Confusion about how to send PPR documents to New York VO

[Nidz88]

Okay here is in detail what we did after we got the PPR from IRCC. Note that in my case example, there are no dependents and only the principal applicant is entering Canada via Family Class Sponsorship.

The e-mail that I sent in to vfsshippinglabels@vfsglobal.com had their required excel spreadsheet (from https://www.vfsglobal.ca/canada/usa/pdf/mail-in-application-courier-label-request.xlsx) filled out ONLY with the principal applicant's information (only 1 line) and I wrote the following in the e-mail I sent in:
-----
To Whom It May Concern:

We have received a Passport Request letter from the IRCC. We plan on mailing the required documents to the New York Visa Office with a pre-paid return envelope.

As per the requirements on your website, we are writing to request Mail In Application Courier Labels. Here is our information:

Name: Principal Applicant's FULL Name
Application Type: Submitting Copy of Passport for Permanent Residence by Family Class Sponsorship (approved)
Visa Office: New York
Number of Applicants: 1
Number of Packages: 1
Return Address:
FULL ADDRESS

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
-----
After sending in that e-mail, within 72 business hours they sent a link to pay for the fees to the e-mail in the spreadsheet (if you use a different e-mail be wary of that because the VFS customer service representatives had no idea that was their procedure). The fees they will charge you are:
Package transmission ($20.40 USD)
Two-Way Courier Service ($67.10 USD)

You must use the link they send you in order to make the payment. There is no other way to pay.
Once you have paid the fees, save the receipt/proof that your payment went through.
Then, you need to e-mail vfsshippinglabels@vfsglobal.com again. Attach the receipt/proof of your payment, and for clarity include your case information. This is what I wrote in the second e-mail:
-----
To Whom It May Concern:

Payment has been made. The receipt is attached.

Applicant information is as follows:
Name: Principal Applicant's FULL Name
Return Address:
FULL ADDRESS
Application Type: Submitting Copy of Passport for Permanent Residence by Family Class Sponsorship (approved)
Visa Office: New York
Number of Applicants: 1
Number of Packages: 1

Please send the shipping labels back to this e-mail.

Sincerely,
-----

They should reply to your second e-mail within 72 business hours. Their reply will have the shipping labels that you need to print and use in order to send your package to them. Your package can be a letter sized envelope (doesn't have to be legal sized) and needs the following items:

-2 Copies of the TTS Consent Form (both filled out and signed) from https://www.vfsglobal.ca/canada/usa/pdf/consent-form.pdf
-Return label (i.e., the shipping label that will be from VFS to your address) plus envelope
-Printed invoice/proof that you paid for the VFS extra fees
-Printed IRCC Passport Submission Letter with Appendix A filled out with the principal applicant's information
-Two Canada sized passport pictures enclosed in separate envelopes, with the principal applicant's full name, date of birth, application number (the F000 one), name + address of the photography studio, and date the photo was taken written on the back
-Passport - please note that if you hold a passport from a Visa-exempt country (e.g., the U.S.), you should NOT send in your original passport!! you send in a photocopy of the picture page of your passport. IGNORE that VFS tells you to send in your original passport - the VFS customer service agents only know the general procedure and don't know anything about exceptions.

You MUST send your package through FedEx. VFS's website contradicts itself multiple times, but the actual truth is they do NOT allow the use of any other courier service.

Once you've given your package to FedEx, it's smooth sailing there on out. You'll get e-mail updates from FedEx when your package arrives at VFS, then e-mail updates when your package has been passed along to the IRCC and passed back and approved, then another e-mail update from FedEx when the package is on its way back to you. The package will have the Confirmation of Permanent Residence, and if you are not from a visa-exempt country, it will also have your original passport and your visa to enter Canada.

Hope this helps, and let me know if you have any more questions about the process!

Thank you is not sufficient enough. I truly appreciate you taking the time out and writing everything in detail to the T. I am sure this will not only help me but many others in my boat as well.
I hope i will be able to pass along similar knowledge.

How long did you take after you got your passport to travel to Canada. I personally don't want to wait more then 2-3 days TBH. Haven't seen my husband in 16 months.

 

[StellaArtois]

Thank you is not sufficient enough. I truly appreciate you taking the time out and writing everything in detail to the T. I am sure this will not only help me but many others in my boat as well.
I hope i will be able to pass along similar knowledge.

How long did you take after you got your passport to travel to Canada. I personally don't want to wait more then 2-3 days TBH. Haven't seen my husband in 16 months.

You're more than welcome; when we were going through this, we wish that we had someone to guide us in detail through the whole mess, and VFS sure wasn't that someone. If we can help others through this process then we're glad that less people will have to struggle as much.

