Guatemala Embassy - Processing Time, Passport, etc

[MrsCasanova]

Hi Everyone,

Here is our case,

My husband is from Costa Rica, we applied last year, I was accepted as a sponsor on Aug 11, 2009 , they started processing his application on Sept 18, 2009 and requested his passport and police criminal record checks in January.

His medicals have already been done but I think they have expired already. Will he have to re-do them?

They have had his passport since January 2010, didnt ask for an interview and they have all the fees already.

ANy idea on processing times?

Anyone on a similar time frame? We're getting really anxious

How long do they usually keep the passport for?

 

[iarblue]

Processing from Guatemala is 19 months for 80% of the cases,your was sent to the visa office in Sept 18 so it could be still March 2011.it could be a bit sooner if the app is straight forward and there is not issues,the medical they will infrom you if they require it and when they require it.

 

[MrsCasanova]

Ya I know about the processing times on the website, I was just wondering if anyone has had any experience with this recently. I thought everything was going pretty fast, any idea as to how long they keep the passport for?

 

[GuateCanadian79]

My husband's PR was done through Guatemala and they requested his passport and returned it to him a 3.5 weeks.
However, our file did take over 3 years to be processed (never asked for additional documents or interview).

It is a very slow Embassy and the VO's are over worked with files from all of Central America.

With respect to medicals, my husband's medicals expired in September 2007 and they requested them to be re-done in January 2010. We asked if they would provide us with the papers to have them done again to avoid delays and they told us they would let us know when the medicals were to be completed again. His medicals were requested when the file was completed. When he returned the form to the Embassy stating he had done the medicals is when he was to deliver his passport.

Good luck and be patient! It takes them awhile to get things done, but eventually your good news will come.

 

[plumosa]

it seems quite odd to me that they've had his passport for 7 months. I would contact CIC and see what they say!

 

[MrsCasanova]

Maybe I will, my lawyer said not to and she faxed them instead, however they haven't been responding to the faxes either. I know guatemala is slow, but I'm a bit worried now.

 

[GuateCanadian79]

If you are concerned you should get your local member of parliament involved. They can call the immigration office in Ottawa to get information on your file and can also directly contact the Embassy. The Embassy always replied to the member of parliament's emails faster than the ones from my immigration consultant.

There were times that Guatemala ignored our correspondence and we had to follow-up again. Eventually we would receive a generic email back not providing us with the information we asked for.

Don't worry ... if things weren't looking good for a positive outcome for your file, you would have heard from them already!

Stay positive ... it will happen!

 

[MrsCasanova]

Thank you for the encouragement!

Do you think they would respond to an MP faster than my lawyer? Really?

 

[GuateCanadian79]

It worked for us and the MP was able to call the Ottawa immigration office and get information from the electronic file and he also followed up directly with the Embassy (email and calling to talk with someone). The Embassy is supposed to respond to inquiries from the MP's office in a shorter timeframe than all other inquiries (so my MP's office told me). The Embassy was general pretty good with replying promptly to my MP. If you feel that things are not moving along and you are worried, I would give it a try. You have nothing to lose by going and getting help from you MP. Good luck!