hi guys,
On Tuesday, 18th June, I attended my final interview for Confirmation of Permenent residence, at the Vancouver office. It marks the end of a long and arduous process for me. One that I didn't honestly think I would make it to the end of, on many occasions.
My interview was at 3pm and I was on the road at 10am to make the 3pm appointment. I was there in plenty of time, but never got called until almost 3:40pm. I was with an immigration officer for less than 5 minutes before I got to hear those words we all strive to hear; "Congratulations, you are now a permanent resident of Canada".
My complete timeline is below. I have expanded on my timeline, to further give an idea of the difficulties I had with my application, along the way.
My completed application received by Missassauga 23rd February 2018
Application started processing : 20th March, 2018, 9 Months later, in December, the date of processing was changed to 17th December 2018
Work Permit was issued to me on 11th June 2018
My medical request was sent on 23rd August 2018
Medical done and submitted to IRCC on 13th September 2018
Procedural Fairness letter sent to me on 17th December 2018, informing us that the assessing officer didn't believe myself and my spouse were living together. More proof (rental agreement, Joint bank accounts etc) were sent back on same day. On the 30th day that we were given to submit these, we received a 2nd Procedural fairness letter, 17th January 2019. This one was about not supplying medicals for my 2 non-accompanying dependents, who lived with their mother in Australia (15 & 17yr old). Unfortunately for the past 6 years, my ex partner has been engaging in parental alienation. Despite numerous emails from me and attempts to communicate to get the children medically examined, she refused to respond. This left me in a very difficult position with IRCC, as I could not prove that she was not willing to have the kids examined, she was just keeping silent. All legal advice I was receiving was advising me that it was not looking good and IRCC would most likely deny my application. Fortunately, I was made aware that my ex wasn't so silent on social media over the past 6 years and I was able to obtain, what turned out to be 33 pages worth of pure vitriol from her, about me and her intentions to prevent me from having any say in the upbringing of my children, from her social media. I cordially submitted this to IRCC along with a notarised letter accepting that I could never sponsor my kids in the future.
On the same day (17th January 2019) I was offered a job here on the west coast, by an ontario based company. This was, to date, the only position I have been successful in obtaining. Unfortunately, the employer had to withdraw the offer, as it required me to do a medical as it was healthcare related employment, and 5 months after doing my medical, IRCC had still not given me a "Pass" on the medical, and would not confirm so in any correspondence I had sent. Three months went by and nothing from IRCC.
My wife and I were in so much stress, we felt we were in a stagnant situation, given the concerns IRCC had raised and nobody seemed to be able to provide any information that would help us in any way. So, we wrote a date on the calendar. 2nd April. This was the date that we were going to hang up our gloves and throw in the towel, had we not heard anything from IRCC by then. My wife is an Australian Citizen (has lived in Canada for 32yrs) and I was an Australian PR. We could both go back to Australia and start again (without the stress of Immigration processes), if we decided to throw in the towel. Our preference was always Canada. But, we knew we were up against it in terms of meeting what was required from us, and it was now in the hands of someone in IRCC.
We woke up early on 2nd April, knowing this was the day we were going to resign ourselves to the fact that we would be ending this process, one which we had put so much effort into, but was also taking so much stress out of us in equal measure. We checked email and to our astonishment, IRCC had sent us an email some 30 mins before. It was to advise us that they had accepted all our evidence on why we couldn't provide medicals for the non-accompanying children, and that they would allow us to proceed without the children being part of the application. We were elated to receive this news, and suddenly we were able to see the finish line again. On the same day, my medical was updated to "Pass", and on 1st May 2019 we received the final email from IRCC in Missassauga, that informed us that our application was completed, and we would hear from our local office, Vancouver, in due course.
on June 7th 2019, we received our email from the Vancouver office, informing us of our interview on 18th June.
All in all, for me, it took almost 16 months from our application being received, till the final interview at the Vancouver Office.
For me, I feel the extra delay was due to the non-accompanying children and the medicals that I wasn't able to provide. This has been discussed on this site many times by many other applicants and it is a somewhat controversial topic, and can go both ways in terms of being rejected or accepted.
for me, it was only by pure luck I was able to provide a 6 year history of the circumstances of why I wasn't able to provide the childrens medicals. it could have been so much different, as I read that a lot of the decision comes down to the specific officer(s) who are dealing with your application.
I wrote this in detail to allow others, who may feel that they too are in a bad situation in their applications, to see that yes, it is possible to get over the hurdles. It is possible to reach the end of the process successfully. It's not an easy process, and it shouldn't be either. But, there are many people here who are (understandably) struggling with the process and the apparent lack of updates by IRCC, and it seems there is no end to the stress and the uncertainty that this process brings with it.
I hope that by reading my post, that some of those who are struggling with the process, can get a little bit more hope that things will work out favourably in the end. I was reminded that I was essentially rejected, twice, by procedural fairness letters. This site has been an enormous help for me. Even in the most stressful times, it was somewhat comforting to read that I wasn't the only one having to endure the process, as misery loves company, and to know we are not alone, gives a little solace.
I wish those who are still waiting, all the very best.
Jon.
