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Hong Kong timeline

lucaskclai

Star Member
Mar 22, 2016
64
0
cheng9999 said:
Others have said that the COPR can indeed be mailed to your address in Canada. Do you see in eCas the mailing address has changed? If it hasn't it does not mean it has not as eCas is not reliable. Again, the only way to know is to look at GCMS notes. You should have someone in HK to check mail regularly in case it gets sent to your HK mailing address.

Birth cert for your children. Yes, CIC should be able to dig through the records of your daughters' citizenship files, but it's easier for you to just provide the documents. Birth certs are proof that your wife is the mother. In our case, I was very certain I provided birth certificates of our kids in the application, but GCMS notes say they are missing. I uploaded them again.

Hang in there. It looks like progress Lucas. Hope you get DM soon.
In eCas it has been changed. I have someone in HK to check mail regularly.
I agreed it is easier to provide proof the children are my wife but it seems they should check on our marriage status rather than the children. But it is Okay.
For all its worth, there is nothing I can do but hang in there. My progress only happen after 16 months while the normal processing time in HK case is 12 months.
Lucas
 

wyho007

Hero Member
Dec 14, 2015
388
21
Category........
Visa Office......
Hong Kong
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
18-04-2016
Doc's Request.
08-06-2016
AOR Received.
07-05-2016
File Transfer...
30-05-2016
Med's Done....
Upfront
Interview........
Waived
Passport Req..
DM on ECAS: 14-01-2017
VISA ISSUED...
COPR rec'd 04-02-2017
cheng9999 said:
I believe the newest instructions for HK, Macau does not ask for medical upfront. It did in the past. No matter, you are all set. It means the VO will try to finish the case before medical expires...or at least you hope that's the case. If the VO completes the case, it would mean you have to go back way earlier than Mar/Apr because the expiry of the COPR is 12 months from the medical examination report, which also has a 12 month validity.

By AOR1, I believe you meant that it was the original email sent to the you as the sponsor saying application was received. You should soon receive SA, saying sponsorship is approved and case will be passed to HKVO. After SA, communication will go to the applicant and not the sponsor. So your partner has to diligently monitor the email SPAM box to make sure communication does not slip through. AOR2 may come, and asks for updated information...a common one is IMM 5669E, which asks the applicant to go back to 18 years old instead of only past 10 years for background history. Some people do not get AOR2, so there is no way of knowing if the VO sent this out...the only way is to order GCMS notes to check.

For ordering GCMS notes via Access to Information Act, you can do it because you are a Canadian citizen. You do not have to live in Canada. You will have to pay $5. Make sure you follow the instructions, and have your partner sign the authorization form so that the information can be released to you.
Information is really helpful. Thank you!

This is the country specific instructions I follow (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/guides/3903e.pdf) and it's updated 1-2016, is there another one more updated? No. 14 on the checklist is the requirement for medical upfront. I of course want my partner's case be processed and approved asap, we don't mind to leave earlier! No to mention we don't want to spend again on re-medical should the processing takes longer than 12 months.

You mentioned they may ask for "IMM 5669E, which asks the applicant to go back to 18 years old instead of only past 10 years for background history", is that the question 8 regarding work history? [though I don't know why they would ask as the form doesn't required] Do you think my partner can provide the information before HKVO even requests for it? My partner so happened to live in Macau for her whole life so under "address" she already provide her information from birth.

We are trying to do anything we can so that the application has no chance of delay.
 

cheng9999

Hero Member
Dec 14, 2015
275
15
wyho007 said:
Information is really helpful. Thank you!

This is the country specific instructions I follow (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/guides/3903e.pdf) and it's updated 1-2016, is there another one more updated? No. 14 on the checklist is the requirement for medical upfront. I of course want my partner's case be processed and approved asap, we don't mind to leave earlier! No to mention we don't want to spend again on re-medical should the processing takes longer than 12 months.