My husband (the PA) landed in Canada 2 weeks after the ordeal with VFS. The flight prices were a bit too expensive for us to rush it any sooner than that, but we hadn't seen each other since the start of North American pandemic shutdown in March 2020 until December 2020, so I totally get where you're coming from with wanting to see each other ASAP. You guys have it even worse than we did!
If you have everything sorted out with packing and moving and your list of things you are bringing to Canada and typing up all your loose ends where you are living now, you could definitely fly basically as soon as you get the COPR from VFS. It's really up to your individual circumstance how soon you can move I think.

 

[Nidz88]

You're more than welcome; when we were going through this, we wish that we had someone to guide us in detail through the whole mess, and VFS sure wasn't that someone. If we can help others through this process then we're glad that less people will have to struggle as much.

My husband (the PA) landed in Canada 2 weeks after the ordeal with VFS. The flight prices were a bit too expensive for us to rush it any sooner than that, but we hadn't seen each other since the start of North American pandemic shutdown in March 2020 until December 2020, so I totally get where you're coming from with wanting to see each other ASAP. You guys have it even worse than we did!
If you have everything sorted out with packing and moving and your list of things you are bringing to Canada and typing up all your loose ends where you are living now, you could definitely fly basically as soon as you get the COPR from VFS. It's really up to your individual circumstance how soon you can move I think.

That makes absolute sense. Thank you for your insight on everything, its been a blessing.

 

[ashdanCanUS]

Thank you everyone for the helpful information!
Does anyone know if the return address must be the principal applicant's address or could it be the sponsor's address in Canada? We received our PPR today. My husband will be visiting me in Canada starting next week and I am concerned the COPR will arrive and need signature while he is away. Or would signature not be required anyway, since he is from a visa exempt country and actual passport won't be in the envelope?
Appreciate any insights, thanks!

 

[StellaArtois]

Thank you everyone for the helpful information!
Does anyone know if the return address must be the principal applicant's address or could it be the sponsor's address in Canada? We received our PPR today. My husband will be visiting me in Canada starting next week and I am concerned the COPR will arrive and need signature while he is away. Or would signature not be required anyway, since he is from a visa exempt country and actual passport won't be in the envelope?
Appreciate any insights, thanks!

If your husband is from a visa exempt country, then yes the envelope will only have the COPR as he won't need to send his original passport in.

As far as I could tell from the forms, they specifically request the principal applicant's address be given... I am not sure if having a discrepancy by telling them to mail the return envelope to the sponsor's address would cause issues. You could try contacting the VFS Global live chat/representatives and asking about your situation, but my experience with them is that they are like robots repeating a script with zero common sense, and when they need to go off of script and actually think about a situation, they have contracted each other and themselves when I have talked to them, so they may tell you that something is perfectly fine, but then in practice it messes up everything.

Alternatively, maybe you could update your husband's address to be your address in Canada through the IRCC, then he can put his address as the Canadian address with no discrepancies, submit the PPR documents while he's visiting you in Canada, and receive it back to your Canadian address? Only thing is I don't know if that would cause problems if you are doing an Outland class sponsorship. I am just speculating that this is a possibility and I don't actually know if this would work since I haven't tried it myself or seen others do this. You could try asking the IRCC (or your lawyer if you have a lawyer you're consulting) if this is an acceptable option, though I also don't know their turnaround times by e-mail, and I've heard it takes hours to get through the phone if your call gets through at all :x

Also depending on how long your husband's visit is, could he simply submit the PPR only once he gets back to the US after visiting you? He could do all the other steps - e-mail VFS, get the link to make payment, make payment, gather all his documents/passport photos, and then only mail the whole package in via FedEx once he returns from visiting you. Granted if his visit to you puts him in Canada too close to or past the end of the 30 day limit then that might not be feasible.

Sorry that these answers are not with certainty; maybe another more experienced member on the forum or someone who has been through a similar situation can help out?

 

[ashdanCanUS]

If your husband is from a visa exempt country, then yes the envelope will only have the COPR as he won't need to send his original passport in.

As far as I could tell from the forms, they specifically request the principal applicant's address be given... I am not sure if having a discrepancy by telling them to mail the return envelope to the sponsor's address would cause issues. You could try contacting the VFS Global live chat/representatives and asking about your situation, but my experience with them is that they are like robots repeating a script with zero common sense, and when they need to go off of script and actually think about a situation, they have contracted each other and themselves when I have talked to them, so they may tell you that something is perfectly fine, but then in practice it messes up everything.

