The CAIPS Retriever
We put the information you need at your fingertips
Welcome to the CAIPS Retriever!
Getting your CAIPS file (aka CAIPS notes or CAIPS report)* is easy and affordable. As per Our Services, you will get your CAIPS file in six to eight weeks for a small fee. You can find easy to follow instructions in our Apply Now! page.
Our mission is to help you get in control of your Citizenship
and Immigration Canada (CIC) application with your CAIPS file (notes).
CAIPS notes include all the information on every application to immigrate,
study, work or visit: initial assessment scores, visa officers'
notes, interview dates, medical assessment, missing
documentation or other problems.
Therefore, a CAIPS check is useful not only to find out what has happened
so far with your application, but also to understand what
will happen next and when.
Upon your request, we can obtain from CIC a copy of your CAIPS file (notes) if you have applied for Skilled Worker Class Immigration, Business Class Immigration, Provincial Nomination, Family Class Immigration, Quebec‑Selected Immigration, Work Permit, Study Permit or Visitor Visa.
*Notes: Computer Assisted Immigration Processing System (CAIPS) is the computer system used by CIC to process overseas visa applications.
2006/06/20
An Immigrant's Life in Toronto, Canada XI
YMCA of Greater Toronto assisting entrepreneurs
What should you do if you have little or no money to start a business? What should you do if your marketing knowledge is far from being perfect? YMCA of Greater Toronto runs a program that can help you with that.
As part of the program, I recently ran a workshop introducing new entrepreneurs to customized marketing and promotion strategies. Following are a few points on entrepreneurial marketing I made during the workshop.
A customer-oriented approach
Marketing plays a central role in the virtuous business cycle: acquisition/retention of a profitable customer base, long-term profits, shareholder value, resources and capital, and back to the starting point. In today's turbulent environments, the best approach is known as "customer-oriented". It emphasizes:
- gathering of, sharing of, and responsiveness to market intelligence,
- management of customers as assets,
- outperforming competitors and
- cross-functional integration.
The process starts with an (unbiased) assessment of customers' needs and wants, and continues with product development, not the other way around. If you follow this process, nothing except money can stop you from doing high quality marketing. But lack of funding is a challenging task. If your only choice is low-cost marketing, you have to be creative.
A clear idea about what marketing strategy is
Because they are both "strategies", there is confusion between "management" and "marketing" strategies - but there shouldn't be. It is important therefore to draw a line between them:
- Management strategy centers on the idea that a portfolio of companies, business units, products etc. generates the positive outcome of any portfolio (risk minimization for a given level of return),
- Marketing strategy stems from another idea, that the goal of greater return can be achieved by voluntary focus on the most attractive opportunities, through segmentation, targeting and positioning.
It might seem that management and marketing strategies are totally different, which is both false and true. It is false because both strategies do focus on the market and it is true because they have different responsibilities.
A combination of attractiveness and probability of success
You cannot engage in a market based only on its attractiveness, but you must always take into account a combination of market attractiveness and your own probability of success. The classic mistake is to pursue market opportunities because of a single reason (e.g., "we are first"), only to succumb to followers' and imitators' competition.
A systematic approach
- Always do marketing,
- Create and execute a marketing strategy,
- Budget for marketing,
- Consider outsourcing,
- Dedicate time,
- Always have marketing materials handy,
- Market yourself.
2006/06/07
CAIPS Reminders and Updates
Ordering CAIPS notes after receiving your AOR
Please be advised, if ordering CAIPS notes after receiving your AOR (and before the formal assessment of your application), do not include interpretation services in your order (we recommend choosing either CAIPS Standard or CAIPS Standard + Xpresspost).
Explanation: as long as your application has not been formally assessed, there is no need for interpretation services. Do think about adding interpretation services for subsequent stages of your application process. For more details, follow this link to our FAQ page: When is it useful to obtain my CAIPS file?
Rest assured, when no interpretation is needed or requested, we summarize the main areas of concern in our letter to you as a matter of common courtesy. Also, if after receiving your CAIPS file, it turns out that no interpretation is needed (as explained), our policy is to refund you the interpretation portion of our service fee. Thank you.
Updated processing times on CIC web site
Recently, CIC has updated the processing times statistics. Published on May 15, the latest data cover the April 2005 to March 2006 period. Unfortunately, processing times have lengthened (considerably in some cases). For more information, please follow this link to the Statistics and processing times section of our Useful Links page or this direct link to CIC's Application Processing Times page.
