We just received SA and DM today (No AIP)!!! Just waiting to hear from the Kitchener, ON office about an interview time!
17 months and 2 days later - relief! I literally burst out into tears of joy at work when my spouse(the applicant) called me!
Does anyone have any experience with how long it takes to hear from the Kitchener, ON office (or how long it takes to get the interview date) once you've received DM?
Our application was received on
November 22, 2013!
A bit more background on our specific story, should anyone be interested:
- My spouse and I met while we studied abroad in Spain, and dated long distance for 2 years until he moved here for 2 years on 2 different IEC visas.
- We applied for PR while his 2nd IEC visa was valid, thinking we'd get AIP before it ran out (July 30, 2014) - Then the wait times jumped from 8 months to 17 months!!
- His work offered to sponser him, but they were in the process of changing the LMO rules, and so his LMO was declined (July/August 2014).
- After having to restore his status as a visitor when the LMO was rejected, we decided it was best if he went home to Netherlands for 5 months where he would have health care/could work. He left Canada October 2014. We called CIC and they said 'He can leave, he's not a prisoner, but he has to meet the requirements to re-enter the country, or your application will be thrown out'. We decided it was worth the risk.
- I went and visited him for Christmas, and then we decided to chance him coming back without the AIP - he came back this March (5 months out of country) and had NO problem at the boarder. They asked when he was planning to leave, he started explaining we applied inland, and the IO just said "Is your spouse Canadian?" he said "Yes", she gave him a 6 month visitor visa and said good luck - less than 5 minutes!
- We never provided a medical with the application, so we jumped ahead of the game and just did one on March 31st. We used the 'Case Specific Enquiry' to sent our emedical receipt, a copy of his new passport, and our statutory declaration of common-law (we never gave that with our application initially).
- We just put in a OWP under the pilot program via mail on April 16th because we never sent one with the application. We're hoping we get our landing interview and PR before they start processing so that we can withdraw the OWP app and get our money back (long shot).
Anyway, and now here we are! We hope you all receive good news soon!
;D