How strict is Imm. Canada with sponsorship instructions?

[MarkGuy]

I'm the type of guy who takes things literally, especially when it comes to documents created by the Government of Canada.

IMM3902 Appendix A
Document Checklist - Immigrant

IF ANY OF THE DOCUMENTS LISTED BELOW ARE MISSING, YOUR APPLICATION WILL BE RETURNED (bold)

Now that statement seems pretty clear cut to me.
No if's, and's or but's.

It doesn't say "might be returned" or "may be returned" or "in some circumstances may be returned"
or "in most circumstances will be returned" etc.

It's cut and dry.


Now let's fast forward to the Medical Examination(s)
[Meds] and the Police Certificate(s) [PC].

I have read many posts where people have mailed in their Meds and PC after they have mailed in their initial application.

I'm not talking about doing this after a request was made by Imm. Canada for supplementing the initial Meds and PC. I mean sending in your application, not having included either your Meds or PC, or both included.

If Imm. Can. accepts these applications, and I assume they do, otherwise people wouldn't be talking about doing so, how is that possible?

How can Imm. Can. state one clear policy and then completely ignore it, even for "special circumstances"?

 

[Love_Young]

You need to submit the police clearance and proof of medical in WITH the application when you mail it.
I don't see why you would have trouble obtaining a medical in time to submit but police clearance I can see why.

With mine I was not able to submit my FBI clearance with the initial submission of my application because my first request was rejected for low quality prints and the second request would not have been finished before my extension was due to expire. With mine I included proof of the original fingerprints being rejected, proof that I mailed off another set, proof of how long it takes to receive a reply back from FBI, and letter of when I would be mailing it. If you can, try not to mail it without the clearance. It will drive you nuts wondering if it will be returned or not. I was constantly worrying about it. For the most part they do return applications if it isn't complete but they may make exceptions for some things with legitimate proof as to why you can't obtain that particular document. But you do need to submit at least the medical with the submission of your application but try to include EVERYTHING in there. Plus if you get away with not including something then you have to worry about mailing it separately to them and wondering if it got lost. So in the end you could be causing yourself a longer delay in the processing and costing more money to obtain another document if it does get lost.

Do yourself a favor and follow the instructions fully. It will save you from having problems in the future. You don't want to take a chance on it being returned or causing a delay. Don't make it harder than it needs to be.

 

[MarkGuy]

You need to submit the police clearance and proof of medical in WITH the application when you mail it.
I don't see why you would have trouble obtaining a medical in time to submit but police clearance I can see why.

With mine I was not able to submit my FBI clearance with the initial submission of my application because my first request was rejected for low quality prints and the second request would not have been finished before my extension was due to expire.

Thanks Love_Young, your response is helpful.

You will see in our situation (another post) the meds for her daughter can be done now or in a few months.
We're trying to figure out the best method.

If done later, and we are to follow the rules 'to the tee', then we'd have to wait for the Meds receipt to be mailed/couriered to us before we could send in the app.
Even though the Meds would be sitting at the Can. Embassy the whole time!

 

[ufa]

Because there is no DMP within 1200 km or so of my husband, I communicated with the Visa office regarding the med exam and they instructed to file without the med exam, and when they receive our application they will send my husband instructions and forms to take to any doctor in his home country. I will including copies of the emails from the Visa Office when we eventually submit this application.Maybe others have also done this wrt the medical exams or other documents?

I would also normally follow to the letter the instructions, but there are always exceptions...

In the end, this will probably cost us a couple extra months in processing time (or more, since the postal service in my husbands country is horrid), but will save > $4000.

.... This is going to be a long year...

 

[Cdagal]

We filed our application with Police Certificates missing, but included a letter in their place to explain the absence and the steps we were taking to correct it. (because of the countries my husband lived in previously and the methods of obtaining police certificates, getting them all within the 90 day window was impossible..) They accepted it, but once it reached the Brazilian VO they sent a request for the missing documents along with our AOR.
It is, of course, up the their discretion, but I just don't think they want a backlog of incomplete applications...just be sure to address it in your application at the time of filing.

 

[MarkGuy]

We filed our application with Police Certificates missing, but included a letter in their place to explain the absence and the steps we were taking to correct it. (because of the countries my husband lived in previously and the methods of obtaining police certificates, getting them all within the 90 day window was impossible..) They accepted it, but once it reached the Brazilian VO they sent a request for the missing documents along with our AOR.
It is, of course, up the their discretion, but I just don't think they want a backlog of incomplete applications...just be sure to address it in your application at the time of filing.

Thanks Ufa and Cdagal, your stories are very helpful to me!
We will likely be in a situation where our Police Certificates will have just expired as we are ready to submit our application.

