Inland Applications- File Transferred to Local Office before getting AIP

[tow75]

Hi everyone! I'm having a hard time finding other inland applicants in the same situation as me and my husband are in, so I thought I'd post our story here. I hope people will respond so we can share our situations!

I sponsored my husband, a Moroccan citizen, in October 2011. He received his CSQ(we live in Montreal) in April 2012. On August 29th we got a letter from CIC that our file was being transferred to the local office in Montreal for further assessment. We haven't heard anything back since then. We applied through a consultant, and we were told that we would hear back in about 3 months.

We've both done quite a bit of research, and from what we understand, files can be transferred before AIP if CIC has doubts about the relationship...or if they have doubts about anything at all, or if they want you to sign some forms or anticipate having to contact you in the future. At first we were both freaking out that our application would be refused, but our consultant re assured us and said that if CIC was going to refuse the file outright they wouldn't have allowed my husband to proceed with getting a CSQ. Now we're going to focus on compiling all the evidence of our relationship we can find to send in to the local office ASAP.

Here's a bit of background info about our marriage/relationship:
-We're both 22, no previous marriages or kids, I'm a Canadian citizen and he's Moroccan
-We got married in November 2010 and sent in our application to CIC about a year afterwards
-We had a pretty small wedding (I like small weddings!) with just our friends/witnesses
-Our parents weren't there- my husband's mother was thrilled about our marriage and came a few weeks before, but since she's a housewife and has to take care of my husband's little brother and sister (his brother was 4 at the time) she couldn't stay. My parents weren't there either....looooonnng story, but to make it short they have a vendetta against getting married young and at the time they were very racially prejudiced against my husband. Since then things are much better and we have a ton of evidence (photos, cards, emails etc) that they love him and support our relationship
-My husband was out of status for a year before we sent in our application- before this he studied industrial drafting and had a study permit. We met when he was still in status and was studying English
-No criminal records or medical issues or anything like that

I guess I can understand why CIC would be suspicious, with the short engagement (3 months) and cultural differences/small wedding, so I'm not really surprised that they transferred it. However, there's no way that they can doubt that our relationship is genuine once they look into it deeper. We have tons of evidence and we're very close and share everything. I also support him financially, (e.g. food, bills, internet, payments for our furniture and appliances in our house, etc.) As soon as the Montreal CIC sends a confirmation that they've received our file we'll send in absolutely everything we have.

Anyways, I just wondered how many other people have had/are having the same situation...it would be awesome if we could talk!! I realize that each local office has a different waiting time- we've been told that we probably have 2 or 3 months to go before an interview. We've already waited so long that we can do another few months.

The sad thing is that my husband recently met an aquaintance of a friend who applied inland too, and just got his residency today. The only thing is that him and his wife have been separated for the last year..... and they didn't even have to have an interview, and got AIP right away.
I don't know why we're so unlucky :'(

Thanks everyone!

 

[Kiwi12]

My husband and I have had the same thing happen only we didn't hear about a file transfer until October and we applied in March. I was not surprised by the transfer just a little irritated that they waited 7 months to do it. We ended up sending in two additional envelopes full of supporting documentation with regard to genuineness of the relationship however I know that they haven't even opened them because one of the documents was an authorization to release information to me and when I called the CIC to get a possible update they wouldn't speak to me because they didn't have the authorization on record. FOSS notes showed absolutely nothing. Now I am just trying to keep as busy as possible until such time as we hear something and that may be another 4-6 months from now if we are lucky.

 

[charmainefrances]

HI! Our file was transferred to a local office in Edmonton.

We submitted our application in Nov. 2010
Transferred Oct. 2011
Submitted EVERYTHING as in EVERYTHING that will prove that our marriage is genuine. I did that for a year... Then I just stopped sending them last Sept. (2nd wedding anniversary) just because I am tired already.I know that they are opening whatever i sent them because it was on my foss notes. Though they are opening it, they still need to follow the 24 month rule at CIC edmonton. So I already survived the 1st year,and now it's one more year.I'm just letting go... If they open and review it that is good!
I contacted our MP and what CIC told him is that our file is on queue. so I'll just wait...