You mentioned they may ask for "IMM 5669E, which asks the applicant to go back to 18 years old instead of only past 10 years for background history", is that the question 8 regarding work history? [though I don't know why they would ask as the form doesn't required] Do you think my partner can provide the information before HKVO even requests for it? My partner so happened to live in Macau for her whole life so under "address" she already provide her information from birth.

We are trying to do anything we can so that the application has no chance of delay.
If going back 10 years only still has gap to 18 years old, it would be best to fill in the details. Yes, it's the work history. If unemployed, just say unemployed. Leave no gap in time. Your partner can redo this form and submit via case specific inquiry if you now have the file case number. If not, you should wait for SA before doing this as the file case number will be on the SA attachment. Your partner will not have UCI number until she gets AOR2, but she can upload the new form using file case number. If you are not appointed her representative, she had to do it herself or the form will be rejected.

For upfront medical, I was sure I saw in HK & Macau guide medical to be done later. I could be wrong as the current guide does say upfront medical.
 

rbbridge

Full Member
Aug 25, 2015
39
1
My husband and I have been married for almost 27 years, we were married in Vancouver. But we worked everywhere else, but not in Canada. Therefore I did not apply for my PR until January 2015. After 17 month of application time, I saw a decision was made on our application and I waited and waited for someone to tell me what that decision is. I have checked my Taiwan apartment and also in Canada, but nothing comes thru. Then after two weeks of waiting, I wrote on-line to ask HKVO what that decision is and told them that if they did not mail any notification out, my correct mailing address in Canada. Then I waited some more and nothing show up on what the decision is. So I ordered the notes. This week I contacted my local MP and they finally tracked down my file and told me that I was approved on April 26, but a letter was sent to the wrong address. As we moved 14 month ago and my husband did notify them the change of address and note that the address change was received and acknowledged by HKVO. From the old address we also have mail forwarding and we are continue to pay for mail forwarding service to Canada post for another year, so if this was sent to the wrong address, it should have been forwarded to us any way. Now we do not know where the CORP is after one month, my questions are:

1. What are the experience of other people received the CORP, did it come in the mail or by some courier service? How long from decision made to COPR.
2. Since I already wrote to HKVO about the address change on-line two weeks ago about the decision and where to sent the letter, should I write to them again? Can I write to them on-line or I need to write to them via a real paper letter and sent it via courier service?
3. Is there a real office I can call and talk to anyone? Or writing to them is the only way?
Also does COPR has an expiration date? I feel so powerless and after 18 month of application time, I do not know what to do next.

Any suggestions? Or if someone has similar experience to share with me so I know better what to expect or what to do next.

Thank you for any helps at all.
 

cheng9999

Hero Member
Dec 14, 2015
275
15
rbbridge said:
My husband and I have been married for almost 27 years, we were married in Vancouver. But we worked everywhere else, but not in Canada. Therefore I did not apply for my PR until January 2015. After 17 month of application time, I saw a decision was made on our application and I waited and waited for someone to tell me what that decision is. I have checked my Taiwan apartment and also in Canada, but nothing comes thru. Then after two weeks of waiting, I wrote on-line to ask HKVO what that decision is and told them that if they did not mail any notification out, my correct mailing address in Canada. Then I waited some more and nothing show up on what the decision is. So I ordered the notes. This week I contacted my local MP and they finally tracked down my file and told me that I was approved on April 26, but a letter was sent to the wrong address. As we moved 14 month ago and my husband did notify them the change of address and note that the address change was received and acknowledged by HKVO. From the old address we also have mail forwarding and we are continue to pay for mail forwarding service to Canada post for another year, so if this was sent to the wrong address, it should have been forwarded to us any way. Now we do not know where the CORP is after one month, my questions are:

1. What are the experience of other people received the CORP, did it come in the mail or by some courier service? How long from decision made to COPR.
2. Since I already wrote to HKVO about the address change on-line two weeks ago about the decision and where to sent the letter, should I write to them again? Can I write to them on-line or I need to write to them via a real paper letter and sent it via courier service?
3. Is there a real office I can call and talk to anyone? Or writing to them is the only way?
Also does COPR has an expiration date? I feel so powerless and after 18 month of application time, I do not know what to do next.

