Dealing with IRCC: how to get your own file, and who is allowed to charge you for it

Two Acts, two routes, and taking the wrong one costs money for nothing

What people commonly call pulling the file or requesting GCMS notes is not one thing on the official side. It is two Acts: the Privacy Act and the Access to Information Act. Which kind of information you are after decides which route you take.

For personal information held under your own name, the Privacy Act is the route. The official page says:

A request for personal information held by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) should be made to IRCC under the Privacy Act.
There are no fees involved with the processing of a request under this Act.
Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and foreign nationals, regardless of where they are located, can request access to their personal information held by federal government institutions under the Privacy Act.
If you are making a request on behalf of someone else, you must include the Consent for an Access to Information and Personal Information Request (IMM 5744) form. Include this form for each individual listed on your file who is 16 years of age or older.

The Access to Information Act route covers a different set:

Send a request to IRCC under the Access to Information Act (ATI) to:
• Get information about IRCC
• Get information that would have been created by IRCC
• Get personal information submitted by a representative, where the client (with their consent) is not a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or here in Canada.
The fee for requests under the Access to information Act is $5.00.
To send a request you must be a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident of Canada or an individual or corporation currently in Canada.
If you are making a request on behalf of someone else, you must include the … (IMM 5744) form. Include this form for each individual listed on your file who is over the age of 18.

Side by side the differences are clear:

The line most often heard is that it cannot be done from outside Canada, so you need a relative or friend in Canada to file it for you. That line merges the two Acts into one. For your own personal information the route is the Privacy Act, it can be filed from anywhere, and there is no fee.

Filing on behalf of someone else requires a consent form (IMM 5744), one for each individual listed on the file.

How to file, and why passport records are not here

The filing methods are the same under both Acts. Three options are listed officially:

• IRCC's Access to Information and Personal Information Request Form (IMM 5563);
• Treasury Board Secretariat's Access to Information Request Form (TBC/CTC 350-57); or
• A letter indicating that the request is made in accordance with the [Act].

The third is a letter. It only has to state that the request is made in accordance with the Act, and a form is not required. It is also noted officially that applying online is faster and more convenient, and that filing online under the Access to Information Act requires a credit or debit card.

One category of information is not held by IRCC. IRCC holds Canadian passport applications, travel documents and passport investigation records from before 2002. For passport information from 2002 onward, the request goes to Employment and Social Development Canada. This is the category most often sent to the wrong institution, so check the year before starting.

Thirty days, and the one sentence an extension notice has to contain

Section 14 of the Privacy Act sets thirty days:

14 Where access to personal information is requested under subsection 12(1), the head of the government institution to which the request is made shall, subject to section 15, within thirty days after the request is received,
(a) give written notice to the individual who made the request as to whether or not access to the information or a part thereof will be given; and
(b) if access is to be given, give the individual who made the request access to the information or the part thereof.

Thirty days is not immovable. Section 15 allows an extension, but the extension has rules of its own:

15 The head of a government institution may extend the time limit set out in section 14 in respect of a request for
(a) a maximum of thirty days if
(i) meeting the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the government institution, or
(ii) consultations are necessary to comply with the request that cannot reasonably be completed within the original time limit, or
(b) such period of time as is reasonable, if additional time is necessary for translation purposes or for the purposes of converting the personal information into an alternative format,
by giving notice of the extension and the length of the extension to the individual who made the request within thirty days after the request is received, which notice shall contain a statement that the individual has a right to make a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner about the extension.

Broken down, it is four things. The extension is capped at thirty days. The grounds are limited to two: meeting the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the institution, or consultations are necessary that cannot reasonably be completed within the original time limit. Translation, or conversion into an alternative format, is counted separately, for such period of time as is reasonable. The part that matters most is the notice itself: it has to go out within thirty days, state the length of the extension, and state that the person who made the request has a right to make a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner about the extension.

That last sentence is not widely known. The provision states only that the right exists. It does not say what follows a complaint, and it is not a channel for chasing a file.

The thirty days has to be read in context. A separate note at the top of the official ATIP page says that significant increases in request volumes may have an effect on their ability to respond to requests within the timelines mandated. The statutory limit is written in the Act. When a response actually comes back is a separate matter.

Who is allowed to charge you for it

IRCC divides representatives into two types, paid and unpaid, and paid ones must be authorized:

There are 2 types of representatives:
• paid (must be authorized) and
• unpaid

Authorized paid representatives
Only some people can charge you a fee or receive any other type of payment. These people are called "authorized" representatives. They are:
• lawyers and paralegals who are members in good standing of a Canadian provincial or territorial law society
• notaries who are members in good standing of the Chambre des notaires du Québec and
• citizenship or immigration consultants who are members in good standing of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants

In plain terms, three groups: lawyers and paralegals who are members in good standing of a law society in any Canadian province or territory; notaries who are members in good standing of the Chambre des notaires du Québec; citizenship or immigration consultants who are members in good standing of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC).

Another page sets the scope out in more detail, and names Ontario paralegals separately:

• Citizenship or immigration consultants must be a member of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants.
• Lawyers or notaries must be a member of a Canadian provincial or territorial law society, or the Chambre des notaires du Québec.
• Paralegals (Ontario only) must be members of the Law Society of Ontario
If they are not members in good standing, you should not use their services.

Paralegals in Ontario have to be members of the Law Society of Ontario. Where someone is not a member in good standing, the official wording is that you should not use their services.

Using someone who is not entitled to charge puts the consequences on the applicant:

We won't deal with representatives who charge a fee but are not authorized. If you use an unauthorized representative, in Canada or abroad, we may return your application or refuse it.
Remember: if you pay a representative or compensate them in any way in exchange for their services, we consider that paid and they must be authorized.

Two points are easy to skip past. One is that compensating someone in any way counts as paid, not just cash. The other is that IRCC will not deal with representatives who charge a fee but are not authorized, in Canada or abroad alike, and the application may be returned, or it may be refused.

Three things to establish: which of the groups above the person falls into, which body regulates them, and whether their standing on the register can be checked. Official pages also carry a separate section, a channel for making a complaint about a representative.

IRCC says it itself: you don't need to hire a representative

This passage is the official page's own wording, not a word changed:

You don't need to hire a representative!
It's your choice. Using one will not draw special attention to your application and doesn't mean we'll approve it.
You can get all the forms and instructions you need to apply for a visa, a permit or citizenship for free on this website. If you follow the instructions, you should be able to fill out the forms and submit them yourself.

Three points: whether to hire anyone is your own choice; hiring one will not draw special attention to the application and does not mean it will be approved; the forms and the instructions for filling them out are free on the official website, and following the instructions you should be able to fill out the forms and submit them yourself.

Someone helping without charging is a representative in IRCC's eyes just the same:

Unpaid representatives could be: family members, friends and other third parties who do not charge a fee. They may give the same services as paid representatives, but they do it for free.

Whoever fills out the forms, responsibility does not transfer:

You are responsible for all the information in your application, even if your representative completes it for you.
Beware of representatives who:
• advertise their services as free and later ask you to pay a fee
• advise you to lie on your application

Two situations are named officially as things to watch for: advertising services as free and later asking for a fee; and advising the applicant to lie on the application.

Once the file is in hand, the hard part is reading it

The request process is set out on the official pages. Interpreting the resulting record and assessing post-refusal options is a separate question.

The deadlines and trade-offs among the three routes after a refusal letter are set out separately in After a refusal: reconsideration, reapplying, or judicial review. Fees and booking are on the consultation rates page.

Common questions