Human progress has always been driven by a sense of adventure and unconventional thinking.

Andre Geim

Planning to immigrate to Canada pulled Jade and I into a world of short forms and terminologies:

• IRCC
• EE
• CRS
• FSW
• ITA
• AOR
• MEP
• BIL
• PPR

This list goes on!

And it’s easy to drown it.

Fortunately for us, we have technology on our side. We are also not alone on this journey. There were many online forums that helped us understand these short forms. Through our research, we also understood where they fit into the process.

One of the terms most used from the very beginning is IRCC.

So, what does this stand for?

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Its title is as straightforward as its website.

IRCC stands for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. The name means that anything to do with the following are all handled by the office:

• immigration programs
• the settling of immigrants and refugees
• the acquistion of citizenship

Anybody who wants to enter — temporarily or permanently — or exit Canada goes through them.

On important paper, it’s the visas, passports and certificates of citizenship they issue.

The IRCC Website

With this breadth of operations, IRCC provides clients a website that is straightforward and very helpful.

Whether I was applying for my visit visa or applying for permanent residence, I have often found the information I needed in plain text.

What we need to know and what to do to get our document from IRCC are pretty much spelled out for us every bit of the way. And, frankly, in spite of the notion that decisions are “up to the processing officer’s discretion,” as long as we comply, give our due diligence and are honest in our intent, it is quite easy to get through the process. I mean, it won’t happen overnight but it doesn’t feel impossible nor that the odds are against us.

It also helps that IRCC has different channels to meet clients halfway or elsewhere.

Contacting IRCC

In the social sphere, IRCC engages with its clients thru its Twitter account.

On the more administrative side, IRCC has this Web Form where we can report glitches, snags or even upload application-related submissions or enquiries.

It is also possible to reach an IRCC officer through a phone call. All it takes is to sign up for a Canadian phone number. I personally used TextMe to call IRCC and up until we arrived in Canada. Viber is also another way people have tried to call IRCC with.

This is a short list. But the truth is, with just these tools, IRCC already makes itself reachable to us — standing like a steady beacon amidst the sea of short forms and terminology.