Going back to her home country to get them again would be impractical.
This would mean a very costly and time-consuming wait to get them done from inside Canada.

I wonder if the application could be sent in ahead of the Pol.Cert. in this circumstance? We could include the recently expired Pol. Certs, and say we are in the process of trying to re-do them now.

 

[jmni1]

I qould think that would be acceptable. Make sure that you include the police certificates that you have even if they just expired along with a letter explaining the situation and that you are in the process of getting updated PC's. I mailed my application with my state police certificates (from the U.S.) and included a letter that I had requested the FBI cert. but had not recieved it and that I would send it to them as soon as I recieved it. I also included proof that I had submitted for it (the U.S. postal service tracking information.

I then contacted the call center when I recieved the FBI cert and the lady on the phone said they would put a note in my file that I had it and that when they started processing my application in Missassagua that they would contact me.
To me amazement I recieved a phone call from the person working on my file with instructions on where to fax the FBI cert to and that she would place it in my file. SO to this day I have the original with me. I just now have been asked to bring the original FBI with me to my interview.

Thanks Ufa and Cdagal, your stories are very helpful to me!
We will likely be in a situation where our Police Certificates will have just expired as we are ready to submit our application.

Going back to her home country to get them again would be impractical.
This would mean a very costly and time-consuming wait to get them done from inside Canada.

I wonder if the application could be sent in ahead of the Pol.Cert. in this circumstance? We could include the recently expired Pol. Certs, and say we are in the process of trying to re-do them now.

 

[MarkGuy]

Thanks jmni1 for telling me about your own experience!

 

[eyeoftheocean]

I sent my app 2008 and CIC requested some information which I never sent with my app, CIC DID NOT RETURN THE WHOLE PACKAGE.

You should really send in your medical reciepts too, as your app may be finalised in 9 months, if you do not they will request it and it may prolong your app.

 

[MarkGuy]

I sent my app 2008 and CIC requested some information which I never sent with my app, CIC DID NOT RETURN THE WHOLE PACKAGE.

You should really send in your medical reciepts too, as your app may be finalised in 9 months, if you do not they will request it and it may prolong your app.

Thanks Eye for the heads-up.

 

[canadianwoman]

Now let's fast forward to the Medical Examination(s)
[Meds] and the Police Certificate(s) [PC].

I have read many posts where people have mailed in their Meds and PC after they have mailed in their initial application.

I'm not talking about doing this after a request was made by Imm. Canada for supplementing the initial Meds and PC. I mean sending in your application, not having included either your Meds or PC, or both included.

If Imm. Can. accepts these applications, and I assume they do, otherwise people wouldn't be talking about doing so, how is that possible?

In general, you are supposed to send in the medical form and the PCC with the application. But for other classes of immigrants (such as grandparents), you don't send in the medicals with the application; you wait until it is requested by the visa office.
In addition, there are a couple of countries where the visa office does not want the PCC with the application. And none of us has to send in a Canadian PCC, even if the applicant has been here for more than 6 months - you wait until the visa office requests that one, because usually they don't.

 

[waitingintz]

Hi MarkGuy

I consulted on that with a lawyer before submitting and was told that it is absolutely not a problem to send in the police clearances seperately as long as you clarify that these are pending. We submitted all three police clearances after the initial package without issues (except be aware that this can cause delays in the processing so you have to balance out whether these delays are worthwhile compared to just waiting for the PCC now and also the timing can get a little difficult because you have a particular window in which to submit: after receiving the AOR, before the deadline they give you for submitting additional documents)

As for the medical - I've heard of several applications being returned if the medical documents are missing. As someone else mentioned, not all applications require the medical upfront but spousal applications do and I'm not sure whether they would accept the application without it so that would be a little bit of a risk.

 

[sayamom2011]

hello everyone,
my application for an FC was started August 2010.
i have a newborn child of three months and i have just received her passport. shall i submit this also to the Visa section? Should my baby have a medical exam as well? or will i wait for a letter from the embassy before i do so?
thanks a lot!

 

[Jurjen]

Medicals are okay to do later. They will send a request if it's missing (see the guide for more info, there's a visual timeline with their corse of action).

Since medicals can expire, I'd rather have one X-ray exposure in stead of two.

 

[jmni1]

I would NEVER send in my application without the medicals since this is suppose to be done before you mail the application. If you do not send the medical you run a very high risk of having you whole file sent back to you and further delaying the process. Unless you have special circumstances (like not having a DMP anywhere near you) I would not risk it. Police clearances are differnt. Ideally send everything together but for sure include the medical.