one more time, this time dear forumers I request your final review:
******************
Dear Sirs,
I am writing on behalf of a sizable number of Federal Skilled Worker Category 1 (FSW1) applicants who share a public forum and have applied for Permanent Residence to Canada on or after 26th June 2010.
We are wondering if you could please consider clarifying the following questions which we have compiled regarding the immigration process under this category since the new rules were introduced?
Since these questions have been frequently asked in our forum and represent the concerns of many applicants, could we please also ask you to consider adding the questions and their answers to the Frequently Asked Questions section of your website if you think there is sufficient value and merit?
We believe this will help clarify things for many on or after 26th June 2010 applicants and therefore help reduce phone calls and queries to CIC.
We are very grateful to you for considering us for immigration to Canada, so please take our request for information in the spirit we intend, that we just wish to make things as clear as we can from both sides.
Quite a few of our concerns related to the role of CIO and VO for post 25 June applications. While most of us are familiar with the roles both play in processing FSW applications previously, we are not sure whether this has changed following the 26 June 2010 Ministerial Instruction. We believe that understanding whether there has been a corresponding shift in role would not only implicitly help mitigate the current concerns which we have described below, but also manage the expectations with regards to timeline for many.
1) Acknowledgment Of Receipt - timelines
Based on the previous process, we understand that after eligibility review at CIO is successfully completed, the applicant should expect to be informed by way of an Acknowledgment Of Receipt (AOR) as their application is forwarded to the visa office for background checks and further processing.
During the past few weeks several members have phoned CIC to enquire on the status of their application. Prior to 19th October they have been told that it would take approximately 10 weeks before they receive an acknowledgment from CIC. Since then, during three past few weeks, many members are now being told it would take 33 weeks. This is obviously a large jump and falls well outside the previous estimate of 45 to 90 days to get an AOR.
Can you please tell us why there is now such a long expected delay, in light of several members being told by CIC's Call Centre that eligibility reviews have been completed for applications up to the end of September/start of October and yet even the applicants whose application received at the start of July have not received an AOR.
There are still currently no timelines outlined on the CIC website in this regard, and we believe it will save significant number of unnecessary phone calls of applicants to CIC if some expected timelines can be given.
2) CAP limits
Based on the previous process, we understand that on receipt of an application it undergoes a completeness check. If that is successful, the funds are encashed and the application then goes through an eligibility review. If deemed eligible, the applicant is informed and the application is forwarded to the visa office.
We note you have now published some figures on the CIC web site, which is being updated every few days, regarding how many applications have been received as counting towards the cap for each NOC.
Where there great confusion is - do these figures published on the CIC website represent those applications which have only passed the completeness check, or which have also passed an eligibility review? Several parts of your website elude to the phrase "considered for processing" but it is unclear at which side of the eligibility review these applications are being counted.
3) Returned applications
Several of our forum members have reported that their application has been returned prior to encashment of funds, but that they have only just learnt about this and they have never received the application back. They now have to go through the timely and costly process of re-printing their application and re-gathering all their supporting documentation in order that they can submit another application.
We understand that standard Canada post in Canada and local standard post in the applicant's country are being used to return applications, but this is evidently leading to some applications being lost, which has led to a lot of distress for a few of our forum members. May we respectfully suggest an amendment to the process, that as part of the processing fees with the initial application an option for returns fee is included with the fee payment so that a courier may be used to return important documents such as the originals which are included in our applications? Such a fee would be much smaller than cost of having to re-compile the application if original documents are lost in transit using traditional post.
There are also growing concerns amongst our forum members of identity theft/fraud if their applications with such a large quantity of personal information is lost in the post.
4) Police clearance certificates
Current PCC guidelines state that they cannot be more than 3 months old when submitted to a respective visa office (VO). Applicants do not know when their application reaches the VO, and since it takes 1 to 6 months to get a new PCC in some countries, this will likely cause delays for some applications. Additionally, some applicants who have lived in other countries for more than 180 days in the past, and have never entered those countries again, have PCCs that are older than 3 months. Could you please clarify if these two instances with PCCs dated more than 3 months from the date of issue remain valid for immigration application purposes?
