Overview

RCIC Drive is the platform's Canadian-resident, matter-aware document store — the durable backbone your other modules file into. It left beta at v1.24.0 (2026-07-12) and is safe for real client documents. Files are hosted in Canada, encrypted under a per-tenant AWS KMS key, scanned for malware on upload, and backed up, as each firm is onboarded, to a second Canadian region for disaster recovery. It is available on Basic and Premium, never during the free trial, because we do not take custody of client documents from an uncommitted firm.

Open it from the app launcher or the sidebar. Your firm's Owner sees a Storage settings surface for quota, overflow packs, and the public-sharing switch; every member with access can upload, organize, search, preview, share, and restore.

Uploading and organizing

Upload files by dragging them onto the file pane or using the Upload button. Files up to 500 MB travel directly from your browser to storage over a short-lived signed link, so the application server never carries the bytes and upload speed is limited only by your connection. Every upload is scanned by AWS GuardDuty before it becomes downloadable.

Matter-aware folders and auto-filing. Organize files into folders around your matters. Your other modules file into the right folder automatically: signed Service Agreements and Co-Counselling Agreements, Transfer Room files, Active File Review deliverables, and intake documents all land where they belong. If you also connect Google Drive or OneDrive, a Copy-to-Drive action can save to RCIC Drive and your own cloud at the same time.

Copy, move, and the clipboard. Every file and folder has Copy and Move actions, and you can select several at once for a bulk operation. Keyboard shortcuts work too: Ctrl+C to copy, Ctrl+X to cut, Ctrl+V to paste into the folder you are in. A copy is a real second file (a fresh encrypted object under your key). If you upload or paste a file whose name already exists in the folder, we ask whether to replace it (a new version), keep both (a numbered suffix), or cancel — nothing is overwritten silently.

Finding your files — search, preview, versions

The search bar at the top of RCIC Drive reads inside your files, not just their names. Uploaded PDFs and images are OCR'd server-side (via AWS Textract in Canada) and the extracted text is indexed per firm, so you can find a document by any word it contains. Results include a short snippet showing where your query appears. OCR normally completes within a few minutes of upload; files without extractable text fall back to filename search.

Automatic classification. Every file is auto-classified into an immigration-specific taxonomy — passport, IRCC letter, IRB letter, form, contract, financial, medical, education, employment, correspondence, and more — so you can filter at a glance.

Preview and version history. PDFs and images have a Preview button that opens the file in a viewer inside RCIC Drive, with page thumbnails, so you never download a file just to look at it. Re-uploading a same-named file keeps the prior versions; open the History drawer to see every version, restore an earlier one in a click, or read the per-file audit log.

Sharing and exports

Share any file or folder with a secure link. If your firm's Owner has turned on public sharing (Storage settings), the link opens a token-gated portal page; otherwise it is an internal deep-link for teammates only. On a public share you can add an access code, an expiry date, a download cap, and a watermark on PDFs. The Owner switch is re-checked every time a link is opened, so turning public sharing off makes every public link stop working immediately.

Matter and offboarding exports. Export a closed matter as a single downloadable package, or export all of your firm's files before you leave. For ongoing back-and-forth exchange with a client, Transfer Room is still the right tool — RCIC Drive sharing is for handing over a finished document or matter.

Protecting the record — Object Lock, recycle bin, legal hold

The durable store has S3 Object Lock and versioning turned on, so accidental overwrites and ransomware writes cannot destroy prior versions. When you delete a file or folder, it moves to a recycle bin for 30 days by default; restore any item during that window with one click. Recycle-bin storage counts toward your quota until it expires or you purge it.

Legal hold and retention are advisory. You can place any file on legal hold and assign per-matter retention classes. These surface as warnings and guidance rather than hard blocks — you, the RCIC, remain responsible for CICC record-keeping, and the platform informs rather than prevents. The one physical limit is a short storage-level immutability window that the app enforces at the infrastructure layer.

Everything is audited. Every view, download, share, delete, restore, and permission change is recorded in a per-tenant, append-only audit ledger you can review from the History drawer.

Security, residency, and backup

Document bytes live in AWS S3 in the ca-central-1 (Montréal) region and are replicated, as each firm is onboarded, to a separate Investatech-controlled AWS account in ca-west-1 (Calgary) for disaster recovery. Both regions are in Canada. Only application metadata (folder names, file references, audit logs) lives in our US-hosted control plane; the document bytes themselves are Canadian-resident.

Your firm's own encryption key. Each firm gets its own AWS KMS customer-managed key on first upload. One firm's key cannot decrypt another firm's files, even with full cloud-console access. When a firm leaves, we schedule the key for destruction (crypto-shred) so both the primary and the ca-west-1 backup copies become permanently unreadable.

For the full encryption and residency disclosure, see the Data Security page at rcicapp.ca/security.

Storage capacity and plans

Storage is pooled across your whole firm and grows with your team. Basic includes 25 GB pooled. Premium includes 100 GB base plus 50 GB per paid seat — the Owner counts as a seat, and every RCIC and Assistant you add expands the pool.

Need more? Add a +250 GB pack for $15/month or a +1 TB pack for $39/month from Storage settings; overflow packs cancel any time from Stripe. All prices are in CAD, excluding tax.

Never during the trial. RCIC Drive unlocks the moment you subscribe or receive a complimentary grant. We never take custody of client immigration documents from an uncommitted trial, because once uploaded they are regulated personal information we cannot casually delete.