Major RPRF confusion-- Please help!

[fishface]

Hello all! I have a very confusing situation, maybe someone can help me out.

I'm Canadian, my husband is applying for permanent residence in Canada.
We used to live in Los Angeles, and at the time of application, our file was sent to Buffalo.
We moved to Vancouver, Canada a few months after sending off the application.
We received a letter saying his file has been transferred to Los Angeles.
We got a request to pay the Right of permanent residence fee. On the email they sent, it said, "The RPRF MUST be paid by your sponsor in Canada direct to Case Processing Centre in Mississauga."

I paid it online, and apparently that was not an acceptable form of payment. I got a letter back from Los Angeles saying we need to pay by cashier's check/bank draft/money order.

Am I supposed to send the cashier's check to Los Angeles or Mississauga? This is really confusing.
And can I get my online payment refunded?

 

[pinklady]

Do you have proof you paid online? If so send the receipt to CPC Mississauga.

If you make the payment using cashiers check/bank draft/money order then you would also send the receipt to Mississauga.

How do you know the payment was not acceptable? Has the money been taken from your account?

 

[ddobro2]

Incredible, paying online is absolutely an acceptable form of payment, it's actually preferred to the financial institution option......assuming you're paying with a valid credit card and all that. Can you maybe elaborate on that? I'd like to know why they would ask you to make another payment, thus necessitating a refund of the first payment, just to make a payment via a form CIC itself says is not the preferred form (and you would have to order IMM5401, by the way, in order to do so). I would figure that out before paying again. Did you get this reply from L.A. after you had sent the receipt from the online payment to CPCM?

Hello all! I have a very confusing situation, maybe someone can help me out.

I'm Canadian, my husband is applying for permanent residence in Canada.
We used to live in Los Angeles, and at the time of application, our file was sent to Buffalo.
We moved to Vancouver, Canada a few months after sending off the application.
We received a letter saying his file has been transferred to Los Angeles.
We got a request to pay the Right of permanent residence fee. On the email they sent, it said, "The RPRF MUST be paid by your sponsor in Canada direct to Case Processing Centre in Mississauga."

I paid it online, and apparently that was not an acceptable form of payment. I got a letter back from Los Angeles saying we need to pay by cashier's check/bank draft/money order.

Am I supposed to send the cashier's check to Los Angeles or Mississauga? This is really confusing.
And can I get my online payment refunded?

 

[fishface]

@Pinklady:
Yes, I printed a receipt of the online payment and sent a copy of it to Los Angeles, they returned it with a note saying online payments are not acceptable. The money is already out of my account. So frustrating! So if I mailed that same receipt to Mississauga, they would accept it and I wouldn't have to mail a money order?

@ddobro2:
Yes, the reply came from Los Angeles. I have to order IMM5401? Really? The notice they sent me did not give me ANY instructions on who to pay or how to pay it, and definitely did not mention getting the IMM5401 form. Looks like I have a lot of work to do...

 

[ddobro2]

Yeppers, see here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/fees/index.asp. I believe this is unjust and moreover, unneccessary. Email them and ask them to explain to you the reason for the original payment being "unacceptable." Get in touch with your MP in the meantime. If they don't respond to you, they are required by their own processing manual guidelines to respond to the MP within 48 hours or something. Did you send the receipt to CPCM and a copy to L.A. or only to L.A. (asking because technically Mississauga needs to have these, not the visa offices)?

@ Pinklady:
Yes, I printed a receipt of the online payment and sent a copy of it to Los Angeles, they returned it with a note saying online payments are not acceptable. The money is already out of my account. So frustrating! So if I mailed that same receipt to Mississauga, they would accept it and I wouldn't have to mail a money order?

@ ddobro2:
Yes, the reply came from Los Angeles. I have to order IMM5401? Really? The notice they sent me did not give me ANY instructions on who to pay or how to pay it, and definitely did not mention getting the IMM5401 form. Looks like I have a lot of work to do...

 

[pinklady]

Yes, I printed a receipt of the online payment and sent a copy of it to Los Angeles, they returned it with a note saying online payments are not acceptable. The money is already out of my account. So frustrating! So if I mailed that same receipt to Mississauga, they would accept it and I wouldn't have to mail a money order?

I would try sending the receipt to Mississauga like the original request asked you too. They should accept it. Your file will then likely be updated and LA will continue processing your file.
Fingers crossed!

 

[fishface]

@ddobro2:
I only sent one to Los Angeles, I figured if I paid Mississauga online, they would have it on file, but apparently not! That was my mistake. I will be mailing the receipt to Mississauga today, I also emailed them to ask if this payment is sufficient.

