MARCH 2014 OUTLAND APPLICANTS

[Koifish76]

Decision made!!

We sent in the passport 1 week ago so here's hoping a pickup e-mail comes asap. Trying to hold off the excitement until it is returned and visa is in hand ;D Please update us on the spreadsheet.

Good to hear!

Updated.

 

[O_guy]

The sponsorship news of our March group has been mostly possitive. I hope we can all complete this process before Santa Clause comes to town.

 

[Koifish76]

The sponsorship news of our March group has been mostly possitive. I hope we can all complete this process before Santa Clause comes to town.

That would be wonderful. Except for one problem here... We are pretty much a May Applicant, as they reset the submission date to the date of resent form. . But we enjoy being part of this group and will just have patience while watching everyone get their visa's.

I certainly hope we all get it finished by Christmas too.

 

[mikeymyke]

Hey Koifish did you ever find out why they delayed your application?

 

[Koifish76]

This is one of the first things I will look at when my GCMS notes come in. Ordered July 22. I will definitely share it with the group.

 

[pameyb]

Decision made!!

We sent in the passport 1 week ago so here's hoping a pickup e-mail comes asap. Trying to hold off the excitement until it is returned and visa is in hand ;D Please update us on the spreadsheet.

yayyyyyy!

 

[rhcohen2014]

so this is an interesting development for sydney and paris applicants still waiting. see this below, posted in the may applicant thread:

Hello, my partner received his approval as sponsor on August 1, 2014. The letter he received said that the application was been sent to a processing center abroad but did not specify which one. After reading this tread we started to get worried about the fact that they did not specify the office, so this morning my partner called CIC and apparently they changed a bit their process for those application that are considered simple and non-complex in order to speed up the process. these application stay in Missisauga and will be processed in that office. the visa will then come from the office abroad. Apparently mine is one of the first ones to be processed that way. the positive thing is that our case is seen as non complicate which is good but Missisauga already screwed up our application once so I just hope everything goes well.

So if the approval you received did not specify the office call the CIC and ask where your application had actually been sent. I am not sure what the parameters for "non complicate" are but I hope it really is a faster process.

I just know that I need a vacation after I get my PR. It has been very stressful 8)

it seems this applicant is getting processed through paris. i know there are recent australian applicants who received notice about their application remaining in mississauga as well. so perhaps this is the cause for the sudden halt/slowdown in sydney and paris applications? from what i recall, back when we applied those were the quickest visa offices, and now there seems to be no movement from them. obviously, i have no idea what this means for applications already at those visa offices, just thought it was an interesting development in the process, and it is worth sharing.

 

[Koifish76]

so this is an interesting development for sydney and paris applicants still waiting. see this below, posted in the may applicant thread:

it seems this applicant is getting processed through paris. i know there are recent australian applicants who received notice about their application remaining in mississauga as well. so perhaps this is the cause for the sudden halt/slowdown in sydney and paris applications? from what i recall, back when we applied those were the quickest visa offices, and now there seems to be no movement from them. obviously, i have no idea what this means for applications already at those visa offices, just thought it was an interesting development in the process, and it is worth sharing.

There could be an internal audit. Singapore had one a few years ago, then the wait times grew and grew. Or based on a new risk assessment of these offices (random or not), they are undergoing changes in structure or governance. Who knows? At least they have a back up plan to re-direct the non-complicated cases to Ottawa. Time will tell as you say.

 

[rhcohen2014]

There could be an internal audit. Singapore had one a few years ago, then the wait times grew and grew. Or based on a new risk assessment of these offices (random or not), they are undergoing changes in structure or governance. Who knows? At least they have a back up plan to re-direct the non-complicated cases to Ottawa. Time will tell as you say.

they aren't getting redirected to ottawa right now. applicants are being notifid their applications are staying in mississauga until it's time to issue the visa, and it seems to be attributed to workflow issues. this appears to be a new thing and completely unrelated to why applications are sent to ottawa (unless it's the same reason, just the use of a different office.)

 

[Koifish76]

they aren't getting redirected to ottawa right now. applicants are being notifid their applications are staying in mississauga until it's time to issue the visa, and it seems to be attributed to workflow issues. this appears to be a new thing and completely unrelated to why applications are sent to ottawa (unless it's the same reason, just the use of a different office.)

Workflow issues??? Well, this makes no sense. Paris and Sydney have had the best workflow for a long time now. To keep their files in Mississauga is more or less due to something happening at those respective visa offices. Normally I would think Mississauga is running some sort of trial and error or project, but why would they select the two most efficient offices to do this? I can think of countless other visa offices with a huge surplus for them to choose.

Also, I doubt the agent or operator will give the real reasons of this purpose over the phone. They have a script to follow given to them by their superiors. Just my .02

 

[rhcohen2014]

unfortunately it's impossible to know why cic does anything!

 

[O_guy]

According to the Manila VO spreadsheet, folks who submitted applications as recent as May already received PPR but folks who submitted application as early as February still have not received their passports back from the VO. Furthermore, the ECAS of people who submitted their application as early as February hasn't seen any change to their ECAS since the SA. There don't seem to be commonality with respect to the way Visa Offices operate. But they should since they all fall under the same Minister.

 

[Koifish76]

According to the Manila VO spreadsheet, folks who submitted applications as recent as May already received PPR but folks who submitted application as early as February still have not received their passports back from the VO. Furthermore, the ECAS of people who submitted their application as early as February hasn't seen any change to their ECAS since the SA. There don't seem to be commonality with respect to the way Visa Offices operate. But they should since they all fall under the same Minister.

Regarding your last comment, it has been explained to me that each visa office has to deal with different agencies doing the final check ups, security clearance, passport control and issuance. All one minister, but it is not as clear cut as one would assume.

I completely agree that there is no commonality and it is impossible to understand why certain batches are fast, where others are the opposite. Every visa office thread seems to show this, not just Manilla. I sometimes think there are agendas, to lower the average wait times, which they are attempting by quickly processing some and others are processed according to normal wait times as posted. Singapore seems to have picked up the pace, but applicants from Mid 2013 are being passed over where applicants from dec 2013 and even some from 2014! are seeing progress.

 

[rhcohen2014]

I sometimes think there are agendas, to lower the average wait times, which they are attempting by quickly processing some and others are processed according to normal wait times as posted.

yes! i totally agree. i think it's rather odd that visa offices that were quick a few months ago (ie: paris and syndey) are all of a sudden at a halt, while visa offices that were taking longer are now super quick (i: ottawa). This leads me to believe there is some rotation for processing times. also, it's very apparent 2013 applications are processed differently than 2014 applications. Perhaps since they already know how many applications were received in 2013, they are using them to manipulate the stats somehow? or some protocol has changed? also, it could be that what we are seeing now is a true indicator of the process, and last years stats are just reflective of the agency wide strike and subsequnent office closures. obviously it's impossible to know, these are just the conspiracy theories i come up with because i have no life!

 

[abbybc]

Hi Heroine, any movement on your file? We're close to you. Application received Mississauga March 15, Sponsor Approved and file transferred to Hong Kong - Letter from HK dated April 15.

If I log into eCAS with my wife UCI number, it shows only App. received and medicals received. Nothing yet in the following 4 months.

I see the 7 months timeframe for Hong Kong, but I doubt it's accurate given the CIC has not done a quarterly update since March 10. Our medical expires October 28. Hope we have some success before then.