Manila Tread for English Speakers - join here!

[CanadianJeepGuy]

I was hoping for a PPR too damn it! No love from Jason Kenney, maybe he didn't like my comment on his FB page? Would explain the black helicopters circling the house the last couple of days

Of all the emails I sent I have never received any reply from Kenney's office. I never expected it either. If they were to get involved then it would be behind the scenes. The fact that they were cc'd is enough to show your serious.
By looking at your timeline I would start making inquiries through your MP. Should they tell you that you are still within normal processing times tell them that is an arbitrary date since they keep extending it every 3 months and others who have applied after you have already landed or at least have received their PPR. You are not asking for special treatment but to be treated like everyone else who applied at the same time. You have paid 100% of your fees not to become part of the 20% of applicants who get delayed. Tell them to either pass it or deny it so that at least you can get on with the appeals process.

 

[the_14th]

Dan, we're still together.. No worries! Hahaha

As for contacting your MP, I tried mine and all they said was my file is in Manila and within processing times. I should contact them again by July if there's still no progress by then. I hope you'll get a better response from your MP.

 

[Steph C]

http://www.tieza.com.ph/pages-who-can-avail-of-travel-tax-exemption--reduced-rate-and-what-are-the-documents-required.php

Just in case you guys still need the link for philippine travel tax exemption

Thanks! So we should all only pay 200 pesos - the fee you have to pay when not required to pay the fee.

 

[GoonerClank]

LOL....No I have a different one on my personal email "Dum Spiro, Spero". Its Latin for "As I breathe there is hope". I should change it to " If I have to email you, You are fooked".

Congrats CJG... "Dum Spiro, Spero" sounds like a law firm...

 

[Tagum-N.B.]

You can never go wrong with a dancing bear, but if need a dancing mascot on a budget, I hear Fin, the Canucks dancing Orca mascot is looking for work too

8) 8) Oh i dindt think she was talking about a bear

 

[Dan_from_Surrey]

Dan, we're still together.. No worries! Hahaha

Power in numbers! here's hoping it speeds up for both of us!

 

[scos]

As far as processing times, they should refer to what you were informed of. And for us, we were informed that it was 8 months (remember last year?). Like if I have a plumber make an estimate on a job, say a day and I accept and hire him, why to I care if tomorrow he gets swamped with orders. He told ME a day and that is MY "accepted time".

So I would tell that to your MPs rep. You were told 8 months when you started this process, it has been 8 months, so do something.

 

[Dan_from_Surrey]

As for contacting your MP, I tried mine and all they said was my file is in Manila and within processing times. I should contact them again by July if there's still no progress by then. I hope you'll get a better response from your MP.

I wrote off a email, to Kenney and Co. as well as a CC: to Jinny Sims (NDP Immigration critic) and Jasbir Sahdu (MP for My riding), after a couple of weeks, this morning, I received a polite,but slightly contrite party propaganda email back from Mrs. Sims. It was about what you would figure, "Kenny and the current state of immigration bad" and "we feel your pain, and want to improve this situation".

Honestly, that was about all I figured to get back, but at least it starts a dialogue, I am going to give it until the end of June, then start getting more aggressive. I figure that is enough time of being polite and waiting for some small scrap to be thrown my way.

After that, it's open the gate and set lose the Hun's, and release the Kracken!

 

[Dan_from_Surrey]

As far as processing times, they should refer to what you were informed of. And for us, we were informed that it was 8 months (remember last year?). Like if I have a plumber make an estimate on a job, say a day and I accept and hire him, why to I care if tomorrow he gets swamped with orders. He told ME a day and that is MY "accepted time".

So I would tell that to your MPs rep. You were told 8 months when you started this process, it has been 8 months, so do something.

This is exactly, what I am using for justification in my head at least, I signed up for a "12" month service, that is what I expect to receive. Logic in, logic out, but then again I realize we are talking about Ottawa here, the worlds black hole of logic

And CJG, great advice, I am just embarking along those very lines, thanks guy!

 

[scos]

I also kept pointing out that there was already an unnecessary delay in stage 1 that was CICs fault and also that I was talking with people who had applications that hit the VO AFTER mine get visas while I was just waiting for a simple request for re-med. They tried the "oh, well they will try to extend it, so that is why you haven't heard yet" bit. But I told them the meds were long past the 3 month eligibility window for that. So why hadn't I been asked for a re-med when people who's apps hit Manila a month after mine were in process and getting visas? Obviously they are not being opened in sequence. They didn't have a good answer for that.

So I did get them to do something. Unfortunately what they did was pretty lame anyway. I will be going back to prod them again June 1st (since the office is just down the road).

 

[Steph C]

I also kept pointing out that there was already an unnecessary delay in stage 1 that was CICs fault and also that I was talking with people who had applications that hit the VO AFTER mine get visas while I was just waiting for a simple request for re-med. They tried the "oh, well they will try to extend it, so that is why you haven't heard yet" bit. But I told them the meds were long past the 3 month eligibility window for that. So why hadn't I been asked for a re-med when people who's apps hit Manila a month after mine were in process and getting visas? Obviously they are not being opened in sequence. They didn't have a good answer for that.

So I did get them to do something. Unfortunately what they did was pretty lame anyway. I will be going back to prod them again June 1st (since the office is just down the road).

It's so random. They asked one guy on the Conjugal thread for a re-med 2 months ago and then AFTER they asked him to send more relationship proof! What's up with that?

 

[scos]

It's so random. They asked one guy on the Conjugal thread for a re-med 2 months ago and then AFTER they asked him to send more relationship proof! What's up with that?

Well, I think I can understand that. From GCMS you can see the app is broken down into segments and sent to different areas for processing. When all areas have signed off then the app gets DM. So each sub-department need not know what the others are doing. But there ARE plenty of problems in each sub-department, especially the whole re-med process that could do with an overhaul.

Also we all have personal experience of how bad they are at managing queues. So imagine it. The app hits the VO and is "queued" (remember the stacks of apps?). Then they are eventually scanned (I saw from my GCMS notes that scanning seems to be done pretty late in the process). Then all the bits are farmed out to the various sub-departments where you can be sure they will be... wait for it... queued again! And then they will process what they can, and if they ask you for something they do that annoying callback date thing (seriously? The government hasn't discovered workflow software yet???). And heaven forbid one of those sub-departments needs something from another, since I imagine that request would get queued too.

And when one of us complains, what happens? Whatever the current offending bit is stuck in a queue gets moved to the top of its queue, gets handled, and the process chugs forwards till it snags on the next queue.

The only thing worse would be the mythical room of typewriting monkeys that will eventually write a Shakespeare play!

 

[scos]

This whole process is like being stuck in limbo. You can't move on with your life and you have to depend on a seemingly erratic organization to determine if your relationship is "well".

Kind of like this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KE0njnZXyY

 

[CanadianJeepGuy]

Thanks for the back up. I was touched.

 

[Tagum-N.B.]

It's so random. They asked one guy on the Conjugal thread for a re-med 2 months ago and then AFTER they asked him to send more relationship proof! What's up with that?

Maybe in the remed they discovered his wife is not preggy