Family Class - Japanese living in Canada

[Sheps]

Good Morning,

Me and my wife are looking at applying for PR for her, however I have a question.

She has been living legally in Canada for over a year, and it is my understanding that CPC-O handles certain PR applications. As she has been in Canada over a year, can she submit a Outland application through CPC-O?

The wait time is marginally better than inland, however not by much.

Thanks,

Dan

 

[novembre2013]

If she has a valid status in canada (not visitor) and for over a year so yes, she can choose CPC-O.
but even if she was not entitled to choose CPC-O do not apply inland cause she is a japanese citizen and manilla visa office processing time is 15 months for 80% of the cases.
If you have a straightforward case, it should less.

 

[Ponga]

Since you stated the processing time for Inland is not that much longer, you might consider an Inland application.

The only real advantage would be that with an Inland application (along with an Open Work Permit application submitted simultaneously), she would not need to renew her visitor status, since she would have implied status because of the OWP. Unlike a visitor extension request (which can be denied) the implied status from the OWP is automatic.

This is ONLY worth considering if the Inland versus Outland processing times for her really are close to the same.

 

[novembre2013]

Inland is a bad option in her case.
Ottawa is a fast visa office
and Manila which is visa office for japanese applicants is quite fast as well.
there is a person from japan that got her visa within 7 months.
her name is Kayaker.
I hope she can come in and confirm this.
And last thing, she can apply outland and yet be living here in Canada; but she must not be illegal (in this case, visitor visa is fine)

 

[Ponga]

CPC-O is a fast visa office, but there is NO guarantee that they would actually process this application. The OP can request CPC-O, but it's ultimately up to CIC where the application is processed.

Besides, I was merely expanding on what the OP said:
("The wait time is marginally better than inland, however not by much."), when even suggesting the Inland application.

 

[Kayaker]

Yup, that's me. I applied Feb 6 2014, got SA (sponsor approval) on March 7 (I think) and my COPR was issued on September 29. Manila has a processing time of 15 months but I wouldn't let that scare you. It means only 20% of applicants took that long. I wasn't the first person from February 2014 to get my PR either - two or three people got it before me. Also, I had to submit a second police certificate from Russia, which took me 2 months to obtain. I got my PR soon after I submitted that certificate, so possibly, if I had not needed to submit additional documents, I might have gotten my PR even earlier.

I really don't think your wife should apply Inland - she's not supposed to leave Canada because she risks losing her application. It may take 2 years, but Inland processing times rose sharply in the past year so I'd be really afraid to commit to a process that may become even longer. (The processing times posted now are NOT a guarantee or even an estimate of how long it will take for people applying Now will have to wait. It's only an indication of how long people who are getting stage 1 approval now waited. The fact that someone who applied August 2013 waited 14 months has little to do with how long people applying now or in the future will wait.) There are lots of people on this forum that are in limbo and can't go back home to for emergencies.

Ultimately CIC decides where they send a person's application. They might send it to CPC-O or they might send it to Manila because she's Japanese. In either case, I think she will get PR much faster than applying Inland. Interviews for people going through Manila are rare, especially for Japanese applicants. (There have been some Japanese applications going through Manila that are taking a long time; they seem to be cases where the Japanese applicant and his/her Canadian spouse are living in Japan and CIC doubts that the couple are planning to relocate to Canada. That's not an issue for you and your wife.)

Your wife can stay here while waiting for the Outland application to go through even as a visitor. I applied in February, came here in March and stayed here until I got PR. (I extended my visitor status once.) When I got PR I didn't even go back to Japan; we just drove to the nearest US border and re-entered as a PR.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

 

[novembre2013]

yes totally correct. The final decision on where to process is up to CIC.
@ sheps is your wife on visitor visa? if so, when would it expire?
you can look on manila thread to have an idea of the processing time. I checked there and noticed that it is a fast visa office as well. Don't get scared by what is written on CIC website
it is far way less if your wife case is simple.

@ kayaker thank you for showing up

 

[Sheps]

What is your definition of simple?

I may have some more questions now, but we are just working on getting everything together.

 

[Rob_TO]

What is your definition of simple?

No criminal convictions, a normal time (around at least 1 yr) dating before getting married, had a normal wedding that friends/family attended, not a massive age gap, etc etc.

Practically all visa-exempt people should apply outland. Doesn't matter if CIC chooses Ottawa or Manila for processing, either way her entire PR should be done quicker than just stage 1 of inland.

 

[Sheps]

Yeah, so we are not 100% simple then. Perhaps 90% simple, but not issue free.

 

[Rob_TO]

Yeah, so we are not 100% simple then. Perhaps 90% simple, but not issue free.

People on this site have seen/heard it all and how CIC treats certain things, so if you explain your "issue" you'd get some good advice on if it's a real problem or not.

 

[Sheps]

It is mainly just the timeline of when we have been dating to when we got married.

That said, I think it should be somewhat easy to overcome that since we have more or less merged our two lives. She moved here from Toronto, legally changed her name, living with me and everything that a normal married couple does.

Her family is fully aware of our marriage however they weren't able to attend, but will be coming to Canada for more of a family reception this summer(as will at least one of her friends).

So, like I said, not 100% simple but 90%

 

[Kayaker]

Well, you guys sound like us.

We met and were engaged within 2 months. Next meeting (4 months later) we got married. We applied about a month after that. He came alone to Japan to marry me, his family couldn't come.

But we explained everything in detail, why we made the decisions we did. We also explained that his mother was too old to handle the long flight to Japan, and that his sisters and their families couldn't afford the plane tickets, nor could we. We explained that we are having a wedding reception in Ottawa the following summer, which my family would attend, so that his family can celebrate and my family can meet his family.

The level of scrutiny is lower on a Japanese-Canadian couple, I think. My husband attached a cover letter explaining our relationship, and I also attached a detailed personal statement. We described how all our actions had reasons behind them. As long as you can do that, I wouldn't worry at all. (And send plenty of photos showing you two together and you two with each other's family and friends!)

 

[novembre2013]

It is mainly just the timeline of when we have been dating to when we got married.

That said, I think it should be somewhat easy to overcome that since we have more or less merged our two lives. She moved here from Toronto, legally changed her name, living with me and everything that a normal married couple does.

Her family is fully aware of our marriage however they weren't able to attend, but will be coming to Canada for more of a family reception this summer(as will at least one of her friends).

So, like I said, not 100% simple but 90%

I think you should be fine. If her family couldn't attend the wedding because of the distance, that is not a real issue as far as they know.

 

[Sheps]

Well, I feel a lot better now, thanks Kayaker and November!

We are working on getting the documents ready while we wait for her security certificate from the embassy.

In the meantime, she is her on a student visa, so we don't have to worry about that. We were going to apply inland but the times just kept going up over the past 2 months. That said, it will probably be December or January before we apply.