Operational Bulletin 484 - December 18, 2012

Processing work permits for Designated Country of Origin refugee claimants

Summary

Effective December 15, 2012, Designated Country of Origin (DCO) refugee claimants will no longer be issued work permits under section 206 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (the Regulations) unless/until their refugee claim is approved by the Refugee Protection Division, or 180 days have passed and no decision has been made.

Background

The Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act (PCISA; under Bill C-31) received Royal Assent on June 28, 2012. The PCISA added further reforms to the Balanced Refugee Reform Act (2010) such as the ability for the Minister to list DCOs. However, not all provisions came into effect at Royal Assent.

On December 15, 2012, the PCISA provisions regarding DCO refugee claimants came into force.

Guidelines

Under the new legislation, the Minister has the authority to identify DCOs. An up-to-date list of DCOs will be maintained on the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website at www.cic.gc.ca/english/refugees/reform-safe.asp.

DCO refugee claimants will not be eligible for an open work permit under section 206 of the Regulations.

Section 206 of the Regulations has been amended by adding the following:

206 (2) despite subsection (1), a work permit must not be issued to a claimant referred to in subsection 111.1(2) of the Act unless at least 180 days have elapsed since their claim was referred to the Refugee Protection division.

In order for a refugee claimant to be considered a “DCO claimant”, the person must be a citizen or national of a country identified as a DCO and claim against the country. As such, because a refugee claimant, who applies for a work permit, is from a DCO does not necessarily mean that they are a “DCO claimant”.

When assessing a work permit application from a refugee claimant, an officer must check the Field Operations Support System (FOSS) and/or the Global Case Management System (GCMS) to determine if:

• The applicant has been flagged as a DCO claimant (it will indicate ‘yes’ on the REF-CLM screen);

  and

• Less than 180 days have passed since the person’s claim was referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB).

When both of the above apply, the applicant is not eligible for a work permit due to R206(2). The applicant should be advised that they may re-apply once 180 days have passed since their claim was referred to the IRB. They should also be advised that they may re-apply, should the IRB approve their refugee claim.

System Information

To process the decision in GCMS, Eligibility should be set to ‘Failed’ and Final Decision should be ‘Refused’.

The Refusal Reason code is: R206(2) DCO refugee claimant, 180 days not elapsed since claim.

The Refusal text for the letter is: The requirement of subsection 206(2) that an officer shall not issue a work permit to a foreign national if the foreign national is a claimant referred to in subsection 111.1(2) of the Act and 180 days have not elapsed since their claim was referred to the Refugee Protection Division.