Eid Mubarak to everyone!
I have a very long story to tell, and I hope it helps anyone who might be in a similar situation because I learned some important lessons along the way.
I ordered GCMS notes only once during this process on September 20, 2012 and received them by email on October 17. Because I waited so long to order them, I was able to get a complete picture of what was going on in the case so far. All the notes were clear and quite shocking to say the least. Here goes:
My husband and I were married in February 2010 but didnt apply for sponsorship until November 2010, months after the complete wedding. We had multiple personal reasons not to (Im not going to bore you with them). But in waiting, we added 9 months to the time we spent apart.
LESSON 1: APPLY RIGHT AWAY - problems arise in every marriage but get worse the longer spouses stay apart. Dont let beauracracy, family politics or petty fights ruin the most beautiful relationship you have
Our file was transfered in December 2010 to the notoriously slow visa office in Islamabad. It took them 14 months to open our file for the first time, at which point everything sent with the original documents package was expired. Re-PCC and Re-Med were ordered. To complicate matters, my husband was working in Saudi Arabia at the time and obtaining a PCC in SA is extremely difficult ONLY because there are no clear cut guidelines. After doing a bit of a run-around, he ended up at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Riyadh, they created a request letter, it was taken to the police station and he received it from them. He himself was not allowed to go to the police station to obtain the clearance.
LESSON 2: RESEARCH - emailing CHC is beyond useless. We asked them how to obtain the PCC from Saudi and they literally had no clue. They said to contant the Canadian Embassy closest to him. He basically had to ask a dozen people, hire an arabic translator to go from office to office with him and had to do it all himself. The worst part was, Saudi Arabians are generally very lazy people and put things off for the next day, every day. So you have to badger the officials constantly. Between work and this, my husband was sick and tired.
He had his Re-Med conducted in Riyadh as well which was alhamdulillah a pain free process. He recieved official reciepts and saved them just in case.
LESSON 3: SAVE EVERYTHING - Document everything you do from the time you apply til the time you or your spouse lands. CHC LOST MY HUSBANDS MEDICAL RESULTS. THEY WERE NOT UPLOADED ONTO THE GCMS SYSTEM. THIS DELAYED OUR PROCESS BY A WHOLE 6 MONTHS. It was the fault of the New Delhi office.
August 15th 2012, Immigration Officer MP wrote:
According to GCMS, everything from Security, Eligibility, Criminality ALL OF IT was PASSED on August 15th. Remed was INVALID
August 15th 2012, my husband received a call from CHC-Islamabad from an officer named SS asking him a ton of questions regarding hsi re-med. Did you get it done? Where did you do it? Who was the doctor? What date was it done? When was it dispatched? After my husband answered these questions, he scanned his reciepts and sent them to CHC. The VO called New Delhi with the tracking numbers my husband provided and asked them to "download the medical results to GCMS."
The New Delhi officer responded that the results had already been uploaded. When? Why werent they there?
According to the GCMS notes, my husbands file was opened EVERY MONTH from March - August 2012 and no one noticed his Re-Med was missing. The officers just did a case summary and closed it again. I emailed them once a month and received the same "application is in process for review, no further action is required"
ON TOP OF ALL THIS, THEY DIDNT SEND THE PPR AS THEY WERE TOLD. Officer SS was being a Minister Kenney-ka-chamcha and decided that no PPR will be sent until the Re-Med was cleared. Decided this ALL by himself.
It took exactly 2 months and 10 days from the date that we received that phone call to FINALLY GET PPR IN THE MAIL BY TCS.
My husband's PPR arrived on Thursday, October 25th.
No one was home to receive it. When I was leaving to pick up my husband from work, our driver told me a TCS dispatcher came in the afternoon when I wasnt home. His wife, who is the caretaker of the house when its empty, didnt have Rs 200 to pay the cash on delivery amount.
The delivery guy went back saying he'd try again after Eid. Eid holidays are for four days so that meant we would have to wait til Tuesday. We went on Friday morning and picked it up ourself from the TCS head office at Jinnah Airport.
Photographs were taken the same day, the form is filled out and we're going to send his passport off on Tuesday.
Its been a hectic 24 months. I lived in Mississauga, Ontario, my husband in Saudi Arabia. Each winter vacation, we would fly to Karachi so we could spend three weeks together. I cant even begin to describe how difficult it has been. My marriage was in jeopardy each and every day. I dont have to tell any of you because unfortunately you are going through the same thing.
In August my husband and I quit our jobs and moved to Karachi. We've been living here ever since and its been crazy but alhamdulillah, as soon as his passport is back, Im taking him home to Mississauga where we can finally start our lives.
