Interesting. Did you receive a file number from CSIS? Give the privacy co-ordinator office a call at 613-231-0107 and keep bothering them.
Also, send an email to CSIS-ATIP asking for an update - atip-aiprp@smtp.gc.ca
Hope you hear back soon!
2020 applicants with Background verification- In Progress
- Thread starter Canadiann2020
- Start date
Also, send an email to CSIS-ATIP asking for an update - atip-aiprp@smtp.gc.ca
Hope you hear back soon!
Thank you. I already emailed them on Friday. Thanks for sharing the phone number, I’ll call them on Monday. After I submitted the request I received a tracking number by email.
harirajmohan
VIP Member
- Mar 3, 2015
- 1,666
- Category........
- Visa Office......
- Sydney, NS
- Job Offer........
- Pre-Assessed..
- App. Filed.......
- 29-May-2015
- Doc's Request.
- 30-Dec-2015 ReminderEmail(PCCs, NewPassport via cse 31-Dec-2015)
- Nomination.....
- SK 22-Apr-2015
- AOR Received.
- 11-Aug-2015
- Med's Request
- 23-Dec-2015
- Med's Done....
- 20-Jan-2016
- Passport Req..
- 26-May-2016 (BGC In Progress 25-May-2016)
- VISA ISSUED...
- PP Reached Ottawa:27-May-2016, Received:10-Jun-2016
- LANDED..........
- PR: 09-Jul-2016, PR Card: 17-Aug-2016
You should be able to see a section called CLEARANCES in which criminality and security information are listed. Sometime they remove some parts from GCMS note though.
I sent a case specific form to cic on May 30th regarding my criminality being in process for too long but I received a reply on a Saturday morning. I feel its an automated message. Not sure what's going on.
Thank you for contacting Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
We verified the information you provided and can confirm that the application is still in process.
All the required documents and information have been received by the responsible office for the moment.
Due to the ongoing situation related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), some IRCC offices are currently operating with reduced or critical staff only.
We are working on processing applications as quickly as possible; however, processing times are affected and any disruption caused by COVID-19 is not reflected accurately on our website. We will make all the necessary efforts to finalize the application as soon as possible.
Rest assured that you will be informed as soon as a decision is reached or if additional information is needed.
Furthermore, please note that there are two ways you can check your application status online. You can verify the status of your application:
Thank you for contacting Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
We verified the information you provided and can confirm that the application is still in process.
All the required documents and information have been received by the responsible office for the moment.
Due to the ongoing situation related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), some IRCC offices are currently operating with reduced or critical staff only.
We are working on processing applications as quickly as possible; however, processing times are affected and any disruption caused by COVID-19 is not reflected accurately on our website. We will make all the necessary efforts to finalize the application as soon as possible.
Rest assured that you will be informed as soon as a decision is reached or if additional information is needed.
Furthermore, please note that there are two ways you can check your application status online. You can verify the status of your application:
- Submitted by mail (if it was not linkedto an online account):
- by using the e-Client Application Status (e-CAS) online tool, which is updated daily.
- Submitted online orsubmitted by mail and linked to an online account:
- through your online account.
It's probably not automated if you received it after 10 days of submitting webform but it definitely bis the generic email response they send when they have nothing else to say. "We are processing". Lol.
You should also see an agent number at the bottom or name which will make sure it's not an automated response but a generic response.
When was your last GCMS Notes if you have requested?
Yup last time I received a reply I saw an agents name and number underneath the email but not this email.
I requested a status on my application to which they replied that an email was sent on feb 23 to my registered email ID and that i should find that email in my inbox but i never received any email so i sent another email asking them to resend the same email and also to let me know my status on criminality check. But this is wat they replied.
Some reminders:
One of the three formal "background" clearances is a GCMS screening. Last seen internal memos made it clear this check is done and redone each and every time any action is taken on a file. This includes another check when the applicant is scheduled for the oath AFTER a decision to approve the application has already been made. High probably this practice continues.
The GCMS check includes a criminality name-record check. This is separate and apart from the formal criminality check done by RCMP. (And this GCMS name-record criminality check, by the way, is almost always, not always but almost, done any time a traveler is referred to Secondary for immigration during the Port-of-Entry screening when travelers, including Canadian PRs, are entering Canada from abroad).
