Latest on the Changes on Canada Immigration plan this coming FALL

[buonqua]

There are offices for non-visa exempt countries where the backlog is so long that the visa officers wouldn't even pick up your file for up to a year. I ordered my notes and 6 months in, it was completely dormant - no one had even looked at the upfront medical I submitted alongside our file.

Does your medical show in progress? I thought I was the only one with it. Thinking back maybe it's because my wife did the medicals 3 weeks before submitting her sponsorship application.

I think they put completed medicals in Mississauga when they assess the sponsor. Just something I found perplexed and worrisome.

 

[ImABule]

I've had to sell one of my houses so that I have savings to support my wife and daughter while I wait for my application to be approved. I've been paying mortgage, property taxes and insurance on another house I haven't lived in for almost 3 years.

I quit my job almost 3 years ago and immediately after I quit my job I spent 15 consecutive months living with my wife. I came back to Canada twice to work on selling the house. I had $20 in my bank account when my daughter was born in Vietnam. We had 1 miscarriage and 1 daughter who is Canadian citizen by birth and lived together for over 2 years before submitting my application. My wife is now pregnant with our 2nd child.

I ordered my GCMS notes last month to find they haven't even looked at her files and her medicals is still in progress. I'm lucky to be with my wife and daughter in Vietnam but it came with lots of sacrifices. I'm living in Vietnam with no work permit and no degree so I can't even work and even if I do it'll be $200/month jobs.

She's got no family members in Canada. So it's seems pretty straight forward case but 5.5 months and not a peak into my application.

I've been apart from my wife and daughter at most 3 months spurts so I know the empty feeling being away from the ones you love. I feel for those that haven't seen their spouses for over a year. I've sacrificed everything I could to make the best of our situation.

But I don't blame Singapore VO for their long wait time. Yeah there's lots of incompetancy issues at Singapore Vo but just too many marriage of inconvenience coming from this office. What I don't understand is why can't Canada assess and issue some sort of spouse visa while our application is waiting to be approved. I could be working in Canada paying income taxes and creating jobs.

How do you support yourselves with no income?

 

[keesio]

your point being that visa exempt applicants with cases that are outside of cultural norms would also have their applications scrutinized by the visa officers, correct? you make a good point, though i would argue that the list of things that may trigger closer scrutiny is definitely shorter for visa exempt applicants. even when requested to undergo interviews, visa exempt applicants still face a shorter processing time compared to other foreign nationals.

I agree. Visa-exempt applicants do have it easier. No question. My point was that IRCC application of "cultural norms" when evaluating relationship validity is not because of any racist and xenophobic standard, but because of past precedent and application of local rules.

Another example is that IRCC seems to accept an applicant from the Philippines who is being sponsored by a common-law partner even though the applicant is married to another individual. This is because IRCC is applying a culturally understood norm that its very difficult to get a divorce in the Philippines (I don't think it is even legal?). IRCC will reject anyone from a western country who is common law with one person while married to another.

 

[keesio]

To fix2015

VISA exempt countries (Or just USA) is processed faster could be explained by couple factors:

1) documents are in English, no translation
2) US and Canada share criminal record database and background check is lot easier
3) US is lot closer to Canada than Pakistan, the sponsor and the sponsored person probably visit each other lot more often and hence less doubt on the relationship

The US and Canada share a lot more than just criminal records. Border entry/exit, security information and in some cases even medical, financial and driving records. Canadians have long complained about privacy issues regarding information sharing with the US.

 

[keesio]

Surely it would make sense to forward applications from such backlogged offices to CPC-Ottawa if they want to distribute workload evenly. I don't understand why the NY VO, or Paris VO, or London VO, or Sydney VO aren't handling their own respective applications, especially if the background checks are so much easier as you point.

Staff at the various offices are trained to handle applicants from certain countries. And it makes sense that the local office would understand local customs better. I'm sure NDVO would understand all the various documents of an Indian national than someone in Ottawa. And as for understanding local customs, it is a no brainer. And if they handle applicants from other nearby countries, they would have to have been trained on those regions. Hence shifting around of applications is not optimal. Also, if an interview is needed, the VO needs to be accessible to the applicant.

How would you feel if you were standing in a 2 year line at a bus stop, but the guy behind you was sent to a shorter line because he was Australian?

I'd feel similar to how I feel when I arrive from a flight in a European airport and see citizens from EU countries getting to breeze through immigration while I am stuck in the longer line for "all others". I'd be envious but understand.

