CIC May have Lost Application for Sponsorship - has this happened to you?

[canukiwi]

My husband and I have applied for PR through the Family Scheme. He's from New Zealand and we're applying from outside Canada as he lives in Australia. I applied in Canada and then came to Australia (on leave from my job in Ottawa) so we could live together while we wait for immigration. We sent our application to the Case Processing Centre in Mississauga on Feb 7, 2012. It was successfully delivered by Canada Post on Feb 8, 2012 (I have the tracking number). They are now processing applications rec'd on Feb 29, 2012 (it says 90 days waiting time for step 1). So this puts our application at least 3 weeks behind schedule (but they have actually now had the application for 146 days). There is no record of our application on e-cas, the online system. I called on June 14 (I have to call a friend at work and get them to conference me into the call because I can't call CIC from outside Canada) and the Call Centre agent could not find a record of our application. He sent the Mississauga centre an email with my Receipt number and Canada Post tracking number asking them to try to locate the file. I haven't heard anything so I called again on June 22 and was told there is still no record of the application but the agent confirmed that the Mississauga centre has received the request to look for my application but has not yet responded. The agent told me they usually take longer than a week to respond and that we should wait a month. He told me that if the application was lost, CIC will require us to submit the entire application again like new (I asked about photocopies of things like police checks) and that CIC would not process it on a priority basis so we would have to wait 3 months again for the processing time!! (But I am not sure if this is true as I have spoken to someone who had their application lost and had the new application fast tracked and was able to submit photocopies. If they have lost our application I will be calling my MP and asking for assistance because THEY lost our application and we'll have to shell out another $600+ to get new documents, never mind the fact that our personal information could be anywhere.)

I've noticed on some forums that a few people have had their applications held up for much longer than the stated processing times so I am hoping they will find it soon. (In the meantime we are applying for a new police check as the Australian system is also experiencing backlogs so that could take a few months.) Has anyone ever had their application lost and never recovered? How long have people had to wait beyond the stated processing times for sponsorship approval?

Application Submitted to CPC-M - Feb 7, 2012
App Rec'd (according to Canada Post) at CPC-M - FEb 8, 2012
Confirmation of App: None
Called CIC to request status: June 14, 2012
Email sent to CPC-M requesting they look for App: June 14, 2012
Response: Still waiting

 

[Fencesitter]

Sorry to hear about this mess.

I have no idea what you should do, but if I were you, I'd definitely contact my MP. I'd also begin preparing a new application.

I'd keep calling CIC-M every single day until they find your application. I would send faxes every day as well. I'd be on them like white on rice until they gave an answer as to where your application is.

This is also what I am worried about. I have confirmation from UPS, but that does little good until I get confirmation from CIC!!! And that takes months...and even then, there is no guarantee they will send an AOR.

The whole process sucks!!

Good luck and keep us posted on the outcome, as this would be very helpful for those who find themselves in a similar situation!

Keep the faith and don't give up!

FS

 

[canukiwi]

Fencesitter,

I wouldn't worry too much about it. It seems that my case is quite rare. I've only seen a few cases where CIC confirmed that they had lost someone's application (3 cases, as far as I can find online) and a bunch of cases where the applications were just late (not quite as late as mine, and in the one case where it did take five months, CIC had obviously temporarily lost the application because they requested a new payment and then found the old one). Don't expect to find your information on the online system as soon as they start processing it, it doesn't sound like the keep it up to date. Just call if you haven't heard anything after your date comes up. I suspect things are slowing down now because everyone takes holidays in the summer (or perhaps they have students working on it!) so it could take a while but I'm sure they won't lose it. Good luck.

 

[CharlieD10]

There's a couple users on this forum whose applications were deemed "lost" and they had to re-do the entire things. The problem with comparing their situation to yours is that these applications were lost last year before CPC-M wait times for sponsor approval had climbed above the 60-day mark. At present it is extremely difficult to determine if the application is just completely lost, or else just waiting its turn in a very long line that seems to be getting longer every day.

Like FS, I would encourage you to stay on top of them to keep following up. We waited 81 days for sponsor approval when it was taking 28-30 days, so my husband would call every Monday morning, like clockwork, to find out if the hold up had been resolved. Even though they told him to wait a month between calls, he would simply call again, every Monday morning. Eventually they sorted themselves out and approved us.

