February 2017 * OUTLAND SPOUSAL APPLIC*

[Masonb6888]

I tried asking elsewhere but didn't get an answer, so I'll try here since my wife and I are also February outland applicants. We got a decision on Sep. 22, a week before my wife's police clearances would become a year old and possibly expire. Does anyone here know if the validity date for police clearances matters after a decision is reached or would they still possibly ask for an updated clearance?

I feel like it wouldn't matter since they've already made a decision on your application. You're probably just waiting on CoPR in the mail right now if you haven't already recieved PPR.

 

[adam090epp]

I feel like it wouldn't matter since they've already made a decision on your application. You're probably just waiting on CoPR in the mail right now if you haven't already recieved PPR.

Well, we haven't heard anything since the decision, which is why we're uncertain.

 

[Masonb6888]

Well, we haven't heard anything since the decision, which is why we're uncertain.

September 22 wasn't that far away. Especially with how busy Ottawa and Mississauga are right now (if those are your VOs, I'm just assuming.)
I would maybe try calling them and being like 'yo, whud up. where my stuff at?' at the very least, they could tell you what to expect..

 

[adam090epp]

September 22 wasn't that far away. Especially with how busy Ottawa and Mississauga are right now (if those are your VOs, I'm just assuming.)
I would maybe try calling them and being like 'yo, whud up. where my stuff at?' at the very least, they could tell you what to expect..

Apparently, they ask for the passports about 5 to 10 days after the decision, so they seem to be slow. I won't bother going through the hassle of phoning them, but I'll contact an MP if Mississauga hasn't done anything after 30 days. I just don't want them to ask for new police clearances because my wife is American and the FBI takes forever.

 

[Masonb6888]

Apparently, they ask for the passports about 5 to 10 days after the decision, so they seem to be slow. I won't bother going through the hassle of phoning them, but I'll contact an MP if Mississauga hasn't done anything after 30 days. I just don't want them to ask for new police clearances because my wife is American and the FBI takes forever.

I've heard that if they've accepted it, you're fine.
Plus you could use a channeler and it would take, from what I've heard, 24 hours to 3 weeks. Plus you've already received a DM.

 

[SandhuHarry]

Can someone post a link of Feb spreadsheet ?

Thank you!

 

[adam090epp]

I've heard that if they've accepted it, you're fine.
Plus you could use a channeler and it would take, from what I've heard, 24 hours to 3 weeks. Plus you've already received a DM.

What's a channeler?

 

[Jeremiah Jones]

Hello

First, sorry for the very long post. Just providing our story for others.

My wife and I have been running into a few unforeseen issues, but I believe we have addressed the issues and the application is being normally processed again.The issue was I was not physically present at the legal marriage ceremony, because of work related things. However, about two weeks after we held a wedding ceremony and reception together with 80+ guests. We had a pastor, photographers, a wedding party, catered meal, dancing, wedding cake and hundreds of photos. On June 7th, CIC emailed us stating that under the refugee and protection act, our marriage cannot be used for immigration as I was not physically present at the marriage. They gave us thirty days to make a case, and we sent tonnes of information showing we had a wedding ceremony physically together. Then on August 28th, they stated that even though they can see we are truly married, by law they can't use our marriage for immigration purposes because what counts is the legal marriage ceremony. It's called a proxy marriage. BUT, they noticed we started living together August 2016, so if we can provide evidence that we have cohabited for 12 continuous months and submit the Declaration of Common-Law form withing 30 days, they can continue to process my wife's application as a Common-Law sponsored. Truthfully since August 2016, we had lived everyday together, so we submitted the best evidence we could (signed letters, photos, utility receipts, Uber receipts from both of us to and from, appliances receipts, etc.). They didn't ask us for proof of relationship, because we obviously had shown that before, they only cared about us living together to at least 1 year. I do understand these laws are for protection of refugees and to stop human trafficking, and I totally respect that. It just sucks when it happens.

