Spousal sponsorship

[Sharjeel_chaudhry]

Your timeline?
visa office?

Applied in February 2021
Received AOR in March 2021
January 2022 I got biometric, medical and file transferred to London Visa Office
12 May 2022 request for valid police certificate
13 May 2022 got Pre-arrival letter
On 16 May 2022 I submitted Police certificate

 

[Sharjeel_chaudhry]

How did you get police certificate so quickly? Or you didn’t submit it before?

I did it before but it has only validity of 6 months so they ask me to resubmit. I takes 3 days to generate new certificate.

 

[armoured]

Hi guys, hope everyone's having a lovely evening!

I (current PR) am sponsoring my wife (Mexican) via the inland spousal sponsorship application. We have a few questions and doubts, hoping any kind souls who've had experience with this process can help out:

• Background: Under the Country specific requirements, it's noted as followed:
  • Mexico – Instruction(s) for documents
  • "Official documents issued by this country must be government-certified true copies (copies certified as authentic by the issuing governmental authority, signed and sealed)."
• Questions:
  
  1. What are the documents that you need to get government-certified true copies of?
     • Birth certificate and passport? Anything else?
  2. How did you do get the government-certified true copies from inside Canada?
     • Did you visit the local Mexican (or your respective country) embassy?
     • Is the process different and separated for the birth certificate and the passport?
     • Please kindly outline a step-by-step process.
  3. If you had to return to Mexico or your respective country to get these certified copies from the "issuing governmental authority", please kindly share the process.

My wife has her original birth certificate here with her in Canada along with her current passport. We were initially under the impression that we just had to get them translated by a certified translator, and include a photocopy of the original and the certified translated copy in the package. We later found out that the photocopy of the originals need to be <fancy-pants>government-certified true copies</fancy-pants> as stated above.

As a veteran of this forum, I trust that there are people who've had the same questions and experience and are able to help. I combed through Google, this forum, reddit, etc., but was not able to find any clear answers. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

-You don't need to do this process for passports, because they are already in English as well as home country language. (Or French)

-Yes, birth certificate you will have to. What other documents will depend on what you need to submit. A common example might be marriage certificate, divorce decrees.

Sorry, don't know how to do this for Mexican docs. Your spouse would likely have more luck searching in Spanish. Note, I think some docs in Mexico have to get true copies from the state governments.

But: I strongly suspect that there are companies that will do this, in Mexico, for you. Usually notaries or professional/certified translators would know - but you'd need to be specific about the govt-certified true copies. Note, this specific requirement is (it seems) not uncommon in Latin America, so locals should know about how it's done.

Will cost some money of course but likely worth it to have someone else chase it.

(Side note: In some other countries getting a 'new' birth or marriage certificate would in fact be a duplicate or extract from the civil register, and hence that is both an original and govt-issued copy at same time. If that makes sense. I don't know if that's the case in Mexico. It may be that getting the govt-issued copy is basically the same thing as just ordering a new extract.)

 

[USCAN2019]

I did it before but it has only validity of 6 months so they ask me to resubmit. I takes 3 days to generate new certificate.

Which country is PA from? I am wondering if Police certificate was valid when your application was submitted, why did they ask for a new one. It’s delay at their end not yours.

 

[Sharjeel_chaudhry]

Which country is PA from? I am wondering if Police certificate was valid when your application was submitted, why did they ask for a new one. It’s delay at their end not yours.

From Pakistan. Yeah it's valid when submitted and it's delayed from them.

 

[Jazzed]

Not from Mexico but had to do this I got this done at the consulate. Check the Mexican Consulate they should be able to provide information. Any original docs from Mexico will need to be certified.
I did passport as well to cover my bases.

Update: Mexican consulate doesn't certify non Canadian documents but they provide information how to do so:

Extract:

Mexican documents

Documents issued by Mexican authorities to be recognized in Canada must be submitted for an apostille before the corresponding Mexican institutions.

For more information, refer to the page of the Ministry of the Interior:

(https://www.gob.mx/segob/acciones-y-programas/apostilla-de-documentos-80714)

(3) Documents issued by the states of Mexico

In the case of public documents that are state-issued, they must be legalized before the Secretary or General Director of the Government of the state where they were issued.

