Applicants from Europe and USA

[Tomifonication]

Hi all. Brit here, just submitted my application after receiving ITA in December. The next 6 (likely more) months are going to be a killer for me. I've already realised that I'm not patient. I did my medical last Tuesday (the day I submitted my application) and was told that they would submit results on Friday. Fast forward to today and I call as they have not confirmed submission. I have high BP (which I know) but they refuse to submit until I get additional BP checks from my GP. I'm pretty sure they cannot insist on this, and I'm willing to do whatever else the Canadian authorities ask, but I just want the medicals submitted so I can get the process in motion. Really frustrated because I'm always going to have high BP but now need to wait another week to get an appointment to confirm I have high BP!! Grr!!!!!!!!!!!

I dare say I'll be in a similar situation, as my BP always seems to be high when I'm at the GP, though I've always put this down to a bit of health anxiety. I guess we'll see! Other than that, I'm fit and healthy as far as I can tell, so fingers crossed it's not too much of an issue.

 

[callumjp]

Ah that's interesting to know. Did you expect to have it come through quicker than it did, or have you always been of the mind that it'd be around 6 months?

I had hoped I'd hear by the end of 2018, based on what I'd heard about waiting times last year. As time went on though I realised it might be longer than 6 months so was so relieved when I got it less than a week before that 6 month date. The wait has been excruciating - I used to live in Canada and have had my living and work situation on hold whilst I left, so now that I can start planning my move back I'm delighted.

 

[RayBear]

Good luck with the process buddy! I’m under FSW-O so I am absolutely no authority. However, it doesn’t seem to matter what stream or class you are under, some roll through in 4 months, others wait 7 or 8.
The only thing I will recommend is trying to give the info exactly as they ask for it. I have noticed a number of people who have got info that is 95% of what IRCC asked for (eg on employment references) and assumed that the missing 5% was common sense, but have suffered delays as a result.
We had an issue with Proof of Funds as our UK bank (TSB) absolutely refused to give us a letter in the format requested, so we had to upload all sorts of info and a letter of explanationto show our position.
6 1/2 months since AOR soon, and due to receive our GCMS notes end of next week, so hopefully I will be more aware of the reason for the delay.

Santander for me. I thought I had been soooo smart. Had it all worked out. Plabned out every bit of documentation ready to go in advance of my ITA. ITA came in dec12th, next day, requested letters from Santander arrive. NOTHING like the requested format.

Several hours worth of calls and days worth if chaseups to finally get a human to handle it.

Even then, it was half-baked. Ended up sending 6 months of account statements for a number of accounts with LoE saying my bank are f**kwits.

Got app sent on the 19th but that week was STRESSFUL.

Hi all. Brit here, just submitted my application after receiving ITA in December. The next 6 (likely more) months are going to be a killer for me. I've already realised that I'm not patient. I did my medical last Tuesday (the day I submitted my application) and was told that they would submit results on Friday. Fast forward to today and I call as they have not confirmed submission. I have high BP (which I know) but they refuse to submit until I get additional BP checks from my GP. I'm pretty sure they cannot insist on this, and I'm willing to do whatever else the Canadian authorities ask, but I just want the medicals submitted so I can get the process in motion. Really frustrated because I'm always going to have high BP but now need to wait another week to get an appointment to confirm I have high BP!! Grr!!!!!!!!!!!

They're probably doing you a favour! Anything that stands out as abnormal, if that's your norm, you'll want proof of that!



I got my medical history in advance to bring evidence of ongoing health stuff at my medical and submitted it all at once (medicals passed bang in line with everyone else on my AOR). Without that, it might have been flagged for follow up health queries.

 

[SCOTCAD]

Hi, my background check has been in progress since MEP on July 18th, did you live/work in Canada before? I had IEC visas some years ago and assumed it was to do with that as I wasn't required to provide a Canadian PCC despite living there for 2.5 years.

Sorry for the delay in replying!

I’ve never lived or worked in Canada before, other than visiting on 3 seperate occasions.

My partner is Canadian and has just qualified as a vet (studying in Edinburgh). So I’m fortunate to have a safety net when I make the move with her family and the fact she’s just been offered a job with a 6 figure salary... we’re settling in Windsor ON with her family for the first couple of years.

Anyway, this is all good in theory until my application is fully accepted! The wait continues.