Thus, for example, this check is done attendant the screening of applications upon intake, before and part of the step that results in AOR. Not sure whether it is always done AGAIN in CPC-Sydney attendant the decision to put the application into an in progress status (meaning CPC Sydney screening is complete and the application is referred to a local office, even if the local office does not actually open and begin processing the application until months later), but it is clear that for at least some applications there are additional screening steps at the CPC-Sydney and thus again another formal GCMS check (since this is required attendant each action taken on the file, and it only involves a simple digital query into respective databases), which again includes a name-record criminal check (for at least name-record hits in Canada and U.S. databases).
Beyond that, the formal RCMP criminality check and the CSIS check are done by referral to the respective agencies, while the application file itself is referred to a local office for processing. That is, the referral to the local office does NOT depend on either the RCMP or CSIS check being completed.
I do not know at which step an applicant's copy of GCMS records will show the file actually in the local office. No reason to care about that. To be frank, blunt even, for the vast majority of applicants, efforts to micro-monitor the progress of the application by obtaining a copy of their GCMS records is a waste of time and effort. It is like watching the water in a pot waiting for it to boil; like staring at plants to watch their growth. With some isolated exceptions, the GCMS records will not contain any useful information, any information that an applicant can use in making decisions or taking action or, even, in anticipating the timeline ahead. By the time an action is taken that will show up in GCMS and have an impact on the applicant regarding which some decision or planning would be relevant, the procedure for notifying the applicant is in progress. Sure, there are some instances in which an applicant can learn, for example, he or she will be required to submit fingerprints SHORTLY before (weeks or a couple or three months) the applicant actually receives the request for FPs. Similarly, by pure chance (or frequency, which would be abusing the system, which it is obvious many do) an applicant might learn from the GCMS records that he or she will be scheduled for the test SHORTLY before actually getting the notice.
In any event, since the RCMP and CSIS checks are being done in parallel, sometimes those clearances are returned and in the applicant's file BEFORE a local office takes any action on the application. Sometimes AFTER.
It also appears, though this is less certain, that the RCMP and CSIS clearances may be complete and submitted to IRCC, without them showing up as complete in the copy of GCMS records an applicant receives . . . it appears that entry of these into GCMS as done may not happen until an IRCC processing agent takes action on the file. So, sometimes GCMS records can show the clearances not done even though the respective agency has completed and submitted the clearance.
It warrants noting there are numerous potential variations between what the GCMS records show as complete versus the actual status of steps in the process. This probably explains some of the inconsistent, some discordant, anecdotal reports based on GCMS records.
Bottom-line: except for applications running into real concerns, or applicants with significant concern-factors (which the applicant himself or herself almost always is rather well aware of, albeit many are either in denial about this or feigning ignorance), GCMS reveals almost nothing the applicant cannot otherwise discern based on what the applicant knows about his or her own application, or will otherwise learn relatively soon anyway.
Otherwise, it warrants remembering that even when GCMS shows this or that clearance, or all the clearances complete, that does not necessarily mean that further processing of the application will not be held up while, YEP, more background screening is done. Even though the GCMS records show them as complete, a referral to the RCMP or CSIS can occur ANY TIME right up to when the oath is actually taken (so, yes, even after the oath is scheduled but has not actually been taken yet). Which means applicants really know very little even when they learn, through the ATIP procedure, webform queries, or telephone queries, that clearances have been complete.
Overall, remember too that the methods, manner, and means of background screening are absolutely confidential. So the most in-depth information an applicant can obtain, including from the respective agencies (CSIS and RCMP), is at most just superficial and NEVER guaranteed to be final. Basically an individual cannot obtain much, if anything at all, other than what the individual either knows or should know (if not in denial about it for example).
None of this is to dismiss the importance of making inquiries, including requesting a copy of the GCMS records, in SOME situations, by SOME applicants. That's a far more complicated subject. That's largely about applicants with issues or applications with problems, which has NOTHING to do with the vast majority of applicants.
For the vast majority of applicants the process is akin to ordering dinner at a restaurant (anyone remember what that was like), no need to check with the waiter every five minutes to learn the status of preparation let alone go into the kitchen to monitor what is on the plate already, the drinks and appetizers will be served in due course (AOR then In Process then testing scheduled), and in time the main course will be served followed by dessert (certificate of citizenship). Sure, for a citizenship application it is in the kitchen, so to cook, so to say, for a lot longer, and the chefs send out requests for this or that (at least the RCMP and CSIS clearances; but other referrals are possible as well, not just to CBSA but to Visa Offices abroad, potentially CRA) and the main course is not served until all those requests have been returned. But for the vast majority of qualified applicants who properly, truthfully, and completely made the application, that's all that needs to be done other than waiting for notice and responding accordingly, even though these days, now especially, the timeline has slid off the main road and is, to mix metaphors, stuck in the mud -- but IRCC will get things going again, albeit not nearly so soon as most would like or some might demand.
