MARCH 2020 *Outland* Spousal Sponsorship
- Thread starter sk2020
- Start date
If anyone needs help with this process I am willing to help as much as possible or at least share my experience. I wish that I would have had more people to talk to about their experience and what to expect as I was going through this process. I am a Canadian citizen and I sponsored my Husband who is an American Citizen so that he could become a PR in Canada. He has lived in the US the whole time during our application process and continued working there. We submitted our full application Dec 20, 2019 and by March 06, 2020 we were told that a decision had been made and we were to send a copy of his passport and new pictures for his PR card. We did that right away and then the pandemic hit and the border closed and they froze any further work on our application. August 06, 2020 we received an update that our application was completed and his PR was approved. Our CoPR is currently being FedEx'd to him in the USA and will arrive tomorrow!! It kills me to think that he could have been here by the end of March if not for the pandemic but I am so grateful that this process is almost over! Chin up everyone! If you have any questions, I am happy to try to answer them 
Oh wow congratulations! Did he apply Outland and you still received the CoPR now?? I’m so happy for you guys! We’ve had the same thing multiple times where things out of our control prevented us from being together sooner (ex. His Cancer, my sequestered jury duty, global pandemic, etc.) so I know how frustrating that is that you had to be separated longer. So exciting for you guys!!If anyone needs help with this process I am willing to help as much as possible or at least share my experience. I wish that I would have had more people to talk to about their experience and what to expect as I was going through this process. I am a Canadian citizen and I sponsored my Husband who is an American Citizen so that he could become a PR in Canada. He has lived in the US the whole time during our application process and continued working there. We submitted our full application Dec 20, 2019 and by March 06, 2020 we were told that a decision had been made and we were to send a copy of his passport and new pictures for his PR card. We did that right away and then the pandemic hit and the border closed and they froze any further work on our application. August 06, 2020 we received an update that our application was completed and his PR was approved. Our CoPR is currently being FedEx'd to him in the USA and will arrive tomorrow!! It kills me to think that he could have been here by the end of March if not for the pandemic but I am so grateful that this process is almost over! Chin up everyone! If you have any questions, I am happy to try to answer them
My husband is from Korea and we got confirmation of receiving our application for outland December 23, 2019. March 4th biometrics we’re in and medical passed and we don’t need an interview or anything else, then nothing from then obviously. If you’re Outland, that gives me so much more hope that ours could see positive movement too. He’s supposed to move here in October and go back to Korea for the final stage. We’ve been long distance for 4 years so we just want to end it and deal with the rest after haha.
I’ve been watching everyone get a speculation out of the woodwork , We’ve protested this , Mendicino has been bombarded with tweets and emails. It is clear that the situation is beyond his control or even abilities , if it was easy he’d have released a statement , as simple as that .
now instead of tuning into “ what party is coming to the rescue “ , i’ll try share with you one or two pieces of info that can give you a sneak peak in the quietly working immigration .
My wife submitted my application (outland) first week of march , now for the Record i had had other visits to Canada before ie : i had applied to immigration before , hence i have a UCI from my previous applications . So i used it to check if maybe somehow my sponsorship would be in system using ecas .
so i went on ecas (Google it and use the first link in the result ) and searched using my UCI and found that my PR application was received on March 6. I did try to link my paper application but invain . atleast it was a definitive confirmation that ‘somebody’ touched the package and did some preliminary work on it ( linking my UCI to the application )
This is hard for everyone i understand and my discoveries are no redemption , however i had no hope of even getting confirmation that my file is there given how many agents my wife talked to with no luck .
This too shall pass . If you’re a believer pray that your family/spouse stays clear of covid and healthy . After all we’re fighting a winning battle .
i wish a replenishment of Patience for all of you
God Bless
now instead of tuning into “ what party is coming to the rescue “ , i’ll try share with you one or two pieces of info that can give you a sneak peak in the quietly working immigration .
My wife submitted my application (outland) first week of march , now for the Record i had had other visits to Canada before ie : i had applied to immigration before , hence i have a UCI from my previous applications . So i used it to check if maybe somehow my sponsorship would be in system using ecas .
so i went on ecas (Google it and use the first link in the result ) and searched using my UCI and found that my PR application was received on March 6. I did try to link my paper application but invain . atleast it was a definitive confirmation that ‘somebody’ touched the package and did some preliminary work on it ( linking my UCI to the application )
This is hard for everyone i understand and my discoveries are no redemption , however i had no hope of even getting confirmation that my file is there given how many agents my wife talked to with no luck .
This too shall pass . If you’re a believer pray that your family/spouse stays clear of covid and healthy . After all we’re fighting a winning battle .
i wish a replenishment of Patience for all of you
God Bless
I'm sure stuff is going on behind the scenes. I was told that sponsorship approval was being reviewed. Now, I don't know if they do that before or after the AOR1 (which I'm still waiting for). March 17th application.
Well guess what?? More Students!!
In view of uncertainty due to travel restrictions for international students, Canada has announced new flexible measures to facilitate them.
