CIC Horror Story Begins

[jayyvr]

I feel so sorry for you, Charlize.

I do know the internal procedures of mail management at a govt office. For a high volume processing centre like CPC-M, it is definitely not a good idea to send multiple packages and expect them to bundle them for you. They would put them into a pile and would not care who sent it or whether there would be additional packages from the same person even though they received them at the same time.

This is truly unfortunate and I hope you get passed it and assemble your new application as soon as possible.

 

[lalatata]

Same here. I bet I would have done the same. Postal worker on mailing important items? You would think they now better than anyone.

Other thing to keep in mind is that they all go to PO Box , if there were more then one delivery in the day (which i m sure they must have been) your 3 envelopes which arrived together might have mismatched... but anyways move on wait for the others to be back and send the whole thing to them again...

 

[mameelynn]

Sorry!!! I know how much it sucks to get it sent back to you!! Ours also got sent back due to missed signatures. Can I ask how much are you sending in??? We have been married for 6 years and together for 8 and all of ours fit into one large envelope weighing 4 lbs and I felt like it might have been overkill... I do have to say when we got ours back it was interesting to see that they had in fact looked through everything including my husbands part of the application as the person being sponsored(that is where the missed signatures were well..missing) so it took me a good hour to get everything back in order before sending it back with all the re-filled out forms. I sometimes wonder due to the fact that CIC just leaves the open ended question of "On a separate sheet of paper, provide any additional details of your current relationship that you believe would help to prove your relationship is genuine and continuing." leads people to go overboard on the background history and in the process we add to the ridiculously long wait times for approval. I get why they don't just have a set list of "proof" because people would just look at it as the set check list but it is still a pain in the butt that we feel like we need to send any and all proof we can come up with... I really hate that unlike in the courts of law where you are innocent until proven guilty, immigration feels like we are all guilty until we prove our innocence!

 

[ohliuw]

I used UPS, package was delivered next dat 10am, plsu I got a signature ...

 

[Fencesitter]

I think it's actually a good thing that we are meant to prove ourselves. Immigration is not a right, and therefore, the government SHOULD weed out the fraudsters from the genuine relationships, and this is how they do it. As a Canadian citizen, I am glad we have to prove ourselves, otherwise, fraudsters would have a field day with our generous welfare and health systems. It sucks for those of us who are in a genuine relationship, but we must also remember to look at the big picture and what is best for the country as a whole.

FS

 

[CharlizeRai]

Thanks for your support guys. I am still pretty upset about the whole thing.

I spoke with CIC twice today, and asked about different options. At the moment all I can do is wait for them to get back (I hope the don't even touch the other stuff and just send it back), and send it again. I also was directed by the first wonderful person I talked to, to email them and explain the situation. However, I await a 2-3 week response just for this.

Mameelynn - I sent in about 10-15 lbs or so I am going to guess? It was about 20 cm of regular sized papers stacked high.

I was over the top organized, to ensure that something like this would not happen. And though, I understand that this department is busy solely by the quantity of applications sent it - I assumed they would be organized. I think I am far too naive, and I assume that something as important as this would be handled with appropriate delicacy. The way that I imagined the process is one of great organization, things stacked in neat piles, applications not being thrown around and so forth.

I am kicking myself a lot now as I should have just listened to my gut and fought with the woman at the post office. She was insistent that this was better for me, but I should have caused her some more trouble and do what I thought was better.

Regardless. Now I have to hope that I do get everything sent back to me.

Does anyone have any experience getting really heavy envelopes sent back to them - do you think it takes CIC longer to get to to send back, or it takes longer to mail it...etc. I have no idea what to think anymore. But I've lost a lot of faith in the system.

 

[CharlizeRai]

I used UPS, package was delivered next dat 10am, plsu I got a signature ...

What address did you have it sent to? I presume that when it is sent to the PO Box, you are unable to get a signature.

 

[canadiangirl78]

You are going to have to wait for the other packages to be returned or put together a whole new application and send that since it might take awhile to get everything returned. But there might be originals stuck over at CIC that you might need. I think just wait for everything to come back. Hopefully one of the packages will give you a UCI/File Number.

With the number of packages that CIC receives, it is completely understandable that the 3 would not stay together. So I would not blame CIC at all. You will get your visa in the end, just a little later than expected.

 

[CharlizeRai]

Hmmmm. This is quite unfortunate on my end.

I keep thinking of the ways it could have gone differently.

Thanks though.