Good luck to us!

 

[tow75]

Thanks for your replies we still haven't heard anything from Montreal CIC..it's been exactly 3 months since they transferred it. Our consultant said we'd hear something within 2-3 months...so hopefully we hear something soon. When I called CIC I was told 6- 8 months so I don't know who's right.
It doesn't seem quite fair to me that there's different wait times at different locations 24 months is a crazy long time!

 

[tow75]

I got cut off halfway through my post :/ I really admire your patience and positive attitude charmainefrances...me and my husband are already losing our minds and it's only been 3 months. I'm worried because he had to go to the hospital the other day and they wanted me to pay almost $ 800 before they let him in. I really hope we get AIP soon so he can get a health card!

Anyways, I did have one question. Our consultant told us that we would get a confirmation letter from Montreal CIC once they received the file, and we haven't heard anything yet...I'm kinda worried it got lost or something. Did you guys get a letter like this, and is so, how long after the file transfer did it arrive?

I hope we all have good news soon

 

[Kiwi12]

Hi Tow,

If your local CIC has a waiting time of 6-8 months then consider yourself lucky. It is likely you will hear something about the sixth month. I am no expert but judging from what you say about your husband allowing himself to run out of status then marry you a few months later may be a question the CIC will want to examine your spouse about. Also, why you waited so long to sponsor him. You do not have to respond to that on this forum just be prepared in case you are asked. The fact that you are young, and your family had differences cultural and otherwise are not uncommon. Small weddings not a big deal. The CIC likely has a protocol about when to transfer a file before AIP and each of us has uniquely different reasons why this has happened. I myself believe that in order for someone else to convinced there is a genuine relationship they need to see it firsthand or find out from a variety of different sources that it exists via family, neighbours, colleagues, institutions, anybody that can vouch and verify and someone who can say without a doubt it is genuine. It is our job to prove this. Try to keep busy, it will happen when you least expect it.

 

[tow75]

So speaking of unexpected timing, I got some news yesterday from my consultant....and my husband has an interview with CIC on December 17th at 8:30 AM!!!! We were both really hoping that we'd get some news before the holidays so we're very happy!!

The only downside is that our consultant won't even let us see the letter before we pay her the final fee...which includes $250 in interview practice. We really can't afford what she's asking for right away so we'll have to do it in stages. The consultant can't prevent us from going to the interview can she?

I hope you guys hear some good news soon

 

[Kiwi12]

Hi Tow,

I am happy to hear that your husband has an interview. My advice to you would be to speak with the consultant and let her know how strapped for cash you are and try and work something out, alternatively and I think you should do this first, ask a family member for help or get your overdraft increased or do something to get that money. The letter likely has information on why the file was transferred and what the CIC needs from you to bring to the interview. Also, you will need to be prepared for the interview, which the consultant can help you with. Interviews can be extremely intimidating and you want it to go right the first time. Believe me, you don't want to go through an appeal process as that means legal fees and more stress.

I will be praying for you. Please let me know how this works out for you.

 

[tow75]

Thanks Kiwi!

My husband actually went to see the consultant today (we were told to pay the $1000 by an employee of the consultant who was handling our file) and he said that we can definitely make a payment arrangement, and we can definitely see the letter when we both come in tomorrow to talk about the interview. We got help from my husband's parents...his mom will send the payment (it will be here tomorrow or Wednesday) and she even said she would fly all the way here from Morocco and pay it for us if it didn't arrive for whatever reason.

I also called CIC this morning, and the person I talked to said that there wasn't a note on our file about the interview letter being sent yet, but he said that it was likely that the person working on our application forgot to put the note in. He said we can most likely get in to the interview without the letter if we explain what happened - but from what my husband told me today it shouldn't be a problem. And yeah i agree we need all the help we can get...we'll soon find out what the interview is for, but I've heard of people having great interviews and others getting really rude officers. I'm confident we'll pass because you can't fake a relationship as genuine as ours is (we have so much more relationship proof than we did a year ago when we applied) but we're both aware of the complicated parts so we'll focus on explaining those.

