Approved in principle..

[ama25]

We sent our family sponsorship application on September 9 2016, it was received the 14th, in November I
was approved as a sponsor and last week I called CIC call centre and they told me that we have been approved in principle and now they are doing my husband's background.. I have a couple
of questions and hope I can receive some answers..

1-What does exactly AIP mean? I kind of have an idea but I'm not 100% sure and just need a second opinion.

2-What specific background check do they do? I ask this because my husband had a background check before he came here 6 years ago and since then he has not left the country and he has never gotten in any trouble here either. I'm just trying to make sense of all of this..

3-Why did they send me an email when I was approved to be a sponsor and they told me that they were gonna contact my husband shortly which I
assume was to let him know about he have approved in principle but they have not? Why?

Thanks in advance..

 

[ama25]

I misspelled sorry about that.. I meant to say that I thought CIC was gonna contact my husband to let
him know he has been approved in principle..

 

[BethanyM]

We sent our family sponsorship application on September 9 2016, it was received the 14th, in November I
was approved as a sponsor and last week I called CIC call centre and they told me that we have been approved in principle and now they are doing my husband's background.. I have a couple
of questions and hope I can receive some answers..

1-What does exactly AIP mean? I kind of have an idea but I'm not 100% sure and just need a second opinion.

2-What specific background check do they do? I ask this because my husband had a background check before he came here 6 years ago and since then he has not left the country and he has never gotten in any trouble here either. I'm just trying to make sense of all of this..

3-Why did they send me an email when I was approved to be a sponsor and they told me that they were gonna contact my husband shortly which I
assume was to let him know about he have approved in principle but they have not? Why?

Thanks in advance..

The background check is routine, every applicant has background checks. Depending where they are from and where they have travelled and a number of other circumstances, Immigration will send inquiries to allied agencies of other countries and ask them to check the name of the applicant.
They are checking for criminal and terrorist information - convictions, known associations, etc.
So they are required to perform the number of checks needed for that persons background.
Some situations take much less time than others.
I'm waiting just over 3 months now ONLY for background checks. All other parts of our application are approved.

I've never heard of anyone being advised they've been Approved in Principal. It's good news. It means
you are simply waiting for the relevant agencies to process the lists of names they receive for checks,
complete the section of names which includes your spouse's, and return the results to CIC.

I found out that we'd passed all steps up to the background check because we had a situation which I needed
to pursue though my MP. My MP's office told me. Most people never hear they are 'approved in principal'.
Most get what information they can from ECAS and MyCIC.

Don't worry. You're in a good position. Your background checks will probably go faster than mine.

 

[Ponga]

We sent our family sponsorship application on September 9 2016, it was received the 14th, in November I
was approved as a sponsor and last week I called CIC call centre and they told me that we have been approved in principle and now they are doing my husband's background.. I have a couple
of questions and hope I can receive some answers..

1-What does exactly AIP mean? I kind of have an idea but I'm not 100% sure and just need a second opinion.

2-What specific background check do they do? I ask this because my husband had a background check before he came here 6 years ago and since then he has not left the country and he has never gotten in any trouble here either. I'm just trying to make sense of all of this..

3-Why did they send me an email when I was approved to be a sponsor and they told me that they were gonna contact my husband shortly which I
assume was to let him know about he have approved in principle but they have not? Why?

Thanks in advance..

1. It means that he is now [officially] eligible to apply for PR...even though he already did.

Here's a link to an older version of CIC's IP8 manual:
http://overseastudent.ca/migratetocanada/IMMGuide/CICManual/ip/ip08-eng.pdf

Look at page 44 and you'll see the Inland Flowchart that is used. You'll find that `APR' (Q4) is the last step before issuing AIP.

2. This is just part of the Admissibility check, which also includes security, criminal and medical checks. It's a mandatory stage for all applicants, whether they've left Canada or not.

3. No idea, but It's nothing [more] to worry about.


Congrats!