Citizenship and Immigration Canada
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Legislation (IL)

Designation of Officers and Delegation of Authority

CIC’s Designation of Officers and Delegation of Authority Instrument

This instrument contains only the authorities that are within CIC’s mandate.The authority under IRPA that are now under the mandate of the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness are listed in a separate instrument signed on behalf of the Minister of PSEP by the President of CBSA.

Through this instrument the CIC Minister is delegating most of the powers that are vested in him by the IRPA in relation to the application of the law. The CIC Minister is also designating in this instrument the “officer” that could carry out the authority vested to them by IRPA and describe the duties and powers they can exercise.

While most of the authorities under the IRPA are given to officers of the Department, many duties and powers are actually carried out by persons outside the Department such as locally-engaged persons working overseas, Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) or RCMP officers. This instrument also indicates the authorities that have been given to them.

The text of the Designation of Officers and Delegation of Authorities Instrument is available through the link below.

Designation of Officers and Delegation of Authority documents


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This page includes:

List of updates:

Dates Main Changes
July 4, 2011 Item 8: Replaced "Designated Medical Practitioner" title with that of "CIC-Designated International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Medical Adjudicator"

Misc. items: PRRA Officers are now described as Senior Immigration Officers (Domestic Region)
May 30, 2011 Item 8: Added the following officials for designation:
  • Domestic Regions, Operational Management and Coordination, and NHQ:
    • Medical Doctor
    • Health Adjudicator
  • Regional Medical Offices (HB):
    • Medical Doctor
    • Nurse
    • Designated Medical Practitioner
  • Locally Engaged Staff:
    • Medical Doctor (LES-MD)
    • Nurse (LES-NU)
March 22, 2011 Items 13 and 14: Designate Director General of Case Management Branch (Application for permanent residence visa; Application for temporary resident visa)
February 10, 2011 Item 41: Designate Director General of Case Management Branch to authorize the return to Canada of a foreign national
November 15, 2010
  • Amended definition of “Immigration Program Manager” to include an officer occupying the position of Immigration Program Manager
  • Removed definition of “Senior Immigration Officer”; Added definition for “Unit Supervisor”; Added Unit Supervisor in column 4 of items 20, 41, 46, 66, 68, 69 and 70
  • Removed “Expertise Officer” from D&D as title no longer exists (from items 4, 6, 9, 10, 17, 18, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30, 31, 33, 36, 38, 39, 46, 48, 49, 67, 71, 75, 76 and 82)
  • Added Query Response Centre designates (Program Support Officer, Amendment Officer and Immigration Clearance Officer) to column 4 of item 4
  • Removed Director of Finance from column 4 of item 4
  • Modified title of RCMP designations that were incorrectly listed under Prairie Region to Ontario Region (column 4 of items 4, 6, 19 and 40)
  • Replaced Senior Immigration Officer with Immigration Officer in column 4 of item 9
  • Added Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA) Officer to column 4 of items 9 and 67
  • Added CPC-Vegreville designates (Service Delivery Agent, Service Delivery Specialist and Strategic Analysis Officer) to column 4 of item 14
  • Amended wording of item 15 (of column 3) in order for items 15 and 16 to be consistent
  • Added C&I Counsellor Assistant (CR 5) and Immigration Advisor to column 4 of item 18
  • Added Analyst, Case Review (Case Management Branch) to column 4 of item 25
  • Replaced Immigration Program Manager with Immigration Officer in column 4 of item 26
  • Removed reference to subsection 25.1(1) of the Act in column 2 of item 35
  • Replaced Director General of Refugees with Director General of Operational Management and Coordination in column 4 of items 44, 46 and 47
  • Replaced Directors of Refugees Branch (Asylum Policy and Programs, Resettlement Policy and Programs, Horizontal Policy and International Protection) with Directors of Case Management Branch (Case Review, Case Determination, Refugee Operations Division) in column 4 of items 50, 53, 54, 60 and 61
  • Repealed two items in Annex A (Authorities not delegated) related to Ministerial authority to request a judge to suspend a proceeding with respect to a security certificate and give notice of a decision for protection to the permanent resident or the foreign national and to the judge (which made reference to repealed sections of the Act)
  • Other formatting changes
September 22, 2010
  • Item 11 was revised and a new item (number 12) was created to enable processing of Federal Skilled Worker Program applications under the new Ministerial Instructions by designates of CPC-Sydney.
  • Item 35 was revised to allow delegates at CPC-Sydney to process applications that meet the eligibility criteria of the Ministerial Instructions.
  • Items 30 to 37 were revised to provide more consistency between the D&D and the recent amendments to IRPA related to humanitarian and compassionate and public policy considerations, which came into effect on June 29, 2010.
  • More delegates at the Director and Manager levels have been added to item 65 regarding determination of rehabilitation of a permanent resident or a foreign national who is inadmissible on grounds of serious criminality.
  • Annex A: Item 2 was revised and a new item (number 3) was added in Annex A (authorities not delegated) to provide further clarity regarding the issuance of public policies.
  • The Annex providing designations and delegations for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympics Winter Games was removed from the D&D (due to the repeal of the associated Regulations on April 22, 2010).
September 1, 2010 A new delegated authority added to facilitate the entry of a foreign national whose temporary entry is desirable to maintain or strengthen relations with international partners in furtherance of Canada’s national and international objectives (item 62).
April 1, 2010 A new annex has been added to the D&D for functions related to the Case Processing Pilot-Ottawa office (CPP-O).
January 22, 2010 Titles were added to existing delegation to exempt fees where justifiable to do so by a temporary public policy established in response to a humanitarian crisis (item 33).
January 22, 2010 New delegated authority added to designate, individually or by class, passports or travel or identity documents that do not constitute reliable proof of identity or nationality (item 75).
August 10, 2009

Minister’s signature page, paragraph 5- Added definitions of groups of titles

Annex B – Added an annex regarding processing of applications for the 2010 Olympic/Paralympic Winter Games

Column 4 – Updated titles listed throughout the Instrument to reflect operational updates and the hierarchical link notion as per paragraphs 2a and 4a of the Minister’s signature page.

Items 4, 6 and 68 (column 3) – Updated designated CBSA Officer authorities

Item 16 (column 3) – Clarification to include authority to process both overseas and inland family class applications

Item 17 (column 2) – replaced reference to repealed sections R86(4) and R87(8) with reference to R71.1

September 19, 2008

Item 14 – Item added to permit an officer to designate organizations or institutions to assess language proficiency for the purposes of the Canadian Experience Class.

Item 9 – Update officers who have the authority to assess a foreign national’s ability and willingness to defray health and social services costs when making a decision on excessive demand.

July 18, 2006 Item 31 – Temporary public policy established in response to a humanitarian crisis and Delegation of authority to waive applicable immigration fees
February 10, 2006

Item 34 and 34.1 – Permanent resident travel documents

Items 35.1, 35.2 – outside of Canada, Humanitarian and Compassionate considerations (H&C)

Item 44.1 – Temporary resident permits fore foreign nationals inadmissible for security reasons, violations of human or international rights or linked to organized

December 12, 2005 All authorities belonging to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness (PSEP Minister) have been removed from the document of authority last signed in February 2005.
October 26, 2005 Item 45.2 – Temporary public policy for persons affected by the Earthquake in South Asia of October 8, 2005 and Delegation of authority to waive immigration fees.
June 9, 2005 Items 28, 96, 103, 104, 105, 108, 109, 110, 111, 113, 114 – Expand the group of officers that could make a danger opinion in the context of eligibility to refugee determination, PRRA and Non Refoulement provisions (sections 101, 112 et 115 of IRPA); Withdraw officers transferred to CBSA from these decision-making authorities.
April 22, 2005

Quebec Region – Withdraw “Assistant Director”; Add “Manager”.

Items 20, 32, 34, 43, 59, 62, 79, 82, 197, 245 – adjustment following the reclassification exercise affecting Immigration Advisors.

Items 79, 82, 161, 162, 164, 202 – detention and border activities, withdraw of CIC Inland Officer.

The annexes for the Atlantic, Quebec, Prairies and Northern Territories Regions, as well as the annexes for the International Region and the Departmental Delivery Network, have been updated to include the new national titles introduced by CIC Human Resources Branch in the Fall of 2002.

January 13, 2005 Item 45.1 – Temporary public policy for persons affected by the Tsunami and earthquake disaster of December 26, 2004.
October 8, 2004 Entire new document signed by the Minister of CIC and the Minister of PSEPC following the transfer of POE to CBSA and the retransfer of PRRA to CIC.
October 7, 2004 Item 48, 60, 61, 67, 173 and 188 – Add “Deputy Program Manager” and the “Operations Manager”
June 17, 2004 Item 93 – Designate HRSDC officials operating in SIN Centre in Bathurst to examine application for SIN from temporary resident.
April 26, 2004 Items 43.1, 45, 47 – Humanitarian and Compassionate Considerations for applicants inadmissible under sections 34, 35, 36(2), 37 and 38 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).
February 10, 2004 Item 249 – enter into a memoranda with third parties acting as referral organizations in the context of refugee protection.
December 12, 2003 Entire new documents signed by the Minister of CIC and the Minister of PSEP following the creation of the Canada Border Services Agency.
September 2, 2003 French / English adjustments
July 4, 2003

Items 2, 11, 21 – Family class sponsorship

Items 104, 108 – Pre-removal risk assessment

Item 137 – Non-refoulement

January 30, 2003 Ajout de huit points d’entrée à la région de Québec
February 5, 2003

item 81 – Identify opinion

item 88 – Non-disclosure of information

item 73 – Arrest without a warrant

item 196 – Designation of work that could be performed by foreign nationals

July 31, 2002 Ontario Region: Replace Security agent (Group 4) by those of the Wackenhut Security Agency; modification of the powers given to Regional Manager, Enforcement Assistant, Expulsion officer
July 25, 2002

Item 36, 73 – Arrest without a warrant

Item 74 – Search and Seizure – Peace Officer under the Criminal Code

Item 62 – Prairies Region, A44 Reports

July 16, 2002

Item 174 – Designated organization – Language proficiency

Item 37 and 38 – Temporary residents permit

Item 96, 105, 108 – Application for protection and PRRA