 and welcome to our channel. Today I wanted to make a video on A-Tip Request. So it's an access to information and privacy request. This is an application that you can complete online for various agencies if you want to get a copy of your file at different agencies in the Canadian government. So in our immigration law firm we do two types of A-Tip Request, one at IRCC which is Immigration and the other one is CBSA Canada Board of Services Agency. We do these types of requests quite frequently because what happens is when a client comes to us and has already filed multiple applications, there's some refusals or complexity and they've already seen different representatives, consultants or lawyers or they represented themselves and they've done a number of things. Often clients do not, they didn't keep a copy of what they submitted or if they have copies it's bits and pieces and before we start working on an application or engage in a strategy sometimes we need to see exactly what happened and we can't as a law firm rely only on what the client is saying sometimes so we have to get a full copy of the application. So by submitting these online requests having the client sign a consent form and submitting the request we get typically it's supposed to take 30 days to get a full copy of the file we get it by email or we get a CD but sometimes it could be much longer because of backlogs it could actually take a few months many months sometimes to get a response there's ways that we can follow up to try to expedite if it takes really really long then sometimes as a last resort we might file a complaint because in some cases we have some delicate cases where we need to get a copy of the file but more or less it's supposed to take 30 days and when we do get the copy of the file there's different things that we see in there so usually what we do is we request either the documentations and the officer notes the notes or the officers or we only want the notes or sometimes we only want the documents I find usually we ask for both and when we do get a copy we it could be a couple of pages and sometimes it could be three four hundred pages so we go through that carefully to make sure that we're you know we get the information that we're looking for and especially if for example if a client come to us and they say well I've been living in Canada for 20 years and I think I'm in status or maybe I'm not in status and I was supposed to leave but I didn't and we're not sure if there's a warrant for an arrest of the client or we're not sure what type of application he's done so when we get the copy of the file either from IRCC or CBSA we get to see exactly what happened in the file the history and this is particularly important for example if for example we have a client who filed for spousal sponsorship and they want to refile because it was refused depending on the consultation we do with the client if we feel that we really need to see what happened before we do an eight request because sometimes clients may have said one thing in the first application and now they say something else thinking that oh it doesn't matter we made a mistake or this is the truth or the officer's not going to look at what we said in the other application and that's actually really not true because officers have a copy of everything so anything that you submit to immigration it will stay in the history and it doesn't necessarily mean that the the officer's going to look at it but there are good chances that officer will especially if the case is complex so to avoid contradictions or if there was something that was said initially that was wrong then in our new application we need to provide legal detailed legal submissions and explain the contradiction and maybe apologize or explain why it was confusing was it the previous representative was it the the client that made a mistake so eight tip requests are can be very useful it's a great way to get a copy of the file if you want to have it for your records it's a great way for the lawyer to understand what happened to you it's five dollars actually to apply for it online yourself and as I said it could take 30 days sometimes it comes in a few weeks but sometimes it could take much longer so if you're you're thinking of engaging a lawyer to do something for you and you have this long immigration history it's a good idea to go ahead and apply for that as soon as you can and with respect to cbsa the the eight tip request for cbsa will be for example if we want to know if the client has a warrant for arrest we want to know if there was enforcement proceedings against the client and ircc will be copies for example spouse of sponsorship visitor visas citizenship application everything that's not enforcement doesn't have to do with cbsa will be on the ircc side and vice versa um thank you for listening to our channel and if you guys have any questions don't hesitate to contact us at info at kiork immigration law dot com thank you