Any clarification you can give us regarding the above would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
XXX
******************
Dear Sirs,
I am writing on behalf of a sizable number of Federal Skilled Worker Category 1 (FSW1) applicants who share a public forum and have applied for Permanent Residence to Canada on or after 26th June 2010.
We are wondering if you could please consider clarifying the following questions which we have compiled regarding the immigration process under this category since the new rules were introduced?
Since these questions have been frequently asked in our forum and represent the concerns of many applicants, could we please also ask you to consider adding the questions and their answers to the Frequently Asked Questions section of your website if you think there is sufficient value and merit?
We believe this will help clarify things for many on or after 26th June 2010 applicants and therefore help reduce phone calls and queries to CIC.
We are very grateful to you for considering us for immigration to Canada, so please take our request for information in the spirit we intend, that we just wish to make things as clear as we can from both sides.
Quite a few of our concerns related to the role of CIO and VO for post 25 June applications. While most of us are familiar with the roles both play in processing FSW applications previously, we are not sure whether this has changed following the 26 June 2010 Ministerial Instruction. We believe that understanding whether there has been a corresponding shift in role would not only implicitly help mitigate the current concerns which we have described below, but also manage the expectations with regards to timeline for many.
1) Acknowledgment Of Receipt - timelines
Based on the previous process, we understand that after eligibility review at CIO is successfully completed, the applicant should expect to be informed by way of an Acknowledgment Of Receipt (AOR) as their application is forwarded to the visa office for background checks and further processing.
During the past few weeks several members have phoned CIC to enquire on the status of their application. Prior to 19th October they have been told that it would take approximately 10 weeks before they receive an acknowledgment from CIC. Since then, during three past few weeks, many members are now being told it would take 33 weeks. This is obviously a large jump and falls well outside the previous estimate of 45 to 90 days to get an AOR.
Can you please tell us why there is now such a long expected delay, in light of several members being told by CIC's Call Centre that eligibility reviews have been completed for applications up to the end of September/start of October and yet even the applicants whose application received at the start of July have not received an AOR.
There are still currently no timelines outlined on the CIC website in this regard, and we believe it will save significant number of unnecessary phone calls of applicants to CIC if some expected timelines can be given.
2) CAP limits
Based on the previous process, we understand that on receipt of an application it undergoes a completeness check. If that is successful, the funds are encashed and the application then goes through an eligibility review. If deemed eligible, the applicant is informed and the application is forwarded to the visa office.
We note you have now published some figures on the CIC web site, which is being updated every few days, regarding how many applications have been received as counting towards the cap for each NOC.
Where there great confusion is - do these figures published on the CIC website represent those applications which have only passed the completeness check, or which have also passed an eligibility review? Several parts of your website elude to the phrase "considered for processing" but it is unclear at which side of the eligibility review these applications are being counted.
3) Returned applications
Several of our forum members have reported that their application has been returned prior to encashment of funds, but that they have only just learnt about this and they have never received the application back. They now have to go through the timely and costly process of re-printing their application and re-gathering all their supporting documentation in order that they can submit another application.
We understand that standard Canada post in Canada and local standard post in the applicant's country are being used to return applications, but this is evidently leading to some applications being lost, which has led to a lot of distress for a few of our forum members. May we respectfully suggest an amendment to the process, that as part of the processing fees with the initial application an option for returns fee is included with the fee payment so that a courier may be used to return important documents such as the originals which are included in our applications? Such a fee would be much smaller than cost of having to re-compile the application if original documents are lost in transit using traditional post.
There are also growing concerns amongst our forum members of identity theft/fraud if their applications with such a large quantity of personal information is lost in the post.
4) Police clearance certificates
Current PCC guidelines state that they cannot be more than 3 months old when submitted to a respective visa office (VO). Applicants do not know when their application reaches the VO, and since it takes 1 to 6 months to get a new PCC in some countries, this will likely cause delays for some applications. Additionally, some applicants who have lived in other countries for more than 180 days in the past, and have never entered those countries again, have PCCs that are older than 3 months. Could you please clarify if these two instances with PCCs dated more than 3 months from the date of issue remain valid for immigration application purposes?
Any clarification you can give us regarding the above would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
XXX
