PSAC Strike in Canada- Some Immigration Services may get disrupted

In view of the general strike commenced by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) on 19 April 2023, nearly 159,000 public servants, who provide various services to the public, are on strike. As a consequence of this labour disruption, there may be delays or even hold-up of some Immigration services being provided by Canadian immigration department, i.e. Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

To provide detailed information, the IRCC has released particulars regarding the explicit services that may be affected and those that will not be impacted by the ongoing strike. Hence, the applicants are advised to carefully read all the below given details to understand what and what may not be available in view of the above-mentioned PSAC strike.  

Services Not affected

Some of the Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) services remain available during the labour disruption. However, you can still

• apply online
• mail applications to IRCC
  
• use your online accounts
  
• access some emergency services
  

Following services offered by non-governmental organizations are still available:

• settlement services from IRCC partner organizations
• health care through the Interim Federal Health Program
  
• visa application centres outside of Canada
  

Services partly or fully disrupted

Most IRCC services, i.e. most Canadian government services, are impacted. You should expect delays with the following:

•  Access to Information Act requests-
• Citizenship events-
  
• Consular citizenship and passport services - 
• Contacting IRCC 
  
  Client Support Centre response times:  
  
  Social media: 
  
  IRCC web form response times: 
• Extending your stay in Canada- 
  
• Grants and contributions services – 
  
• Immigration-related appointments -  
  
• Passport services- 
  
• Processing applications -
  

The IRCC is one of the most popular institution across the world, as every year tens of thousands of people register for immigration to Canada and search for various updates, rules, policy and program changes.