How to Call

Citizenship and
Immigration
Canada from
Outside of Canada
– IRCC

Published: Apr 8, 2021 | Last Updated: Feb 17,

2023
By: Allard John Keeley

Table of Contents

Listen to this article

Key Takeaways
IRCC policy is to discourage call centre
agents from speaking with callers from
outside Canada, because they want these
people to use email or a webform instead.
You can appoint a representative in
Canada to call on your behalf (and do
other work for you as well if you wish).
You can try blocking your Caller ID to get
through, but if you admit you’re calling
from abroad you may have to convince the
agent not to hang up on you.
The only reasons they will officially talk to
you is if your application’s processing has
been substantially delayed or if you have a
specific problem that needs solving.
If you set up an IRCC secure account, you
can monitor the progress of your
application online.

Calling an Immigration, Refugees and

Citizenship Canada (IRCC, formerly CIC)
office from outside of Canada is often a
frustrating exercise. The fact is, if you live
outside Canada, IRCC does not want you to
contact their call centre. This policy means
that call centre agents may refuse to provide
information if they ascertain you are calling
from abroad.

If you are outside of Canada, IRCC only

answers by mail or email to any of your
enquiries about an application’s status. And
only then if the average time for processing
has been exceeded or if there is a specific
problem.

It is clear that with the number of

applications IRCC handles from around the
world, they have decided to restrict phone
calls from abroad to avoid being swamped
with requests on how the caller’s application
is doing. So, how can you manage to call
IRCC from overseas to get a quick update on
your application?

The first thing to understand is that call

centre agents are NOT the same as the case
officers who process your application.
Whether it’s your spousal sponsorship
applicaton status, your citizenship application
status, or your PR card processing status, call
centre agents can’t and won’t provide
information to people outside Canada. So,
remember:

Call centre agents cannot answer questions

about an application once it has been sent
to a visa office outside of Canada.
They cannot make decisions on
applications.
They cannot help applications be processed
more quickly.

In other words, they don’t want you calling

unless there is a substantial delay or a
problem with your application, and even
then, they want you to contact them by email.
And they especially don’t want you calling
from overseas. With all that in mind, then,
how can you manage to call IRCC from
overseas to get a quick update on your
application?

G E T H E L P AC C ESS I N G T H E
G C MS N OT ES F O R YO U R A P P L I -
CAT I O N

This number will not

work outside of
Canada.

The IRCC Call Centre toll-free number is 1–

888–242–2100, and it does not work if you
try dialling it from outside Canada.
However, there are work-around solutions, as
they say. But these are not guaranteed to
succeed and have more to do with
understanding the international phone system
and how to take advantage of certain features
than with IRCC policy on international callers.

The Government of Canada has changed

the below number from an IRCC number to
a Foreign Affairs number, so it no longer
works as an option for calling IRCC from
overseas. You can try using some of the
below tricks to call IRCC’s main number, 1-
888-242-2100 or you can try other
alternatives not currently listed here. We
will update this article if we discover
another non-800 number you can use.

The local Ottawa area phone number for

IRCC is +1-613-944-4000, and if it were a
standard local number, you would be able
to dial 001 613-944-4000 from abroad and
reach the call centre. However, controls
have been put in place to detect calls from
abroad at IRCC, and you will not get
through dialling 001 613-944-4000. One
trick that has worked in the recent past is
to dial *67 613 944 4000. This blocks
caller ID at the receiving end but works
only for calls from the US, so you might as
well call the toll-free number. It also works
in Canada, but that’s a moot point. There
are other prefixes you can dial to block
caller ID depending on what country you
are dialing from:
From the UK and Ireland, dial 141
before the number.
On a GSM phone from any country, dial
#31#613-944-4000.
In Argentina, dial *31# from a landline
and *31* or #31# for mobile phones.
From Hong Kong, dial 133 before the
number.
From South Africa, dial *31* (Telkom)
before the number.
From cell phones in Asia and elsewhere,
dial +1 613 944 4000.
Callers using Skype have encountered
problems, but other VOIP providers may
offer number portability, like Voip.ms,
that allows you to port toll-free numbers
to your Voice Over Internet Protocol, or
VOIP, service. You can attempt to use
this feature to call IRCC from abroad.
In all the above, you will eventually be
directed to a menu where you have to
work through the options by choosing 1,
then one again on the following menu,
and then option 2.
The IRCC Call Centre will see a ‘blocked
number’ on the caller ID, and your call
should be put through. But now comes the
tricky part. You will be talking to a
suspicious call centre agent who may
become even more suspicious if there is an
echo or delay. You will have to convince
them that you are not calling from abroad
and that they will try to ascertain your
current location. Some callers have
admitted to calling from abroad, and
despite an angry reaction on the part of the
agent, they were able to glean some
information. That may not be your case, as
agents are under orders not to talk to you.
In other words, if you are going to use
these tricks to get through, you better have
a good reason to convince the person at
the other end of the line that they should
not hang up on you. It also appears that
now agents are merely polite and tell you
they cannot give you any information on
any matter you may ask them about. There
seems to be a running battle between
international callers to the IRCC and IRCC
policy directives meant to discourage them,
and this does not bode well for you being
able to get any helpful information on the
status of your application by phone.

