I just joined the forum. We applied Feb 2014 and received AOR in June. When we first applied I saw the 1st stage was only 7 months. I gave up my job and everything to be with my pregnant Canadian wife in Ontario. She wanted to move to the United States but with the healthcare reform I couldn't put her on my benefits and she couldn't get a job due to being pregnant.
Now, August, and the time is over 12 months (given the time showing on the website which I can already tell is inaccurate). I found something from the forum (on David Cohen's Blog dated August 5) that asks why the government has extended the time frame. One idea is the backlog is being created to eventually phase out the Inland Application, as some other immigration program such as Entepreneur has. If it is true that CIC intends to cancel the Inland App and this backlog is created...I'll just give and walk away from Canada. It'll suck crawling back to mom and dad with a wife and daughter now, but at least I'll have a nicely missed "Mom's home cooked meal" :'(
I've depleted my bank account, depleted my US retirement (I only got half my money because I pulled it early which caused a 20% tax to the US and since it was coming to Canada it was given a additional 30% tax. Since our daughter is a dual citizen of Canada and the US, I'm about to tell my wife let's forget it and move to the United States. She can stay with baby and I'll go back to work. She really doesn't want to go back to work when her maternity leave is up, and I really want to work. My employer back home made an agreement with their Canadian offices that I would have one year (from November 2013) to rejoin the company. They did not sponsor and I had to do it all myself so the time frame seemed to fit.
The funny thing is my boss at the time before I left my job said "You don't want to move there. Knowing your luck, you'll get there with these impressive time tables that even the United States can't match and when you submit your paperwork, the time will change and you'll be stuck with no money a baby that needs diapers and food, and you'll be begging to come back home." And now our parents send us formula, clothes, and diapers to help us with expenses. All our bills are paid in our apartment so we just pay rent and buy the food essentials since my wife's EI only pays her 53% of her normal salary until she goes back to work. We were told about a child tax benefit but for some reason Revenue Canada included my salary from the US for 2013 and we only receive $54 dollars a month. That's one box of diapers and one container of formula (that lasts a week).
