On Friday, 14 November 2014, approximately 30 Chamber of Commerce members engaged in training sessions at the Chamber Training room in Governor’s Square.

The content focused on the Immigration On-Line (IOL) facility offered by the Department of Immigration.

IOL is a powerful tool that business owners and HR professionals can use to efficiently manage their immigration needs.

The new technology will allow businesses to use a meetings calendar to monitor applications scheduled to be heard by various Immigration Boards. Users will be able to “drill-down” to see the full details of each application, including: status history, meeting and decision detail, financial transactions and dependants. As a result, there is no need to contact the Department since decisions are posted within 24 hours.

Comprehensive search, filter and sort functionality will allow instant access to current or historical applications. IOL also makes available business staffing plans; details of mail received by the Immigration Department, and cancelled permit information. In addition, content can be exported to your own spreadsheets, reducing the amount of paper generated by each transaction.

Acknowledging the value of the seminars, Chamber of Commerce CEO, Wil Pineau states: “The Chamber thanks the Immigration Department for delivering these free workshops for our members. Immigration online is a useful tool for business. The workshops enabled new businesses to sign up and also provided existing users with tips on how to best use the system. We are planning additional workshops in 2015 and encourage more businesses to register.”

Similarly, Acting Chief Immigration Officer Bruce Smith remarked, “Serving our customers is one of our primary business strategic goals. We can only serve better if they are empowered. This is a step in the right direction.”

The training sessions were tailored for two separate groups: potential IOL customers and existing IOL customers. Seminar Leaders were Immigration staff Ms Sherilyn Eden, Senior Business Analyst and Mr. Phillip Pace, Information Analyst.

If anyone is interested in becoming a member or require training, please send an email to [email protected] after which you will be contacted.

IMAGES:

Photo captions: Photos by Bina Mani, GIS

Photo 1: Attendees at the morning workshop

Photo 2: Participants during the afternoon listen to workshop instruction from Mr. Phillip Pace, Immigration Information Analyst.