One of the three formal "background" clearances is a GCMS screening. Last seen internal memos made it clear this check is done and redone each and every time any action is taken on a file. This includes another check when the applicant is scheduled for the oath AFTER a decision to approve the application has already been made. High probably this practice continues.
The GCMS check includes a criminality name-record check. This is separate and apart from the formal criminality check done by RCMP. (And this GCMS name-record criminality check, by the way, is almost always, not always but almost, done any time a traveler is referred to Secondary for immigration during the Port-of-Entry screening when travelers, including Canadian PRs, are entering Canada from abroad).
Thus, for example, this check is done attendant the screening of applications upon intake, before and part of the step that results in AOR. Not sure whether it is always done AGAIN in CPC-Sydney attendant the decision to put the application into an in progress status (meaning CPC Sydney screening is complete and the application is referred to a local office, even if the local office does not actually open and begin processing the application until months later), but it is clear that for at least some applications there are additional screening steps at the CPC-Sydney and thus again another formal GCMS check (since this is required attendant each action taken on the file, and it only involves a simple digital query into respective databases), which again includes a name-record criminal check (for at least name-record hits in Canada and U.S. databases).
Beyond that, the formal RCMP criminality check and the CSIS check are done by referral to the respective agencies, while the application file itself is referred to a local office for processing. That is, the referral to the local office does NOT depend on either the RCMP or CSIS check being completed.
I do not know at which step an applicant's copy of GCMS records will show the file actually in the local office. No reason to care about that. To be frank, blunt even, for the vast majority of applicants, efforts to micro-monitor the progress of the application by obtaining a copy of their GCMS records is a waste of time and effort. It is like watching the water in a pot waiting for it to boil; like staring at plants to watch their growth. With some isolated exceptions, the GCMS records will not contain any useful information, any information that an applicant can use in making decisions or taking action or, even, in anticipating the timeline ahead. By the time an action is taken that will show up in GCMS and have an impact on the applicant regarding which some decision or planning would be relevant, the procedure for notifying the applicant is in progress. Sure, there are some instances in which an applicant can learn, for example, he or she will be required to submit fingerprints SHORTLY before (weeks or a couple or three months) the applicant actually receives the request for FPs. Similarly, by pure chance (or frequency, which would be abusing the system, which it is obvious many do) an applicant might learn from the GCMS records that he or she will be scheduled for the test SHORTLY before actually getting the notice.
In any event, since the RCMP and CSIS checks are being done in parallel, sometimes those clearances are returned and in the applicant's file BEFORE a local office takes any action on the application. Sometimes AFTER.
It also appears, though this is less certain, that the RCMP and CSIS clearances may be complete and submitted to IRCC, without them showing up as complete in the copy of GCMS records an applicant receives . . . it appears that entry of these into GCMS as done may not happen until an IRCC processing agent takes action on the file. So, sometimes GCMS records can show the clearances not done even though the respective agency has completed and submitted the clearance.
It warrants noting there are numerous potential variations between what the GCMS records show as complete versus the actual status of steps in the process. This probably explains some of the inconsistent, some discordant, anecdotal reports based on GCMS records.
Bottom-line: except for applications running into real concerns, or applicants with significant concern-factors (which the applicant himself or herself almost always is rather well aware of, albeit many are either in denial about this or feigning ignorance), GCMS reveals almost nothing the applicant cannot otherwise discern based on what the applicant knows about his or her own application, or will otherwise learn relatively soon anyway.
Otherwise, it warrants remembering that even when GCMS shows this or that clearance, or all the clearances complete, that does not necessarily mean that further processing of the application will not be held up while, YEP, more background screening is done. Even though the GCMS records show them as complete, a referral to the RCMP or CSIS can occur ANY TIME right up to when the oath is actually taken (so, yes, even after the oath is scheduled but has not actually been taken yet). Which means applicants really know very little even when they learn, through the ATIP procedure, webform queries, or telephone queries, that clearances have been complete.
Overall, remember too that the methods, manner, and means of background screening are absolutely confidential. So the most in-depth information an applicant can obtain, including from the respective agencies (CSIS and RCMP), is at most just superficial and NEVER guaranteed to be final. Basically an individual cannot obtain much, if anything at all, other than what the individual either knows or should know (if not in denial about it for example).