Thanks for your support!! I'm really excited/nervous to see what happens tomorrow...

 

[Kiwi12]

Well, everything sounds good and I am glad the parents are helping out. That alone is proof that his parents are accepting the relationship so make sure you keep evidence of the wire transfer for that. Please let me know how it goes today.

 

[tow75]

It looks like everything is going to be ok but we're still pretty nervous! We went to see our consultant's employee today over my lunch hour and she still wouldn't let us have the letter, but we could look at it and see what we need to bring (lots of stuff to get ready). What's good is that the payment has arrived in Canada and my husband is going to pick it up tomorrow morning so we can have the letter after that. We also have an interview training session on Thursday with the actual consultant.
I think my husband could get proof of the wire transfer but I'm not sure how much use it would be because his mom sent the money through his best friend's dad (my husband has problems with international transfers into his bank account because of not having a study permit/ residence/ other weird rules about money leaving the country). But his mom does help us out with our rent and I know we have transfer statements for that so we'll make sure to print those off. I also got a letter stating from work stating that my husband is covered under my health insurance and is the sole beneficiary of my life insurance. Also I got my best friend to write a letter stating our marriage/ relationship is genuine...we're planning to get letters from our landlord (who lives downstairs haha) our neighbours, my husband's mom and his best friend.
So much to do and so little time :-X

 

[Kiwi12]

Hi Tow,

That was going to be my next question, what are they questioning but it sounds like genuineness of the relationship which you won't have difficulty with judging by the sounds of the proof you are going to provide. I already sent two additional packages in to my local office after I found out about the file transfer. In some ways I am hoping the interview won't be necessary and in others I hope it is. With all the additional updated information and photos I sent since the initial application I also sent them an explanation of why my husband came to Canada on an extended visit, why we married so quickly, why we decided to do the sponsorship in Canada and how much in common the two of us really have. Just remember one thing, people in genuine relationships do not need to practice being genuine. I know my husband pretty well and I think he knows me even better but there have been a few instances where he has said things that have shocked me. Be honest and you will be fine. And please let me know how it all goes. I will be in Jury Duty on Monday but I really want to know how everything goes for you. I hope you are willing to share that. I know everything will be fine. The very best of luck to the both of you. Sounds like you have a wonderful family.

 

[tow75]

Hi again Kiwi,

Thanks for your kind words. We just got home now from the interview/ a wild goose chase around Montreal. This is probably not what you or anyone else with a file transfer wants to hear, but today was one of the most emotional, stressful and traumatizing days of my entire life- so I want to write a big long post about it...haha.

We showed up at least 45 minutes early, and I think we got called in before 8:30 (which was the time of our interview). Our IO was a women in her 40s and seemed very nice and chatty at first. She got us in there, and we got out all our proof ( 5 different folders or cards, emails and facebook chats, financial stuff, work info, all my husband's old university transcripts and a big photo album with 150 photos) and she told us she'd interview us separately- starting with me.

My husband left and she started off by asking me if I felt well enough for the interview.
After she asked me what I do for a living, and what my husband does.
She asked me what a typical day was like for my husband, what time he gets up, what time I get home, what my working hours are etc.

Then she launched into a whole big questioning about my husband's study history, what he did before we met, and why he changed degrees so many times. (he came here 4 years ago to study electrical engineering and did an internship at Aviron tech, then dropped out because he found out he was colourblind- when I met him he was studying English)
I answered as best I could, which was tough because he studied engineering and finished with it before we even met.
After that she asked me what my relationship with my parents was like, with my husband's, etc etc

-She asked why my husband's parents weren't at our marriage and gave me a really hard time about it- e.g. "their oldest son got married and they didn't come, why didn't you want them at the marriage/invite them"
-She told me that my husband's father renewed his visa a few weeks before our marriage but didn't come and gave me a hard time again about it (neither me or my husband knew he renewed his visa then) - I answered that he came to visit us in November 2011, and that he definitely wanted to come to our wedding but couldn't because of work commitments. I said that we had a small wedding and that's how we liked it...we were perfectly open to my husband's parents coming but it just didn't end up working out.