Any suggestions? Or if someone has similar experience to share with me so I know better what to expect or what to do next.

Thank you for any helps at all.
My spouse is also a Taiwan case. eCas showed DM, and COPR came in about 10 days. It came, just regular mail...not registered mail. When we applied, we were asked to provide address in Chinese on a separate piece of paper. HKVO cut this out and stuck this on the envelop. I would assume that your husband did the same.

The COPR expires at the same time as the medical report, which is 12 months. With your case being 18 months already, it would mean you had to re-do your medical, and your COPR should be 12 months from your new medical report.

My belief is that the VO is quite bad in updating small things like addresses, especially if you send the communication via email. In our case, eCas was missing what I believed to be important detail should the VO use the English address to mail things out. I sent in an email, and when I ordered notes, it indicated the email was received, the VO checked the address and said that there was no issues...so no change was made. I re-sent the request, this time using case specific inquiry system, and it was changed. Did your GCMS notes indicate a new address for mailing address section or the same old one?

Back to your case. I assume your passport is visa-exempt, so you would receive COPR directly in the mail. There are some who reported that they don't receive COPR for quite a few weeks. On the other hand, if HKVO used the Chinese address your husband provided on a piece of paper submitted along with the original application, it would be sent to the wrong address. Then you have to count on the mail forwarding system to kick in and route it to you in Canada. I have no experience about Taiwan mail forwarding, how long it would take, how reliable it is. Have you had other successful forwarding taking place or do the mails get delivered to the new residents in the apartment and it's up to them to drop it back at the post office? Would the post office make a slip and still deliver to the new residents instead of forwarding the mail?

So if I were you, I would also worry about the COPR being lost.

If your COPR would not expire for some time, I would order GCMS notes again so you have the latest and hard evidence. The at the same time, I would do the following in your position:
1) update address to Canadian address using Case Specific Inquiry system
2) You would not be able to talk to a person in HKVO, but I believe you can talk to someone in Ottawa CIC. See if it is possible for them to resend the COPR to you in Canada.
3) If you get nowhere with #2 action above, get help from MP again

This whole mailing of COPR is quite a flawed system, and if something goes wrong (even post offices deliver mail to wrong people even when the written address is correct) there is no way for the applicant to know as eCas is so unreliable.

Good luck.
 

hicks74

Star Member
Dec 11, 2013
50
2
Category........
Visa Office......
Hong Kong
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
19-05-2015
AOR Received.
27-07-2015
Med's Request
21-03-2016
Med's Done....
23-03-2016
Interview........
21-03-2016
Passport Req..
19-04-2016
VISA ISSUED...
23-05-2016
LANDED..........
26-05-2016
Im2nice4u said:
Thank you hicks74!! KEEP US POSTED!! :)
Ya I hope that I will get it this coming week too!
If everything is good I should leaving on June.
So, my wife and I landed in Toronto, Terminal 1 last night, everything went quite smoothly. We landed at about 6:30pm, direct flight from Hong Kong.

When we entered into the immigration hall, and went to the line-up for the visitors. This line was a little bit long here, this was where everyone coming to Canada checks in for immigration. We spoke to a CBSA agent, who took notes of what we were bringing in, I had a B4 form, as well as a customs card for each of us. We brought a couple of food items, she wrote down what they were on the forms, and then directed us to the area where the actual landing is done. This was probably the longest step in the process, but I forgot to check the exact times.

We went into the next area, where the landing is done. There was one person in line ahead of us, but we only waited about 1 minute before an agent was available. There, they corrected the address on the COPR form that we had, only asked my wife if she committed any crimes. We were only here about 10 minutes and done.

After that we went to an area where they gave us a welcome to Canada package, and did my wife's SIN number. Took about 10 minutes and we were done there.

Lastly, we went to get our luggage, and got in line for customs. This line was a bit slow, but we were through in less then 10 minutes as well.

I was with my wife the whole time, and I was happy with the process. Everyone we dealt with was friendly and helpful.