Application Received = Fed 21, 2017
AOR1 = March 09, 2017
SA = March 13, 2017
Police Certificate Request = March 15, 2017
AOR2 = March 20, 2017
ECAS IP = March 21, 2017
Proof of Return to Canada Requested = March 27, 2017
Proof of Relationship Documents Requested = June 7, 2017
(We both traveled to Canada for 3 weeks for vacation)
Medical Requested = July 25, 2017
Medical Exam = July 27, 2017
Medical Passed = July 28, 2017
Proof of Cohabiting for 1 year and Declaration of Common-Law Requested = August 28, 2017
Mailed all the required information directly to Canadian Embassy = September 20, 2017
BGC changed to in progress = September 27, 2017

30 days from the requested information on August 28th is September 27th. We sent the information a week before this deadline, but on the 27th, the Background Check changed to "In Progress". Does anyone know or think this is a good sign? Haha

 

[Jeremiah Jones]

Also here is the rule stated by CIC. Please let your family and friends know about this, I don't want this to happen to anyone else! It's not that fun.

Subsection 117(9) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations state:
• 117. (9) A foreign national shall not be considered a member of the family class by virtue of their relationship to a sponsor if

(c.1) the foreign national is the sponsor’s spouse and if at the time the marriage ceremony was conducted either one or both of the spouses were not physically present unless the foreign national was marrying a person who was not physically present at the ceremony as a result of their service as a member of the Canadian Forces and the marriage is valid both under the laws of the jurisdiction where it took place and under Canadian law

 

[mcroze]

What's a channeler?

A channeler is a third party that submits your fingerprint info to the FBI. We had our results in under an hour. See Option 2 on this link.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/security/police-cert/north-america/united-states.asp

 

[AtGod]

Hi everyone,
Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm living in Canada and sponsoring my husband. Our application was received on 24th January 2017. We got SA on 11th February. My husband got a letter to submit criminal record and annexe A on the same day. He sent everything since middle of March and we got also CSQ from Quebec by end of March. We are waiting for medical request since then. On the website we just know that they received the application on 24th January. But nothing about when they begin to process. It seems like nobody touches the application in Accra. My husband is living at Japon currently, I thought they will send the application at Manilla but they sent it at Accra because we are from Benin. I'am wondering if all these silence is due to that. People who submit on February as us have already got medical request at least. I don't really know what is happening and what I can do to get more information. If someone have an idea, please tell me. I am going crazy with all of this.

 

[Jeremiah Jones]

I don't really know what is happening and what I can do to get more information. If someone have an idea, please tell me. I am going crazy with all of this.

It does suck not to know what's going on, sorry to hear that. I haven't had to personally contact CIC a lot, but these are just some of the ways I have seen work for other people.

1. I am not sure which webpage you have checked so I will just say check both online pages.

- GCKEY (This is where they will ask for more information and list the statuses) http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/e-services/account.asp
- ECAS (Use your or your partner's UCI#, Last name, Date of Birth and Country of Birth. This will show you what they have done so far on the application) https://services3.cic.gc.ca/ecas/authenticate.do
​

2. You can try calling CIC, from within Canada they have automated recordings of the statuses of application, and maybe talk to a agent.

• Telephone: 1-888-242-2100 (in Canada only)
  • Automated telephone service (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week)
    If you have a touch-tone telephone, you can listen to pre-recorded information about our programs, and check the status of your application.
  • Client Support Center agents - Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., your local time, except for statutory holidays. Services are available in French and English.
    Agents can help you with general and case specific inquiries. They cannot:
    • make decisions on applications
    • help process applications faster, unless you meet the criteria for urgent processing
• If you are hearing impaired, or you have a speech impediment and use a text telephone, you can access the TTY service from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. your local time by calling 1-888-576-8502.

3. If you think there is really a problem with the application you can also use CIC's online web form to submit a question. I used this once when an email they sent us didn't make sense. They responded within a day and cleared up our confusion. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/contacts/web-form.asp

4. As a last resort, you could try contacting by email or phone the VISA office or embassy. Most likely they may just point you to the web form or CIC number. But it's worth a try to get something.

- Accra VISA office: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/offices/missions/accra.asp
- Accra Embassy: http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/ghana/contact-contactez.aspx?lang=eng
​

5. I have also head of people being able to order notes from CIC about the progress of their application. It costs about $5. I have never done it, so I would advise you research about it first to make sure it would actually benefit you before doing it. Here is CIC's webpage about it: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/atip/requests-atip.asp

I hope you are able to find out some information about your application, and that it's going well. God bless!

 

[Dawn63]

Hello all,

Has any of you had your application sent to a visa office different than your country of residence? In that case, what will happen at the passport request stage?

