PRIVACY NOTICE

Who we are

This website (civs.uk) is operated by Sean G McKinsley, as an individual, who is responsible for the personal information collected through it. Sean G McKinsley is a Canadian immigration practitioner (RCIC, CICC R529731) based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Immigration advice is provided by the Team of Sean G McKinsley and Kimberly J White: Sean G McKinsley, RCIC, CICC R529731, and Kimberly J White, RCIC, CICC R712483. The practitioner listing identifies who provides immigration advice. Sean G McKinsley is the data controller for information collected through this website.

Data controller: Sean G McKinsley, as the operator of this website, decides how and why the personal information collected through it is used.

UK representative

Sean G McKinsley is the authorized UK representative for civs.uk. You, and the UK data protection regulator (ICO), can contact the UK representative about any privacy matter by emailing info@civs.ca.

Privacy contact

For privacy questions and requests, contact Sean G McKinsley at info@civs.ca.

What we collect

• Request and questionnaire forms (Request a proposal, the IEC questionnaire, and the business and investment questionnaire): your name, email address, WhatsApp number (optional), how you'd like us to reply, the country you live in, where you are now, your timing (and the kind of deadline, if one is coming up), a short message, and whether you are 18 or over.
• Depending on the form, also: the service and questionnaire you're interested in (Request a proposal); your country of citizenship, age band, when you hope to start, whether you've done IEC before, whether you have a Canadian job offer, your current status if you're in Canada and your main goal (IEC questionnaire); or where you are with your business plans, the province or territory that interests you, your timeline and whether you've taken an approved language test (business and investment questionnaire).
• Messages you send us directly by email or WhatsApp.

The forms don't accept uploads. Please don't enter passport, UCI or application numbers, your date of birth, or medical, financial or police information. Forms on this site that aren't switched on don't send anything.

What happens when you send a form

When the forms are switched on, your answers are sent as one email to our practice inbox, info@civs.ca, through our website host's mail system. The email includes a reference number, which is also shown to you on the page. This website doesn't keep a copy of your answers: they are not saved in a database or anywhere else on the website. We don't send an automatic reply, and we don't add you to a mailing list.

Why we use it (purposes)

We use the information you send to reply to your request or questions and to suggest next steps, such as a proposal, a questionnaire or a consultation. We don't use it for marketing.

Form submissions: consent. We use the information you submit to reply to your request and suggest next steps, with the consent you give by ticking the form checkbox. You can withdraw that consent at any time by emailing info@civs.ca. Withdrawal does not affect earlier lawful processing based on that consent.

Where you contact us directly to request a proposal or consultation as a step toward engaging our services, we use the information necessary to take those steps at your request before entering into a contract.

No decision about you is made automatically. The forms don't assess whether you are eligible for anything; government officials decide every application.

Protecting the forms from misuse

To limit spam and abuse, the form handler keeps short-lived counters made from a one-way, salted code of your IP address and email address, and a one-way code of each single-use form token. It does not store your name, answers or message. The counters and token codes expire after at most two hours and are deleted at a later form request after they expire. If sending fails, the handler records only a short error code, never what you entered.

Who receives it

• Form submissions and emails you send us are received in the info@civs.ca inbox and read by our team. Email for civs.ca is received through Microsoft's email service.
• The website is hosted by Kinsta and delivered through Cloudflare. The form emails are sent through our website host's mail system.
• If you contact us by WhatsApp, your messages are handled by WhatsApp under its own terms.

We don't sell your information. This website does not use advertising cookies. Optional analytics cookies are used only if you accept analytics. See our Analytics privacy notice for details and how to change your choice.

Information leaving the UK

Information you send us is handled by our team in Canada.

How long we keep it

We keep the emails we receive through the forms, and the messages you send us, with no fixed end date. They are not deleted automatically. You can ask us to delete your information at any time (see Your rights below).

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask for a copy of your information, ask us to correct or delete it, ask us to restrict or stop using it, object to our use of it, and ask for it to be moved. Email info@civs.ca.

If you're unhappy with how we handle your information, please contact us first. If you send us a complaint about how we handle your information, Sean G McKinsley will acknowledge it within 30 days of receiving it and reply to it. Complaints are handled by a person, not an automatic system. You can also complain to the UK data protection regulator (ICO), ico.org.uk. You may also contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta or, where federal privacy legislation applies, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Under 18

Our online forms are for people aged 18 or over, and they can't be sent with an "Under 18" answer. If you're under 18, please ask a parent or guardian to email us at info@civs.ca.

Changes to this notice

We'll update this page if the way we handle your information changes, for example before form answers are stored anywhere other than our email inbox.