-Then she asked me why my parents weren't there (they know about our relationship but not our marriage) and I told her that although they support our relationship and really like my husband (I had the emails, photos etc to prove this), because they both married young (19 and 20) and got divorced afterwards, they would not have supported my decision- they're much older than most people's parents and aren't open to new points of view. She didn't seem to have a problem with that.

-She went back to my husband's school and started to imply that because of the time we got married (2 months after he was officially out of status) he was just in this for the visa. She asked me if I'd ever thought about him leaving me after he gets his residency- I said absolutely not- we've been together for 2 1/2 years, we share everything and spend every moment together - there's no way he could fake every emotional reaction to our lives together for that long (he's very sensitive and emotional and I said this)

- Then she told me that I do everything for my husband (pay bills, food, health/life insurance etc)- so what does he do for me? I responded that I would prefer to have someone who treats me with respect, loves me and is always there for me than someone who just pays the bills and contributes financially. We're young (both 22) and for couples our age it's normal to have differences in financial situations.

-After that she went back to the study permit thing and said that "this doesn't seem right to me"- she said that she needed facts about it, even though relationships are emotional. I asked her what kinds of facts she wanted exactly, and she said she would ask my husband and see what she said.

-She said that she didn't have any more questions for me and asked me if there was anything I'd like to show her. She had already flicked though our photo album earlier, but I showed her some of the more recent pictures and told her who was in them, where we were taken, etc. When she saw a photo of the birthday cake my husband made me she lightened up a bit and said he was very talented. She asked why in some of the photos we weren't wearing our rings- I told her that sometimes I forget to put mine back on after the gym (it flops around because it's a bit big) and that my husband takes his off to shower and sometimes forgets to put it back on. Then she asked what the names of my parents and sisters are and took me back to the waiting room.

I waited for an hour acutally shaking and wanting to throw up...eventually the IO came back out and brought me in. I expected my husband to be in the same state I was but he looked pretty ok.
-The IO said that what my husband had told her was that his internship at Aviron tech wasn't really related to his university program (I thought it was an internship) - we both explained it by saying that because me husband had finished studying engineering completely a few months before we met, it was something we only talked about at the beginning of the relationship, and at this time my husband's English wasn't so great, and the technicalities of the situation got lost in translation.

-She asked me a question about the night we met and asked my husband not to intervene- we answered the exact same thing.

-We told her about our consultant witholding our letter and lying to us about the procedure, and she suggested we remove him from the file. She updated our mailing address to our appartment and took down my cell about 5 times.

THIS IS WHERE IT GETS CONFUSING- she asked us if we had anything else to say to convince her that our marriage is genuine, and I explained the situation with my husband's engineering program/internship again, and said I had explained what I thought was true.
-My husband asked how the interview went and she said "it went well" and said "I have a good feeling about this".
-She said, however, that she always likes to take time to read everything over before sending out the decision letter, and that she didn't want to give us any false hope.
-She told us all about the procedure and how my husband could apply for a work permit
-When we were getting our coats on she said "you're a young couple but you seem very mature"
-On the way out she started talking to my husband in French, what I heard was "People make mistakes with school" "You shouldn't have let yourself go out of status- if that wasn't the case we wouldn't have had to call you in for an interview, we would have approved your file right away".

-After that, we had a few cigarretes to calm down, and we went to an eye doctor to get proof that my husband is colourblind (the reason why he dropped out of engineering) and went to his old university to get a transcript (which the IO asked for, and then changed her mind half way though my husband's interview - she said it wasn't necessary but we still sent it to show that we're accountable and want to make things easy for her)
-we faxed the eye test from the doctor but not the school transcript yet...I'll do this from work tomorrow. She said she would send out the letter after that.

