Manila Tread for English Speakers - join here!

[Awesomeg]

Hi, I am happy for you....I hope I will be the next one to have improvement.

Yes, we are getting close....
Seems to me that most English speaking sponsors are going to the slow lane..
But not all....

 

[Gumper]

MP is Member of Parliament, the elected official in your area who represents you in the federal government. You won't actually speak that person when you call their office but they usually have staff to assist with this kind of enquiry.

 

[catbluesky]

Yes, we are getting close....
Seems to me that most English speaking sponsors are going to the slow lane..
But not all....

Well, in my case my husband is speaking French since he is from Quebec but he speaks English too. And yeah I noticed that too. I don't know what is going on with our case. We are IN PROCESS since August 13th and it's more than 2 months now that we don't have any improvement. You are lucky you're DM now.

 

[Gumper]

thank you Gumper! where do you think I could find there numbers? Anyway my husband is from Winnipeg.

Just Google "MP for (xyz area)" it will come up.

 

[Edgehead78]

thank you Gumper! where do you think I could find there numbers? Anyway my husband is from Winnipeg.

On this website: http://www.parl.gc.ca/Default.aspx?Language=E
Enter the postal code in the box in the middle of the page.

 

[Awesomeg]

Good news for Manila Applicants.... looks like Manila Visa Office is back to work...

I believe that our wait will be over soon...

Only one applicant is left from January.... he most be at the edge....
but I hope good news will come soon....

After January is clean up ... February will be next .... and I am in February...

(unfortunately, for us that do not speak Tagalog the waiting is longer.....
It should not be like that... that is discrimination against us.... )

 

[Hwseyl]

Good news for Manila Applicants.... looks like Manila Visa Office is back to work...

I believe that our wait will be over soon...

Only one applicant is left from January.... he most be at the edge....
but I hope good news will come soon....

After January is clean up ... February will be next .... and I am in February...

(unfortunately, for us that do not speak Tagalog the waiting is longer.....
It should not be like that... that is discrimination against us.... )

There are still a lot of us from December too, waiting to hear good news.

Btw, what do you mean those of us that don't speak Tagalog have to wait longer?? What difference does it make?

Heather

 

[EBUENCONS]

HI all im a Sept 2013 applicant still waiting for visa!!! hope to hear good news soon

 

[silverlynxes]

There are still a lot of us from December too, waiting to hear good news.

Btw, what do you mean those of us that don't speak Tagalog have to wait longer?? What difference does it make?

Heather

Maybe talking about this forums, there are lot of threads for Philippines, in Tagalog.
If could understand Tagalog, can get more informations or any news of process .
Anyway Tagalog doesn't any effect for process(cause every documents written by English or French !)

 

[EBUENCONS]

Hi i made a group on fb for sponsorhip under conjugal/commonlaw category please join if your application is under these category here is the liink
https://www.facebook.com/groups/350520505117348/ thank u

 

[Awesomeg]

There are still a lot of us from December too, waiting to hear good news.

Btw, what do you mean those of us that don't speak Tagalog have to wait longer?? What difference does it make?

Heather

Any case that is easy and straightforward is managed by local staff...
Locally engaged personnel, normally will be cases of both spouses being from Philippines...
Cases that are more complicated, where there are language differences, religion differences,
background differences..... etc. may be taken to senior staff...
they are Immigration Officers originally from Canada, and assigned to that post...
they are the high earners.... many cases that the local personnel doesn't want to handle will
go to them... and there is a waiting line.....
here is when the time difference comes....
there are a much less Canadian Immigration officers than locally engaged personnel, then
the waiting for a case to be solved is longer.....
that is all.... Many cases of English or French speaking goes to the slow line...
Both spouses from Philippines will go to the fast line.... that may explain why some cases
from January are not finalized even when all others are already waiting for Visa....
Or cases from 2013 that still waiting....
Pinoy applicants that have other complications may also go to the slow line....

That is what I learned from a post here in the forum.....

 

[Kayaker]

I don't know - that might be true in some cases, but it may also be not true in just as many cases... statistically speaking, there are probably fewer cases of fraud when the principal applicant is from Korea or Japan. Also, people from these countries don't need a visa to visit Canada, so they might have better relationship proofs - more visits to Canada, probably.

Sometimes, you can see why some cases go the slow route - but it seems like as often as there are obvious cases that go the slow route, there are as many cases where you wonder what made the VO put them on the long route... no transparency there at all.

