Guatemala visa office

[Chot89]

Hi everyone,

I am a canadian citizen thats married to a Panamanian and most of my family is in Panama. I have noticed that the embassy in Guatemala takes forever to process an application even a visitors visa. I also know quite a few people that have been denied the visa for unfair reasons. I was wondering what everyone elses experience has been like with this visa office.

Before i was married my husband and I were together for 3 years. I travled alot to Panama to be with him. He is good friends with my brother so when my brother was getting married he invited my husband to be his best man. We sent letters of invitations and we also let them know through a letter that we were covering all his expensis. His stay was only going to be for 2 weeks because of his job. He lives well in Panama and owns a house so there was no reason for him to stay in canada, which we also stated in a letter. After 4weeks of processing he was partially denied the visa for the following reasons: 1) not enough travel experienc (yet they wont issue him a visa) 2) they didnt understand the reason for his visit ( yet i even sent a letter from the bishop that was performing the ceremony stating that he was goig to be the best man at the wedding 3). Not enough money ( yet we clearly stated that all his expenses were being covered and he sent a bank statement showing he had more than 2000 dollars in his account for his 2 week stay.

They asked him to send additional documents but he had to pay the fee again. I really belive they just wanted more money. So he never made it for the weddig.

So after that we got married a year later and I moved to panama. I lived there for 3 years but my mom was very ill with cancer so i moved back to be with her. We decided to go through the sponsership process so that we can all be together here in canada with my mom. I got a lawyer and he did all the paper work for me. Everyhing was pretty much perdect before it was sent to toronto. I got approved as a sponser a month later.

His papers are now at guatemala and have been for the past 4 months. I know the wait is long but i have been trying to know the status for quite sometime and it is always unavailable. i talked to the lawyer and he told me to call my mp and request for him to send a letter asking for the status. So i will be doing that very soon.

 

[Chot89]

Hi everyone. I am just updating. So I contacted my mp (which would be the second time) and that was no help. But the funny this is that when i called it wasnt the mp that answered, it was obviously someone that represents him. He told me there was no way to contact my mp and that the mp cant legally get involved in immigration issues. This is the second time I talk to this man and he has been no help at all. He says they ant request the status of the application and that I have to wait min 18 months sothe soonest I will know about my husbands paper work is maybe in march of next year. Thats bull. I dot know what that man is here for. I talked to my lawyer and he said he wil send a satus request for me. He says its strange that he wont let my mp help me. That man was rude, but I think I should email the mp instead of calling. Ill wait to see what my lawyer says. If it takes 18 months to get a status i think ill just move back to panama and forget about this. This government is doing wrong things. Instead of helping families to ge reunited fast, they split them up and ruin marriges.

 

[GuateCanadian79]

Unfortunately, your MP's office can't and won't help you until your file has been in process longer than the maximum posted timelines.
When I contacted my MP's office I was not able to speak with the MP directly or have a meeting with him. I always dealt with his immigration case coordinator. The case coordinator was a really nice guy who was very helpful and always had generic answers when asked if I could speak with my MP. He would tell me that the MP is aware of my file and the direction he (the case worker) is taking it.
He will continue to monitor the status of my file and continue to do all he can to help.

From my experience, there is only so much an MP's office can do. They would follow-up with Immigration in Ottawa to get information on our file from the computer system and they would contact the Guatemala Embassy. Usually the Embassy responded rather quickly, however there were a few times they did not respond and we had to follow-up again.

If you email the MP, the assistant you spoke with or another one will receive your email and forward to the rude guy.
I know getting to our current MP is impossible. However, the MP we had before, he had an open door policy and would spend his days meeting with people. So I guess it depends on your MP and how they run their offices if they will see you or not.

Unfortunately, you just have to be patient and eventually, you will hear from the Embassy. There isn't much anyone can do when your file is in process and within the timeframe the processing times the Canadian Government has posted on their Immigration website.

Good Luck!

 

[Chot89]

Thanks. Im ts not just that the guy is rude and doesnt want to help. I have beeb patient for about 3 years now but nothing else weve tried worked so now we are doing this. Im just worried that they need more documents and havent contacted me about it, just because it has happend with family. But I guess theres not much I can do. Thank you