 

[SCOTCAD]

Santander for me. I thought I had been soooo smart. Had it all worked out. Plabned out every bit of documentation ready to go in advance of my ITA. ITA came in dec12th, next day, requested letters from Santander arrive. NOTHING like the requested format.

Several hours worth of calls and days worth if chaseups to finally get a human to handle it.

Even then, it was half-baked. Ended up sending 6 months of account statements for a number of accounts with LoE saying my bank are f**kwits.

Got app sent on the 19th but that week was STRESSFUL.




They're probably doing you a favour! Anything that stands out as abnormal, if that's your norm, you'll want proof of that!



I got my medical history in advance to bring evidence of ongoing health stuff at my medical and submitted it all at once (medicals passed bang in line with everyone else on my AOR). Without that, it might have been flagged for follow up health queries.

I had the same issues with HSBC. Said they only offer one type of letter for this purpose and it wasn’t that close to what was asked for. I submitted that with 6 months of statements plus a LOE to state the bank couldn’t give me anymore. The woman I spoke to in HSBC said ‘we give these letters for this purpose all the time so they will know what to expect from HSBC customers’. I somehow doubt that!

I got someone to sign the letter and sign their business card too for extra verification since the letter I was given was pretty general and only outlined the very basic details.

 

[bairn7]

RBS outright refused to provide a POF after calling them, visiting my local branch AND visiting the Head office in Edinburgh. So I raised a complaint and got a grovelling apology and the letter I needed! It's always worth raising a complaint if you still have time.

M&S Bank on the other hand were great and I got POF letter at the first time of asking.

 

[draxxemsklounst]

our UK bank (TSB) absolutely refused to give us a letter in the format requested

I had the same issue. To be fair, they were going through their company-wide technical meltdown that was all over the news at the time. I didn't want any delay so I just closed my accounts with them there and then and transferred the funds into my RBS accounts (who did provide a letter). I explained this in an accompanying LOE so IRCC wouldn't be suspicious of the two relatively large amounts that suddenly appeared on my RBS statement.

 

[RayBear]

RBS outright refused to provide a POF after calling them, visiting my local branch AND visiting the Head office in Edinburgh. So I raised a complaint and got a grovelling apology and the letter I needed! It's always worth raising a complaint if you still have time.

M&S Bank on the other hand were great and I got POF letter at the first time of asking.

The satander complaints process is also a black hole. I managed to get a direct number to liase with the person handling my case and still couldn't get what I needed without even further delays. Will be glad to be rid of them tbh

 

[OptimisticEric]

Hi all,

Just thought I would update for those further behind on the process. Finally managed to speak to an agent today who confirmed that I was in review required. Unfortunately he couldn’t tell me what for or when this happened.

In short, he said that the only way to find out was by ordering the GCMS notes, as niether they or the guys who answer the CSEs have access to this info (what he said). He agreed that raising a CSE to find out the reason for the delay is pointless and he doesn’t know why IRCC say to do this.

In short he said if you are In RR status then the majority take longer than 6 months. If you have been waiting longer than six months and your background check hasn’t started on your portal, then you are probably in RR.

RR is basically where the jr analyst who first looked at the file couldn’t determine whether something met the criteria. Therefore it is put in the queue for review by a senior analyst who makes a decision. Sometimes this is simple (Eg POF query) and the senior analyst passes it quickly, which is why a bunch of people pass at 6-7 months. Sometimes it is not so easy (I.e NOC not quite matching with duties on employment reference, or difficulty verifying that a former employer exists or existed). This requires additional research and may take many months. They won’t reject the case until they have completed the investigation. He seemed to suggest that not having an ADR was positive, as all the info was present, and it is just waiting for sign off by a senior. Not sure if I believe this last bit.

The queue for review by the sr analyst can take a few months which is what pushes it over the 6 month timeline.

He assured me that work on background and security doesn’t start until eligibility is passed. However, if you have a clean criminal history and come from one of the 5 eyes countries, criminality and security can be done in a couple of days.

All in all this wasn’t great news for us in our situation, but there we go. Moral of the story, if eligibility hasn’t changed to passed by 4 months, order your GCMS notes! Ours are due by Tuesday next week, which will be nearly 7 months.

 

[RayBear]

From what I understand, eligibility in our profile doesn't typically change, however, calls to them from folks like @USProgrammer have suggested thry have a slightly different profile view which can show whether eligibility is met or not.

Interesting that they say the security and background check don't start until eligibility is met. If that's accurate information, that would set a lot of minds at ease. That said, I believe another person called and said that their security was in progress but eligibility was listed as not started.

