March 14, 2011
The Honourable Jason Kenney, P.C., M.P.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1L1
Dear Mr. Kenney,
I am writing in hopes that you, as the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, may be able to shed some light on the status of the application for Permanent Residence I have submitted for my husband and also so that you can be made aware of the negligence that has occurred with our file.
As of today, 220 days have elapsed since the application was received at CPC-Mississauga on August 6, 2010. The last communication we received about our application was dated Sept 30, 2010 from the Buffalo, NY processing office when we were advised the application was almost complete. My husband, an American citizen, has been informed twice by officers at the Huntingdon, BC border crossing that we “should hear something soon” as they could see our application in process. Unfortunately we have been left in the dark with no way of asking for an update as the CIC website states that we cannot inquire about our application until the average processing time of 11 months has elapsed. The only information we have been able to request has been a copy of our CAIPS file notes through the Access to Information and Privacy Act. Unfortunately this request has a processing time of over 6 weeks and by the time the notes are received, the information is outdated.
Out of frustration at the wait we have had to endure with absolutely no communication from the immigration processing office since September, I emailed my Member of Parliament, the Honourable Ed Fast, on March 3, 2011 to ask if they could find out any information on our file. The response I received from one of the representatives from Mr. Fast’s office was a complete shock: Buffalo was saying they had not received the documents we were required to send. According to the CAIPS notes we had ordered in December 2010 (and received in February), it clearly states the dates for the request of the documents (Sept 30 when the letter was sent) and the receipt of the documents on Oct 21. I also have courier tracking confirming the delivery in Buffalo of the requested documents on Oct 18, 2010. We had been given a 90 day time limit to produce and deliver these requested documents and had assumed, based on the information in the received CAIPS notes that everything was ok and our file would continue to be processed. If Buffalo had been waiting on documents from my husband, why was there no attempt to communicate this with him?
I am appalled at the prospect that our private and confidential personal information has been treated with such negligence by the immigration officers in Buffalo, NY and fear of other risks to our application and for a similar treatment for other applicants. This process has been extremely stressful and I feel as if my life is on hold, waiting for my husband to be able to live with me and contribute to our household and economy here in Canada. It is also frustrating to hear of celebrities getting special attention and human smugglers being able to facilitate queue jumping when we are following process and doing everything by the book. I have watched others have their applications completed with permanent residence status granted in as little as 2 months through Buffalo, NY.
I thank you for any assistance or information you are able to provide on our application. My husband’s name is XXXXX, born XXXX in XXXXX, California and his immigration file number at Buffalo, NY is BXXXXXXXX.