In summary, unless your application is

delayed by more than a few days or there is
an urgent problem you must take care of,
think twice about attempting to call IRCC
from abroad. They will be sending you your
acceptance or refusal in due course, and there
is little a phone call to them can do to change
that.

If you do feel you have to dial, then you can

try some of the tricks listed above and any
others you come across, such as VOIP
services. You will have to trust, however, that
the agent at the other end is willing to help
you. And that likely will not be the case.

Remember, there are far more effective ways

of checking on how our application is doing.
So, if you looking for tips and tricks for
checking your IRCC (Canadian immigration)
application status, click here.

Get someone to be
your representative
and phone on your
behalf from Canada
legally!
This tip will take some work, but it will be
well worth it if you have contact in Canada
willing to help you. Here is how it works:

There are two applications you can use to get

through to IRCC:

IMM 5475 Authority to Release Personal

Information to a Designated Individual
IMM 5476 Use of Representative.

If you choose the IMM 5475 form, whomever

you choose to telephone IRCC will only be
able to get information from the Call Centre.
They won’t be able to give IRCC any
information.

For the IMM 5476 form, what you’re going to

be doing is getting IRCC to recognize this
Canadian contact as your legal
representative on your file.

This part is important: For the IMM 5476,

the rules state that only licensed members
from the legal profession can be your
representative (e.g. consultant or lawyer), OR
someone not getting paid. Now, because the
person you’re using is not getting paid, they
can be your representative. Here is what you
do:

1. Fill out IMM 5476

2. Submit it, and it will take a few days for
the IRCC system to add this person to your
file. Here is the way you file it:

Go here to log in to your IRCC account to

upload the form OR
Upload the file using IRCC’s webform (no
sign-in required).

After a few days, your Canadian contact can

reach out on your behalf. If you two can also
find a way to do a three-way phone, it would
be great.

By the way, Immigroup can also do this for

you, but here you would have to pay for this
service. We can find you a representative to
track down your application and get the
answer for you. Here is what we charge:

CAD$150 to file an IMM 5476 Use of

Representative, and we will make three
attempts with IRCC to get the answers you
were looking for.
You can also, at this point, use your new
representative to keep track of your
application, deal with correspondence,
reply to IRCC on your behalf and answer
any questions you may have. You will need
to send a copy of your application to your
representative. The cost for this service is
usually a flat fee (approximately $550) or
pay by the hour: junior consultants are
$150 per hour, and senior Consultants
are $225.

Tip from Paul S, April 2021: “From the US, I

dial up CBSA about crossing the border with a pending
citizenship certificate application. After 30 seconds, the
phone service guy was tired of listening and suddenly
transferred me to IRCC. Next time I need to ask about
my application, I’ll call CBSA and ask them about my
application until I hear that sweet, impatient sigh and
get transferred to IRCC.”

If the tips we posted end up working for you, then

please email us or leave us a review! The Immigroup
community has power!

FAQs

What do I do if the Call

Centre Agent Hangs up
on me?
In the first place, as we mentioned, you’re
going to get an answer in writing (in your
email account) so be patient. Additionally,
you should set up what is called an IRCC se-
cure account that will allow you to monitor
the progress of your application as well as
receive messages from IRCC.

So, is IRCC answering

calls?
As mentioned above, IRCC call centre agents
have preferred you use email, especially if
you’re trying to call from outside Canada. The
COVID pandemic forced them to switch to
emails in 2019, and while they began taking
calls again in 2020, they still prefer that you
send an email of use IRCC’s online webform
to make an inquiry. However, to use the
webform, they state that you must have
submitted an application and it must have
exceeded normal processing times.

What should I do if
IRCC is Not
Responding?
If you have waited 30 days and still not
received a reply, or you disagree with the
reply you got, you can contact the Case
Management Branch (CMB) by email at:

case-review-im-enquiry@cic.gc.ca.

How can I track my

application if I applied
on Paper?
If you are sponsoring or being sponsored as a
spouse/partner/dependent child or you
applied through Express Entry, you can set up
what is called an Application Status Tracker
account. Go here and scroll down to the
bottom of the page to create the account.

If I get through to an
Agent, What
Information do I need
to have ready?
You may be asked to identify yourself, so have
the following on hand: Your full name; your
mailing address; your email address; your
Date of Birth.

How to Contact the

Case Processing
Centre in Ottawa

How to contact the Ca…

London
UWS

UWS London
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UWS

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