On December 30, 2011, Citizenship and Immigration Canada ("CIC") published Operational Bulletin 368 ("OB 368"). According to OB 368, all Canadian Experience Class ("CEC") applications must now be submitted to the Centralized Intake Office ("CIO") in Sydney, Nova Scotia. This change became effective on January 1, 2012.
Upon receipt, the CIO will assess each CEC application for completeness. An application must include all of the forms and documents listed in the Generic Document Checklist for CEC applications to be considered complete by the CIO.
If the application is incomplete, the CIO will return the entire application package (including fee payment) to the applicant. For complete applications, the CIO will enter the application information into the Global Case Management System and recover the processing fee. The CIO will then send complete applications to the appropriate visa office for processing and these offices will process the applications according to existing procedures and processing priorities.
Until January 31, 2012, all visa offices continued to accept CEC applications filed directly with them and the applications were then forwarded to the CIO. As of January 31, 2012, however, all CEC applications filed with visa offices are now returned to the applicant with instructions directing them to submit the application to the CIO.