February 2020 Spousal sponsorship Outland

[Zama234]

I'm a bit confused...here's my timeline:
Application received - Feb 28, 2020
AOR1 - Sept. 10, 2020
BIL - ???
Medical- ???
SA - Oct. 13, 2020

PA's ECAS shows:

1. We received your application for permanent residence on February 28, 2020.
2. We sent you a letter on September 23, 2020. Please consider delays in mail delivery before contacting us.

I'm still waiting for the Biometric and medical request. Could #2 above be a biometric instruction letter? Haven't received anything in mail or by email.

AOR1 and SA were sent to the Sponsor via email.

GCKEY shows:
Biometrics - We have not received your fingerprints. Check your biometrics request message for details

 

[SubnormalFever]

I'm a bit confused...here's my timeline:
Application received - Feb 28, 2020
AOR1 - Sept. 10, 2020
BIL - ???
Medical- ???
SA - Oct. 13, 2020

PA's ECAS shows:

1. We received your application for permanent residence on February 28, 2020.
2. We sent you a letter on September 23, 2020. Please consider delays in mail delivery before contacting us.

I'm still waiting for the Biometric and medical request. Could #2 above be a biometric instruction letter? Haven't received anything in mail or by email.

AOR1 and SA were sent to the Sponsor via email.

GCKEY shows:
Biometrics - We have not received your fingerprints. Check your biometrics request message for details

I would say check your junk. We have received the biometrics letter by email in the junk folder. But yes, the letter sent on September 23rd is definitely your biometrics request.

 

[DiiDii]

If you were on GCKEY before that date your Bio Letter should be at the bottom of the page. Unless you have done bio previously for a different reason it should be there. Otherwise I'd call or send a Webform in regards.

Did the sponsor not receive the email notification to check GCKEY? Sometimes people miss it. Search your email by IRCC and see if there are any unread messages.

I'm a bit confused...here's my timeline:
Application received - Feb 28, 2020
AOR1 - Sept. 10, 2020
BIL - ???
Medical- ???
SA - Oct. 13, 2020

PA's ECAS shows:

1. We received your application for permanent residence on February 28, 2020.
2. We sent you a letter on September 23, 2020. Please consider delays in mail delivery before contacting us.

I'm still waiting for the Biometric and medical request. Could #2 above be a biometric instruction letter? Haven't received anything in mail or by email.

AOR1 and SA were sent to the Sponsor via email.

GCKEY shows:
Biometrics - We have not received your fingerprints. Check your biometrics request message for details

 

[SubnormalFever]

If you were on GCKEY before that date your Bio Letter should be at the bottom of the page. Unless you have done bio previously for a different reason it should be there. Otherwise I'd call or send a Webform in regards.

Did the sponsor not receive the email notification to check GCKEY? Sometimes people miss it. Search your email by IRCC and see if there are any unread messages.

Ah great point, sorry forgot about the bottom part of GCKEY! Yes definitely check there!

 

[Zama234]

I would say check your junk. We have received the biometrics letter by email in the junk folder. But yes, the letter sent on September 23rd is definitely your biometrics request.

I think so too! Unfortunately didn't see anything in the junk folder.

If you were on GCKEY before that date your Bio Letter should be at the bottom of the page. Unless you have done bio previously for a different reason it should be there. Otherwise I'd call or send a Webform in regards.

Did the sponsor not receive the email notification to check GCKEY? Sometimes people miss it. Search your email by IRCC and see if there are any unread messages.

GCKEY was linked after the bio letter date so don't see any messages re: Bio letter. No email notifications either ☹...we tried calling IRCC but it wasn't helpful. We have already submitted a webform...fingers crossed!

 

[DiiDii]

I think so too! Unfortunately didn't see anything in the junk folder.


GCKEY was linked after the bio letter date so don't see any messages re: Bio letter. No email notifications either ☹...we tried calling IRCC but it wasn't helpful. We have already submitted a webform...fingers crossed!

OK sorry to hear. Search your application number in the sponsors email again just to make sure. I always search that number or 'IRCC'

 

[Prabhgillz]

hello everyone
application received FEBRUARY 02
SYDNEY NOVA SCOTIA

Any update

 

[SubnormalFever]

Hey everyone! Anyone saw "faster" movement and processing of files in October? Still waiting to see those "6,000 applications per month from October to December"...
I'm generalizing here, all the updates I saw were the SA letters letting us know that files will be moved to Visa Offices, letters that should have been sent a month and a half prior to receiving them! (No joke, many of us were approved, with the notes saying that we are, but they held off on sending them in the beginning of September until finally sending a bunch in mid-October.)
Just curious

 

[NK^2]

Hey everyone! Anyone saw "faster" movement and processing of files in October? Still waiting to see those "6,000 applications per month from October to December"...
I'm generalizing here, all the updates I saw were the SA letters letting us know that files will be moved to Visa Offices, letters that should have been sent a month and a half prior to receiving them! (No joke, many of us were approved, with the notes saying that we are, but they held off on sending them in the beginning of September until finally sending a bunch in mid-October.)
Just curious

Mississauga has been absolutely quiet with Indian spousal applications. Nothing since March. They seem to be processing other countries however.