Alternatively, maybe you could update your husband's address to be your address in Canada through the IRCC, then he can put his address as the Canadian address with no discrepancies, submit the PPR documents while he's visiting you in Canada, and receive it back to your Canadian address? Only thing is I don't know if that would cause problems if you are doing an Outland class sponsorship. I am just speculating that this is a possibility and I don't actually know if this would work since I haven't tried it myself or seen others do this. You could try asking the IRCC (or your lawyer if you have a lawyer you're consulting) if this is an acceptable option, though I also don't know their turnaround times by e-mail, and I've heard it takes hours to get through the phone if your call gets through at all :x

Also depending on how long your husband's visit is, could he simply submit the PPR only once he gets back to the US after visiting you? He could do all the other steps - e-mail VFS, get the link to make payment, make payment, gather all his documents/passport photos, and then only mail the whole package in via FedEx once he returns from visiting you. Granted if his visit to you puts him in Canada too close to or past the end of the 30 day limit then that might not be feasible.

Sorry that these answers are not with certainty; maybe another more experienced member on the forum or someone who has been through a similar situation can help out?

Thank you for taking the time to help with our situation. Makes sense, I think I'd prefer not to cause potential confusion by changing the address at this point. We may just mail the package once he returns to the US. I have two more questions if you don't mind.
1. What size return envelope did you include? If the envelope you mailed the package in is letter sized, did you use a smaller return envelope so it would fit inside?
2. Once COPR is issued, will we also be able to access it on our GCKEY account? Or is it only the hard copy that is sent?
Thanks again!

 

[armoured]

Thank you everyone for the helpful information!
Does anyone know if the return address must be the principal applicant's address or could it be the sponsor's address in Canada? We received our PPR today. My husband will be visiting me in Canada starting next week and I am concerned the COPR will arrive and need signature while he is away. Or would signature not be required anyway, since he is from a visa exempt country and actual passport won't be in the envelope?
Appreciate any insights, thanks!

I would NOT change the COPR delivery to an address in Canada - that would mean to them (likely) that he should do the in-country landing process.

VFS should return to whatever return address you indicate if it's in the same country - just make sure someone is there to receive/sign for it like any package.

2. Once COPR is issued, will we also be able to access it on our GCKEY account? Or is it only the hard copy that is sent?
Thanks again!

It should be a physical COPR.

 

[StellaArtois]

Thank you for taking the time to help with our situation. Makes sense, I think I'd prefer not to cause potential confusion by changing the address at this point. We may just mail the package once he returns to the US. I have two more questions if you don't mind.
1. What size return envelope did you include? If the envelope you mailed the package in is letter sized, did you use a smaller return envelope so it would fit inside?
2. Once COPR is issued, will we also be able to access it on our GCKEY account? Or is it only the hard copy that is sent?
Thanks again!

1. I believe my husband used a FedEx envelope which is a bit bigger than letter, and then included a letter sized envelope inside for the return envelope.

2. If I remember correctly we were only given a physical copy of the COPR, and we did not have a digital version. Once you receive the physical COPR, you could scan it so that you at least you have a backup of it, though a digital "copy" may not be considered valid and only the physical original likely is. It is odd because my lawyer said that other visa offices outside the USA have been only sending digital COPRs and no physical ones due to mailing delays from the pandemic. Seems like different visa offices have different procedures during the pandemic. However, assuming you are going through the US visa office, you will probably only receive a paper/physical COPR.

 

[Jude59]

Hello everyone,

I am a Canadian citizen sponsoring my U.S. citizen husband to Canada by family class sponsorship. I am currently living in Canada, and he is living in the US. We just got PPR yesterday from the New York VO, and we had some confusion while reading through all the instructions. Hoping that someone(s) who has been through sending PPR to NYVO can help us out!

Here is my understanding of what needs to be gathered based solely on the PPR letter:
-two Canada sized passport pictures enclosed in separate envelopes, with PA's full name, date of birth, application number, name + address of the photography studio, and date the photo was taken written on the back
-a printed copy of the Passport Request letter with Appendix A completed by by the PA
-a photocopy of the picture page of the PA's passport

Here is my understanding of how the above things need to be sent:
-using courier registered mail, the above items should be sent plus a pre-paid return envelope to the New York Visa Application Centre at
Visa Application Centre – New York
145 West 45th Street, 4th floor
New York NY 10036
U.S.A.

Here is where we have some questions...
-Given that I, the sponsor, as a Canadian Citizen am not in need of a Confirmation of Permanent Residence, In "Appendix A - Updated Information Chart" of the PPR, would the PA only have to fill out the row for "Principal Applicant", or should he also fill out (on my behalf) the row for "Spouse"?
-Is letter sized envelopes for the package acceptable? Or should they be legal sized?

Additionally, in the PPR letter, there is a section about how to submit the package to the New York Visa Application Center and it directs me to this very confusing website: https://www.vfsglobal.ca/canada/usa/how_to_apply.html#temporary_documents
I have many questions arising because of information from this website that is not at all mentioned in the PPR...

