Interview Invite

[redherring]

Hi,

We are applying via common-law stream. I just received an interview invite. Could anyone share the process and what to expect? How long does it usually take? It says to bring my sponsor to the interview, would we be interviewed together or separately?

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Hi,

We are applying via common-law stream. I just received an interview invite. Could anyone share the process and what to expect? How long does it usually take? It says to bring my sponsor to the interview, would we be interviewed together or separately?

Hi

It is unusual for a common-law applicant to have an interview. Did you apply inland? Is this a landing interview or a relationship interview?

 

[redherring]

Hi

It is unusual for a common-law applicant to have an interview. Did you apply inland? Is this a landing interview or a relationship interview?

I applied inland. I believe this would be for the relationship interview to find out if I'm eligible because the sponsor just got approved today and I got the interview request today as well for next week.

 

[majesty]

I applied inland. I believe this would be for the relationship interview to find out if I'm eligible because the sponsor just got approved today and I got the interview request today as well for next week.

??? really. We are also common-law ... so guess according to Canuck we are not "usual". We weren't flagged for an interview until almost 10 months after we submitted our app. Actually we still don't have an interview date after almost 2.5 months of waiting in queue. Next week we will have reached our 12 month mark since our app was received.
We ordered 4 sets of GCMS notes and the last ones generated after we were put in the interview queue makes no mention of why they want to interview us. For all we know, they didn't like the way our hair looked in our pictures, maybe this is the reason. They also never asked us to submit more proof of relationship evidence. I joke with my partner that it's probably because I am 21 years older than him and they want to meet us because they find our relationship interesting. I hope they do it before I kick the bucket because I'm old!

 

[canuck_in_uk]

I applied inland. I believe this would be for the relationship interview to find out if I'm eligible because the sponsor just got approved today and I got the interview request today as well for next week.

What is the wording of the request? Post without personal info.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

??? really. We are also common-law ... so guess according to Canuck we are not "usual". We weren't flagged for an interview until almost 10 months after we submitted our app. Actually we still don't have an interview date after almost 2.5 months of waiting in queue. Next week we will have reached our 12 month mark since our app was received.
We ordered 4 sets of GCMS notes and the last ones generated after we were put in the interview queue makes no mention of why they want to interview us. For all we know, they didn't like the way our hair looked in our pictures, maybe this is the reason. They also never asked us to submit more proof of relationship evidence. I joke with my partner that it's probably because I am 21 years older than him and they want to meet us because they find our relationship interesting. I hope they do it before I kick the bucket because I'm old!

In the 5 or so years I have been on this forum, I can probably count on two hands the amount of common-law interviews I've seen, so yes, it is very unusual. As people wanting to commit spousal immigration fraud go for Marriages of Convenience, common-law interviews tend to be for things like criminal issues, undeclared family members etc. There was one a few years ago where the couple lived apart for 3 years after becoming common-law.

Without knowing anything about your relationship or looking through your posts, I would guess that the age gap played a big part in calling you for an interview. A 21 year age gap can be a big red flag or a very manageable small red flag, depending on the circumstances.

 

[geografa]

In the 5 or so years I have been on this forum, I can probably count on two hands the amount of common-law interviews I've seen, so yes, it is very unusual. As people wanting to commit spousal immigration fraud go for Marriages of Convenience, common-law interviews tend to be for things like criminal issues, undeclared family members etc. There was one a few years ago where the couple lived apart for 3 years after becoming common-law.

Without knowing anything about your relationship or looking through your posts, I would guess that the age gap played a big part in calling you for an interview. A 21 year age gap can be a big red flag or a very manageable small red flag, depending on the circumstances.

This is very interesting to me, too. I assumed that being common-law (my partner and I are) would possibly have them wonder why we didn't get married yet etc. potentially giving cause for an interview request.
I am most worried about not having provided sufficient evidence to prove we qualify by de facto as common-law, and assumed if IRCC has doubts about this that they would call us for an interview and have us bring more evidence. However, I will not get my hopes up about potentially NOT having an interview, given what @majesty is going through! Stay strong Majesty!!

 

[redherring]

What is the wording of the request? Post without personal info.

This is what's in the letter.

Failure to appear for this interview may be perceived as a lack of interest in permanent residence and your application could be refused.

If you cannot attend this interview, please e-mail us at: WST-Landing-Enquiries@cic.gc.ca or call the IRCC Call Centre at 1-888-242-2100

Please note:

•  Do not arrive until 15 minutes prior to your interview time.
  
  
•  If you were sponsored, please ensure that your sponsor attends the interview with you, and brings government issued ID documents with photos establishing their identity.
  
  
•  If you believe that you will require the services of an interpreter, you are responsible for hiring/finding an interpreter and ensuring that they attend the interview with you.
  
