As of July 18, 2011, applicants for Permanent Residence are asked by Citizenship ang Immigration Canada to complete the new Generic Application Form for Canada (IMM 0008).The new form can be completed electronically and must be validated to generate 2D barcodes before printing. For Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) program applicants planning to submit application to Centralized Intake Office (CIO), you MAY still use the old forms until November 14, 2011.
New forms and an updated Instruction Guide and Document Checklist (IMM 5612) are now available. Applicants should follow the new Instruction Guide when preparing to submit an application
Applications that are received by the Centralized Intake Office (CIO) on or after November 14, 2011 that have not been prepared using the updated Instruction Guide and the Document Checklist (IMM 5612), will be returned as incomplete. [Source]
If your documents and application forms are now ready for filing, it is technically ok to submit your application ASAP, considering the limit on the number of applications to be received for MI-3.
However, if it will not cause much delay to complete the forms and checklist under the new Instruction Guide, it would be best to use the new forms. Considering the inconsistencies and apparent disregard of Citizenship and Immigration Canada for its own rules we've seen in the past, one shouldn't take that risk.
