Help!! Medical and timescales - Newbie!

[Megscominhome]

Hey everyone,

This forum looks great, I think I will be frequenting it!

A bit of background - I am Canadian and am trying to sponsor my husband to come back to Canada with me. I have lived outside Canada for almost 10 (!!) years now, met and married him in 2003 in Scotland. We now live in the Cayman Islands and are looking to come back asap. We have 11 month old twins, and I can't wait to get a bit of a hand from my family in looking after the little monkeys! I'm hoping all of this is going to help make the process a bit faster.

We have printed all the paperwork and he's in the process of getting everything filled in (on another note - is it ok to have all the forms typed via the fillable pdf or do they prefer them to be handwritten?) and I agree with other members - my kitchen table is covered in paperwork!

One concern I have - is that he has had his medical done already. From what I've seen, a lot of people wait until after the paperwork has been submitted to do the medical as it looks like they have 1 year from the date of the medical to enter Canada? I can see this being a problem for us as he has to give 3 months notice to his work, so we'd have to be approved in about 8 months to allow us time for notice and travelling back!

Look forward to hearing from you!

Meg

 

[Rinnerz]

Welcome to the forum .

1) Yes, filling in the forms by just typing into their fillable PDF files is fine. In fact, most prefer to do it that way, since you don't have the added risk of the visa officer misreading your handwriting.

2) Most (if not all?) outland family class PR applications actually require you to do your medical beforehand. Check your region specific guide; providing Copy 2 of Medical Report Section A (given to your husband by the DMP when he had his medical done) is typically required in the document checklist.

I wouldn't worry too much about when he had his medical done, unless there is a significant (several months) gap between when he had it done and when you guys submit the application. You haven't mentioned where he's from and which visa office his file will be processed at. Without knowing that, no one can even begin to give an approximate timeframe for how long it will all take. The medical is valid for 1 year, so if his processing does somehow take that long, the worst that will happen is that they ask him to redo the medical before finalizing everything.

Best case scenario, his processing won't take so long that he'll have to redo his medical anyway. If he is from the UK, for example, his file would be processed in the London visa office--and they seem to process relatively quickly these days, so you likely wouldn't have to worry about his medical expiring at all.

 

[fleo]

If it takes more than 12 months to complete the process (or if it cuts dangerously close - you won't be issued a visa and required to land within a week ), your husband will be asked to redo his medicals and the landing deadline will be either 12 months from the new medicals or the date his passport expires (so keep an eye on that as well).

 

[chelley]

while no one can say how long it will take you to get thru, it seems to be the norm for the kingston office to process third country applicants (cayman) in shorter time frames (someone from bahamas got thru in 3m)... coming from a visa-exempt country seems to help the process along for kgn

if you don't end up getting thru in due time, medicals will need to be repeated if they expire (1yr).. it happens sometimes with kgn and usually adds a couple months to the process... with kingston, there's usually 2-3 weeks between passport request and return (seems to be more if they are mailing), so you will have a little bit more "wiggle room" with the job situation

hope that helps

 

[Rinnerz]

Ah, yes. I totally missed the "JAM" visa office tag in her profile name. ^ chelley's post above is also super helpful, in that case.

 

[waitingintz]

Yes - as was said, submitting the medical with the application is a requirement for outland applications.

As for the 3 months notice there are three possible scenarios I can think of:
1. you are accepted within that time frame and he can give notice and then move to Canada (this would mean the application process takes less than 9 months from when he did the medical)

2. Three months before your medical expires your husband gives notice. You would choose this if he's applying through a visa office that is generally pretty quick and you've received good feedback on progress and have reason to believe that this is a sensible gamble. Obviously there is a risk here. There may be a gap in between him finishing his job and the application being approved. The application might be rejected for some reason.

3. You wait until the application is approved and finalized and then your husband flies to Canada and officially lands. He then flies back and finishes his three months.

My partner and I choose option 2. We are leaving our jobs and hoping for the best. He has been provisionally accepted pending his background check, we have no reason to expect any problems. Also he is from a visa exempt country so he can enter canada with me for up to 6 months without his PR visa if it comes to that. It will also not be difficult to obtain documents saying he has a residence outside of Canada and is expected to return to work should we need evidence that he will leave the country. We made this decision at a point in the process at which we felt comfortable making it (not at the beginning of the process).

So... those are the options. Wait and see how things go. In your case you only need to make the final decision 3 months before your medical is due to expire so you've got time.

Oh - and regarding the PDF form filling vs handwritten... we found we had to hand write sometimes because the PDF form didn't allow enough space (like for addresses) so we did a combination.

 

[Rinnerz]

Oh - and regarding the PDF form filling vs handwritten... we found we had to hand write sometimes because the PDF form didn't allow enough space (like for addresses) so we did a combination.

If you come across this problem and still prefer typing over writing, you could also just enter in something to the effect of "See attached document" and type out what you need onto an additional sheet and attach it for more space and clarity. If you do this, make sure you clearly mark the form and question number you're replying to, as well as all pertinent ID information so that they can easily link those additional sheets to your file (such as full name, date of birth, etc).

 

[Megscominhome]

Thanks so much everyone for your input - I'll have to show him all this info later.

(he's British, to answer an earlier question).

Great news to hear that there is a small chance the application might be processed a bit quicker.

And thank you all for not making me feel like I'm asking stupid questions! My family have been asking us to move back to Canada for a very long time... it feels good to finally be making progress.

Now all we need to do is get him sorted with a job and everything will be rosy!

Thanks again

M

 

[chelley]

i'm sure you've thought about it, but including a letter(s) from family stating that they are very supportive of your returning to canada and will help you temporarily in any way possible (ie. accomodations, maybe if they have any pull in potential employment for both or either of you, help with child care ect) is a very good thing (almost necessary if you don't have job(s) lined up for return)... the more support you can demonstrate in your re-settling in Canada, the stronger your case will be applying from abroad...


as an aside, my best friend is in cayman since '08 and i believe you can only stay there 7 years if you are not a citizen or married to a citizen... i'm not sure what she'll do when her time comes... probably marry some random LOL

 

[Megscominhome]

chelley - yes, the limit is 7 years, unless you fall under certain employment categories (partner in an accounting or law firm, manager, business owner, etc), we won't stay that long. The government are always reviewing that, they're a bit in limbo between pleasing the companies that bring money (who want longer terms and easier immigration) and the local people (who want shorter terms and tougher immigration)... of course, this is a huge generalization but you get the idea!

It's a nice place to live.. for a while! But I can't wait to get back to the west coast... and get rid of the $500 monthly electricity bills in the summer!!

 

[chelley]

hahaha or the 3500/month rent for a one bedroom condo... it's overwelming how expensive things can be there!

as an aside, while i was just thinking, if he is a UK citizen and you are concerned about the timelines, you do have the option of processing through the London office, which has a significantly better track record than Kingston (although kingston does seem to have picked up their slack as of the past 6m or so, hope it's a trend that continues)... i don't have any benchmark information to say how fast or slow kingston would process a citizen of a fourth nation (UK), i can't imagine it would hold things up any, but it's kingston and you never know!

also i couldn't say how fast/slow London would be processing a non-resident... if they do decide to call an interview (you'd have to hope not considering it seems like your application is pretty straightforward from a relationship standpoint), then it would be in London tho...

just something else to add another little bit of confusion to the pot!