Visas will be issued in Canada for straightforward cases that meet all requirements. More complex cases will be forwarded to the appropriate visa office overseas for interview or additional review. A case could be transferred to a mission abroad if an interview is required, if documents need to be verified, or if the case is otherwise too complex. Some cases might also be referred to a mission for a quality assurance review. Cases referred to a mission for an interview, document verification, quality assurance review or any other reason will be processed to conclusion by that mission.
All applicants continue to be assessed against the same criteria for their respective categories.
The joint application will save time for family class applicants and their sponsors by putting the application forms into the applicant's hands sooner. This could save the client up to 2 months from when the sponsorship is normally approved. Up front medical testing should also cut several weeks from the overall processing time. For independent category cases, randomly selected applications will be sent to Canada for processing while others will be processed as part of a control group at a participating post abroad. CIC has established service standards for the pilot project so that clients know exactly what to expect while their applications are being processed.