Hi guys, hope everyone's having a lovely evening!

I (current PR) am sponsoring my wife (Mexican) via the inland spousal sponsorship application. We have a few questions and doubts, hoping any kind souls who've had experience with this process can help out:

• Background: Under the Country specific requirements, it's noted as followed:
  • Mexico – Instruction(s) for documents
  • "Official documents issued by this country must be government-certified true copies (copies certified as authentic by the issuing governmental authority, signed and sealed)."
• Questions:
  
  1. What are the documents that you need to get government-certified true copies of?
     • Birth certificate and passport? Anything else?
  2. How did you do get the government-certified true copies from inside Canada?
     • Did you visit the local Mexican (or your respective country) embassy?
     • Is the process different and separated for the birth certificate and the passport?
     • Please kindly outline a step-by-step process.
  3. If you had to return to Mexico or your respective country to get these certified copies from the "issuing governmental authority", please kindly share the process.

My wife has her original birth certificate here with her in Canada along with her current passport. We were initially under the impression that we just had to get them translated by a certified translator, and include a photocopy of the original and the certified translated copy in the package. We later found out that the photocopy of the originals need to be <fancy-pants>government-certified true copies</fancy-pants> as stated above.

As a veteran of this forum, I trust that there are people who've had the same questions and experience and are able to help. I combed through Google, this forum, reddit, etc., but was not able to find any clear answers. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

 

[Shukaib Ahmed]

wish there is way so we can see what is going with our application. it is so uncleared process, unpredictable updates, no sequences . anybody can help me to understand what is going with my application and when i will expect decision?? here is my timeline
PA: Saudi Arabia (ME)
File submitted 08-Feb-21
AOR1 10-Apr-21
SA 26-Apr-21
VO: LONDON IRCC
AOR2 05-may-21
Medical request 16-July-21
Medical submitted: 2-august-2021
medical : passed
Again moved to another VO ... Vienna
BIL: 19-01-2022
Pre arrival: 12-January-2022
background = not started yet
DM: n/a
PPR: n/a
COPR: n/a

 

[Jakka2]

wish there is way so we can see what is going with our application. it is so uncleared process, unpredictable updates, no sequences . anybody can help me to understand what is going with my application and when i will expect decision?? here is my timeline
PA: Saudi Arabia (ME)
File submitted 08-Feb-21
AOR1 10-Apr-21
SA 26-Apr-21
VO: LONDON IRCC
AOR2 05-may-21
Medical request 16-July-21
Medical submitted: 2-august-2021
medical : passed
Again moved to another VO ... Vienna
BIL: 19-01-2022
Pre arrival: 12-January-2022
background = not started yet
DM: n/a
PPR: n/a
COPR: n/a

Hello Ahmed,
There is Vienna Visa office group for sponsorship application. I think there they can have an idea of what is happening there. I hope this help. Below is the whatsapp group link:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/IdwTEMA6nJJEdmMHZvzAot

 

[Sharjeel_chaudhry]

wish there is way so we can see what is going with our application. it is so uncleared process, unpredictable updates, no sequences . anybody can help me to understand what is going with my application and when i will expect decision?? here is my timeline
PA: Saudi Arabia (ME)
File submitted 08-Feb-21
AOR1 10-Apr-21
SA 26-Apr-21
VO: LONDON IRCC
AOR2 05-may-21
Medical request 16-July-21
Medical submitted: 2-august-2021
medical : passed
Again moved to another VO ... Vienna
BIL: 19-01-2022
Pre arrival: 12-January-2022
background = not started yet
DM: n/a
PPR: n/a
COPR: n/a

I'm February 2021 applicant too.
Pre arrival on 13 May 2022 no PPR yet.

 

[Jazzed]

Update I went and checked the consulate site. I was curious.....
They do things a little different
This is an extract:

Mexican documents

Documents issued by Mexican authorities to be recognized in Canada must be submitted for an apostille before the corresponding Mexican institutions.

For more information, refer to the page of the Ministry of the Interior:

(https://www.gob.mx/segob/acciones-y-programas/apostilla-de-documentos-80714)

(3) Documents issued by the states of Mexico

In the case of public documents that are state-issued, they must be legalized before the Secretary or General Director of the Government of the state where they were issued.