 

[flx2015]

Staff at the various offices are trained to handle applicants from certain countries. And it makes sense that the local office would understand local customs better. I'm sure NDVO would understand all the various documents of an Indian national than someone in Ottawa. And as for understanding local customs, it is a no brainer. And if they handle applicants from other nearby countries, they would have to have been trained on those regions. Hence shifting around of applications is not optimal. Also, if an interview is needed, the VO needs to be accessible to the applicant.

pakistani applications used to be processed at the local VO in pakistan. however, london VO took over from them in 2013 and is now responsible for processing all pakistani applications for permanent residence. london VO went through a bit of a learning curve when they initially started processing pakistani apps, almost as if they were trying to grasp a better understanding of pakistani culture and all of its nuances. this tells me that they can process applications at any visa office around the world, but as you said, it is not optimal since this would require the CIC to train all of its visa officers to understand the specifics of every culture in existence. the end result? the volume of applications received from each country becomes directly proportional to the wait times they must endure. unfortunate, but understandable.

...but does that mean they are justified in keeping spouses physically separated while their applications are processed?

John McCallum A.K.A. Emperor Palpatine once said that they cannot turn a battleship on a dime, but we're not exactly asking them to turn a battleship on a dime; we understand that it's going to take time for them to speed up the processing of spousal apps. what we're really after is the privilege of being able to stay together with our spouses/partners while the CIC processes their applications. the americans have something similar to a spousal TRV, so why can't we have that as well?

 

[justanerd]

Ok, why blame John McCallum or the liberal? So the whole mess was created because of the CIC Pakistan office closure (probably due to the budget cut Stephen Harper has done to CIC)

Btw, I have never said that you shouldn't feel frustrated because of the long way. But accusing CIC of being slow and inconsiderate are NOT the same as accusing CIC being racist and xenophobic.

and for that guy who thinks gay & large age gap = sugar daddy...well let's just say how can you blame people at CIC being racist based on stereotypes and then immediately turn around and apply stereotype to others? If you think your love to your wife and children is "superior" than love of others (gays, large age gap, or any non-main stream type of relationships) then I don't feel bad about you being stuck like this.

i think the spouse visa is a good idea and I do hope parkistanin applicants will get their results soon. what I can't stand is that people immediately victimized themselves by playing the racist card when in fact there's no evidence to support the claim that CIC deliberately slow down the process of people from a specific country or region.

 

[danawhitaker]

pakistani applications used to be processed at the local VO in pakistan. however, london VO took over from them in 2013 and is now responsible for processing all pakistani applications for permanent residence. london VO went through a bit of a learning curve when they initially started processing pakistani apps, almost as if they were trying to grasp a better understanding of pakistani culture and all of its nuances. this tells me that they can process applications at any visa office around the world, but as you said, it is not optimal since this would require the CIC to train all of its visa officers to understand the specifics of every culture in existence. the end result? the greater the volume of applicants from a certain country, the longer they're made to wait. unfortunate, but understandable.

...but does that mean they are justified in keeping spouses physically separated while their applications are processed?

John McCallum A.K.A. Emperor Palpatine once said that they cannot turn a battleship on a dime, but we're not exactly asking them to turn a battleship on a dime; we understand that it's going to take time for them to speed up the processing of spousal apps. what we're really after is the privilege of being able to stay together with our spouses/partners while the CIC processes their applications. the americans have something similar to a spousal TRV, so why can't we have that as well?

Definitely doesn't mean they're justified in that. I'd love to see that changed for everyone. I know that everyone in my extended family is confused about why I just can't pack all my things and move now. They don't understand that marrying someone doesn't automatically grant you that right, and that there's a decently long and tedious process to go through, especially when you take into account waiting on documents. It's definitely not fair for people to be kept apart, and I truly hope they're serious about making the process easier for people from all the VOs.

As for what Americans have...I can't say how much better our system is necessarily. My husband and I decided that my daughter and I moving to Canada would be the best option for all of us, so we didn't look into it in detail. What experience I do have is with two friends of ours. She's from the U.S., and she met and eventually married a Brazillian. Their situation isn't particularly complicated, aside from the fact that they originally met online in World of Warcraft. Neither of them have been married before, there are no children involved, they knew each other for quite a while before getting married, he has a good job and has for a long time and he'll have no trouble finding work here based on his career type, etc. They want to move here, and she cannot even get him into the U.S. She had to move down there to live with him to prove that the relationship is genuine. They've been in limbo for at least three years, and as far as I know as of late, no progress has been made. She cannot even leave the country alone to come back and visit her immediate family without jeopardizing getting him to the point where he can move here with her. They at least get to be together during the process, but I know it's very hard for her to not be able to come back and see her family at all.