My husband is a US permanent resident, living and working there.. but his application was transferred to the Ankara visa office. Now, we are finally seeing "Decision Made" on ECAS website but when we contacted CIC, they said they cannot see any decisions and we need to contact Ankara. The problem is my husband cannot go to Ankara and if they don't send our application back to Ottawa, I'm not sure how we are supposed to get the visa for him from the US!

Also, how can CIC not know anything when ECAS status has changed?? Could "Decision made" indicate rejection?
IF anyone has similar experiences please share.

Thanks

 

[AtGod]

It does suck not to know what's going on, sorry to hear that. I haven't had to personally contact CIC a lot, but these are just some of the ways I have seen work for other people.

1. I am not sure which webpage you have checked so I will just say check both online pages.

- GCKEY (This is where they will ask for more information and list the statuses) http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/e-services/account.asp
- ECAS (Use your or your partner's UCI#, Last name, Date of Birth and Country of Birth. This will show you what they have done so far on the application) https://services3.cic.gc.ca/ecas/authenticate.do
​

2. You can try calling CIC, from within Canada they have automated recordings of the statuses of application, and maybe talk to a agent.

• Telephone: 1-888-242-2100 (in Canada only)
  • Automated telephone service (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week)
    If you have a touch-tone telephone, you can listen to pre-recorded information about our programs, and check the status of your application.
  • Client Support Center agents - Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., your local time, except for statutory holidays. Services are available in French and English.
    Agents can help you with general and case specific inquiries. They cannot:
    • make decisions on applications
    • help process applications faster, unless you meet the criteria for urgent processing
• If you are hearing impaired, or you have a speech impediment and use a text telephone, you can access the TTY service from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. your local time by calling 1-888-576-8502.

3. If you think there is really a problem with the application you can also use CIC's online web form to submit a question. I used this once when an email they sent us didn't make sense. They responded within a day and cleared up our confusion. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/contacts/web-form.asp

4. As a last resort, you could try contacting by email or phone the VISA office or embassy. Most likely they may just point you to the web form or CIC number. But it's worth a try to get something.

- Accra VISA office: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/offices/missions/accra.asp
- Accra Embassy: http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/ghana/contact-contactez.aspx?lang=eng
​

5. I have also head of people being able to order notes from CIC about the progress of their application. It costs about $5. I have never done it, so I would advise you research about it first to make sure it would actually benefit you before doing it. Here is CIC's webpage about it: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/atip/requests-atip.asp

I hope you are able to find out some information about your application, and that it's going well. God bless!

Thank you very much for your detailed answer. I have already sent an email to the Accra office but they never respond. I will try to contact cic trough the web form. Thank you very much

 

[Jeremiah Jones]

Hello all,

Has any of you had your application sent to a visa office different than your country of residence? In that case, what will happen at the passport request stage?

My husband is a US permanent resident, living and working there.. but his application was transferred to the Ankara visa office. Now, we are finally seeing "Decision Made" on ECAS website but when we contacted CIC, they said they cannot see any decisions and we need to contact Ankara. The problem is my husband cannot go to Ankara and if they don't send our application back to Ottawa, I'm not sure how we are supposed to get the visa for him from the US!

Also, how can CIC not know anything when ECAS status has changed?? Could "Decision made" indicate rejection?
IF anyone has similar experiences please share.

Thanks

but these are just some of the ways I have seen work for other people.

You can try some of the way I stated in my other post about contacting CIC. If the "Decision Made" is true, than soon you should be seeing what the decision is. The final decision will either be approved or rejected, there is no way of knowing ahead of time.

CIC should know that your husband is living in the USA, right?

Here is the Ankara VO info: http://www.vfsglobal.ca/canada/Turkey/contact_us.html

Also, here are few other threads about people with similar situations:

- http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/got-ppr-spouse-in-different-country-what-to-do.415678/
- http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/ppr-request-and-spouse-in-a-different-country.521286/
- http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/ppr-with-dependent-in-different-country.516372/
- http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/urgent-ppr-request-spouse-in-another-country.442792/
- http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/urgent-visa-office-change-request-after-ppr.316489/
​

CIC information:

- http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/perm/express/final.asp
- http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/offices/canada/ottawa.asp#permanent
​

Hope it helps, God bless!