Background:
In 2017, my friend's parents filed for refugee status in Quebec with their young son. At that time, my friend, who was 15, remained in India. Their refugee claim was approved in 2020, and they applied for Permanent Residency (PR) for all four family members. The family in Canada is now waiting for their PR cards, but my friend's PR application is currently in limbo.
Her PR application was submitted along with her family’s. Last year, she received a request to provide additional documents, which she submitted on time. However, this year she received a notice stating that her medical exam had not been received (although they were never informed to submit one). She was in Canada on a visitor visa at the time, so she immediately got the medical exam done and submitted it.
Since submitting the medical exam, she has received no further updates. Her visitor visa has now been extended twice, but it’s about to expire, and the lack of communication from IRCC has left her family feeling very anxious.
Unfortunately, their lawyer has been uncooperative. Despite multiple paid appointments, they are not getting clear answers. The lawyer mentioned that the application might have been closed after the medical exam issue but would be reopened once the results were received. Following the lawyer’s advice, they raised a webform after 3 months, but after another 2 months, still no response has been received.
My friend also tried linking her PR application to her IRCC account using her UCI and application number, selecting the "Family Class (Dependent Children)" category, but the system returned "No existing application found." The client tracker shows "Decision Made," but there are no further updates.
When calling IRCC, they were told the file would need to be reopened from India and that no further help could be provided from Canada.
We're feeling stuck and would really appreciate advice on what we can do next.
TL;DR:
In 2017, my friend's parents filed for refugee status in Quebec with their young son. At that time, my friend, who was 15, remained in India. Their refugee claim was approved in 2020, and they applied for Permanent Residency (PR) for all four family members. The family in Canada is now waiting for their PR cards, but my friend's PR application is currently in limbo.
Her PR application was submitted along with her family’s. Last year, she received a request to provide additional documents, which she submitted on time. However, this year she received a notice stating that her medical exam had not been received (although they were never informed to submit one). She was in Canada on a visitor visa at the time, so she immediately got the medical exam done and submitted it.
Since submitting the medical exam, she has received no further updates. Her visitor visa has now been extended twice, but it’s about to expire, and the lack of communication from IRCC has left her family feeling very anxious.
Unfortunately, their lawyer has been uncooperative. Despite multiple paid appointments, they are not getting clear answers. The lawyer mentioned that the application might have been closed after the medical exam issue but would be reopened once the results were received. Following the lawyer’s advice, they raised a webform after 3 months, but after another 2 months, still no response has been received.
My friend also tried linking her PR application to her IRCC account using her UCI and application number, selecting the "Family Class (Dependent Children)" category, but the system returned "No existing application found." The client tracker shows "Decision Made," but there are no further updates.
When calling IRCC, they were told the file would need to be reopened from India and that no further help could be provided from Canada.
We're feeling stuck and would really appreciate advice on what we can do next.
TL;DR:
- Family (refugee claim approved in 2020) applied for PR for all family members, including my friend, who was in India.
- She provided her medical exam as soon as she was notified IRCC had not received it (though they never told her to submit it earlier).
- No updates since the medical exam submission, and her visitor visa is about to expire.
- The lawyer has been unhelpful and vague.
- Attempts to link the application to her IRCC account have failed.
- IRCC told her the file needs to be reopened from India, leaving us unsure of the next steps.
- Should we be concerned about the "Decision Made" status on the client tracker, even though no updates were provided?
- Does the file truly need to be reopened from India, as IRCC suggested, or can this be done from Canada?
- How can we successfully link her PR application to her IRCC account when it says "No existing application found"?
- Is there a way to push IRCC for faster updates?
- Should we seek a new lawyer or pursue a different legal route to get clarity?
- Should she apply for another visitor visa extension while waiting for updates?