To be clear @OptimisticEric was your background check status still listed as "we'll get in touch when we start" this whole time?

If the person on the phone's information is accurate and they do not start background processing until eligibility is listed as met, then presumably, anyone whose status fir background switches to in progress (commonly referred to as ip2 here) would be past the eligibility phase.

I'll give them a call myself tomorrow to get the details of my own application and see if verifies/confirms any of this (as I'm not expecting my application to be simple)

Either way, thanks so much for the update. I hope your GCMS sheds some light for you

 

[OptimisticEric]

To be clear @OptimisticEric was your background check status still listed as "we'll get in touch when we start" this whole time?

Absolutely correct.

Just to clarify, I have heard a number of terms thrown around such as ‘eligibility passed’ and ‘recommended passed’, which I think relates to the jr analyst but I don’t know for sure. A recommendation for pass is good enough for the background check to start, but your eligibility may remain as ‘we are reviewing....’ until the final check is done at the very end of the process. Therefore it is possible that your eligibility shows ‘we are reviewing’ in the portal, but your background check starts as well. It’s when neither move that there may be something to worry about.

The above is purely what the customer service agent told me, and I am aware that others on this forum have a different view.

 

[OptimisticEric]

If the person on the phone's information is accurate and they do not start background processing until eligibility is listed as met, then presumably, anyone whose status fir background switches to in progress (commonly referred to as ip2 here) would be past the eligibility phase.

Just realised that the bit above doesn’t really fit with what I was told!

Looking at a couple of other cases, sometimes IP2 is triggered really early (Steb1’s seemed to be the same day as his medical). Logically I think it must be nearly impossible for them to have concluded the eligibility in 2 weeks and then wait a further 6 1/2 months to send him his PPR. However, nothing would surprise me anymore!

 

[Gruff]

First off hello fellow U.K. people

For anyone who hasn’t been waiting six months and is worrying about their application it is advisable to order your GCMS, this is the only way to know for certain if/why your application is delayed.

As a few others will confirm, anything on relating to theories on IP1, IP2 etc/told by a call centre agent/responded by a CSE should be taken with a HUGE pinch of salt as they are likely either speculation or untrue. As I discovered in my case...

Told a few times my application was all fine and everything was recommended passed then out of the blue received a letter saying I had 30 days to provide updated bank statements or basically my application would be rejected (it took them 7 months to tell me this)

Not a huge deal for me and I’ve submitted updated documents but it has delayed my application which is annoying for sure.

For those yet to apply I would advise if in doubt it’s better to submit too much information rather than too little, cover all your bases.

 

[Gruff]

Absolutely correct.

Just to clarify, I have heard a number of terms thrown around such as ‘eligibility passed’ and ‘recommended passed’, which I think relates to the jr analyst but I don’t know for sure. A recommendation for pass is good enough for the background check to start, but your eligibility may remain as ‘we are reviewing....’ until the final check is done at the very end of the process. Therefore it is possible that your eligibility shows ‘we are reviewing’ in the portal, but your background check starts as well. It’s when neither move that there may be something to worry about.

The above is purely what the customer service agent told me, and I am aware that others on this forum have a different view.

I believe eligibility can be recommended pass by a junior and security started before a senior has had a chance to check it as this happened to me. My criminality is done (passed) but eligibility still needs the stamp of approval. Security hadn’t started in my case so maybe it’s just criminality that can be started pre-eligibility completion.

I agree if you see nothing has happened with either that’s a major reason to worry as they appear to take the most amount of processing time.

 

[OptimisticEric]

I believe eligibility can be recommended pass by a junior and security started before a senior has had a chance to check it as this happened to me. My criminality is done (passed) but eligibility still needs the stamp of approval. Security hadn’t started in my case so maybe it’s just criminality that can be started pre-eligibility completion.

I agree if you see nothing has happened with either that’s a major reason to worry as they appear to take the most amount of processing time.

Hey Gruff,

I hope life is treating you well. Fingers crossed here for a speedy resolution on your part.

It was nice to actually speak to someone today after 30 odd times calling, but in the end I was no clearer about what was happening and was basically told, it might come next week, or it might not. I am definitely bearing the pinch of salt in mind!

I’m booking a flight back to Europe for 1st March. We are done with waiting now. If we get the PPR before we fly we will cancel and stay, but if not, and assuming we are passed eventually, we will try to extend our COPR or soft land and look at coming over in 2020.