[PSRList] FW: BVOR Communication

[Yosief Araya]

Dear colleagues, 

 

Please find below a message from IRCC about the BVOR program. Thanks, Yosief


 

.

 

Greetings,
 
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) would like to provide
private sponsors with information about accessing Syrian cases through the
Blended Visa-Office Referred (BVOR) program. The program has undergone
significant change with Groups of Five (G5s) now also able to access Syrian
cases in the same manner as Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAHs).
Modifications were made to the existing system in order to allow for this
expanded access.
 
We're aware that we're now in a situation where interest from private
sponsors is growing and new cases are unavailable. There are reasons why the
supply of cases has not met sponsor demands:
  

1.       There were not a lot of Syrian files available to offer to sponsors
in September when we started ramping up the sharing of case "profiles".
IRCC made available just about every Syrian UNHCR referral that it had
received to date. 

  

2.       Some case profiles have not matched the interests of sponsors.

 
Needless to say, it is greatly encouraging to see the significant level of
interest among sponsors and we want to ensure that interest is sustained.
To do so, IRCC will continue to work with SAH Council and the Refugee
Sponsorship Training Program (RSTP) to look at how the current system may be
adapted in order to meet the interests and needs of sponsors within the
context of an accelerated Syrian resettlement program. This may involve some
changes to the system to make it work better with the current reality.   

Please note the following:

The system overseas is moving very quickly now.  For government-assisted
Syrian refugees our immediate goal is to meet the government commit to land
10,000 Syrians by the end of December and then to complete the 25,000
commitment by end of February.  That means the focus has been on expeditious
processing of any new referrals.  BVOR matching and procedures add time to
the processing of a case.  
 
Tied to this are considerations with respect to the nature of the profiles
we post. To date we have posted all the UNHCR Syrian referrals that we had
in our inventory, a number of which were not chosen by sponsors. We
recognize that not all refugee resettlement cases may be appropriate for
private sponsorship, and so going forward to avoid such cases being delayed
we will be working with SAH Council to ensure that we post profiles that
will hopefully better meet sponsors' expectations. 

Because the system is moving very quickly, we will not know very far in
advance who will be on a specific plane.  For PSRs that sponsors have
identified themselves (i.e. non-BVOR cases) and submitted a completed
application for, all sponsors need to ensure that IRCC has up to date
contact information for both the refugees themselves and the sponsors (in
particular the people who will be meeting the refugees upon arrival). Please
note however that there may still be some challenges communicating arrival
times, e.g. because of exit visas or delayed flights.  We ask you to be
patient and work with us to solve those problems.  
 
Details on specific next steps will follow. There will be no Syrian BVOR
profiles shared this week but the next sharing will be confirmed in the near
future.
 
This is indeed a remarkable time and we are privileged to be working
together in accomplishing Canada's commitment.

.

 

Thanks,

 

Yosief Araya  Manager | Refugee Sponsorship Training Program | Catholic
Crosscultural Services

55 Town Centre Court, Suite 401, Scarborough, ON M1P 4X4

Tel:  <tel:416.290.1700%20Ext.%20402> 416.290.1700 Ext. 402 |  Toll-Free:
<tel:1.877.290.1701> 1.877.290.1701 | Fax:  <tel:416.290.1710> 416.290.1710
|  <mailto:yaraya at rstp.ca> yaraya at rstp.ca, 

 <http://www.rstp.ca/> www.rstp.ca 

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