Thread for Acrra Ghana applicants
- Thread starter palomadiego
- Start date
So here is a summary of what we are asking people to do:
Subject Line: Inconsistent Processing Times: Accra Visa Office (UCI xxxxxxxx)
The processing times between visa offices for spousal visas varies considerably. This seems to be especially true of the Accra Visa Office which appears to lag considerably behind other visa offices, especially those in developed countries. We believe that additional resources should be assigned to offices such as the Accra Visa Office to ensure that applications are processed efficiently regardless of their location. Processing times for applications should be consistent.
Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights guarantees equal rights. Yet those of us relying on offices such as the Accra Visa Office do not feel that our applications are being treated equally especially when we consistently witness other visa offices processing applications much faster.
Not only are our applications taking considerably longer to process, the political climate in many of the countries served by the Accra Visa Office prevents many of us from being with our spouses during the processing time. Visa offices with the faster processing times are also those where the applicants have more freedom to move between countries during the processing time.
Applicants from developed countries are usually freer to enter Canada before an application is submitted, and may are able to stay in Canada while their applications are being processed, or are free to visit with their spouses during the processing of their applications. But many of the countries that are served by the Accra Visa Office also have travel warning advisories. That is, our government is warning us not to travel to these particular countries, these countries where those we love are living.
Not only is the processing time longer for us and our ability to spend time with our spouses limited, but we also have limited information on the progress of our application during the processing period. Messages in the online applications aren’t kept up-to-date, or are inconsistent. We have noticed also that applications aren’t always processed in the same order that they were submitted.
Newcomers to Canada are expected to abide by the values of Canada, which we believe to be demonstrating fairness, respect, equality and equity. Our expectation is that our government demonstrates the same values when delivering services.
While we do acknowledge and appreciate that considerable work has been achieved to reduce overall processing times of spousal visas, and while we understand that some processes are out of the control of the Canadian government, resources should be in place to ensure fairness, respect, equality and equity when processing of applications. We need to not only reduce the processing times, but also reduce the gap in processing times between visa offices to ensure fair treatment of all current and future Canadians.
1) Sign and share the petition: http://chn.ge/2oHm7yt
And maybe this one: https://www.change.org/p/canada-immigration-office-dependent-visa-for-canadian-citizen-s-spouse?recruiter=852510025&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=share_petition
And maybe this one: https://www.change.org/p/canada-immigration-office-dependent-visa-for-canadian-citizen-s-spouse?recruiter=852510025&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=share_petition
2) Send the following letter to the Minister for Immigration and their local MP:
Minister@cic.gc.ca, Ahmed.hussen@parl.gc.ca, Ministerial.Enquiries.Division@cic.gc.ca
And use this searchable database to find your MP: http://www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members
Minister@cic.gc.ca, Ahmed.hussen@parl.gc.ca, Ministerial.Enquiries.Division@cic.gc.ca
And use this searchable database to find your MP: http://www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members
Subject Line: Inconsistent Processing Times: Accra Visa Office (UCI xxxxxxxx)
The processing times between visa offices for spousal visas varies considerably. This seems to be especially true of the Accra Visa Office which appears to lag considerably behind other visa offices, especially those in developed countries. We believe that additional resources should be assigned to offices such as the Accra Visa Office to ensure that applications are processed efficiently regardless of their location. Processing times for applications should be consistent.
Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights guarantees equal rights. Yet those of us relying on offices such as the Accra Visa Office do not feel that our applications are being treated equally especially when we consistently witness other visa offices processing applications much faster.
Not only are our applications taking considerably longer to process, the political climate in many of the countries served by the Accra Visa Office prevents many of us from being with our spouses during the processing time. Visa offices with the faster processing times are also those where the applicants have more freedom to move between countries during the processing time.
Applicants from developed countries are usually freer to enter Canada before an application is submitted, and may are able to stay in Canada while their applications are being processed, or are free to visit with their spouses during the processing of their applications. But many of the countries that are served by the Accra Visa Office also have travel warning advisories. That is, our government is warning us not to travel to these particular countries, these countries where those we love are living.
Not only is the processing time longer for us and our ability to spend time with our spouses limited, but we also have limited information on the progress of our application during the processing period. Messages in the online applications aren’t kept up-to-date, or are inconsistent. We have noticed also that applications aren’t always processed in the same order that they were submitted.