  
•  If you are subject to and have not yet paid the Right of Permanent Residence Fee in the amount of $490.00 per adult who is subject to permanent residency, you must do so prior to your interview.
  http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/fees/index.asp
  
  Please note that there is a delay between becoming a Permanent Resident and receiving your PR card: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-card.asp
  

Please bring the following original documents to your interview:

 A valid passport, identity or travel document; if you were previously advised that you are exempt from the travel document requirement, bring other documents establishing your identity.

 Important: If for any reason you are not in possession of valid identity/travel documents at the time of the appointment, you must advise this office PRIOR to the appointment date.

 Two photographs of yourself and for each person in your family that is being processed for permanent residence inside Canada.
Please show the photographer the document found here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/guides/pdf/5445EB-e.pdf

 Current and expired Temporary Resident documents issued by IRCC These include work permits, study permits & visitor records.

 Proof of Payment of the Right of Permanent Residence Fee
Please make sure to print and bring the receipt and not the "payment confirmation form" page.

Please note:

If you have recently changed any of the following without updating IRCC, please scan & e-mail WST-Landing-Enquiries@cic.gc.ca your updates and document(s) immediately. Please also bring the original documents along to your interview.

 Marital status
Include copy of marriage certificate, divorce certificate etc.

 Passport
Include copy of the biographical details page

 Contact information
Include a copy of your photo government ID with your current address

I don't think I have time to ask for GCMS notes as we only have 1 week and I'm not sure if they'll have detailed information there. We are still living together until now for more than 2 years already so I'm not sure if they doubt the relationship or something but we did apply right after we satisfied the 1 year requirement.

 

[redherring]

??? really. We are also common-law ... so guess according to Canuck we are not "usual". We weren't flagged for an interview until almost 10 months after we submitted our app. Actually we still don't have an interview date after almost 2.5 months of waiting in queue. Next week we will have reached our 12 month mark since our app was received.
We ordered 4 sets of GCMS notes and the last ones generated after we were put in the interview queue makes no mention of why they want to interview us. For all we know, they didn't like the way our hair looked in our pictures, maybe this is the reason. They also never asked us to submit more proof of relationship evidence. I joke with my partner that it's probably because I am 21 years older than him and they want to meet us because they find our relationship interesting. I hope they do it before I kick the bucket because I'm old!

I hope they are just having interviews to speed up the process and ask questions instead of asking people to mail in additional documents which may take longer.

 

[majesty]

In the 5 or so years I have been on this forum, I can probably count on two hands the amount of common-law interviews I've seen, so yes, it is very unusual. As people wanting to commit spousal immigration fraud go for Marriages of Convenience, common-law interviews tend to be for things like criminal issues, undeclared family members etc. There was one a few years ago where the couple lived apart for 3 years after becoming common-law.

Without knowing anything about your relationship or looking through your posts, I would guess that the age gap played a big part in calling you for an interview. A 21 year age gap can be a big red flag or a very manageable small red flag, depending on the circumstances.

We knew our red flags coming into this. In fact the red flags are why we opted to not to apply for family sponsorship as Plan A for my partner to come to Canada (also it was going to take much longer under the old application system). He tried to apply on his own under EE, however due to bad luck ... he was never able to accumulate enough points to get an invitation to apply. Hence we did not apply right away and so this might be suspicious to them also.

Age difference should not play a factor, but I would be foolish to say that there would not be more grounds for suspicion for relationship fraud and let's face it, there is still a lot of prejudice even subconsciously in our society about why a younger man wants to be with an older woman (he must be in it for the money or to get PR in Canada). However, in general, I would agree with you that because common-law couples have to provide more proof of relationship status, I see why you say that there is less of a chance that they get interviewed, plus they have had to live together for a minimum of 1 year and this is not a requirement for married couples. After a year or more of living together, a more serious level of commitment should be reached.

In our case, whatever they want to ask us about to prove our commitment to each other, maybe it's one of the reasons I mentioned, because we covered all the bases being financially and emotionally interdependent as well as having been in a 4 plus year relationship ... we have multiple evidences of all these things. I can only speculate as to the reasons if our planned enquiries don't reveal anything further.

 

[majesty]

This is very interesting to me, too. I assumed that being common-law (my partner and I are) would possibly have them wonder why we didn't get married yet etc. potentially giving cause for an interview request.
I am most worried about not having provided sufficient evidence to prove we qualify by de facto as common-law, and assumed if IRCC has doubts about this that they would call us for an interview and have us bring more evidence. However, I will not get my hopes up about potentially NOT having an interview, given what @majesty is going through! Stay strong Majesty!!