 

[Awesomeg]

I don't know - that might be true in some cases, but it may also be not true in just as many cases... statistically speaking, there are probably fewer cases of fraud when the principal applicant is from Korea or Japan. Also, people from these countries don't need a visa to visit Canada, so they might have better relationship proofs - more visits to Canada, probably.

Sometimes, you can see why some cases go the slow route - but it seems like as often as there are obvious cases that go the slow route, there are as many cases where you wonder what made the VO put them on the long route... no transparency there at all.

Yes, that's true....
Japan doesn't need visa to come to Canada... so, marriage is not a way out of Japan.... plain and simple...
Your case was solved very fast, even when you had police certificate problems...
My case so far has been normal, I am not waiting any longer than those that apply at about the same time as we did.,
some cases have been very fast, but most of them are at the same pace of mine....
I am fortunate, and I hope that this waiting is finally over....

 

[Hwseyl]

I don't know - that might be true in some cases, but it may also be not true in just as many cases... statistically speaking, there are probably fewer cases of fraud when the principal applicant is from Korea or Japan. Also, people from these countries don't need a visa to visit Canada, so they might have better relationship proofs - more visits to Canada, probably.

Sometimes, you can see why some cases go the slow route - but it seems like as often as there are obvious cases that go the slow route, there are as many cases where you wonder what made the VO put them on the long route... no transparency there at all.

Heh Kayaker,

Still around, eh? Looks like everything got settled for you. Glad to hear it! It's true, I thought we would be one of the easiest cases since the validity of our marriage really can't be questioned. And I never thought they would question our intensions regarding our plan to move back to Canada since I'm Canadian and our three kids are Canadian. I recently pointed out to my MP that there seems to be no transparency at all. My thoughts were that the online website where you can check your status would show exactly what stage you are at, what problems there seem to be and any further communication with the embassy. It would be so easy for them to just say, "App A received Date, date" but instead the status information is almost useless (I may have a different opinion once the status changes. I'm sure I'll be ecstatic to see it changed to "In Process".) As a result (well, I said a few more things about the process!) my MP has stopped communicating with me all together.

Well, I continue to look for work in Southern Alberta and just pray that my husband's visa comes before spring, since that's when we are planning to move.

BTW, I did want to apologise to you and other Japanese using this forum. A while back, someone asked me why would I want to leave Japan and move to Canada. I pointed out some things that are particularly frustrating for me but I don't want to come off sounding like I'm bashing Japan. Japan has been a great place to live for the last 20 years and there are so many wonderful things about living here. To tell you the truth, I really miss Canada. (I'm sure I'll be saying the same thing about Japan once we live in Canada.) And I want my kids to know my family better, to hunt and fish and learn about gonch pulls, to run naked through the woods. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little but I think you know what I mean. It's a different life style and I want them, and my husband, to experience both.

Ok, enough of a rant and a ramble. I wish good news for everyone soon!!

Heather

 

[Kayaker]

Hi Heather!

Don't blame you for wanting to move back to Canada. Other than the fact that you miss home and you want your kids to experience Canada as well, I do feel like there's better quality of life here. My husband would shrivel and whither away if he had to commute like my father does every morning and evening. Here it's a 10-min commute, with no traffic jams. And I firmly believe kids are much better off with access to nature, hiking and fishing than going to juku every day and playing video games! I love the space and quiet here, and having beautiful trails to walk my dog. And I think our 75 pound dog would not survive in a Japanese city!

One of the things I miss most about Japan is food, but I've found that it's surprisingly easy to obtain in Canada! I think I'm the only Japanese person in this city, but I find a better selection of Asian foods at my local Real Canadian Superstore than in New York, where I used to live. Finding frozen cooked udon has been great - not only is it really easy and quick, it's also delicious. I think since Loblaws acquired T&T the whole chain and their stores started stocking more Asian food.

I agree Ecas is as good as useless. I've heard some people say they are so slow to update Ecas, someone got his COPR and landed before his Ecas changed to "Decision Made"! It took 2 months or more for our address change to show up on Ecas. And it would have put our minds greatly at ease if they'd updated Ecas to show if they'd received our additional documents or not. (read too many threads on this forum where people sent requested documents but the VO claimed to have never gotten them.) And when I saw Decision Made I was more concerned than ever, because I hadn't had a request for Appendix A like everyone else did!

I don't really understand why CIC is so strict about the Canadian sponsor moving back to Canada.... but I've seen this issue pop up in the forum many times.

Yup, I'm still around. Feel like the forum has been a great help to us so I'd like to answer questions for some other people. It certainly has helped us identify our potential red flags and address them. I think that contributed to our relatively short timeline! Plus, I work online and I love procrastinating