Hi everyone,
I am a canadian citizen thats married to a Panamanian and most of my family is in Panama. I have noticed that the embassy in Guatemala takes forever to process an application, even a visitors visa. I also know quite a few people that have been denied the visa for unfair reasons. I see that there are alot of people from around the world that are trying to get to Canada, but I never see anything on people trying to bring someone from Panama. I know other countries also go through the Guatemala office so the time frame and everything else is similar. Has anyone here Gone through this office?
Below is a description of what my husband and I have been going through if you would like to know. it is a bit long:
Before i was married my husband and I were together for 3 years. I traveld alot to Panama and back to be with him. He is good friends with my brother so when my brother was getting married he invited my husband to be his best man. We sent letters of invitations and we also let them know through a letter that we were covering all his expenses. His stay was only going to be for 2 weeks because of his job. He lives well in Panama and owns a house so there was no great reason for him to stay in canada, since I was willing to go back and forth, which we also stated in a letter.
After 4weeks of processing he was partially denied the visa for the following reasons: 1) not enough travel experience (yet they wont issue him a visa to be able to travel) 2) they didnt understand the reason for his visit ( yet we sent alot of proof and even a letter from the bishop that was performing the ceremony stating that he was going to be the best man at the wedding 3). Not enough money ( yet we clearly stated that all his expenses were being covered and he sent a bank statement showing he had more than 2000 dollars in his account for his 2 week stay, which in panama is alot of money, and who needs more than 2000 for 2 weeks if all your expenses are completely covered.
He was not completely denied because they asked him to send in additional documents. But of course we had to pay the fee again. I really belive they just wanted more money. So he never made it for the wedding.
We then got married a year later and I moved to panama. I lived there for 3 years but my mom is very ill with cancer so i moved back to be with her. We decided to go through the sponsership process so that we can all be together here in canada with my mom. I got a lawyer and he did all the paper work for me. Everyhing was pretty much perdect before it was sent to toronto. I got approved as a sponser a month later and recieved my letter saying that everything is fine and that he meets all the requirments to get his PR and they have all the documents and proof they need. They didnt say it exacly like that but thats what they said in other words.
His papers are now at guatemala and have been for the past 4 months. I know the wait is long but i have been trying to know the status for quite sometime and it is always unavailable. This worries me because of issues with my other family members in the past. Guatemala has lost some of their documents and they have not gotten back to them about it so therefore their application was delayed by alot. I want to know the status because i dont want this to happen. I talked to the lawyer and he told me to call my mp and request for him to send a letter asking for the status because they have done this for many of his other clients in the past.
So I contacted my mp (which would be the second time) and that was no help. When i called it wasnt the mp that answered, it was obviously someone that represents him. He told me there was no way to contact my mp and that the mp cant legally get involved in immigration issues. This is the second time I talk to this man and he has been no help at all. He says they cant request the status of the application and that I have to wait min 18 months, so the soonest I will know about my husbands paper work is maybe in march of next year. Thats bull. I dont know what that man is there for because obviously there are many people that have gotten help from their mp. But i guess they arent all the same and like to help. I clearly told him that I wasnt asking for them to help push his paperwork forward, but that I only wanted to know the status. But he was very rude and arrogant so I said nevermind.
I talked to my lawyer and he said he will send a satus request for me. He says its strange that he wont let my mp help me. I guess ill just wait to see what my lawyer says. If it takes 18 months to get a status i think ill just move back to panama and forget about this. This government is doing wrong things. Instead of helping families to be reunited fast, they split them up and ruin marriges. If his application was well done and he meets all the requirments for his PR like the letter said, than why wis it going to take more than a year to give him his visa. I think they are just scratching their asses, excuse my language.
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I am a canadian citizen thats married to a Panamanian and most of my family is in Panama. I have noticed that the embassy in Guatemala takes forever to process an application, even a visitors visa. I also know quite a few people that have been denied the visa for unfair reasons. I see that there are alot of people from around the world that are trying to get to Canada, but I never see anything on people trying to bring someone from Panama. I know other countries also go through the Guatemala office so the time frame and everything else is similar. Has anyone here Gone through this office?