 

[SubnormalFever]

Hey everyone! Anyone saw "faster" movement and processing of files in October? Still waiting to see those "6,000 applications per month from October to December"...
I'm generalizing here, all the updates I saw were the SA letters letting us know that files will be moved to Visa Offices, letters that should have been sent a month and a half prior to receiving them! (No joke, many of us were approved, with the notes saying that we are, but they held off on sending them in the beginning of September until finally sending a bunch in mid-October.)
Just curious

Mississauga has been absolutely quiet with Indian spousal applications. Nothing since March. They seem to be processing other countries however.

Yeah, I said I'm generalizing because I saw someone who's spouse is from the US, applied one day after we did, AOR1 5 days after ours, and all done with decision made or passport request! Not saying I'm not happy for them, I'm happy for everyone who can bring their spouses home, but my spouse is in Lebanon, no VFS closures unlike India, yet, no news!

 

[armoured]

Yeah, I said I'm generalizing because I saw someone who's spouse is from the US, applied one day after we did, AOR1 5 days after ours, and all done with decision made or passport request! Not saying I'm not happy for them, I'm happy for everyone who can bring their spouses home, but my spouse is in Lebanon, no VFS closures unlike India, yet, no news!

I cannot say with certainty but based on the behaviour of a couple visa offices, I believe one BIG obstacle is that IRCC is holding back passport requests and COPR issuances ... in countries where the VACs are not operating to issue them. (This is in addition to staffing issues at embassies/consulates).

In a few countries/regions where VACs started opening, even in reduced operations to just receive documents (passports for COPR), a fairly large number of PPRs followed not long after.

For USA and many visa waiver countries, not an issue or less of one as they don't require the passports to be sent and/or can just be done by post within north america.

As I understand the Indian VACs in particular have mostly been closed (with plans to reopen soon, or at least partly?)

Obviously this is just one of several bottlenecks but an important one; if they know the PPRs/COPRs will not be issued because procedures not in place to handle them, they will move to other tasks.

 

[chirag.dhirawani0803]

Guys just got a ghost update! Can anyone let me know how many days/hours did it take for pre arrival to come after the ghost update? File at Ottawa.

 

[SubnormalFever]

I cannot say with certainty but based on the behaviour of a couple visa offices, I believe one BIG obstacle is that IRCC is holding back passport requests and COPR issuances ... in countries where the VACs are not operating to issue them. (This is in addition to staffing issues at embassies/consulates).

In a few countries/regions where VACs started opening, even in reduced operations to just receive documents (passports for COPR), a fairly large number of PPRs followed not long after.

For USA and many visa waiver countries, not an issue or less of one as they don't require the passports to be sent and/or can just be done by post within north america.

As I understand the Indian VACs in particular have mostly been closed (with plans to reopen soon, or at least partly?)

Obviously this is just one of several bottlenecks but an important one; if they know the PPRs/COPRs will not be issued because procedures not in place to handle them, they will move to other tasks.

Random story worth mentioning:
A good friend of mine married his wife in Lebanon in 2019 then went back to Canada and started the paperwork for spousal sponsorship. After AOR1, they applied for a TRV and it was granted for a year. They lived together until they asked her to go back to Lebanon and get her PR visa in March 2020. She went there in February, got the PR visa and you know the rest of the story. Border closure. PR visa expired. TRV expired. She had to contact MP's and IRCC countless times until FINALLY, in July, they asked for her passport again. They kept her passport in the embassy for 3 months and a half!!! They finally handed back her passport 2 days ago, and she arrived here this morning.

 

[DSPCHANDRA]

Yeah I got the same thing as you, different visa office though. That only means that the next step is to move the file. It hasn't been moved yet. I've been following my file very closely and calling IRCC every now and then, and guess what I have learned today? They're still sending Outland applications to visa offices by paper, not electronically! It's just as I had posted 2 days ago: all changes and promises to assess files rapidly for spousal sponsorship are for inland only for now...

Hi , So they send your entire hard copies to Visa Office (NDVO in my case). Is that true ??

That explains why it is taking so much time for AOR2 after the SA+VO letter. I was in the impression that they will scan the documents

 

[SubnormalFever]

Hi , So they send your entire hard copies to Visa Office (NDVO in my case). Is that true ??

That explains why it is taking so much time for AOR2 after the SA+VO letter. I was in the impression that they will scan the documents

Yeah, that's what was confirmed to me by three agents. Scanning is currently only done for inland applications. Will they change their procedure just like they did with biometrics? (Asked for my wife's biometrics which she provided for the 4th time, 10 days later, all biometrics given in the last 10 years can be used!)