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Hello guys,

I am happy to join this group. I am also processing my PR from Pretoria office. I applied in October 2011 and my file was transferred to Pretoria on July 4 2012. I didn't include police clearance and medicals yet. Please what is your advice, should I do those things now or wait for them to ask for it? I would appreciate you advice because I want the process to be as fast as possible.

Thanks guys!
 
Josephs said:
Hello guys,

I am happy to join this group. I am also processing my PR from Pretoria office. I applied in October 2011 and my file was transferred to Pretoria on July 4 2012. I didn't include police clearance and medicals yet. Please what is your advice, should I do those things now or wait for them to ask for it? I would appreciate you advice because I want the process to be as fast as possible.

Thanks guys!

Can you clarify your timeline again?! File transferred to Pretoria on July 2012???

You should have included police clearance and medicals. That is one of the requirements when submitting your application, failing to do so, it can delay your application considerably. You should do your medicals now and police clearance, and send them to Pretoria, they will need those for sure, and they won't finalize your application until you submit them.
After your have done your medicals, the doctor will send them first to Nairobi (responsible for that) and then they will be forwarded to Pretoria.

Hope that helps,
 
Sorry I meant January 4. I live in south africa at the moment, do you mean even if I take the medicals here it will still be sent to Nairobi? I would try to do those things as quick as possible the, thank you for the advice. Also, I live with my wife here in South Africa, do you think that might delay the process?

Thanks for your help.
 
Josephs said:
Sorry I meant January 4. I live in south africa at the moment, do you mean even if I take the medicals here it will still be sent to Nairobi? I would try to do those things as quick as possible the, thank you for the advice. Also, I live with my wife here in South Africa, do you think that might delay the process?

Thanks for your help.

Yes the medicals will still be sent to Nairobi, that's why it's always advisable for you to do that before you send your application to CPC-Mississauga.
Is your wife Canadian?who is sponsoring who? Well if she is sponsoring you, she "should" be living in Canada. If she is in a short holidays, its fine. But if immigration finds out that you are living together now outside Canada, I think it could become an issue.
 
Hi Josephs, I had all my police clearances done before submitting the application, that takes the longest, especially if you have more than one country to get it from.
My best advice would be to apply for police clearance from all the countries as soon as possible, then send them to Pretoria as and when you get them.
with regards to medicals, I had a lot of confusion around that, the doctor has the required form, just organize an appointment with the doctor to do the medicals, fill in the canadian medical form at the docs office.
My meds was sent to London, arrived within 3 days and about 2 months later the embassy notified me that the meds was ok.

Thanks IndianOcean, I'm sure it all work out in the end, luckily I don't have to do the CSQ bit. I had to get clearances for SA, Egypt, Germany and Bahrain, it wasn't fun.

As far as the spouse is concerned, i think it's a case by case basis. My wife and I live in Cape Town with our two kids and my wife hasn't lived in Canada since 2000 or so.
We queried the process and it is the same process. I'm the main bread winner in our household and in Canada i will be too.

Mississauga did approve my wife as a sponsor.

Now it's just a waiting game.
 
mallinsonsa said:
Hi Josephs, I had all my police clearances done before submitting the application, that takes the longest, especially if you have more than one country to get it from.
My best advice would be to apply for police clearance from all the countries as soon as possible, then send them to Pretoria as and when you get them.
with regards to medicals, I had a lot of confusion around that, the doctor has the required form, just organize an appointment with the doctor to do the medicals, fill in the canadian medical form at the docs office.
My meds was sent to London, arrived within 3 days and about 2 months later the embassy notified me that the meds was ok.

Thanks IndianOcean, I'm sure it all work out in the end, luckily I don't have to do the CSQ bit. I had to get clearances for SA, Egypt, Germany and Bahrain, it wasn't fun.

As far as the spouse is concerned, i think it's a case by case basis. My wife and I live in Cape Town with our two kids and my wife hasn't lived in Canada since 2000 or so.
We queried the process and it is the same process. I'm the main bread winner in our household and in Canada i will be too.

Mississauga did approve my wife as a sponsor.

Now it's just a waiting game.

Wooowww yeah you had to get a bit of clearances, but I'm sure everything will check out fine.

Best of luck, and keep us updated!
 
Thanks Mallinsonsa and Indiaocean for your help. Mallinsonsa, Sound like we are in the same situation. I live with my wife here in Johannesburg too, she has been here since 2007. Her sponsorship was approved and our file is now in Pretoria. I have to get police clearance from two countries and I have started working on it as you have advised. Mallinsonsa, when did you start your processing? Do you guys also realized that processing time of Pretoria has been increased to 23 months? Does it really take that much to get it done?

Thank you guys for sharing with me again.

Much love :)
 
Josephs said:
Thanks Mallinsonsa and Indiaocean for your help. Mallinsonsa, Sound like we are in the same situation. I live with my wife here in Johannesburg too, she has been here since 2007. Her sponsorship was approved and our file is now in Pretoria. I have to get police clearance from two countries and I have started working on it as you have advised. Mallinsonsa, when did you start your processing? Do you guys also realized that processing time of Pretoria has been increased to 23 months? Does it really take that much to get it done?