I'm so scared that I can barely think....I've hardly eaten anything all day and I'm still shaking. My husband is pretty positive that everything will be fine because the IO ended up being very nice to him and a lot more conversational than she was with me (my husband did his interview in French, the IO was Quebecoise so that might be why)- other than the engineering stuff, all our answers matched perfectly, right down to the ages of my parents and how old my mom was when she got her first divorce.

I'm sorry my post is so ridiculously long but I think it's helping me not to freak out as much. I'm trying to wrap my head around leaving the country and leaving behind everything (including our 3 birds who would have to go into quarantine in Morocco for 40 days).

I'll stop writing now before I lose my mind.....

 

[Kiwi12]

I want you to hold your head high and listen to me good. You are not going anywhere. The way I see it you did very well. When I started working at 17 I wanted to ask my dad for a loan but he was pretty much, to say the least, a miserable prick. I went to the bank to ask for a loan and when he found out he got mad at me and said "why didn't you come to me" and I said because you would have given me a hard time about it". He said, "Of course I would, I don't want to make it too easy for you, you wouldn't appreciate it".

I am not going to go over with you what you should have done or why this happened the way it happened. Your stress levels are at the max. What I can tell you is, once this is all over you will have better insight into this process and will be able to give some very good advice to someone else in a similar predicament.

I have no doubt in my mind that your husband will get his work permit and your 1st stage will be approved. Unfortunately for you, you went through this the hard way.

You are young, you made a mistake. If you were an old bird like me, there would be no excuse.

I am here for you, anytime you want to talk.

 

[Kev1n]

Hi again Kiwi,

Thanks for your kind words. We just got home now from the interview/ a wild goose chase around Montreal. This is probably not what you or anyone else with a file transfer wants to hear, but today was one of the most emotional, stressful and traumatizing days of my entire life- so I want to write a big long post about it...haha.

We showed up at least 45 minutes early, and I think we got called in before 8:30 (which was the time of our interview). Our IO was a women in her 40s and seemed very nice and chatty at first. She got us in there, and we got out all our proof ( 5 different folders or cards, emails and facebook chats, financial stuff, work info, all my husband's old university transcripts and a big photo album with 150 photos) and she told us she'd interview us separately- starting with me.

My husband left and she started off by asking me if I felt well enough for the interview.
After she asked me what I do for a living, and what my husband does.
She asked me what a typical day was like for my husband, what time he gets up, what time I get home, what my working hours are etc.

Then she launched into a whole big questioning about my husband's study history, what he did before we met, and why he changed degrees so many times. (he came here 4 years ago to study electrical engineering and did an internship at Aviron tech, then dropped out because he found out he was colourblind- when I met him he was studying English)
I answered as best I could, which was tough because he studied engineering and finished with it before we even met.
After that she asked me what my relationship with my parents was like, with my husband's, etc etc

-She asked why my husband's parents weren't at our marriage and gave me a really hard time about it- e.g. "their oldest son got married and they didn't come, why didn't you want them at the marriage/invite them"
-She told me that my husband's father renewed his visa a few weeks before our marriage but didn't come and gave me a hard time again about it (neither me or my husband knew he renewed his visa then) - I answered that he came to visit us in November 2011, and that he definitely wanted to come to our wedding but couldn't because of work commitments. I said that we had a small wedding and that's how we liked it...we were perfectly open to my husband's parents coming but it just didn't end up working out.

-Then she asked me why my parents weren't there (they know about our relationship but not our marriage) and I told her that although they support our relationship and really like my husband (I had the emails, photos etc to prove this), because they both married young (19 and 20) and got divorced afterwards, they would not have supported my decision- they're much older than most people's parents and aren't open to new points of view. She didn't seem to have a problem with that.

