered my GCMS Notes on 19th Sep 2021 and today I reminded them of the delay that had been taking in the notes. Today, they responded with the generic message - ""(...) We acknowledge that your request has been received and is in processing. According to our records, your request was due on XXX. (...) Please note that we have flagged your request as priority and the information will be forwarded to you as soon as possible.""

I saw your post -#3258- where you listed how we can escalate the request. Could you please elaborate on how to do so as I don't quite understand the options available to me apart from sending the email to ATIP general inbox?

See https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/thank-you-legalfalcon.408185/post-9817333

 

[legalfalcon]

Hi @legalfalcon hope you can help me interpret my gcms notes

AOR: Aug 11 with one in-land dependent

Primary office: CPC-Ottawa
Secondary office: OSC-Operations Support Centre

Assessments:
Eligibility: Passed (Sep 22)
Security: Not Started
Criminality: Passed (Sep 22)
Medical: Passed (Sep 14)
Info Sharing: In Progress

For eligibility, the status "Passed' actually came from a Case Analyst. I guess it still needs the officer to finalize? The only thing I worry is my current remote work in Montreal (I graduated outside QC, went to QC for work 2 years, then came back recently because of my partner's job and keep working remotely). There are no any adverse comments or concerns in the notes from the case Analyst and program assistant. Will the officer have a different view on my file?


Also, under the section of Biometrics, why it shows "Review Required"?
Assessment: Review Required
Enrolment class: Partial-Figureprints
Info: received-NRT
Review: blank

In most cases an officer will go with the recommendation, however, they can make a different assessment, though very rare.

If your biometrics were not captured properly, then there will be a RR, and the officer will determine whether to ask you for a new biometrics, or just go ahead the existing ones.

 

[penn302]

In most cases an officer will go with the recommendation, however, they can make a different assessment, though very rare.

If your biometrics were not captured properly, then there will be a RR, and the officer will determine whether to ask you for a new biometrics, or just go ahead the existing ones.

Thanks @legalfalcon They seem to change a little bit the format of the note (e.g., summary assessment on the right of 1st page). I can’t see when the note was created at the beginning. Is it usually the date they sent the note?

The due date (2021/10/27) of application assignment already passed, but nothing happened after latest activity on Sep. 22. What does this indicate?

 

[legalfalcon]

Thanks @legalfalcon They seem to change a little bit the format of the note (e.g., summary assessment on the right of 1st page). I can’t see when the note was created at the beginning. Is it usually the date they sent the note?

The due date (2021/10/27) of application assignment already passed, but nothing happened after latest activity on Sep. 22. What does this indicate?

IRCC in some cases and all notes from CBSA are being released in the new abridged format. see https://bit.ly/3wVsd05

How to read your GCMS notes, see https://bit.ly/3qLcCPt

 

[caipsnotes]

Thanks @legalfalcon They seem to change a little bit the format of the note (e.g., summary assessment on the right of 1st page). I can’t see when the note was created at the beginning. Is it usually the date they sent the note?

The due date (2021/10/27) of application assignment already passed, but nothing happened after latest activity on Sep. 22. What does this indicate?

They seem to change a little bit the format of the note (e.g., summary assessment on the right of 1st page). I can’t see when the note was created at the beginning. Is it usually the date they sent the note? - No. You can simply email IRCC and ask when the notes were generated.

 

[caipsnotes]

@caipsnotes @legalfalcon I had ordered my GCMS Notes on 19th Sep 2021 and today I reminded them of the delay that had been taking in the notes. Today, they responded with the generic message - ""(...) We acknowledge that your request has been received and is in processing. According to our records, your request was due on XXX. (...) Please note that we have flagged your request as priority and the information will be forwarded to you as soon as possible.""

I saw your post -#3258- where you listed how we can escalate the request. Could you please elaborate on how to do so as I don't quite understand the options available to me apart from sending the email to ATIP general inbox?

Filing a complaint with OIC will do nothing - OIC does not even investigate delay related complaints; they only launched the systemic investigation into IRCC simply due to # of complaints that were filed. You can file a complaint with OIC, and they wait long enough for the file to be released and then close the complaint. You can file a complaint, no harm done. You can also request your case management report to gain additional insight into how the GCMS request is being processed. More here https://bit.ly/3x4gX1C

 

[upon]

Dear @caipsnotes and @legalfalcon. It has been about 50 days since I applied for GCMS from IRCC. I did not get any extension emails-completely nothing. After 40 days I sent them an email to follow up and got an automatic reply.

Is it even legal?? They could extend I know and it can take longer, but they did not even bother to send the extension email to me or reply to my follow up email.

Please explain if this happened before?? And what else I can do?

 

[caipsnotes]

Dear @caipsnotes and @legalfalcon. It has been about 50 days since I applied for GCMS from IRCC. I did not get any extension emails-completely nothing. After 40 days I sent them an email to follow up and got an automatic reply.

