@legalfalcon my primary office is centralized intake office and secondary office is Ottawa on my current gcms notes. Can you advise which is my current VO that is processing my application. What's the difference between primary and secondary visa offices?
All applications start at CIO then go to one of the many CPCs and then to the LVO.
If your secondary VO is CPR Ottawa then your application is being processed there.
The difference is that different offices have different roles.
Finding the visa office was very relevant pre- express entry. Even after the introduction of express entry in 2015, the same practice was followed which usually was for the paper based application, but that is no longer the case. Earlier all application followed the following trajectory:
Central Intake Office - Case Processing Centre - Local Visa Office
However, this has radically changed and for all express entry, all application follow the following:
1.
Central Intake Office - The R10 (completeness check) is done at the Central Intake Office for all classes (FSW / PNP / CEC). Now even the criminality and medicals are done at CIO.
2.
Case Processing Centre - These are 4 CPCs in Canada
CPC in Edmonton
CPC in Mississauga
CPC and CIO in Sydney
CPC in Ottawa
OSC in Ottawa
The Operations Support Centre (OSC) processes the following applications:
International Experience Canada work permits
In-Canada temporary resident applications submitted online
Verification of Status (VOS)
Replacement of valid temporary resident documents
Amendment of immigration documents and of valid temporary resident documents
Local Visa Office - This is the office where you will be asked to submit your passport after your application has been approved. Usually the consulate in your home country.
These days all application after starting at CIO (where R10 is met), either start the processing of eligibility at CIO itself, or move to CPC (wither Ottawa, Sydney, or Vegreville), or are straight sent to the LVO. The trend has been to complete most of the processing between CIO and CPC. Since the applications are electronically stored, there is no movement of physical files.
SUGGESTION - There is no point sending emails to ask which VO your application is at, as that process is moot since the eligibility can even start at CIO. So save yourself some time and efforts and also save the human resources of IRCC and stop sending emails. Even if you know which VO your application is at, it means nothing. Most applications which are processed within weeks and get PPR, are processed at CIO, and this is a much faster way.
A few applications will see eligibility passed, and then go 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 additional review, or identification before the eligibility is finally set to PASSED.