-She went back to my husband's school and started to imply that because of the time we got married (2 months after he was officially out of status) he was just in this for the visa. She asked me if I'd ever thought about him leaving me after he gets his residency- I said absolutely not- we've been together for 2 1/2 years, we share everything and spend every moment together - there's no way he could fake every emotional reaction to our lives together for that long (he's very sensitive and emotional and I said this)

- Then she told me that I do everything for my husband (pay bills, food, health/life insurance etc)- so what does he do for me? I responded that I would prefer to have someone who treats me with respect, loves me and is always there for me than someone who just pays the bills and contributes financially. We're young (both 22) and for couples our age it's normal to have differences in financial situations.

-After that she went back to the study permit thing and said that "this doesn't seem right to me"- she said that she needed facts about it, even though relationships are emotional. I asked her what kinds of facts she wanted exactly, and she said she would ask my husband and see what she said.

-She said that she didn't have any more questions for me and asked me if there was anything I'd like to show her. She had already flicked though our photo album earlier, but I showed her some of the more recent pictures and told her who was in them, where we were taken, etc. When she saw a photo of the birthday cake my husband made me she lightened up a bit and said he was very talented. She asked why in some of the photos we weren't wearing our rings- I told her that sometimes I forget to put mine back on after the gym (it flops around because it's a bit big) and that my husband takes his off to shower and sometimes forgets to put it back on. Then she asked what the names of my parents and sisters are and took me back to the waiting room.

I waited for an hour acutally shaking and wanting to throw up...eventually the IO came back out and brought me in. I expected my husband to be in the same state I was but he looked pretty ok.
-The IO said that what my husband had told her was that his internship at Aviron tech wasn't really related to his university program (I thought it was an internship) - we both explained it by saying that because me husband had finished studying engineering completely a few months before we met, it was something we only talked about at the beginning of the relationship, and at this time my husband's English wasn't so great, and the technicalities of the situation got lost in translation.

-She asked me a question about the night we met and asked my husband not to intervene- we answered the exact same thing.

-We told her about our consultant witholding our letter and lying to us about the procedure, and she suggested we remove him from the file. She updated our mailing address to our appartment and took down my cell about 5 times.

THIS IS WHERE IT GETS CONFUSING- she asked us if we had anything else to say to convince her that our marriage is genuine, and I explained the situation with my husband's engineering program/internship again, and said I had explained what I thought was true.
-My husband asked how the interview went and she said "it went well" and said "I have a good feeling about this".
-She said, however, that she always likes to take time to read everything over before sending out the decision letter, and that she didn't want to give us any false hope.
-She told us all about the procedure and how my husband could apply for a work permit
-When we were getting our coats on she said "you're a young couple but you seem very mature"
-On the way out she started talking to my husband in French, what I heard was "People make mistakes with school" "You shouldn't have let yourself go out of status- if that wasn't the case we wouldn't have had to call you in for an interview, we would have approved your file right away".

-After that, we had a few cigarretes to calm down, and we went to an eye doctor to get proof that my husband is colourblind (the reason why he dropped out of engineering) and went to his old university to get a transcript (which the IO asked for, and then changed her mind half way though my husband's interview - she said it wasn't necessary but we still sent it to show that we're accountable and want to make things easy for her)
-we faxed the eye test from the doctor but not the school transcript yet...I'll do this from work tomorrow. She said she would send out the letter after that.

I'm so scared that I can barely think....I've hardly eaten anything all day and I'm still shaking. My husband is pretty positive that everything will be fine because the IO ended up being very nice to him and a lot more conversational than she was with me (my husband did his interview in French, the IO was Quebecoise so that might be why)- other than the engineering stuff, all our answers matched perfectly, right down to the ages of my parents and how old my mom was when she got her first divorce.

I'm sorry my post is so ridiculously long but I think it's helping me not to freak out as much. I'm trying to wrap my head around leaving the country and leaving behind everything (including our 3 birds who would have to go into quarantine in Morocco for 40 days).

I'll stop writing now before I lose my mind.....

Hi,

I would say stop worrying, just think of what the officer said about go out of status, if he had not, the interview would not have happened.So in other words the officer interview from what the officer said ( the interview went well) ...good luck