Need the status of your Canada visa application?
There are a couple of ways that you can find out the latest status of
your Canadian immigration visa application: you can visit CIC's online
e-CAS system,
which will give you a short summary of which stage of processsing your
file has reached (e.g. 'in process' or 'decision made'), or you can
request your CAIPS notes
which should provide you with a more detailed look at your application
status including the date when CIC may deal with your file next.
What is CIC's e-CAS system?
CIC's eCAS or eclient system allows you to instantly check the status
of your Canada immigration application online at no cost.
Unfortunately, it doesn't actually
provide a great deal of information about your application, just what
stage of processing it has reached and whether a decision has been made.
You can find a link to
the eClient Application System on the front page of Citizenship and
Immigration Canada's website at http://www.cic.gc.ca.
What about the CAIPS / GCMS system?
CAIPS is short for 'Computer Assisted Immigration Processing
System', which is the name of the computer system historically
used by Citizenship & Immigration Canada
to process all visa applications in overseas offices, such as permanent
resident visas, work permits and study permits. The CAIPS system is
slowly being superceded by the new GCMS computer (Global Case Management
System) but older files are still held within CAIPS.
When a immigration application arrives at the visa office, the
immigration officers create a CAIPS file. It is the CAIPS file number
that is printed on an
Acknowledgement of Receipt ('AOR'). The CAIPS file number is normally the letter "B" followed by 9 digits, e.g. "B 123 456 789", although for a
study permit, it will begin with an 'S' and for a visitor visa application it will begin with a 'V'.
CAIPS maintains all information relevant to your permanent residence immigration or visa application, including :-
- notes and comments from all the visa officers that have reviewed your application
- points computations relevant to your application
- background checks consisting of security clearances and criminality checks
- medical assessments
Unfortunately you cannot request a copy of your CAIPS notes directly
using CIC Canada's online systems, and if you don't live in Canada you
can't request your
CAIPS notes yourself. However, we can apply for your CAIPS notes on
your behalf and have done for many thousands of clients to date.
Visit our How Do I Apply? page to apply for
your CAIPS notes today!