I think the plane touched down about 6:30, and we were out of the airport by 8pm. So this includes taxing, waiting to get off the plane, walking to immigration....

Let me know if you have any questions.
 

Dko

Star Member
Sep 24, 2015
120
0
hicks74 said:
So, my wife and I landed in Toronto, Terminal 1 last night, everything went quite smoothly. We landed at about 6:30pm, direct flight from Hong Kong.

When we entered into the immigration hall, and went to the line-up for the visitors. This line was a little bit long here, this was where everyone coming to Canada checks in for immigration. We spoke to a CBSA agent, who took notes of what we were bringing in, I had a B4 form, as well as a customs card for each of us. We brought a couple of food items, she wrote down what they were on the forms, and then directed us to the area where the actual landing is done. This was probably the longest step in the process, but I forgot to check the exact times.

We went into the next area, where the landing is done. There was one person in line ahead of us, but we only waited about 1 minute before an agent was available. There, they corrected the address on the COPR form that we had, only asked my wife if she committed any crimes. We were only here about 10 minutes and done.

After that we went to an area where they gave us a welcome to Canada package, and did my wife's SIN number. Took about 10 minutes and we were done there.

Lastly, we went to get our luggage, and got in line for customs. This line was a bit slow, but we were through in less then 10 minutes as well.

I was with my wife the whole time, and I was happy with the process. Everyone we dealt with was friendly and helpful.

I think the plane touched down about 6:30, and we were out of the airport by 8pm. So this includes taxing, waiting to get off the plane, walking to immigration....

Let me know if you have any questions.
Hi hicks,
Thank u for sharing this landing experience!
So just to be clear the "settler" need to fill out a B4 form as well as the custom declaration card?
For my case I will be flying from guangzhou to Edmonton with my wife and our baby daughter (holding her CDN passport), so we need to do one B4 form and three separate custom declaration cards?
Also for the custom declaration card, what's the duty exemption amount for the "settler"?

Thx
 

Thommo

Hero Member
Nov 20, 2010
465
98
Edmonton, Canada
hicks74 said:
So, my wife and I landed in Toronto, Terminal 1 last night, everything went quite smoothly. We landed at about 6:30pm, direct flight from Hong Kong.

When we entered into the immigration hall, and went to the line-up for the visitors. This line was a little bit long here, this was where everyone coming to Canada checks in for immigration. We spoke to a CBSA agent, who took notes of what we were bringing in, I had a B4 form, as well as a customs card for each of us. We brought a couple of food items, she wrote down what they were on the forms, and then directed us to the area where the actual landing is done. This was probably the longest step in the process, but I forgot to check the exact times.

We went into the next area, where the landing is done. There was one person in line ahead of us, but we only waited about 1 minute before an agent was available. There, they corrected the address on the COPR form that we had, only asked my wife if she committed any crimes. We were only here about 10 minutes and done.

After that we went to an area where they gave us a welcome to Canada package, and did my wife's SIN number. Took about 10 minutes and we were done there.

Lastly, we went to get our luggage, and got in line for customs. This line was a bit slow, but we were through in less then 10 minutes as well.

I was with my wife the whole time, and I was happy with the process. Everyone we dealt with was friendly and helpful.

I think the plane touched down about 6:30, and we were out of the airport by 8pm. So this includes taxing, waiting to get off the plane, walking to immigration....

Let me know if you have any questions.
Congratulations for completing the immigration process for your wife. My case seems to be similar to yours. I hope to learn from your experience and not let CIC take me for a longer ride.
 

Im2nice4u

Member
Oct 27, 2014
13
0
hicks74 said:
So, my wife and I landed in Toronto, Terminal 1 last night, everything went quite smoothly. We landed at about 6:30pm, direct flight from Hong Kong.

When we entered into the immigration hall, and went to the line-up for the visitors. This line was a little bit long here, this was where everyone coming to Canada checks in for immigration. We spoke to a CBSA agent, who took notes of what we were bringing in, I had a B4 form, as well as a customs card for each of us. We brought a couple of food items, she wrote down what they were on the forms, and then directed us to the area where the actual landing is done. This was probably the longest step in the process, but I forgot to check the exact times.

