I totally agree how ridiculous the system is. Having gone through the residency process in two different developing countries in the past, the Canadian system is more archaic than both in my experience. In both countries I was allowed to stay and live with my wife throughout the process, they were much cheaper than Canada and I was able to get answers when I needed them. Sure one country I had to go hang out for half a day to get an answer regarding my status and it was in Spanish, but at least I got one. I didn't have to rely on a useless online system that is not updated regularly like ecas. Here in the Philippines my residency was really straight forward. The people were nice, always polite and answered all our questions. The interviews with the immigration lawyers were a breeze and pleasant, almost like hanging out with new friends. So far what I have read and experienced with the Canadian process (We are still early in the game), I feel as though we are treated as "guilty until proven innocent" with the VO's and we are either forced to live apart from our loved ones because of economics and/or where our spouses live (non-visa exempt country) OR we choose to sacrifice a few years of livelyhood to live with our spouses in their country until the process is over.... Just my two cents.
I've also found 781 cad, multiple airlines, but via calgary so it was excluded on my choices.