Below is a description of what my husband and I have been going through if you would like to know. it is a bit long:
Before i was married my husband and I were together for 3 years. I traveld alot to Panama and back to be with him. He is good friends with my brother so when my brother was getting married he invited my husband to be his best man. We sent letters of invitations and we also let them know through a letter that we were covering all his expenses. His stay was only going to be for 2 weeks because of his job. He lives well in Panama and owns a house so there was no great reason for him to stay in canada, since I was willing to go back and forth, which we also stated in a letter.
After 4weeks of processing he was partially denied the visa for the following reasons: 1) not enough travel experience (yet they wont issue him a visa to be able to travel) 2) they didnt understand the reason for his visit ( yet we sent alot of proof and even a letter from the bishop that was performing the ceremony stating that he was going to be the best man at the wedding 3). Not enough money ( yet we clearly stated that all his expenses were being covered and he sent a bank statement showing he had more than 2000 dollars in his account for his 2 week stay, which in panama is alot of money, and who needs more than 2000 for 2 weeks if all your expenses are completely covered.
He was not completely denied because they asked him to send in additional documents. But of course we had to pay the fee again. I really belive they just wanted more money. So he never made it for the wedding.
We then got married a year later and I moved to panama. I lived there for 3 years but my mom is very ill with cancer so i moved back to be with her. We decided to go through the sponsership process so that we can all be together here in canada with my mom. I got a lawyer and he did all the paper work for me. Everyhing was pretty much perdect before it was sent to toronto. I got approved as a sponser a month later and recieved my letter saying that everything is fine and that he meets all the requirments to get his PR and they have all the documents and proof they need. They didnt say it exacly like that but thats what they said in other words.
His papers are now at guatemala and have been for the past 4 months. I know the wait is long but i have been trying to know the status for quite sometime and it is always unavailable. This worries me because of issues with my other family members in the past. Guatemala has lost some of their documents and they have not gotten back to them about it so therefore their application was delayed by alot. I want to know the status because i dont want this to happen. I talked to the lawyer and he told me to call my mp and request for him to send a letter asking for the status because they have done this for many of his other clients in the past.
So I contacted my mp (which would be the second time) and that was no help. When i called it wasnt the mp that answered, it was obviously someone that represents him. He told me there was no way to contact my mp and that the mp cant legally get involved in immigration issues. This is the second time I talk to this man and he has been no help at all. He says they cant request the status of the application and that I have to wait min 18 months, so the soonest I will know about my husbands paper work is maybe in march of next year. Thats bull. I dont know what that man is there for because obviously there are many people that have gotten help from their mp. But i guess they arent all the same and like to help. I clearly told him that I wasnt asking for them to help push his paperwork forward, but that I only wanted to know the status. But he was very rude and arrogant so I said nevermind.
I talked to my lawyer and he said he will send a satus request for me. He says its strange that he wont let my mp help me. I guess ill just wait to see what my lawyer says. If it takes 18 months to get a status i think ill just move back to panama and forget about this. This government is doing wrong things. Instead of helping families to be reunited fast, they split them up and ruin marriges. If his application was well done and he meets all the requirments for his PR like the letter said, than why wis it going to take more than a year to give him his visa. I think they are just scratching their asses, excuse my language.
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. I would love to move back to Panama but the reason why I havent gone back is because my mother is very ill with stage 4 cancer and is slowly leaving us. I dont want to go to panama knowing that I can lose her at any moment. So we wanted to see if he can apply for his visitors visa but my lawyer said that there is a 10% chance they will approve him. I hate how there isnt much we can do to be togetheer. I havent seen him for a year now and its starting to get frustrating. Unfortunately I cant go visit yet because of my job so I am a pretty lonely wife right now and hes a lonely husband and who knows for how much longer. Its sucks to know that it is minimum 18 months