Let me set up my story:
Common Law spousal sponsorship
Originally living in Manitoba
Processing time for first step when we applied: 6 months
Applied & Received UCI number: March 6, 2013
Moved to Saskatchewan and changed address online in CIC system: Summer 2013
Processing time for first step extended to 10 months. In January 2014 when we didn't hear anything, we called and they had transferred the file to the local office...in Winnipeg. Why? Because they had no record of our address change...even though I was looking at my Saskatchewan address on their system as she said that. Since it takes a month to transfer a file, we decided not to request the transfer to Saskatoon. We would rather keep the process going and drive to Winnipeg for our appointment when necessary.
February 2014: wrote letters to government asking if there's anything that can be done about our situation since it was CIC's system that mistakingly transferred us to Winnipeg. The response was that there was nothing to be done.
April 2014: Called CIC and was informed that our file had risen to the top of the Winnipeg pile...and had been transferred to Saskatoon. No letter or email was sent notifying us of this. So why didn't they just force the transfer in the first place rather than wasting more months.
July 2014 - this week marks our 16th month of the first step of the process with no end in sight because Saskatoon's wait times are up to 8 months and we are now only about a month or so in, rather than the 5 or 6 months in we would have been if CIC's system hadn't failed to record my address change in the first place or the 4 or 5 months in we would have been if CIC had just told me that Winnipeg would transfer the file anyway and requested the transfer to Saskatoon back in January.
July 2014 - more letters written to applicable political parties. Is my next step the media? I mean this is not right is it?
To beat it all my husband (commonlaw or not that's what he is) is here on a student visa but because we've been most of 16 months on only my income there's no way we can afford for him to go back to school in September...and at that point if he hasn't got his first step approval, he will be forced to leave the country and go back to Nigeria. I feel so helpless and honestly like a lower class of citizen just getting shuffled through an overwhelmed system with nobody to advocate for us.
Common Law spousal sponsorship
Originally living in Manitoba
Processing time for first step when we applied: 6 months
Applied & Received UCI number: March 6, 2013
Moved to Saskatchewan and changed address online in CIC system: Summer 2013
Processing time for first step extended to 10 months. In January 2014 when we didn't hear anything, we called and they had transferred the file to the local office...in Winnipeg. Why? Because they had no record of our address change...even though I was looking at my Saskatchewan address on their system as she said that. Since it takes a month to transfer a file, we decided not to request the transfer to Saskatoon. We would rather keep the process going and drive to Winnipeg for our appointment when necessary.
February 2014: wrote letters to government asking if there's anything that can be done about our situation since it was CIC's system that mistakingly transferred us to Winnipeg. The response was that there was nothing to be done.
April 2014: Called CIC and was informed that our file had risen to the top of the Winnipeg pile...and had been transferred to Saskatoon. No letter or email was sent notifying us of this. So why didn't they just force the transfer in the first place rather than wasting more months.
July 2014 - this week marks our 16th month of the first step of the process with no end in sight because Saskatoon's wait times are up to 8 months and we are now only about a month or so in, rather than the 5 or 6 months in we would have been if CIC's system hadn't failed to record my address change in the first place or the 4 or 5 months in we would have been if CIC had just told me that Winnipeg would transfer the file anyway and requested the transfer to Saskatoon back in January.
July 2014 - more letters written to applicable political parties. Is my next step the media? I mean this is not right is it?
To beat it all my husband (commonlaw or not that's what he is) is here on a student visa but because we've been most of 16 months on only my income there's no way we can afford for him to go back to school in September...and at that point if he hasn't got his first step approval, he will be forced to leave the country and go back to Nigeria. I feel so helpless and honestly like a lower class of citizen just getting shuffled through an overwhelmed system with nobody to advocate for us.
