Audit of the Immigration Program
Canadian Consulate General – Seattle
4.2. Office Environment
The physical layout of the office is only partially conducive to efficient workflow. While much of the office is quite suitable, the non-immigrant section, where the three interview wickets and non-immigrant printers are located, requires upgrading. The wickets are not enclosed, and the area is not private. Conversations on both the clients’ and officers’ sides carry too far. As a result, there is a complete lack of privacy—particularly on the clients’ side, where those in the waiting room unwittingly become party to the interview. On the office side of the wickets, there is only a narrow space behind the interviewers’ chairs separating them from the two visa printers, which provides little room for passage.
Recommendation
2. The Mission should continue to seek funds to modify the office space to provide privacy for the clients and to isolate the visa printers.
Management Response
Management agrees with the recommendation. The 2000–01 IRIMP (November 2000) and the 2001–02 IRIMP (December 2001) included requests for funding to renovate office space.
Notwithstanding the cramped non-immigrant processing area, the office environment is generally tidy. At the time of the audit, the team found the bright and clean waiting room large enough to accommodate the applicants. However, the team was informed that during the peak season, the room is inadequate and visitors to the Mission’s visa section spill over into the public corridor. Because the office is not equipped with a queue management system, visitors have to stand in a long queue in the waiting room to reach the reception wicket. The Mission requested funding in the 2000-01 IRIMP to implement a queue management system.
- Date Modified:
