Tracking Your IRCC Application: Status, Processing Times, Documents and Your File

Once your application is sent, tracking starts with one specific document: the acknowledgement of receipt (AOR), which arrives by letter or email. You get it after IRCC has received your application and checked that it is complete, and that can take some time.

Before the AOR, don't look too far: the application status tracker can only be used once you have received it. If you haven't got it yet, you have to wait.

Also keep two numbers handy: your unique client identifier (UCI) and your application number. IRCC requires them to create some tracking accounts.

IRCC says it plainly: how you check an application's status depends on the type of application, and sometimes on how you applied. The simplest approach is to start from the account you used to apply:

• you signed in with a GCKey or through your bank: that is the IRCC secure account;
• you signed in with an email address: that is the IRCC Portal or its new version.

Not sure which one? Try signing in to each or check your email, as IRCC suggests.

The IRCC secure account can also track paper applications, once you have linked them to it. That includes, among others, permanent residence for Quebec-selected skilled workers, sponsorship of a family member, and study or work permits.

IRCC has relaunched its application status tracker. For now it covers:

• sponsorship of a spouse, a partner or a dependent child;
• permanent residence applications through Express Entry;
• study permits;
• work permits;
• visitor visas.

It can be used by the person who applied, including the sponsored person, the sponsor, a representative, or a designated individual with the applicant's written consent. The account information is updated daily.

It is a separate account from your main account, which you have to create on its own. In return, IRCC says the timeline it shows may include more details than your main account.

Your application isn't on the list? Answer IRCC's questionnaire on checking your status: it points you to the tool that fits your case.

IRCC publishes processing times by type of application. Check IRCC's processing times table for your category: we don't copy them here, only the official table counts. IRCC warns that your application may take longer than the times shown, which are not a maximum or a guarantee.

Haven't heard from IRCC? According to IRCC, your application is still being processed and you don't need to do anything else: if it needs more information, it will contact you. The web form has an option to ask about your application if it's over the normal processing time.

When IRCC needs a document or information, it writes to you through your account, by email or by mail to say what to send, how, and by when. Follow those instructions to the letter: a document sent another way can delay processing.

In the secure account you can upload only one file per requested document, and it must be less than 4 MB: combine several pages into a single file.

Won't get the document in time? Ask for an extension, explaining why and including proof of your efforts, then send the document as soon as you have it, without waiting for IRCC's reply.

During processing, any change that affects the information in your application must be reported to IRCC: a new job, a marriage or separation, a birth, a new passport or a change of country of residence, for example. Include proof. These updates go through the web form, and you won't see them in your account.

Your contact information matters just as much. Without an up-to-date mailing or email address, important documents can arrive late or get lost, and your application may be refused or considered abandoned.

For email and phone, you use the web form. Keep checking your old address in the meantime: IRCC may still use it, and your new contact information can take up to two weeks to show up in its online services.

IRCC's web form is used to update your application, ask a question about your file, report a technical problem or ask about programs. You get an acknowledgement of receipt once the form is sent.

Keep your expectations realistic. According to IRCC, its agents don't have more details than what you see online. They can't speed up your file, unless you are already eligible for urgent processing, or give you a decision, and a second form won't speed up the reply.

Be wary of calls claiming to be from IRCC: its employees will never threaten you and will never ask you to deposit money into a personal bank account, and our guide to common scams in Quebec explains how to react.

Want to see what is in your file, for example to understand a refusal or a long silence? You can ask IRCC for a copy of the information it holds about you. This goes through an access to information and privacy (ATIP) request, online or by mail, and the usual route is the Privacy Act.

This request is free. It is open to Canadian citizens, permanent residents and foreign nationals, wherever they are. If you make it for someone else, include that person's consent form, as IRCC requires.

The Access to Information Act is used in particular by a representative who asks, with authorization, for the information of a person who is neither a citizen nor a permanent resident. Each request costs $5, and only Canadian citizens, permanent residents and people present in Canada can make one.

In both cases, IRCC has 30 days to respond. That time may be extended, and IRCC then tells you so and for how long.

If your path also goes through Quebec, that step is tracked with the Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation et de l'Intégration (MIFI), not with IRCC. For permanent selection of skilled workers, everything arrives in your Arrima account: an interview notice, a letter of intent to refuse that you must answer within the deadline, then your Quebec Selection Certificate (CSQ). Our guide to the CSQ explains that step.

For the Quebec Acceptance Certificate (CAQ) for studies, payment and documents go through Arrima, and the status is checked in your MIFI online file. The department says its Customer Contact Centre cannot confirm that your documents were received or give priority processing.

Follow these concrete steps to keep your application on track. Check each box as you go — your progress is saved if you're signed in.

The most common questions about tracking an application: an empty status tracker, a processing time that has passed and the cost of an access request.

These related guides may be useful:

• The Quebec Selection Certificate (CSQ) — the Quebec step that comes before the federal application.
• Applying for permanent residence after the CSQ — what you send to IRCC and what happens next.
• Renewing or extending a permit — to keep a valid status while you wait.
• Immigration lawyer or consultant — who to turn to when a file gets complicated.

For official, up-to-date information, see:

• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)
• Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation et de l'Intégration (MIFI)