Berlin, Europe Spouse Sponsorship Timeline 2011

[Indigo]

My parents just received our 72 photos and some other stuff, accompanied by a letter:

Dear Sir/Madam,


The immigration section is returning the enclosed documents.

- photographs,
-letters and postcards,
-telephone bills.


At this time, these documents are not required for the continued processing of your file.

Yours sincerely

Immigration Section

(This letter is valid without signature)



Gave my parents a nice scare, they don't understand much English and thought my PR was denied. ???
I guess Berlin is just weird in that way, Marco2011 received all his stuff back too a few weeks ago. I take it as a good sign and assume Berlin is convinced that our relationship is genuine.
I am not sure why my parents received this, but their address (my last official address before I came to Canada as a tourist) does show up in my application because I was called by the CIC officier who was processing the sponsorship request. He said I needed my Dutch address in order to be allowed to be processed in Berlin so I supplied it. Since my parents still live there, I don't think it will be much of a problem even if they continue to mail me there.

I told my folks to enjoy the 72 nice Kodak photos! ;D

 

[Elizabeth Joe]

Yes, that's definitely a good sign. I think it's common for Berlin to send the stuff back once there done with that part. I didn't get anything back, because we didn't send any originals. I printed the pictures on normal paper and only printed of emails and other proof.

 

[sidkrose]

My parents just received our 72 photos and some other stuff, accompanied by a letter:

Dear Sir/Madam,


The immigration section is returning the enclosed documents.

- photographs,
-letters and postcards,
-telephone bills.


At this time, these documents are not required for the continued processing of your file.

Yours sincerely

Immigration Section

(This letter is valid without signature)



Gave my parents a nice scare, they don't understand much English and thought my PR was denied. ???
I guess Berlin is just weird in that way, Marco2011 received all his stuff back too a few weeks ago. I take it as a good sign and assume Berlin is convinced that our relationship is genuine.
I am not sure why my parents received this, but their address (my last official address before I came to Canada as a tourist) does show up in my application because I was called by the CIC officier who was processing the sponsorship request. He said I needed my Dutch address in order to be allowed to be processed in Berlin so I supplied it. Since my parents still live there, I don't think it will be much of a problem even if they continue to mail me there.

I told my folks to enjoy the 72 nice Kodak photos! ;D

Yes, I would definitely take that as a good sign. We didn't get anything back either, because we didn't send any originals except envelopes!

 

[Indigo]

That might be the reason why they sent the pictures: They were actual Kodak prints because I thought it would leave a better impression if we went through the trouble to professionally print them. It wasn't even as expensive as i thought: $22 or something.
Very friendly of them to return the photos. I think my parents appreciate it! ;D

 

[mel_n]

We'll be joining you guys soon, got approval today!

 

[sahm2boys]

We'll be joining you guys soon, got approval today!

Congrats!

 

[Bluesteam]

My parents just received our 72 photos and some other stuff, accompanied by a letter:

Dear Sir/Madam,


The immigration section is returning the enclosed documents.

- photographs,
-letters and postcards,
-telephone bills.


At this time, these documents are not required for the continued processing of your file.

Yours sincerely

Immigration Section

(This letter is valid without signature)



Gave my parents a nice scare, they don't understand much English and thought my PR was denied. ???
I guess Berlin is just weird in that way, Marco2011 received all his stuff back too a few weeks ago. I take it as a good sign and assume Berlin is convinced that our relationship is genuine.
I am not sure why my parents received this, but their address (my last official address before I came to Canada as a tourist) does show up in my application because I was called by the CIC officier who was processing the sponsorship request. He said I needed my Dutch address in order to be allowed to be processed in Berlin so I supplied it. Since my parents still live there, I don't think it will be much of a problem even if they continue to mail me there.

I told my folks to enjoy the 72 nice Kodak photos! ;D

Joo... that sounds like good news Indigo. We also got all our Fotos & Letters back.. (got a terrible shock when I saw that big brown envelope in the letter box ), anyway shortly after that we got the COPR ;D, also in a big brown envelope, .. so think its looking good for you guys too ..

 

[Robinoflocksley]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on this site, although I have been shadowing it for a while.

I wanted to share my wife and my experience with PR which hopefully can be of some help to other members.

First off my wife and dutch and I'm a canadian citizen.

As is the case with many multinational marriages I'm sure, the time line of how the immigration procedure would work was very much on our mind right from the beginning. There is nothing more scary that the thought of not being able to be with the person that you love for an extended period of time.

My wife and I were married at the end of August last year (2011). We had originally planned to apply inland however after reading about other peoples experiences with the Berlin office, we decided that an outland application in this case might be the best bet - although the 9 months estimated processing time on the Canada immigration website doesn't inspire confidence.

We sent everything off within two weeks after the wedding (approximately september 15). Around the end of the november, I received a letter in the mail to say that I had been approved as the sponsor.

At the end of the december, I checked our application status and discovered that it had changed from in process to "decision made". We hoped for the best but there are always some doubts.

Finally last week, the letter arrived and she is approved. It was one of the happiest moments in my life. I am so thrilled that the embassy was able to work that fast. Start to finish berlin seems to have completed everything in 3-4 weeks.

Anyway I hope that our experience will help

Rob

 

[Indigo]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on this site, although I have been shadowing it for a while.

Hi & welcome!

