Dear forum members, I have been a silent reader of this forum for almost 2 years now, but now I need an advice from more experienced fellows (@legalfalcon). My common-law partner and I applied jointly under FSW-Outland stream in October 2019 (AOR October 2, 2019, NOC 6313 for PA). I am a citizen of Russia, my partner is from Philippines. So I am the primary applicant, and my common-law partner is my accompanying dependent. In March 2021 we got married, so we updated IRCC about marital status change via webform. My wife also has a biological son, who is a non-accompanying dependant.
Our brief timeline as follows:
September 2019 - medical examination passed;
Oct. 2, 2019 - AOR;
Oct. 2, 2019 - all fees paid for both applicants (RPRF, permanent resident application fees and biotmetric fee, total of CAD 2250);
Oct. 16, 2019 - biometrics done;
Jan 28, 2020 - request letter (Schedule A, military records, additional records of education), replied and sent all required documents by Jan. 30, 2020 - placed under S.15, security screening;
Feb. 25, 2020 - ghost update (found out later that application had been approved, electronic COPR issued - as per GCMS notes). No PPR email and no updates in my CIC profile;
Oct. 5, 2020 - received 1st set of GCMS notes. Found out that we are under COVID pace group, and our application had been approved by an officer on Feb. 25, 2020;
Dec. 23, 2020 - received a response after 2 weeks to our webform inquiry. The response stated that it was not possible to issue a confirmation of PR at this time ("you have not demonstrated that you meet the exemption criteria. As a reminder, the travel restrictions were implemented to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID‑19) in Canada. Specifically, you do not meet the criteria for Expired COPR Travel authorization issuance");
March 2021 - got married with my common-law partner;
April 6, 2021 - request in my CIC account to update our residential address. Replied and uploaded our lease agreement (both of us currently residing in Russia) by April 7, 2021;
April 8, 2021 - via IRCC webform uploaded our marriage certificate and a new passport of my spouse;
April 9, 2021 - request for re-medicals for PA and my spouse;
April 20, 2021 - re-medicals done and received by IRCC, status changed in CIC portal to "you do not need a medical exam";
July 8, 2021 - received a 2nd set of GCMS notes. Based on the notes, found out that our file is in progress, on page 2 in the section "Assessments" the final status is blank. As per further info, our re-medicals were passed with no concerns, our marriage documents, new passport and lease agreement were received; both of our electronic COPRs status indicated as "cancelled", A39-A41 checks were not started;
August 7, 2021 - received a request letter which states the following:
"Our records indicate that you notified us of this change (marital status) after we had issued you a Confirmation of Permanent Residence for you and your dependents, if you have any. Please understand that we will require that you return this document as well as your passport(s) with your permanent resident visa(s), if applicable, in order for us to cancel them. You must provide us with these original documents in addition to the other requested documents for us to continue with your application process...
If your spouse or common-law partner (CLP) is NOT a Canadian citizen or has NOT obtained Permanent Residence status in Canada, you will need to complete each of the following steps in order to have them added to your existing application and examined for compliance with admissibility requirements (medical, criminality and security). Unless otherwise stated, the following is mandatory, whether or not your spouse or CLP decides to accompany you to Canada."
They also attached a list of documents that are mandatory for upload within 30 days:
1) RPRF for spouse - CAD825;
2) medical examination for spouse and non-accompanying dependant;
3) a number of forms (IMM 0008, IMM5406, IMM5669, IMM5562, IMM4509);
4) copy of my spouse's passport and birth certificate
5) police certificates for spouse;
6) evidence of relationship;
7) principal applicant relationship assessment questionnaire;
The questionnaire is titled as "inclusion of a spouse/CLP on an economic class application".
Based on the above, we are completely clueless as to why do we have to provide all these documents, considering that our application was a joint type (as common-law partners) initially, all fees paid on the day of AOR, and our file had been already approved prior to the introduction of COVID-19 restrictions in March 2020. We have never received a PPR email and COPR, and no further updates regarding progress of our application. I sincerely ask for assistance and advice on our situation, so we could clarify whether it is an erroneous request from IRCC, or indeed, we have to provide this extensive list of documents and pay the fees again for my spouse.