 

[canukiwi]

UPDATE: My application wasn't lost. Well, it sort of was temporarily. It got sent to Ottawa as some sort of 'workload redistribution program' which clearly didn't work because my application just sat in Ottawa for five months. In any case, it's on its way back to Mississauga and I should have my Sponsorship Approval in a few days. However, this is all no thanks to the Call Centre people who told me I'd have to wait 3 months for them to contact CPC Mississauga again to ask them to look into it! I only got this sorted because I was able to find someone on the inside who helped me even though it wasn't their job and it only took one day for them to sort it out! The system is definitely broken and I am going to write to my MP about it. Short of calling the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, what are you supposed to do when the Call Centre just can't help you and your application is nowhere to be found?

 

[Fencesitter]

Find out the name of the person you spoke to from the call center and send a nice card and a box full of rotten food...

Glad you got it sorted...I feel so bad for you, but at least you know that they have your application and that you will be moving on to stage 2 very soon!!

FS

 

[Chickadee]

Find out the name of the person you spoke to from the call center and send a nice card and a box full of rotten food...

FS

Fencesitter, you are too funny!!!

 

[Yogi3845]

UPDATE: My application wasn't lost. Well, it sort of was temporarily. It got sent to Ottawa as some sort of 'workload redistribution program' which clearly didn't work because my application just sat in Ottawa for five months. In any case, it's on its way back to Mississauga and I should have my Sponsorship Approval in a few days. However, this is all no thanks to the Call Centre people who told me I'd have to wait 3 months for them to contact CPC Mississauga again to ask them to look into it! I only got this sorted because I was able to find someone on the inside who helped me even though it wasn't their job and it only took one day for them to sort it out! The system is definitely broken and I am going to write to my MP about it. Short of calling the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, what are you supposed to do when the Call Centre just can't help you and your application is nowhere to be found?

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This is really sad and horrible. I appreciate your patience in handling the whole case so far. Hope, your rest of the process will get expedited to recover some delays

 

[OhCanadiana]

UPDATE: My application wasn't lost. Well, it sort of was temporarily. It got sent to Ottawa as some sort of 'workload redistribution program' which clearly didn't work because my application just sat in Ottawa for five months. In any case, it's on its way back to Mississauga and I should have my Sponsorship Approval in a few days. However, this is all no thanks to the Call Centre people who told me I'd have to wait 3 months for them to contact CPC Mississauga again to ask them to look into it! I only got this sorted because I was able to find someone on the inside who helped me even though it wasn't their job and it only took one day for them to sort it out! The system is definitely broken and I am going to write to my MP about it. Short of calling the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, what are you supposed to do when the Call Centre just can't help you and your application is nowhere to be found?

Fantastic that you found it Awesome that you found someone who put in the extra effort to find it for you.

 

[kidrobot]

I'm facing the same problem now after my file transfer to Singapore Visa Office. I apply under MPNP, Family Support Stream. Applied in Kuala Lumpur Visa Office ( April 2012 Closed).


When my file is in Kuala Lumpur Visa Office, i went there a several times to check my AOR and next processing steps but ended up in ask me leave their office. After my file transfer to Singapore they told me can't find my file.

After 10 months only told me can't locate my file! They SUGGEST me re-submit my file to Sydney Office. WHAT?! :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\


I ask them help to find my file and now still waiting for their reply.

 

[mkp8]

Our Canadian government has more than good enough economy to do better than this. Instead it is ineffective and does not listen to feedback particularly well.

Why is the only option to physically mail papers/photos/etc? I don't know about you, but everything I sent came out of a printer (I bought just for the application). Because it turns out, you can almost live without paper. So everything that was sent is just a printed digital. Even the photos on photo paper.

Ok, so if you could digitally submit your application as described in that scenario. Guess what. It's in the system immediately via the internet. It's in a database. You can already see the government got it. No feeling of "are they actually gonna put it in the right pile, and I only find out 1-3-5 months later."

Well, our Canadian government isn't that motivated. Because we let them be lazy.

But, even with a paper based system, why can't we have immediate/better feedback to our files? Because I know humans screw up all the time. That's why computers are good for repetitive operations. Surgeons screw up all the time, I have heard plenty of direct stories.

How much difficulty is it to have the staff at the receiving office scan the barcode, enter a couple fields in the software system to get the file going. Not very at all. I could set that up in less than a month. And you would know within the same day/week that your package is in the system, and you can identify where it's destination is.

"Oh, I got my notification. That was fast. Wait. Ottawa. Why the hell does it say it is destined for Ottawa?" kind of corrections can happen in realtime rather than 5 months later.

Pretty pathetic our government. Pathetic because we're doing well economically, so we can keep improving processes in this country. However, the government is happy to be as lazy as possible. Because we let them get away with it. Although we pay them. We really have no recourse individually.