Thank you guys for sharing with me again.

Much love :)

Well I think if you submit everything with your application,(medicals, police clearance, all the forms,pay upfront, tons of evidence etc.) and if your application is just a routine one, I honestly don't think they would take more than 6 months, if everything goes well. Well at least that's what happened to me,and to a friend of mine.

Josephs you don't need to thank us, this is what this forum it's all about, sharing information, help each other to ease this horrible process :)
 
My wife got the email requesting passport today...yes yes yes!!!!
a quote from the email: "We wish to advise that we are ready to issue his immigrant visa. It will therefore be necessary for him to send us his original passport as soon as possible."

We started getting all the police clearances in Feb last year, had the whole application ready end of may and submitted it to Mississauga on June 3rd. Pretoria received it July 27th and in October they started processing, I think they waited for my medicals. (which I did in September).
In December Pretoria requested the payment for the right of permanent residency.

And now Feb 23, we got the request for passport. Yeah!

The most difficult part of this journey is the waiting, but I have to say Pretoria is on the ball.
 
IndianOcean said:
Wooowww yeah you had to get a bit of clearances, but I'm sure everything will check out fine.

Yeah Police Clearances was the biggest issue, especially dealing with Egypt. The Egyptian embassy in Pretoria, you have to stand on the street, speak through an envelope mail slot in the wall explaining that you need police clearance. They let you inside, just to have you stand in courtyard, and speak through an office window to a guy sitting three desks away from the window. They gave me form, had to get it finger printed by the South African police, then drive back, explain through the mail slot, inside pay the application fee, 45 days later I had it fetched by a courier service. Only to see the same form with my fingerprints on it, a few scribbles of dates here and there. no sense what so ever.

When we went to the Arabic translation place in Cape Town, the guy wouldn't sign his translation (I think he has some commitment issues), instead his boss gave us a letter stating that his translator found nothing on it.

we expected some chaos and disorganization from them. The German and SA clearances were a breeze.
 
mallinsonsa said:
My wife got the email requesting passport today...yes yes yes!!!!
a quote from the email: "We wish to advise that we are ready to issue his immigrant visa. It will therefore be necessary for him to send us his original passport as soon as possible."

We started getting all the police clearances in Feb last year, had the whole application ready end of may and submitted it to Mississauga on June 3rd. Pretoria received it July 27th and in October they started processing, I think they waited for my medicals. (which I did in September).
In December Pretoria requested the payment for the right of permanent residency.

And now Feb 23, we got the request for passport. Yeah!

The most difficult part of this journey is the waiting, but I have to say Pretoria is on the ball.

Congrats, so happy for u :)
Got the same email a couple of days ago! Well I already sent mine, now waiting impatiently to get it back, it says to allow 5 to 10 days! :) Yes Pretoria is on the move!!!!
 
mallinsonsa said:
My wife got the email requesting passport today...yes yes yes!!!!
a quote from the email: "We wish to advise that we are ready to issue his immigrant visa. It will therefore be necessary for him to send us his original passport as soon as possible."

We started getting all the police clearances in Feb last year, had the whole application ready end of may and submitted it to Mississauga on June 3rd. Pretoria received it July 27th and in October they started processing, I think they waited for my medicals. (which I did in September).
In December Pretoria requested the payment for the right of permanent residency.

And now Feb 23, we got the request for passport. Yeah!

The most difficult part of this journey is the waiting, but I have to say Pretoria is on the ball.

Wow! Congrats, I am so happy for you :)! I will be doing my medical immediately to avoid delay. Hopefully I'll be at your stage soon. Look like Pretoria is working hard to get it all done.
 
Thanks IndianOcean, Thanks Josephs.

Yes, My wife couriered my passport yesterday afternoon already. apparently the embassy will have it today.

Josephs, just hang in there, obviously is the fact that your wife is here with you not an issue. Get all the documents sorted and send it on to Pretoria.
 
mallinsonsa said:
Thanks IndianOcean, Thanks Josephs.

Yes, My wife couriered my passport yesterday afternoon already. apparently the embassy will have it today.

Josephs, just hang in there, obviously is the fact that your wife is here with you not an issue. Get all the documents sorted and send it on to Pretoria.

Thanks for your support. I did my medicals today and it should be sent to London next week. Got the the police clearance for SA just waiting for the ones from the other countries that I lived in. Hopefully you guys will still be here to give me support after you get your visas :). See you guys in Canada soon!
 
Josephs said:
Thanks for your support. I did my medicals today and it should be sent to London next week. Got the the police clearance for SA just waiting for the ones from the other countries that I lived in. Hopefully you guys will still be here to give me support after you get your visas :). See you guys in Canada soon!

I'll stick around don't worry :)
Keep us updated! Good luck and speedy process for u!