|
|
 |
Foreign Affairs Immigration Officer
The International Region of Citizenship and Immigration Canada is responsible for the overseas delivery of Canada's immigration program. The foreign service of the Citizenship and Immigration Canada currently employs approximately 270 citizenship and immigration officers. Close to 70% of these officers are assigned to visa offices overseas, while the others are assigned to headquarters in Ottawa, where they take care of managing and developing the immigration program and policies. This means that a citizenship and immigration officer may spend more than the two-thirds of his/her career abroad.
When they are overseas, citizenship and immigration officers are required to take on major responsibilities as soon as they begin their career. They need to make decisions by themselves that will have a real impact on people. They also need to quickly develop a very good knowledge of national and international developments that impact migratory movements and prepare reports on these topics. They are also required to have in-depth knowledge of the Immigration Act of Canada and all Canadian legislation that relates to their work. They constantly work closely with locally engaged staff and have responsibilities for the management of staff very early on in their careers. They may select candidates who want to become permanent residents of Canada and make decisions on the visa applications of visitors, students and temporary workers. Citizenship and immigration officers help refugees settle in Canada and assist local airport authorities in identifying passengers seeking to enter Canada using false identification and travel documents. They may prepare and present briefings for headquarters, other visa offices, and partner organizations on migration issues or the social, cultural and economic situation of the country where they are assigned. Later in their career they may be fully responsible for managing a visa section in an embassy. In all cases, citizenship and immigration officers must take on a large and complex workload. The work of citizenship and immigration officers can be very gratifying because the decisions they make have a real impact on people's lives and they contribute to shaping Canada's multicultural reality.
When they are assigned to headquarters in Ottawa, some citizenship and immigration officers provide operational support to their colleagues in offices overseas and others monitor aspects of the CIC's program overseas, including immigration targets and changes in refugee flows. Some officers may also analyze or develop strategies for dealing with financial or administrative issues, while others become involved in developing programs and policies on sponsored relatives, students, visitors, and temporary workers, or prepare Memos to the Minister setting out and justifying proposed policy changes. Whether in Ottawa or overseas, citizenship and immigration officers may be involved in negotiating bilateral agreements on issues such as border controls or illegal migration.
Are you interested in becoming a citizenship and immigration officer? You can find more information on the activities of Citizenship and Immigration Canada by consulting our Web site at http://www.cic.gc.ca.
|