-the website both states that the New York office will NOT accept FedEx, and also states to use FedEx.labels specifically requested through them. Is it truly necessary to contact vfsshippinglabels@vfsglobal.com to obtain these "mandatory two-way courier vfsshippinglabels@vfsglobal.com & receive the mail-in application FedEx labels"? Or can we use any courier service as long as we include a pre-paid return envelope?

-the website also states that the PA needs to include in the package 2 completed copies of the "TT Services Consent Form" from https://www.vfsglobal.ca/canada/usa/pdf/Consent-Form-TTS-English-L.pdf but I do not see any metion of this in the PPR. Again, are these TT Services Consent forms truly necessary or can we skip these consent forms??

-finally, the website has a list of additional fees on this page https://www.vfsglobal.ca/canada/usa/Service_and_Service_Charge.html and apparently we are supposed to include a money order to cover the fees. However, I do not see any mention of additional fees in the PPR.. Do we actually need to pay these fees? And if we do have to pay these fees, exactly which ones are applicable to us? Would they be Package transmission ($20.40 USD), Printing ($0.50 USD per page), and Two-Way Courier Service ($67.10 USD per package)?

Thank you again for your help! If this is not the correct forum to post to, please let me know and I'll try elsewhere!

Omg I’m glad I am not the only one confused. I finally got it all figured out yesterday and received shipping labels this morning. But now I’m confused again! It’s in regards to the Consent Form. Do we just fill out the second page- Name, address, phone number,signature,date and signed at? The other pages are confusing and don’t seem to apply to us but I want to make sure we don’t need them. We are just sending in my husband’s passport, so why do we need to fill out the stuff about biometrics, we’ve already sent those in long ago. And the other page Consent for indirect submission and/or collection Is if someone other than my husband is submitting or collecting the visa application and decision. I just need to be sure what needs to be filled out and sent. Any help would be so appreciated.

 

[StellaArtois]

Omg I’m glad I am not the only one confused. I finally got it all figured out yesterday and received shipping labels this morning. But now I’m confused again! It’s in regards to the Consent Form. Do we just fill out the second page- Name, address, phone number,signature,date and signed at? The other pages are confusing and don’t seem to apply to us but I want to make sure we don’t need them. We are just sending in my husband’s passport, so why do we need to fill out the stuff about biometrics, we’ve already sent those in long ago. And the other page Consent for indirect submission and/or collection Is if someone other than my husband is submitting or collecting the visa application and decision. I just need to be sure what needs to be filled out and sent. Any help would be so appreciated.

Yes VFS does a horrible job of their instructions, they really are confusing.

Yes, we only filled out the second page of the consent forms, and left all the others as is (though you still have to print the whole thing twice and send it all in your package to VFS).

 

[Jude59]

Yes VFS does a horrible job of their instructions, they really are confusing.

Yes, we only filled out the second page of the consent forms, and left all the others as is (though you still have to print the whole thing twice and send it all in your package to VFS).

Thank you so much!

 

[gnarlsstarkly]

This was very informative, so thank you for that.

Hopefully you can help with my question too -
The instructions we received (via email) was to only send them the return shipping label... Were we supposed to send an envelope as well? Were these the instructions you got too?

 

[StellaArtois]

This was very informative, so thank you for that.

Hopefully you can help with my question too -
The instructions we received (via email) was to only send them the return shipping label... Were we supposed to send an envelope as well? Were these the instructions you got too?

You will need to include an additional envelope inside as well, or else they have nothing to put the return shipping label on to plus nowhere to put your documents to send back to you.

And yes, I think we got the same instructions via e-mail, because mine also does not specify to include an envelope. Here is my e-mail from VFS:
"Dear Customer,

Please see the enclosed invoice (s) and labels
Please use one label (from you to Canada Application Centre) to send your documents to CVAC along with the invoice (enclosed).
Please be advised that you will not be receiving anything in the mail from FedEx, the labels have been attached to this email.

Also – you are required to send the following:

• 2 Duly Signed and filled TT services Consent Forms
• IRCC Passport Submission Letter
• Return Label ( enclosed) and
• Original Passport
• Invoice Receipt

Have a great day.
Take care and keep safe."

It seems as always, don't trust VFS fully...

 

[Nidz88]

Hello!
Does anyone know how long after you send your passport should you hear back from VFS? Apparently my passport has been at IRCC office since 9/22 and still no update. Getting a bit worried as I have a ticket booked for Calgary on Tuesday.

 

[gnarlsstarkly]

You will need to include an additional envelope inside as well, or else they have nothing to put the return shipping label on to plus nowhere to put your documents to send back to you.

Completely agree that their instructions can sometimes be very confusing. But turns out when you pay for those shipping labels, it includes the envelope too(FedEx provides this to VFS). Just got the passport back.