With effect from February 2019, the Entry/Exit program has enabled the Canadian border to collect personal information on immigration applications and share the same with the federal department of IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada).

This information is used by the IRCC for verification of the residency requirements for permanent residence applications, study permits, work permits, and Canadian citizenship applications. Furthermore, a few applications require the applicants to be in Canada for a specific number of days. For example, to meet the eligibility to apply for citizenship, candidates are required to be in Canada for at least 1,095 days in the previous five years at the time of their citizenship application.

With the help of the Entry/Exit Program, the federal department of IRCC can check the details of the travellers with the Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA) through its immigration applications processing system, known as Global Case Management System (GCMS).

Information Available to CBSA.

Currently, the Entry and Exit Program is only open to travellers arriving in maple country by land/air. It is not yet open for sea or train travel to the country.

IRCC can access the below information through this program:

• Family and given names
• Aliases
• Gender
• Date of birth
• Details of the passport
• Country of citizenship
• Country of birth
• Date of entry/exit

CBSA maintains all these details in the GCMS, which can be used by the IRCC as required to manage the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), the Canadian Passport Order, and the Citizenship Act.

How IRCC uses the Entry/Exit information

As per the government website, IRCC can use the information to:

• verify residency requirements related to grants of citizenship (CIT) or permanent residence applications;
• check if the applicant applying for temp residence has overstayed their allowable period of admission in Canada in the past;
• Find out if a refugee claimant entered maple country using their travel papers; 
• support an investigation related to an individual’s claim to a travel document of Canada; 
• Confirm sponsors’ residency in the country; 
• check the residency of spouses/partners under the spouse/common-law partner in Canada class; and
• Support fraud investigations involving citizenship, immigration, and passport/travel document programs.

Furthermore, the federal department of Immigration Canada does not require any consent from the client to check the traveller entry and exit information. They can access the data if it is required for an officer to finalize a result about a particular stream. The Entry/Exit information available in the GCMA can be accessed only by the IRCC roles that make decisions on applications.

In addition, the officers are only allowed to show entry/exit reports if it is needed to run the IRPA. Also, it should be protected by an information-sharing contract. CBSA must approve any revelation which is not protected by a directive of agreement or any other details-sharing understanding. Also, all authorized CBSA employees can access the Entry/Exit information shared by the travellers, as CBSA is the owner of this data.

Moreover, under the Privacy Act, visitors can ask for a copy of their personal trip record by submitting an access to information request. In case of any error, travellers can contact the CBSA to make the required corrections.

Applications: Temporary residence

IRCC can request the Entry/Exit information for multiple types of temporary residence applications. These are:

• temporary resident permits
• temporary resident visas
• work permits and extensions for work permits
• study permits and extensions for study permits
• visitor records
• electronic travel authorizations (ETAs)

The information available through the Entry/Exit program can be used to check if a foreign national has previously lived extra than their visa permit in maple country, which is also referred to as “overstay monitoring” by the government. This monitoring begins when a traveller enters the maple country and ends when they depart. When the GCMS is questioned, an “overstay indicator” will show as a checked box if the applicant has surpassed their authorized duration of stay in Canada.

The federal department of IRCC is predicting that In November 2022, the overstay indicators for temporary residents will start reflecting in the Entry/Exit data once enough air carriers are onboarded.

Applications: Permanent residence

IRCC can request the Entry/Exit information for multiple types of permanent residence applications. These are:

• permanent resident cards
• sponsorships for family members
• travel documents for permanent residents
• overseas refugees

The Entry/Exit information can be used by the IRCC to outline the period spent within and outside of Canada and will help the department to determine if the residency of the candidate is maintained or not. Furthermore, IRCC can accommodate an Entry/Exit questioning to probe falsified data or revocation of Canada’s documents.

For family class sponsorship applications, IRCC can use the Entry/Exit data to verify if the sponsor is residing within Canada.

Applications: Canadian Citizenship

IRCC can use this data in citizenship applications to:

• verify physical presence requirements for citizenship grants; 
• support the verification of other requirements, including the flagging potential loss of permanent resident status, the requirement for submission of foreign police certificates by the applicant, or misrepresentation; 
• verify physical presence requirements for resumption of citizenship; and 
• Support cases of Canadian citizenship revocation.