I will say, as a born and raised Canadian (so where my mother and father) I have to agree with CanadianJeepGUy on some of his points. Begin born and raised here, there should be a different threshold. Especially when the government allows foreign workers into the country, eventually some of those foreign boys and girls are going to mix with us who where born here, and things being what things are, some of them are going to hit it off, and turn their minds towards committed relationships.
I do believe there should be a completely fast tracked system (yes I know the government would have us believe that is already in place) for family reunification for citizens (born here or immigrated here) for eh immediate family at least (spouses and siblings) and then a sliding scale for other relatives the further you get away from the core of essential family unit here. (grand parents, aunt's, uncles etc).
But what really P's me off to no end, is seeing how some VO offices are far more "efficient" at processing applications than others. If it takes 9 months to process, then it should be 9 for all. Or six or eight or what ever the case may be. Not five months through this VO, and 15 through this VO. All this information is centrally stored, and like CanadianJeepGuy said, there is absolutely no reason, that this process should realistically take more than a few hours to follow up on in most cases, if all documents requested are presented at one time, it is a simple matter to follow up and check their validity.
In this process we do the leg work, their charge is only to check and double check the facts as we submit them. In essence a very simple straight forward cut and dried process, that they have managed to sprinkle pixe dust on and sell back to us as some sort of huge process we wouldn't understand.
I understand they need to know, A B C and D, I also understand I have to prove A B C and D, if I do my part (this is the leg work) inside a couple of weeks, why does it then take so damned longed for them to do their part (the double checking)? Aside from bloated middle management minded bureaucracy, there is no reason. What is needed is a trimming of the chiefs, and add some Indians back into the mix, so that people can on with doing their jobs efficiently. And the rest of us can get on with living our lives.
Lord knows, if a million people owe money on their taxes, they can process that is record time. But yet this process just drags on, and on and on. And more so for some than others.
Please keep in mind these comments apply only to citizens. For straight up immigration, yes i can see where they may want to do more back ground work and such, and maybe more of a cooling off period to test a possible candidates intentions, sure.
But for family reunification, refugee claimants and such, this is ludicrous, and frankly quite shameful for a "first world" country to be so backwards.
Like CanadianJeepGuy, I am another mid forties born Canuck (white too!
) finally found the right person, whom was allowed here into the country on a work permit. (so she has already been through the system and processed once). And after nearly 15 months screwing around with the Philippines Government, and now coming on six months of screwing around with the Canadian Government, I have grown quit frankly tired of the crap of waiting it won't be long and it will be two years in June of this, enough to test anyone's patience, two years of paying for two households in two countries with one job, two years of skype crap being substituted for real life contact. Two years of being stuck in a bureaucratic limbo because of bulls**t paper shuffling.
Well, now that this has degenerated into a non focused rant
maybe I should take a breath and and practice some meditation
Anyways, CanadianJeepGuy, I feel your pain brother, hopefully soon our time too will come.