None of this is to dismiss the importance of making inquiries, including requesting a copy of the GCMS records, in SOME situations, by SOME applicants. That's a far more complicated subject. That's largely about applicants with issues or applications with problems, which has NOTHING to do with the vast majority of applicants.
For the vast majority of applicants the process is akin to ordering dinner at a restaurant (anyone remember what that was like), no need to check with the waiter every five minutes to learn the status of preparation let alone go into the kitchen to monitor what is on the plate already, the drinks and appetizers will be served in due course (AOR then In Process then testing scheduled), and in time the main course will be served followed by dessert (certificate of citizenship). Sure, for a citizenship application it is in the kitchen, so to cook, so to say, for a lot longer, and the chefs send out requests for this or that (at least the RCMP and CSIS clearances; but other referrals are possible as well, not just to CBSA but to Visa Offices abroad, potentially CRA) and the main course is not served until all those requests have been returned. But for the vast majority of qualified applicants who properly, truthfully, and completely made the application, that's all that needs to be done other than waiting for notice and responding accordingly, even though these days, now especially, the timeline has slid off the main road and is, to mix metaphors, stuck in the mud -- but IRCC will get things going again, albeit not nearly so soon as most would like or some might demand.
Last edited:
harirajmohan
VIP Member
- Mar 3, 2015
- 1,666
- Category........
- Visa Office......
- Sydney, NS
- Job Offer........
- Pre-Assessed..
- App. Filed.......
- 29-May-2015
- Doc's Request.
- 30-Dec-2015 ReminderEmail(PCCs, NewPassport via cse 31-Dec-2015)
- Nomination.....
- SK 22-Apr-2015
- AOR Received.
- 11-Aug-2015
- Med's Request
- 23-Dec-2015
- Med's Done....
- 20-Jan-2016
- Passport Req..
- 26-May-2016 (BGC In Progress 25-May-2016)
- VISA ISSUED...
- PP Reached Ottawa:27-May-2016, Received:10-Jun-2016
- LANDED..........
- PR: 09-Jul-2016, PR Card: 17-Aug-2016
Its not automated reply. Its their reply for most whoever submits enquiry about their application.
harirajmohan
VIP Member
- Mar 3, 2015
- 1,666
- Category........
- Visa Office......
- Sydney, NS
- Job Offer........
- Pre-Assessed..
- App. Filed.......
- 29-May-2015
- Doc's Request.
- 30-Dec-2015 ReminderEmail(PCCs, NewPassport via cse 31-Dec-2015)
- Nomination.....
- SK 22-Apr-2015
- AOR Received.
- 11-Aug-2015
- Med's Request
- 23-Dec-2015
- Med's Done....
- 20-Jan-2016
- Passport Req..
- 26-May-2016 (BGC In Progress 25-May-2016)
- VISA ISSUED...
- PP Reached Ottawa:27-May-2016, Received:10-Jun-2016
- LANDED..........
- PR: 09-Jul-2016, PR Card: 17-Aug-2016
Ok. Do we see more than one sub activity other than rcmp under criminality? I dont see anything for csis.
Damn So you are basically following up on a follow up with another follow up. LOL. The good ol' CIC. Either ways, the response is just gonna be "We are processing your application. Thanks for your patience."
I have noticed another trend, every time I would request GCMS notes, there will be some activity from the case officer too. This is based on my expereince from my PR days and early citizenship application days.
I've heard several of these cases during my PR days as well but I don't see or hear about it as much now for the citizenship application. May be this is because IRCC has started redacting ALL of the officer's electronic notes.
I've requested notes again from CBSA - At least from what I've heard, CBSA adhere to the policies correctly and do not randomly redact swathes of pages under section s.12(1).
harirajmohan
VIP Member
- Mar 3, 2015
- 1,666
- Category........
- Visa Office......
- Sydney, NS
- Job Offer........
- Pre-Assessed..
- App. Filed.......
- 29-May-2015
- Doc's Request.
- 30-Dec-2015 ReminderEmail(PCCs, NewPassport via cse 31-Dec-2015)
- Nomination.....
- SK 22-Apr-2015
- AOR Received.
- 11-Aug-2015
- Med's Request
- 23-Dec-2015
- Med's Done....
- 20-Jan-2016
- Passport Req..
- 26-May-2016 (BGC In Progress 25-May-2016)
- VISA ISSUED...
- PP Reached Ottawa:27-May-2016, Received:10-Jun-2016
- LANDED..........
- PR: 09-Jul-2016, PR Card: 17-Aug-2016
I dont know what this is about. Why are you getting notes from cbsa when background check is complete?