Is it even legal?? They could extend I know and it can take longer, but they did not even bother to send the extension email to me or reply to my follow up email.

Please explain if this happened before?? And what else I can do?

What you are experiencing is called "deemed refusal", you can file a complaint with OIC but nothing will come of it.

Subsection 10(3) of the Access to InformationAct states that when a government institution fails to give access to a record or a part thereof within the time limits set out in the Act (30 calendar days or the length of time taken under an extension), the institution is deemed to have refused access. This situation is commonly referred to as a deemed refusal.

What you described is common these days, you will get the file eventually. Should have gone with CBSA instead, same process/cost

You can also request your case management report to find out more about the GCMS request; see https://bit.ly/3x4gX1C

 

[legalfalcon]

Dear @legalfalcon. It has been about 50 days since I applied for GCMS from IRCC. I did not get any extension emails-completely nothing. After 40 days I sent them an email to follow up and got an automatic reply.

Is it even legal?? They could extend I know and it can take longer, but they did not even bother to send the extension email to me or reply to my follow up email.

Please explain if this happened before?? And what else I can do?

The GCMS notes are requested under the Access to Information Act or the Privacy Act. Under both Acts, IRCC is obligated to release the GCMS notes within 30 days. If you do not receive the notes within 30 days, which is very common, you can follow up by sending an email, but that too takes 3-6 weeks for a response and in some cases, there is no response at all. Even if you receive a response, you will state that the request has been flagged as priority and will be released soon.

Under both Acts, the formal legal procedure is to file a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner of Canada for requests filed under the Privacy Act, or a complaint with the Office of the Information commissioner is the request was filed under the Access to Information Act.

This is clearly listed in section 29 of the Privacy Act and section 30 of the Access to Information Act.

29

(1) Subject to this Act, the Privacy Commissioner shall receive and investigate complaints

• (a) from individuals who allege that personal information about themselves held by a government institution has been used or disclosed otherwise than in accordance with section 7 or 8;
• (b) from individuals who have been refused access to personal information requested under subsection 12(1);

Receipt and investigation of complaints

• 30 (1) Subject to this Part, the Information Commissioner shall receive and investigate complaints
  • (a) from persons who have been refused access to a record requested under this Part or a part thereof;

All complaints that are filed, where there is a delay, are dealt with by informing and sending the tracking number to IRCC. IRCC will eventually release the GCMS notes, thereby resolving the complaint. In some rare cases, an investigation may be required, and most of these cases are where the request was not registered due to a system or human error, or was not assigned to an ATIP Officer.

Where the information is released before the investigation can be initiated or during the preliminary stages of investigation, the complaint is marked as "Resolved."

As always, Access to Information is based on law, that is listed clearly in the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, along with the procedure on what to do when a federal agency does not comply with the statutory timelines.

Delays do happen, and are very common with IRCC in all lines of business.

Each year, IRCC publishes its ATIP report that informs how many requests it received and the average time frame within which the information was released. As per the last published report, between 2019-2020, 49% of the requests filed with IRCC took longer than 30 days to be released, 32% took between 30-60 days, 11% took 60-120 days and 6% took longer than 120 days. You can read the complete report here.

If you are not satisfied with the complaint mechanism, you can file a leave for judicial review before the federal court.

 

[bergfrue89]

Thank you @legalfalcon and @caipsnotes for your insights.

While waiting for the GCMS notes from IRCC, I also filed GCMS notes request from CBSA around 2 weeks ago. Would the request to CBSA be independent from the request to IRCC? Or would the request to CBSA also be delayed? Can i expect the GCMS notes from CBSA within 30 days (+/-) 2 weeks?

 

[legalfalcon]

Thank you @legalfalcon for your insights.

While waiting for the GCMS notes from IRCC, I also filed GCMS notes request from CBSA around 2 weeks ago. Would the request to CBSA be independent from the request to IRCC? Or would the request to CBSA also be delayed? Can i expect the GCMS notes from CBSA within 30 days (+/-) 2 weeks?

IRCC and CBSA are separate federal agencies, and an ATIP request filed with either agency is delt separate by each agency by their respective ATIP division. Just because your IRCC notes are delayed, does not mean that your notes from CBSA will be delayed as well.

Also, in most cases, CBSA is very efficient and if they are unable to meet the 30 days statutory time frame, they will seek an extension of 30, 45, or 60 and in some rare cases 90 days. An extension notice to this effect will be sent to you.

See https://bit.ly/3qXsJK8

 

[Arsene4367]

Officers note says "I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities the PA meets eligibility requirement s of section R75/76 (1) (B) of regulations"

https://ibb.co/V3p8zmw

What does it mean? @legalfalcon @caipsnotes