Hi guys, hope everyone's having a lovely evening!

I (current PR) am sponsoring my wife (Mexican) via the inland spousal sponsorship application. We have a few questions and doubts, hoping any kind souls who've had experience with this process can help out:

• Background: Under the Country specific requirements, it's noted as followed:
  • Mexico – Instruction(s) for documents
  • "Official documents issued by this country must be government-certified true copies (copies certified as authentic by the issuing governmental authority, signed and sealed)."
• Questions:
  
  1. What are the documents that you need to get government-certified true copies of?
     • Birth certificate and passport? Anything else?
  2. How did you do get the government-certified true copies from inside Canada?
     • Did you visit the local Mexican (or your respective country) embassy?
     • Is the process different and separated for the birth certificate and the passport?
     • Please kindly outline a step-by-step process.
  3. If you had to return to Mexico or your respective country to get these certified copies from the "issuing governmental authority", please kindly share the process.

My wife has her original birth certificate here with her in Canada along with her current passport. We were initially under the impression that we just had to get them translated by a certified translator, and include a photocopy of the original and the certified translated copy in the package. We later found out that the photocopy of the originals need to be <fancy-pants>government-certified true copies</fancy-pants> as stated above.

As a veteran of this forum, I trust that there are people who've had the same questions and experience and are able to help. I combed through Google, this forum, reddit, etc., but was not able to find any clear answers. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

 

[mapple007]

Update I went and checked the consulate site. I was curious.....
They do things a little different
This is an extract:

Mexican documents

Documents issued by Mexican authorities to be recognized in Canada must be submitted for an apostille before the corresponding Mexican institutions.

For more information, refer to the page of the Ministry of the Interior:

(https://www.gob.mx/segob/acciones-y-programas/apostilla-de-documentos-80714)

(3) Documents issued by the states of Mexico

In the case of public documents that are state-issued, they must be legalized before the Secretary or General Director of the Government of the state where they were issued.

Well, I'd be jazzed! Thanks a lot, mate, for going above and beyond to research this for us. Whilst we'd prefer if we could do it at the local consulate, we have a general idea now of how to go about doing this and that's something! Albeit, we are a little sceptical that it's "needed" needed in practice for the application as a lot of people in forums and chat groups applied using non-"government-certified true copies" (just regular photocopies from their home printers) and had no issues. A lot of senior members on this forum also provide very conflicting information, often stating that we do not need to provide the government certified true copies for non-translated copies while the official guide states very clearly otherwise (there's no room for it to be interpreted as, and I paraphrase, "only documents that are not in English or French need to be government-certified true copies").

I find this to be on par with IRCC's standard for the past decade+. Rules rarely apply consistently; they lack any integrity and change so often that the immigration officers themselves sometime aren't aware of them.

My wife and I are both quite thorough with our research when it comes to these legal processes, and we still have a hard time finding the most relevant information.

In any case, I'll end my rant there, just want to say thanks again! Hope you have a good rest of your day!

@anyone who's had other similar experiences or knowledge on this, please chime in!

 

[armoured]

A lot of senior members on this forum also provide very conflicting information, often stating that we do not need to provide the government certified true copies for non-translated copies while the official guide states very clearly otherwise (there's no room for it to be interpreted as, and I paraphrase, "only documents that are not in English or French need to be government-certified true copies").

You lost me in that forest of a sentence, but still it's clear:
-documents in English or French (which would include passports from every country I'm aware of) do not need to be translated, and regular photocopies fine (unless directed otherwise of course). Some people like to get notarized copies of these thigns, that's fine if they want - it won't hurt.

-for most countries, 'certified true copy plus certified translation' means eg notary or similar certifies the copy, certified translator certifies the translation. (Yes, I know this for a fact and from experience, for many/most if not all countries in the larger European space anyway).

-there are sometimes specific requirements for certain documents (eg original) in certain countries.

-some/several countries in latin america - it's required that govt certify the copy.

