. . . and . . .
So far anecdotal reporting has not indicated that IRCC will reschedule an in-person interview to be online. Applicable PDIs (Program Delivery Instructions) still refer to the in-person interview, as required, and specifically state that these events are only scheduled IN Canada; while the Covid-era work-around allowing interviews online continues to be used and appears likely to become a standard approach for some/many applicants, that is, a part of routine processing, so far IRCC has not published guidelines covering who or when online interviews will be utilized.
Of course it is possible to "ask" to be rescheduled for an online interview. It is possible to ask that the interview be waived.
Unless and until there is some credible reporting about successfully having an in-person interview rescheduled to be online, however, applicants should be prepared to attend such scheduled events. IRCC does allow rescheduling, at least once and at least for the same type of interview (in-person or online, as originally scheduled), but of course this will cause some delay and could trigger more screening, elevated scrutiny, and it is really important to recognize that multiple failures to attend a scheduled event can lead to the application being deemed abandoned, which has the same effect as denying the application.
If anyone has personal experience in how it goes requesting the rescheduling of an in-person interview to be online, please share some details about that . . . bare statements claiming to have done this might offer some indication it can be done, but to be helpful more detail about how it went is needed.