- Students can study online from abroad until April 30, 2021, with no time deducted from the length of a future PGWP, as long as 50% of their program of study is eventually completed in Canada
-Students enrolled in a program that is 8-12 months in length, with a start date from May to September 2020, can complete their entire program online from abroad and still be eligible for a PGWP
- Students who have enrolled in a program with a start date between May to September 2020 and study online up to April 30, 2021, and who graduate from more than one eligible program of study, may be able to combine the length of their programs of study when they apply for a PGWP in the future, as long as their total studies are completed in Canada
In view of uncertainty due to travel restrictions for international students, Canada has announced new flexible measures to facilitate them.
- Students can study online from abroad until April 30, 2021, with no time deducted from the length of a future PGWP, as long as 50% of their program of study is eventually completed in Canada
-Students enrolled in a program that is 8-12 months in length, with a start date from May to September 2020, can complete their entire program online from abroad and still be eligible for a PGWP
- Students who have enrolled in a program with a start date between May to September 2020 and study online up to April 30, 2021, and who graduate from more than one eligible program of study, may be able to combine the length of their programs of study when they apply for a PGWP in the future, as long as their total studies are completed in Canada
Ah yes, the 24-36 month wait times for Inland and Conditional Permanent Resident status upon landing. Some of us were there ;p The current administration significantly decreased family class sponsorship wait times, even spousal, and removed Condition 51. My COPR still shows Condition 51, but it was rendered invalid by the current government.
My friends have shifted their immigration plans from the USA to Canada upon the announcement that USCIS were going to furlough 70% of their workforce. USCIS applied for an emergency bailout in May, due to imminent fiscal collapse, in order to continue to function and process immigration requests. Whether or not they recieve that funding, and what cuts they will decide on instead of furloughing 70% of their immigration officers as they have as of yesterday, decided to cancel, is unknown.
Wait times, exit taxes and the fees to drop US Citizenship were increased significantly in the last two years, alongside the wait times for citizenship in the USA doubling. While I can gripe about being required to file US taxes every year in Canada, since US Citizens are taxed based upon Citizenship, my heart goes out to those affected by the massive increase in wait times the last two years to recieve citizenship and PR.
As for the TRV - spouses are not allowed to visit during a US I-485, unless they originally applied on a K-1. TRV's are the norm everyone must apply for, whereas in Canada, I was under the impression many applicants are already exempt from applying for TRV's to visit their spouse during the application process. Comparing these application approval rates would be disingenous, unless you included those of us who are exempt from TRV's in the first place.
Smart! Glad you were able to find your application.
I hope people can still request records via the Access to Information Act - to view your case notes, records etc... There were some wonderful guides on this forum as to how to go about this (as you basically have to give your sponsor permission to view your records), and it gave us much peace during the process to see what they had recieved and were working on
Back when I applied, FBI checks were taking 4-6 months, so many of us applied without them (Imagine my face when I recieved an FBI certificate that was completely inaccurate! but I digress...), and it was great to check and see they had actually recieved it later on and processed it in the case notes from our ATIP request.
Most of the above means that students will NOT be applying for visas during covid (or at least less) and hence not competing for IRCC visa resources in the near term.
I assume that you are making that point.
For more background on this, my understanding (not all of which I am 100% certain on):
-the sense of the above is that international students have additional flexibility to complete part of their Canadian study programs online and still be eligible for the post-graduate work experience. This will mean fewer international students 'need' to physically be present in Canada.
-from participation in a webinar from one embassy immigration section: they are not issuing student visas for students whose study will be entirely online (at least for the moment). (Mostly I believe this applies to new students but obviously there is likely some variance).
-another announcement they made is a two stage student visa approval process, an 'approval in principle' to be used now to study online at a Canadian institution, with final approval to come later (presumably when covid travel restrictions are lifted). The IRCC rep who spoke was quite blunt that the approval in principle is not a guarantee the student visa will be issued in future; student applicants / parents were quite clearly distressed at the answer that if visa is not issued in future, they effectively lose out on tuition (at least in sense they won't be able to complete studies in Canada, I supposed they will have partial credits or get refunds, but the prospect of disruption to education is scary to many.
No-one should rely on this info to make decisions about studies, that is discussed in the student visas forum here. But my point is that it is false to claim that all other applicants and particularly students are being favoured over family class applicants; these measures will reduce the number of visas issued and processed, not increase. To me, the quite clear message to new students/applicants is "don't come now, maybe you can come later, and if you apply for a student visa, it's wait and see" (at least for programs that are online, which applies to many, many university and college programs).
To give a bit more background: I'm helping one kid out who got accepted to a Canadian university. The university basically had no idea what was going on, telling him he had to get the visa even though his studies would be online. In the end, he decided to defer admission for a year because the point of studying in Canada for him disappears if online, and also large time difference impractical. The university also has no idea when classes will go "live" and in person again.
But because of that experience found out the bit that IRCC basically is not issuing visas in cases like his, only sending this 'approval in principle.' That's supposed to serve the university to admit the students to begin online classes but specifically not to give them the ability to travel until they must attend in person. But I suspect many will decide to pursue other options, either defer education or study elsewhere.
(So as not to scare anyone on these forums IRCC rep tried to underline that the vast majority of those who get approval in principle should be okay to get visas later, but with the worrying proviso "it's not a guarantee the student will get a visa later.")