Thank you both for your replies! This whole process was so confusing. They asked for payment but never told me I couldn't do it one way or another... Hopefully I'll get an email back to clear up this whole situation. I'll post it here when I hear from them.

 

[ddobro2]

No, they can't link it to your application without a receipt; just like you did so for the first two fees you paid when you sent in the application, the RPRF needs to also have a receipt matched to it. The link I sent you states, "When you are finished, you must print a receipt of payment and include it with your application," and, further down, "Visa and consular offices cannot accept receipts for fees paid in Canada." That's also the reason for the specific address at CPC-M for RPRFs. The reason I mentioned you send a copy to Buffalo, is because it doesn't hurt to give them a sort of "heads up."

@ ddobro2:
I only sent one to Los Angeles, I figured if I paid Mississauga online, they would have it on file, but apparently not! That was my mistake. I will be mailing the receipt to Mississauga today, I also emailed them to ask if this payment is sufficient.

Thank you both for your replies! This whole process was so confusing. They asked for payment but never told me I couldn't do it one way or another... Hopefully I'll get an email back to clear up this whole situation. I'll post it here when I hear from them.

 

[shamsia]

Okay just adding my bit here. My husband tried paying the RPRF (ddobro2, you know about my case, right). So he tried paying the RPRF but never got the reciept and it says Transaction not Transferred, yet the money on his credit card was deducted. And I also remember the VO who called me up mention the words "pay at bank". So now this really has me confused. Is paying online not the correct way??

 

[ddobro2]

I knew you got a PPR a while back but for some reason didn't get the letter at that time. I don't really know the specifics although I do remember you mentioning something about RPRF. First, click the "retrieve previous payments" link (very bottom of this page: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/fees/index.asp). Once you log in and it doesn't have the $490 listed, then we can think about what you could do.

Okay just adding my bit here. My husband tried paying the RPRF (ddobro2, you know about my case, right). So he tried paying the RPRF but never got the reciept and it says Transaction not Transferred, yet the money on his credit card was deducted. And I also remember the VO who called me up mention the words "pay at bank". So now this really has me confused. Is paying online not the correct way??

 

[shamsia]

I knew you got a PPR a while back but for some reason didn't get the letter at that time. I don't really know the specifics although I do remember you mentioning something about RPRF. First, click the "retrieve previous payments" link (very bottom of this page: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/fees/index.asp). Once you log in and it doesn't have the $490 listed, then we can think about what you could do.

Yep he did that. We see only the previous payment we made which is 550$.

 

[ddobro2]

Ok. And it shows up on his credit card statement? Where did it say "transaction not transferred" (at the screen he came to immediately upon clicking submit?)? Anyway, the fact that some VOs, sometimes are asking people to pay one way or the other is ridiculous. The CIC page on paying fees gives two options: paying online through their system and paying through a financial institution inside Canada. These are facts. As long as an applicant pays one of the two ways and follows the specific directions that CIC spells out with regard to making and sending proof of these payments, they cannot pick or choose for people. There was someone from the Buffalo thread who had the opposite problem: she payed at a bank at the very beginning, included the receipt in her application, and yet Buffalo still asked for the RPRF. Now, I can understand that CIC would *prefer* the online option, that makes perfect sense, but they cannot reject a payment made at a bank per their own instructions! And how they can reject an online payment is beyond me.

Yep he did that. We see only the previous payment we made which is 550$.

 

[fishface]

I think I should add that I didn't send a copy of the receipt to Mississauga was because on the bottom of the print out, it reads, "If you have chosen to do your payment through your online application, you do not need to send a copy of the receipt to CIC." It's the way the sentence was phrased. I got confused.

 

[ddobro2]

You're right, that makes no sense, but CIC is famous for their inconsistent and self-contradictory directions. I think the three times it's on the webpage kinda trumps that illogical statement on the receipt, but you're totally right.

I think I should add that I didn't send a copy of the receipt to Mississauga was because on the bottom of the print out, it reads, "If you have chosen to do your payment through your online application, you do not need to send a copy of the receipt to CIC." It's the way the sentence was phrased. I got confused.

 

[Kedeisha]

I think I should add that I didn't send a copy of the receipt to Mississauga was because on the bottom of the print out, it reads, "If you have chosen to do your payment through your online application, you do not need to send a copy of the receipt to CIC." It's the way the sentence was phrased. I got confused.

That is for another type of application not for spousal sponsorship outside as there was a part of the checklist where it says u need to attached receipt