For almost 12 hours this week, the immigration department’s online services were down, creating havoc for Canada-bound travellers and visa applicants with deadlines to meet for immigration, work or study permits.

While some are demanding refunds from Ottawa for missed flights because they couldn’t get their pre-boarding authorization on time, others are unsure what will happen to their immigration applications for failing to submit documentation by deadline.

“Out patience is being challenged by you. BIG TIME! I already missed two flights to a very expensive workshop I book 6 month ago and waited for years!” wrote photographer Stefy Hilmer, one of hundreds of people who vented their anger and frustration on Twitter.

“Today is my last day to submit the permanent residency form and pay the fee. I tried calling too but there is no customer agent available due to this server crash. Is there any possible solutions to it?” Hassan Feroze asked on Twitter.

According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the online problem was detected at 7:31 a.m. on Monday but was not resolved until 6:10 that evening. This was at least the second such disruption in 2018. Earlier this year, the department’s online services went down for four days.

“We’re still determining the extent of the impact but most of our online application services were unavailable,” department spokesperson Shannon Ker told the Star in an email. “It appears that the problem was related to an IT infrastructure network hardware failure. There is no evidence that IRCC’s systems were hacked. From a cybersecurity perspective, IRCC’s systems are continuously monitored.”

Ker would not say if there would be compensation for anyone inconvenienced by the service disruption or how officials would deal with missed immigration deadlines, but said “IRCC regrets that some travellers may have experienced travel delays.”

As the department continues to shift immigration applications online, any disruption of the system could turn into a huge headache for those with plans to come to Canada.

“It’s a problem that comes with any electronic system,” said Ottawa-based immigration lawyer Betsy Kane. “They notify people on Twitter, but not everyone is on Twitter. What we do is we take screen shots (as proof) and go to the immigration officers hoping they will make it right.”

Immigration officials were unable to say how many people were affected. Among those affected were travellers who missed their flights because airlines would not board them without an electronic travel authorization issued online by IRCC.

Kane said one of her clients filed a work permit application from Ankara on Monday and got a receipt acknowledgement two days late, on Wednesday. A biometrics collection letter that he was supposed to receive in 24 hours, by the end of Tuesday, had yet to come on Thursday.

“Hopefully, the government will issue instructions to the public on how to address this,” Kane said.