Immigration Glossary

An official counterfoil document issued by a visa office abroad that is placed in a person’s passport to show that he or she has met the requirements for admission to Canada as a temporary resident (a visitor, student or worker). A counterfoil is a specially designed sticker on which missions abroad print visa information. Canadian visas include: · temporary resident visas (sometimes called visitor visas) and · permanent resident visas. At missions abroad, controlled documents are comprised of counterfoils and seals, which are issued together as a visa. Counterfoils are the documents on which missions print visa information. Seals are documents that are affixed over counterfoils when they are placed in an applicant’s passport to prevent tampering.

Visa application centres (VACs) provide administrative support services to applicants related to the submission of their application. The primary role of VACs is to receive visa applications, ensure they are complete, and to securely transmit these to the respective visa offices for processing. VACs are useful in countries or regions where there are few or no visa offices. They play no role in the decision-making process and are expressly forbidden to provide any visa-related advice to applicants. All decisions on applications are made by visa officers at the visa office. VACs also do not represent the Government of Canada.

A Government of Canada office at a Canadian embassy, high commission or consulate outside Canada at which applications for visas and permits for foreign nationals are processed and visas are issued.

A person who, of his or her own free will, contributes time, resources, energy and/or talent to an organization without being paid.