Any help will be much appreciated!
Our brief timeline as follows:
September 2019 - medical examination passed;
Oct. 2, 2019 - AOR;
Oct. 2, 2019 - all fees paid for both applicants (RPRF, permanent resident application fees and biotmetric fee, total of CAD 2250);
Oct. 16, 2019 - biometrics done;
Jan 28, 2020 - request letter (Schedule A, military records, additional records of education), replied and sent all required documents by Jan. 30, 2020 - placed under S.15, security screening;
Feb. 25, 2020 - ghost update (found out later that application had been approved, electronic COPR issued - as per GCMS notes). No PPR email and no updates in my CIC profile;
Oct. 5, 2020 - received 1st set of GCMS notes. Found out that we are under COVID pace group, and our application had been approved by an officer on Feb. 25, 2020;
Dec. 23, 2020 - received a response after 2 weeks to our webform inquiry. The response stated that it was not possible to issue a confirmation of PR at this time ("you have not demonstrated that you meet the exemption criteria. As a reminder, the travel restrictions were implemented to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID‑19) in Canada. Specifically, you do not meet the criteria for Expired COPR Travel authorization issuance");
March 2021 - got married with my common-law partner;
April 6, 2021 - request in my CIC account to update our residential address. Replied and uploaded our lease agreement (both of us currently residing in Russia) by April 7, 2021;
April 8, 2021 - via IRCC webform uploaded our marriage certificate and a new passport of my spouse;
April 9, 2021 - request for re-medicals for PA and my spouse;
April 20, 2021 - re-medicals done and received by IRCC, status changed in CIC portal to "you do not need a medical exam";
July 8, 2021 - received a 2nd set of GCMS notes. Based on the notes, found out that our file is in progress, on page 2 in the section "Assessments" the final status is blank. As per further info, our re-medicals were passed with no concerns, our marriage documents, new passport and lease agreement were received; both of our electronic COPRs status indicated as "cancelled", A39-A41 checks were not started;
August 7, 2021 - received a request letter which states the following:
"Our records indicate that you notified us of this change (marital status) after we had issued you a Confirmation of Permanent Residence for you and your dependents, if you have any. Please understand that we will require that you return this document as well as your passport(s) with your permanent resident visa(s), if applicable, in order for us to cancel them. You must provide us with these original documents in addition to the other requested documents for us to continue with your application process...
If your spouse or common-law partner (CLP) is NOT a Canadian citizen or has NOT obtained Permanent Residence status in Canada, you will need to complete each of the following steps in order to have them added to your existing application and examined for compliance with admissibility requirements (medical, criminality and security). Unless otherwise stated, the following is mandatory, whether or not your spouse or CLP decides to accompany you to Canada."
They also attached a list of documents that are mandatory for upload within 30 days:
1) RPRF for spouse - CAD825;
2) medical examination for spouse and non-accompanying dependant;
3) a number of forms (IMM 0008, IMM5406, IMM5669, IMM5562, IMM4509);
4) copy of my spouse's passport and birth certificate
5) police certificates for spouse;
6) evidence of relationship;
7) principal applicant relationship assessment questionnaire;
The questionnaire is titled as "inclusion of a spouse/CLP on an economic class application".
Based on the above, we are completely clueless as to why do we have to provide all these documents, considering that our application was a joint type (as common-law partners) initially, all fees paid on the day of AOR, and our file had been already approved prior to the introduction of COVID-19 restrictions in March 2020. We have never received a PPR email and COPR, and no further updates regarding progress of our application. I sincerely ask for assistance and advice on our situation, so we could clarify whether it is an erroneous request from IRCC, or indeed, we have to provide this extensive list of documents and pay the fees again for my spouse.
Any help will be much appreciated!
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