 

[ImABule]

pakistani applications used to be processed at the local VO in pakistan. however, london VO took over from them in 2013 and is now responsible for processing all pakistani applications for permanent residence. london VO went through a bit of a learning curve when they initially started processing pakistani apps, almost as if they were trying to grasp a better understanding of pakistani culture and all of its nuances. this tells me that they can process applications at any visa office around the world, but as you said, it is not optimal since this would require the CIC to train all of its visa officers to understand the specifics of every culture in existence. the end result? the volume of applications received from each country becomes directly proportional to the wait times they must endure. unfortunate, but understandable.

...but does that mean they are justified in keeping spouses physically separated while their applications are processed?

John McCallum A.K.A. Emperor Palpatine once said that they cannot turn a battleship on a dime, but we're not exactly asking them to turn a battleship on a dime; we understand that it's going to take time for them to speed up the processing of spousal apps. what we're really after is the privilege of being able to stay together with our spouses/partners while the CIC processes their applications. the americans have something similar to a spousal TRV, so why can't we have that as well?

We used to, it was scrapped.

They need to bring it back.

 

[s.and.s]

Btw, I have never said that you shouldn't feel frustrated because of the long way. But accusing CIC of being slow and inconsiderate are NOT the same as accusing CIC being racist and xenophobic.

I just looked through the thread and none of the complainants have accused CIC of being 'racist' or 'xenophobic'. Those are your words and lets not use those please.

There is a perception that CIC has not distributed it's workload evenly, which has resulted in certain applicants getting their files fast tracked at CPC-Ottawa. I don't see race as the reason, but I do believe this is deliberate since it allows them to advertise a drastic improvement in number of applicants processed. They may be going after the 'low hanging fruit', but it's unfair to the people waiting in line.

 

[justanerd]

I just looked through the thread and none of the complainants have accused CIC of being 'racist' or 'xenophobic'. Those are your words and lets not use those please.

There is a perception that CIC has not distributed it's workload evenly, which has resulted in certain applicants getting their files fast tracked at CPC-Ottawa. I don't see race as the reason, but I do believe this is deliberate since it allows them to advertise a drastic improvement in number of applicants processed. They may be going after the 'low hanging fruit', but it's unfair to the people waiting in line.

When you explained it like that it makes sense. I don't think I am the only who thinks this entire thread is hinting racism & xenophia at CIC (discussed in keesio's reponse).

About "reaching for the low hanging fruit", CIC is doing the same thing to inland apps (fast track "simple & straight forward cases") and resulted in some applicants get AIP/DM in less than 9 months while lot of people have to wait for the entire 26 months period (lot of 2016 March applicants got stage 2 approval already while most 2015 May applicants have not heard a thing from CIC).

 

[flx2015]

When you explained it like that it makes sense. I don't think I am the only who thinks this entire thread is hinting racism & xenophia at CIC (discussed in keesio's reponse).

no, that's your own view point. race, culture, religion, social economics, etc are all factors in the eligibility assessment for family class applications. we are all mature adults here and i'm sure we can discuss each of these aspects without involving racism and xenophobia.

 

[ImABule]

no, that's your own view point. race, culture, religion, social economics, etc are all factors in the eligibility assessment for family class applications. we are all mature adults here and i'm sure we can discuss each of these aspects without involving racism and xenophobia.

Agreed

 

[Djl]

When you explained it like that it makes sense. I don't think I am the only who thinks this entire thread is hinting racism & xenophia at CIC (discussed in keesio's reponse).

About "reaching for the low hanging fruit", CIC is doing the same thing to inland apps (fast track "simple & straight forward cases") and resulted in some applicants get AIP/DM in less than 9 months while lot of people have to wait for the entire 26 months period (lot of 2016 March applicants got stage 2 approval already while most 2015 May applicants have not heard a thing from CIC).

I really think you should leave this thread very quietly and soon

 

[buonqua]

How do you support yourselves with no income?

I was lucky to have bought the Toronto house in 2009 and it doubled in price when I sold it. I used that profit as capital to trade stocks, oil, gold and USD/Cad. The low living standards in Vietnam helps. We spend about $800/mth.