Labour Disruptions Impacting Government Services

Updated May 1, 2023

On April 19, 2023, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), a group that represents 159,000 public servants, declared a general strike. As of May 1, 2023, it was announced that the strike has been resolved for the majority of workers. However, many government services accessed by international students will continue to be impacted.

Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC):

• Access to Information Act requests will take longer to process.
• Contacting IRCC:
  • The IRCC Client Support Centre is experiencing increased service delays.
  • IRCC web forms will have longer response times.
• Any immigration applications already in process or that are submitted during the strike period will experience delays in processing. Delays will also impact applications that would normally benefit from prioritized processing.

Service Canada:

Biometrics processing in Canada was reinstated on February 23, 2023.  If you haven’t done biometrics in the last 10 years, you are required to undergo biometrics processing for an immigration application. Effective April 19, 2023, biometrics were not available due to the labour disruption. Biometrics service will now resume, but IRCC has stated applicants now have 60 days to provide their biometrics from the date they receive a biometrics letter. 

If you have applied to extend your study permit or work permit status from inside Canada before your previous status expired, then you are protected by ‘maintained status.' Maintained status allows the applicant to work or study without a permit under the same conditions until a decision is made on their extension application (as long as the applicant remains in Canada).