Newcomers to Canada are expected to abide by the values of Canada, which we believe to be demonstrating fairness, respect, equality and equity. Our expectation is that our government demonstrates the same values when delivering services.
While we do acknowledge and appreciate that considerable work has been achieved to reduce overall processing times of spousal visas, and while we understand that some processes are out of the control of the Canadian government, resources should be in place to ensure fairness, respect, equality and equity when processing of applications. We need to not only reduce the processing times, but also reduce the gap in processing times between visa offices to ensure fair treatment of all current and future Canadians.
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Hi there,
Just to put my 2 cents in, because I was mentioned in this post. I agree in principle with this letter. However, without much concrete evidence to back up your claims for the inconsistent processing times, the government will just take this as another letter from applicants griping about their situation. We have gone past 13 months in processing time now. I have no idea how long it will take to actually finish or if we will even get approved. However, I can only share what has happened to me and only what I know about others from my Visa Office, Mexico City, which also is extremely backlogged and also has many applicants from countries which come from "less developed" countries.
My spouse is actually from a visa exempt country, however we knew even before we applied that we had many red flags related to our relationship... which is one of the reasons we delayed applying because we looked for other avenues whereby my spouse could come to Canada independently and wouldn't had have to be subject to having our relationship scrutinized nor the long processing times as compared to other immigrations streams.
However as my spouse was not successful in coming here on his own, we did decide to apply under this stream. We have had some bad luck and part of that was due to the inefficiencies with having to go through a very backlogged visa office. The forgot to send us a document and this caused some delay in our processing time. From what we saw from 3 sets of GCMS notes, I really believe that they only looked at our app every 2 months or so and not completing our background checks sooner. We also required an interview and have our interview on March 19 in Buenos
Aires (about a week shy of 14 months after we submitted our application) and because not many applicants from my partner's country required interviews, they sent our app off to another visa office which delayed things even more as we sat in an interview queue for 3 months before they transferred our file to the Buenos Aires Visa Office, who luckily were quite prompt in getting us an itnterview date (only took less than 2 weeks). There were many applicants who applied even the month before me and who had interviews got their PPR after 10 months. I think it depends on the pool of applicants that applied around the same time you did. We unfortunately must have applied at a bad time, as at this visa office, they tended to (I don't know if this is still the case as they seem to always be changing the way they do things) start processing applicants in batches and we just missed the cut for the last batch which is why I think we had to wait 7 weeks (almost 2 months) before they opened our file at the Mexico visa office after they transferred our file from Mississauga. Maybe if I had applied a month earlier, we'd be done, who knows.
In my opinion, there can be some simple changes that can be done for all visa offices ... because I do realize that each app is unique and they do and should take time to investigate security and criminal backgrounds thoroughly or whatever other evidence that indicates fraud or misrepresentation. But why it would take 7 weeks for my app to get opened at the visa office and some only 3 weeks going through the same visa office is not sitting well with me as they didn't even do anything in terms of processing. If they don't have enough resources like manpower to look at apps, then they need to look at improving or reallocating their staffing at the visa office(s). This is when inequality in processing times is unfair, I feel. Also standardizing their procedures to minimize the chances that documents don't get missed. I feel that in our case, they started our background check in Mississauga (maybe looking our my partner's PCC there as he submitted upfront as per his country's instructions) and requested the RCMP fingerprint report on February 22, 2017 (over a year ago and my partner did have one speeding ticket on his driving record, but that is it), however they didn't send us a request but it was clear on the GCMS notes that it was requested but the visa office did not follow up on sending us the request so I had to ask the VO and sure enough 4 days later they sent us a request in July, 4 months after the request was documented. Maybe they would have asked for it eventually or maybe not, who knows, but it was going to delay our app's processing. On top of this they gave us 120 days (4 months) to submit and from what I have seen from other offices/applicants, they were only given 30 days, another example of inconsistencies. I read that they don't look at the document until after the deadline and that is exactly right as I saw this in the GCMS notes too. BTW we submitted the document 1 day after they asked for it so it was sitting in our file and probably no one looked at it until November. It said there was no record of criminal activity with my partner, too.