As you can see, our case has many red flags and we knew this was probably going to happen. What I am not happy about is how long they took to get to this point and some of the other things that happened to keep delaying us in getting to this point and still we don't have an interview date because I know other Jan applicants who applied around us who were in our "batch" of apps now have interviews in January, yet we are not among them. At this point after 12 months, I feel we have nothing to lose and I don't think we are being unreasonable to ask when we will get the interview date and by the way why do you want to interview us?

I think you should have smoother sailing with your case. Thanks for the words of encouragement!

 

[canuck_in_uk]

This is what's in the letter.

Failure to appear for this interview may be perceived as a lack of interest in permanent residence and your application could be refused.

If you cannot attend this interview, please e-mail us at: WST-Landing-Enquiries@cic.gc.ca or call the IRCC Call Centre at 1-888-242-2100

Please note:

•  Do not arrive until 15 minutes prior to your interview time.
  
  
•  If you were sponsored, please ensure that your sponsor attends the interview with you, and brings government issued ID documents with photos establishing their identity.
  
  
•  If you believe that you will require the services of an interpreter, you are responsible for hiring/finding an interpreter and ensuring that they attend the interview with you.
  
  
•  If you are subject to and have not yet paid the Right of Permanent Residence Fee in the amount of $490.00 per adult who is subject to permanent residency, you must do so prior to your interview.
  http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/fees/index.asp
  
  Please note that there is a delay between becoming a Permanent Resident and receiving your PR card: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-card.asp

Please bring the following original documents to your interview:

 A valid passport, identity or travel document; if you were previously advised that you are exempt from the travel document requirement, bring other documents establishing your identity.

 Important: If for any reason you are not in possession of valid identity/travel documents at the time of the appointment, you must advise this office PRIOR to the appointment date.

 Two photographs of yourself and for each person in your family that is being processed for permanent residence inside Canada.
Please show the photographer the document found here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/guides/pdf/5445EB-e.pdf

 Current and expired Temporary Resident documents issued by IRCC These include work permits, study permits & visitor records.

 Proof of Payment of the Right of Permanent Residence Fee
Please make sure to print and bring the receipt and not the "payment confirmation form" page.

Please note:

If you have recently changed any of the following without updating IRCC, please scan & e-mail WST-Landing-Enquiries@cic.gc.ca your updates and document(s) immediately. Please also bring the original documents along to your interview.

 Marital status
Include copy of marriage certificate, divorce certificate etc.

 Passport
Include copy of the biographical details page

 Contact information
Include a copy of your photo government ID with your current address

I don't think I have time to ask for GCMS notes as we only have 1 week and I'm not sure if they'll have detailed information there. We are still living together until now for more than 2 years already so I'm not sure if they doubt the relationship or something but we did apply right after we satisfied the 1 year requirement.

If this were a real interview, they would be asking for relationship/address/whatever proofs they need to address their concerns.

Everything mentioned there (RPRF payment, proof of status, photos) is typical of a landing interview, which is a simple formality where they ask you a few questions to confirm the info on your COPR and issue you PR.

Is that the entire letter? Landing interview invites generally start with something along the lines of "Your app is ready to be finalized".

 

[redherring]

As you can see, our case has many red flags and we knew this was probably going to happen. What I am not happy about is how long they took to get to this point and some of the other things that happened to keep delaying us in getting to this point and still we don't have an interview date because I know other Jan applicants who applied around us who were in our "batch" of apps now have interviews in January, yet we are not among them. At this point after 12 months, I feel we have nothing to lose and I don't think we are being unreasonable to ask when we will get the interview date and by the way why do you want to interview us?

I think you should have smoother sailing with your case. Thanks for the words of encouragement!

I'm sure you'll get your interview invitation shortly. It would be exactly 12 months since they received my application a few of days from today. We actually got the sponsor approval letter and invitation today. Have you gotten your sponsor approval? It might be sent at the same time too.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

This is very interesting to me, too. I assumed that being common-law (my partner and I are) would possibly have them wonder why we didn't get married yet etc. potentially giving cause for an interview request.
I am most worried about not having provided sufficient evidence to prove we qualify by de facto as common-law, and assumed if IRCC has doubts about this that they would call us for an interview and have us bring more evidence. However, I will not get my hopes up about potentially NOT having an interview, given what @majesty is going through! Stay strong Majesty!!

If they have doubts about your common-law address proofs, they will simply request additional proofs.

 

[redherring]

If this were a real interview, they would be asking for relationship/address/whatever proofs they need to address their concerns.

Everything mentioned there (RPRF payment, proof of status, photos) is typical of a landing interview, which is a simple formality where they ask you a few questions to confirm the info on your COPR and issue you PR.

Is that the entire letter? Landing interview invites generally start with something along the lines of "Your app is ready to be finalized".

Oh, I didn't notice that I missed the intro of the letter:

We are pleased to advise you that your final determination for permanent residence interview has been scheduled for...

Then followed by the date and location and the exact contents I posted above.