 

[mameelynn]

I guess that is where we differ FS... I feel as a Canadian citizen by birth that yes it is my right or (should be) to bring my family with me to Canada. The place I feel it is a privilege and not a right is when you are an immigrate yourself and want to sponsor you family. I completely understand that there has to be a process to make sure that they weed out the "bad seeds" but I would say that the majority of people applying are doing it for the right reasons and there should be a pre-check done by CIC to see if there are any red flags that pop up... you know only knowing each other for a short time, major economic differences between the home country and Canada, huge age gaps and those types of things. It is always odd to me that when you look at the wait times on CIC's website the area's that have the shortest wait times are the places that are notoriously know to have higher than average fraudulent cases so explain that one?! It would only make sense that the countries in the Commonwealth and that share the closest economic ties like the USA would have the shortest wait times if for no other reason than the common sense that other than being with your family there isn't any major gain or loss to immigrate to Canada from those countries. If they aren't willing to be a tiny bit smart about it then at least all of the area's should have closer wait times to each other due to the fact that we all have to pay the fees so it would only make sense that if they have a higher amount of applicants from one region they also have a higher amount of money coming in so they should hire more people to complete the processing of those applicants... it's simple supply and demand...

When it comes to how I think CIC runs I can assure you that I don't picture neat and tidy organization! If that was their goal they would have changed over to digital filing long ago! There is plenty of proof that that they can't even maintain their own website and that only requires a once a week scan and update!
I was never one to think that I would want to get involved politically but after this process once I'm back in Canada I am going to be making my voice heard out about the breakdown and failures that are in CIC!

 

[R151NG5UN]

In response to you FS this process is far far too long. In this day and age weeding out the fraudsters from the genuine applicants should be far faster within 3-6 months for countries that belong to the commonwealth and have had ties with Canada since the year dot. I dont know about the U.K immigration system and how it works for people applying to enter here but I hope it is nowhere near as haphazard, shoddy, outdated and dis-organised as the Canadian immigration system. I think it is appalling that people are waiting over 3 years and parents cannot even be sponsored at this present moment in time.

Their system needs a complete overhaul and dragging in to the 21st century. We are not living in the 19th century any more, we can fly around the world in less than a day. People's livelihood's and families are at stake here and this process the Canadian immigration are running too beggars belief.

 

[veradis]

What a sad story! I hope it gets worked out quickly.
I had one mistake in my application but thankfully it didn't hold things up. The police made a spelling mistake on my husband's police clearance. When he went to get a new one they said they could only do one per year, even though they'd made the mistake. I was losing my mind thinking we'd have to wait a whole year for a new one...but luckily they meant per calendar year and it was a week before the new year! CIC allowed him to bring the updated clearance with him to his interview rather than putting the whole thing on hold until we sent it in.

 

[CharlizeRai]

Has anyone read anything on these forums on an expected time to get packages sent back?

I live in Alberta, so it doesn't have to travel across seas.

I am ridiculously anxious that the worst will happen...

 

[R151NG5UN]

Has anyone read anything on these forums on an expected time to get packages sent back?

I live in Alberta, so it doesn't have to travel across seas.

I am ridiculously anxious that the worst will happen...

We are all so very anxious. CIC are not the fastest just take a look at some of the threads. Patience is paramount. What class have you applied for? Spouse? and are you applying inland or outland. I hope for you if you want somewhat a fast application it is outland. Fingers crossed fro you and good luck

 

[Fencesitter]

In response to you FS this process is far far too long. In this day and age weeding out the fraudsters from the genuine applicants should be far faster within 3-6 months for countries that belong to the commonwealth and have had ties with Canada since the year dot. I dont know about the U.K immigration system and how it works for people applying to enter here but I hope it is nowhere near as haphazard, shoddy, outdated and dis-organised as the Canadian immigration system. I think it is appalling that people are waiting over 3 years and parents cannot even be sponsored at this present moment in time.

Their system needs a complete overhaul and dragging in to the 21st century. We are not living in the 19th century any more, we can fly around the world in less than a day. People's livelihood's and families are at stake here and this process the Canadian immigration are running too beggars belief.

I never said that I agree with the long processing times. You are right, it ought to be a lot shorter.

As for the OP, I don't think anyone can answer your question. The other two packages could be on the way back, or you might not get anything for weeks. It really depends on when they check the package. I hope for your sake they check it right away and send it back to you. At least that way you can correct the mistake and resend everything together.