Sorry this is so long, but if you would like to use any of this evidence to back up the claims in your petition letter, please do so, if it can help anyone who is going through or not gone through the process yet. Unfortunately it won't help us any at this point.
Can I just add one more thing, I have been paying taxes in this country dutifully for over 20 years, when I ask the government for help to reunite my family, I would just like to know that they will give those of us who have been contributing financially towards their programs for all immigration streams fair consideration!
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@majesty Am so sorry about your experience, words alone cant explain how bad i feel after reading this. Have in mind that no one can choose who you love for you, if this is the foundation you and your spouse share then IRCC can only delay you guys reunion, they cant stop the inevitable. Thanks for sharing your story with us, which am sure must have been hard to do.
@buckshot11 Thank you and god bless. Hopefully more people would do the same throughout the week ahead.
I too am sorry that this has been your experience with the process. I can only imagine the frustration you guys are feeling. I hope it is resolved at the interview. If you don't mind, let us know the outcome.
I think that we too are blaming the process rather than the officers themselves.
While maybe nothing will come of our petition and letter, I think it gives us a sense of hope if we at least try. The Minister visited the VO late last year and we noticed a bump in approved applications shortly after so we are hoping that our letter may at least create a stir that leads to more notifications.
Before Christmas, there were quite a lot of approvals and we were so excited. But between Christmas and the early February, no one heard ANYTHING. Then the weekend around Feb 6 about 6 people received approvals or pre-approval emails. And again we all got excited - those approved were from March, April and May. But since then, we have heard very little again. And those of us that were skipped over, but who applied during those months, are left stumped as to what is going on.
Also, people who receive PPR often wait a month to receive PUM. I can't think of any reason why other than volume at our VO, which processes applications for 12 (I believe) African countries.
Thank you for your sympathy! I just hope for a positive result after the interview. Then all the waiting would have been worth it.
Well, I sure hope so, for your VO and others (Mexico processes applications from 23 or so different countries in Latinamerica). I think another issue you might want to bring up is the lack of updates. Again, this is a sore spot with me as no updates on eCAS and GCKey were provided the whole time our app was in Mexico City. It was still saying we don't need an interview on GCKey account when we were in queue for an interview; it also still says we do not need your fingerprints even though we submitted the RCMP fingerprint report back in July 2017. Finally when they gave us an interview date in Buenos Aires, almost immediately our eCAS was updated saying that they sent us a letter (re: the interview date). My wish is that if we are approved that they don't send our app back to Mexico, it will probably take at least another 3 months to finish processing if they do ... I have absolutely no faith in that VO to do anything within a reasonable time frame. If they at least even entered in some line saying you are in last stages of processing, that would help a lot with people's anxiety which climaxes around the 12 month mark if they reach it. However, once again, this is probably too much to ask as it makes too much sense.
Good morning friends. I have been offline since Friday, as I took a half day from work. I have had the time to catch up and must commend @RoamingSpirit for her amazing work in taking up this issue of the agonizingly slow processing times of the affected visa offices. I tried to log in to the site from home, but forgot my password and got locked out of my account (I'm logged in automatically at work)
That being said, My husband received his pre-arrival services mail on Friday evening. It was hard for me not to be able to share this news over the weekend, but here it is! I want to encourage EVERYONE waiting. It will be sooner than you think. Before month end, everyone waiting here will receive favorable news. I am off to sign the petition!
That being said, My husband received his pre-arrival services mail on Friday evening. It was hard for me not to be able to share this news over the weekend, but here it is! I want to encourage EVERYONE waiting. It will be sooner than you think. Before month end, everyone waiting here will receive favorable news. I am off to sign the petition!
March 7 - Annemariee
March 8 – stellalawrence
March 8 - graace2017
March 17 - McAkyne
April 4 – Roamingspirit
April 11 – Buckshot11
April 28 – Gattu_Milan
This from what I have seen is the new list - from March to May of who has not heard.
I don't get it. No one left from May?
March 8 – stellalawrence
March 8 - graace2017
March 17 - McAkyne
April 4 – Roamingspirit
April 11 – Buckshot11
April 28 – Gattu_Milan
This from what I have seen is the new list - from March to May of who has not heard.
I don't get it. No one left from May?