I wanted to share my wife (...)

LOL, I'm sure you didn't mean what I'm reading here! ;D

(...)and my experience with PR which hopefully can be of some help to other members.

First off my wife and dutch and I'm a canadian citizen.

As is the case with many multinational marriages I'm sure, the time line of how the immigration procedure would work was very much on our mind right from the beginning. There is nothing more scary that the thought of not being able to be with the person that you love for an extended period of time.

My wife and I were married at the end of August last year (2011). We had originally planned to apply inland however after reading about other peoples experiences with the Berlin office, we decided that an outland application in this case might be the best bet (...)

A good decision. In most cases, outland is (much) faster than inland, and this is certainly true for cases going through Berlin.

- although the 9 months estimated processing time on the Canada immigration website doesn't inspire confidence.

This is a misconception: It's not an estimated processing time, nor is it an average processing time. It's the time Berlin needs to process 80% of files. So the average applicant can count on a faster timeline, especially if you got a straightforward case.

We sent everything off within two weeks after the wedding (approximately september 15).

Respect, you guys are good!
Took us 3½ months to send it off, but mostly because we were misinformed about us having to wait 10 weeks before we could apply for our marriage certificate, because it takes that long to register the marriage. It does not, our marriage was registered less than 2 weeks after it took place, which we didn't find out until we finally received the certificate. So if you send the application off rightaway it will be processed soon after registration of the marriage. Waisted 2½ months... aw well, what's done is done.

Around the end of the november, I received a letter in the mail to say that I had been approved as the sponsor.

At the end of the december, I checked our application status and discovered that it had changed from in process to "decision made". We hoped for the best but there are always some doubts.

Finally last week, the letter arrived and she is approved. It was one of the happiest moments in my life. I am so thrilled that the embassy was able to work that fast. Start to finish berlin seems to have completed everything in 3-4 weeks.

Anyway I hope that our experience will help

Rob

Congratulations and thanks for sharing! When will your wife be landing, and where will that event take place?

 

[Robinoflocksley]

Thanks!

We finished the PR application before the wedding with lots of time to check it over for any errors. We spent countless hours checking everything so that nothing was left to chance. As we were married in the Netherlands, we had the good fortune of them being able to provide the marriage certificate almost immediately (although sadly not everything else was quite as easy with the officialdom of marriage there).

My wife will be landing this weekend in Calgary! She lived here with me before as a visitor but this will still be a very special moment as it will be the end of all our worries (about this matter anyway lol ).

 

[Indigo]

Medical: 26-08-2011
App sent: 21-09-2011
App received: 22-09-2011
Request visitor extension submitted: 24-11-2011
Phonecall to sponsor from CIC: 25-11-2011
Sponsorship approval: 25-11-2011
Request visitor visa granted: 11-01-2012

I forgot to tell you guys that I requested a visitor visa extension on November 24, because my 6 month visitor stamp in my passport would expire December 26 (I re-entered the country after our honeymoon on June 26, therefor).
I was informed that it would take at least 4 months for them to make a decision about this visitor extension if I sent it by mail, and meanwhile I would be on implied status. So I did that, in case I got a rejection I would at least win a few months.
So I was very surprised when I received a letter today, dated January 11. Fortunately they granted my request! I had taken the liberty to ask them for a 1 year extension (assuming I wouldn't need a year, but just in case), and I got it too! I am officially allowed to stay here as a visitor until January 11, 2013! Very generous!
I am happy about this! ;D


I do hope that the next thing I hear from them is a PPR!

 

[Indigo]

(copy from the September 2011 topic, where I also posted this message)

You are not gonna believe this...

This morning I had a knock on the door from Canada Post. The delivery man was standing there with a Canada Immigration envelope from Berlin..! So I thought this could be my PPR or a request for additional docs. I very quickly signed for delivery and thanked the mailman.
I opened the envelope...

And was looking at what I thought was the PPR!

It wasn't until I at down later to read what exactly I was required to do next that I realized I wasn't looking at a PPR at all...

I was looking...

at...

my COPR!!!

I'll probably land tomorrow by driving to the border at Niagara, then probably take a day trip to the US first, then turning around and landing.
It is not a problem to land during the weekend, is it? No office hours only rule?

 

[Elizabeth Joe]

Congratulations!!

So happy for you and hoping to follow soon!

I'm pretty sure you can land on weekends.

 

[sidkrose]

(copy from the September 2011 topic, where I also posted this message)

You are not gonna believe this...

This morning I had a knock on the door from Canada Post. The delivery man was standing there with a Canada Immigration envelope from Berlin..! So I thought this could be my PPR or a request for additional docs. I very quickly signed for delivery and thanked the mailman.
I opened the envelope...

And was looking at what I thought was the PPR!

It wasn't until I at down later to read what exactly I was required to do next that I realized I wasn't looking at a PPR at all...

I was looking...

at...

my COPR!!!

I'll probably land tomorrow by driving to the border at Niagara, then probably take a day trip to the US first, then turning around and landing.
It is not a problem to land during the weekend, is it? No office hours only rule?

You can definitely land on weekends! Congrats!!!!!! Yay!

 

[Indigo]

My total timeline:
3 months, 4 weeks, 2 days, from the moment I submitted the application to the moment I had my COPR in hand!
Most of that time was spent in Mississauga for sponsorship approval.

Crazy! ;D