-I mostly agree with the comment that because CAnada doesn't adhere to the Hague convention about apostilles, Apostille per se is not needed. But I'm not sure that there's a big difference in practice between the govt certification and the Apostille for Mexico. [Side note: the reverse direction for Canadian docs in Apostillophile countries IS a big deal because it means a notarized copy from any province has to go to Foreign Affairs and is a royal pain.]

-But seriously: the easiest way is to ask someone local who does this for a living. If it were me, I would look up on google maps the closest Notary/Translation bureau in Mexico city to the Canadian Embassy and ask them what is needed for the Canadian Embassy's immigration section. They'll know.

 

[mapple007]

-You don't need to do this process for passports, because they are already in English as well as home country language. (Or French)

-Yes, birth certificate you will have to. What other documents will depend on what you need to submit. A common example might be marriage certificate, divorce decrees.

Sorry, don't know how to do this for Mexican docs. Your spouse would likely have more luck searching in Spanish. Note, I think some docs in Mexico have to get true copies from the state governments.

But: I strongly suspect that there are companies that will do this, in Mexico, for you. Usually notaries or professional/certified translators would know - but you'd need to be specific about the govt-certified true copies. Note, this specific requirement is (it seems) not uncommon in Latin America, so locals should know about how it's done.

Will cost some money of course but likely worth it to have someone else chase it.

(Side note: In some other countries getting a 'new' birth or marriage certificate would in fact be a duplicate or extract from the civil register, and hence that is both an original and govt-issued copy at same time. If that makes sense. I don't know if that's the case in Mexico. It may be that getting the govt-issued copy is basically the same thing as just ordering a new extract.)

Thanks a lot for your response, kind sir/madam!

-You don't need to do this process for passports, because they are already in English as well as home country language. (Or French)

-Yes, birth certificate you will have to. What other documents will depend on what you need to submit. A common example might be marriage certificate, divorce decrees.

Regarding above: Could you please kindly point to where this information can be found? As it's stated at https://ircc.canada.ca/english/information/applications/spouse.asp:

• "Official documents issued by this country must be government-certified true copies (copies certified as authentic by the issuing governmental authority, signed and sealed)."

I understand that it's usually not black-and-white when it comes to these statements, and given your experience, I trust your judgement, but the statement from IRCC above led me to believe that any official documents issued by Mexico, including the passport, need to be government-certified true copies.

Sorry, don't know how to do this for Mexican docs. Your spouse would likely have more luck searching in Spanish. Note, I think some docs in Mexico have to get true copies from the state governments.

But: I strongly suspect that there are companies that will do this, in Mexico, for you. Usually notaries or professional/certified translators would know - but you'd need to be specific about the govt-certified true copies. Note, this specific requirement is (it seems) not uncommon in Latin America, so locals should know about how it's done.

Will cost some money of course but likely worth it to have someone else chase it.

(Side note: In some other countries getting a 'new' birth or marriage certificate would in fact be a duplicate or extract from the civil register, and hence that is both an original and govt-issued copy at same time. If that makes sense. I don't know if that's the case in Mexico. It may be that getting the govt-issued copy is basically the same thing as just ordering a new extract.)

Amazing suggestions and info, we've started looking into it as you suggested. Thanks so much again for taking the time to answer our questions and concerns! Please kindly let us know what you think.

 

[armoured]

I agree more with the common sense advice "to ask someone local who does it for a living".

Although it has become increasingly difficult / darn near impossible to get someone on the phone at any government agency, someone in the Canadian embassy immigration section or consulate would almost certainly know of a translator/notary bureau nearby that does this work. They are always found near any embassy/consulate with an active immigration/consular section.

 

[armoured]

Regarding above: Could you please kindly point to where this information can be found? As it's stated at https://ircc.canada.ca/english/information/applications/spouse.asp:

• "Official documents issued by this country must be government-certified true copies (copies certified as authentic by the issuing governmental authority, signed and sealed)."

I won't try to parse the website, other than to say:
-it also says that docs in English/French do not need to be translated, and the 'true copy' requirement for the most part flows out of the requirement to get a translation (the doc being translated or a copy needs to be attached).

-passports by their very nature are intended to be documents that can be recognized by other countries and there are widely accepted standards for what goes in them (by international bodies in the UN system).

Of course if you wish to pay more money to get that done, you're welcome to, and I'm just a sirmadam on the internet.