Hi everybody,
We REALLY need your help as our life is on HOLD.
My husband is a Canadian citizen, he got a job offer from an American company. My question is about my situation. Here are important dates for my citizenship application:
September 18th, 2017: citizenship application received by IRCC
February 27th, 2018: citizenship exam and post exam interview with success.
The IRCC agent in Montreal told us that I will receive my invitation for the ceremony within 6 to 8 weeks after the date of my exam(by the end of April 2018). Based on this information, we decided that my husband accepts the job offer. So he quit his job, rented our house in Montreal. Four months had past and we had no news from IRCC regarding the date of my ceremony. After that, we realized that I had to apply for my PR renewal since it had been already expired and I simply forgot to keep track of it (expiration dat eMarch 2018). I immediately applied for renewal on June 2th, 2018 (2 months after expiration date). Meanwhile, we talked to our MP and did numerous phone calls to IRCC. After several follow-up, we have been told that after four months since my exam date, the IRCC agent simply did not update my digital application and after couple of months my application process was not even started! IRCC did not assume their fault and they kept telling that the processing time for citizenship application is usually 12 months and we cannot do anything before September 18th, 2018 (12 months after my application process started). MP office and IRCC agents confirmed us several times that passing September 18th 2018, I will be eligible to request for Urgent processing!
My husband had to postpone his starting date in the U.S. 3 times (4.5 months) but at the end he had to leave Canada without me since my application seemed like an open ended process which nobody took responsibility to respond for its delay. We rented out our house in Montreal and I started couch surfing renting Airbnb. I had to shut down my business that I worked for 5 years since I had to rent our my workshop as well. We waited until September 18th 2018 (end of 12 months processing time) to request for Urgent process for citizenship. We did so, but unfortunately again nobody was responsive or helpful for that matter .
Meanwhile, on September 28th, we received an email from IRCC asking us the proof of residency for my PR card renewal!!! We provided 350 pages of documents. We did another follow-up with MP and they told us that IRCC put citizenship application on HOLD because of PR application and it is a non-routine process that could take between 1 to 2 years. Once, PR card is renewed, the citizenship application can continue. Now few important points to highlight:
- I cannot travel to the U.S. since I have an Iranian passport (almost impossible to get a visa). In addition, my husband's employer’s immigration lawyer keep insisting that I'd better apply with a Canadian passport for U.S status (L2) otherwise, it would be extremely complicated situation;
- We had to rent another home in Canada and pay for two homes at the same time (on win US and one in Canada). Now, He goes back and forth between Us and Canada every three weeks; We are losing so much money right now!
- PR renewal application causes a blockage on my citizenship application and it could take between 1 to 2 year of processing time;
- I met ALL residency requirements for PR and citizenship (more than 1500 day out of 5 years).
- I also have my parents living in the U.S (green card holders). They are old with a serious language barrier. My mother is sick But we don’t have any doctor notice proofing that they are sick, requesting an emergency action.
They are waiting for me to get there and take them for check up, etc. We already sent an email explaining my parent’s situation to the MP office. MP office forwarded that email to the IRCC requesting for Urgent Process for Citizenship application but we did not get any answer after 3 months, even a refusal.
Here are my questions:
- Is there any way we can apply for an urgent processing for PR renewal considering the fact that my husband is working in the U.S. or I should myself, get a separate job offer? To be noted that I am a self-employed entrepreneur and it’s almost impossible for me to get a separate job offer at this point.
- If so, do you think that the Urgent process request that was made by MP for my parent’s situation would create a conflict/problem with “husband job related urgent request”. I hear that the IRCC could get suspicious on asking urgent process for two different reasons!
- Should we hire an immigration lawyer?
Any input is greatly appreciated as our life is a real mess these days…