We went into the next area, where the landing is done. There was one person in line ahead of us, but we only waited about 1 minute before an agent was available. There, they corrected the address on the COPR form that we had, only asked my wife if she committed any crimes. We were only here about 10 minutes and done.

After that we went to an area where they gave us a welcome to Canada package, and did my wife's SIN number. Took about 10 minutes and we were done there.

Lastly, we went to get our luggage, and got in line for customs. This line was a bit slow, but we were through in less then 10 minutes as well.

I was with my wife the whole time, and I was happy with the process. Everyone we dealt with was friendly and helpful.

I think the plane touched down about 6:30, and we were out of the airport by 8pm. So this includes taxing, waiting to get off the plane, walking to immigration....

Let me know if you have any questions.
I just got COPR today!! Wow I'm super happy :) After all this painful waiting time... FINALLY GOING BACK HOME!!!

I'm flying to Canada on june 8 with my baby son and wife. We will land at Toronto too, is that ok to be with your wife on the visitor line even me and my son have the Canadian passport?

I notice that the address of sponsor ( me) in the COPR, they put my wife's address instead of mine, and there is a mispelling erreur too. Is this what happened to you? After the correction, did they print a new COPR to you?

CONGRATULATIONS Bro!!! And thank you so much for sharing your experience, it really gives me a big picture of what I need to do on my landing.... I will share mine later.
 

August_EC

Full Member
May 4, 2013
35
13
LANDED..........
28-06-2014
Hi Guys,
CIC received my application to sponsor my wife on March 30th, and got an email saying that starting sponsorship assessment on April 21th, my wife's application turned to "IN PROCESS" on May 27th, when clicked in, there are only two messages, one is application received, the other one is medical results received, still information about in process, i have not received sponsorship approval email yet, it has beed 60 days now, it there anything wrong? thanks,
 

Dko

Star Member
Sep 24, 2015
120
0
Im2nice4u said:
I just got COPR today!! Wow I'm super happy :) After all this painful waiting time... FINALLY GOING BACK HOME!!!

I'm flying to Canada on june 8 with my baby son and wife. We will land at Toronto too, is that ok to be with your wife on the visitor line even me and my son have the Canadian passport?

I notice that the address of sponsor ( me) in the COPR, they put my wife's address instead of mine, and there is a mispelling erreur too. Is this what happened to you? After the correction, did they print a new COPR to you?

CONGRATULATIONS Bro!!! And thank you so much for sharing your experience, it really gives me a big picture of what I need to do on my landing.... I will share mine later.
Hi there and CONGRATS!
Did u need to get an exit visa for your son and wife from their local Public Security Bureau Exit-Entry Office?
My wife already got the COPR and the PR VISA stamped on her Chinese passport. My wife and my baby daughter (CDN PASSPORT WITH CDN CITIZENSHIP CERT.) and myself will be landing in September.
Also for the application of the PR CARD, do we use our Canadian mailing address? Right now on Ecas it obviously show my wife's address in China, do we need to update it after landing?
Thanks
 

conniecheng

Star Member
Mar 18, 2016
51
0
question on the mailing address. I am waiting for my COPR to arrive, it have been already 2 weeks,however, I am not so sure which mailing address they will be using. my husband is a sponsor, and he live in Canada. my mailing address is in Hong Kong.

thanks
 

Dko

Star Member
Sep 24, 2015
120
0
conniecheng said:
question on the mailing address. I am waiting for my COPR to arrive, it have been already 2 weeks,however, I am not so sure which mailing address they will be using. my husband is a sponsor, and he live in Canada. my mailing address is in Hong Kong.

thanks
Should be the Principle Applicant's mailing address. That was the case when
My wife received her COPR.
 

conniecheng

Star Member
Mar 18, 2016
51
0
Dko said:
Should be the Principle Applicant's mailing address. That was the case when
My wife received her COPR.

thank you. i am start getting stress to wait for my COPR. sorry, I saw that you mentioned about B4 form before, may I know what us it?