A long story short that may give hope
Hello everyone,
The purpose of this little post is to share all my experiences through this long, and sometimes frustrating, process:
I am from Mexico residing in the USA, therefore, me and my family applied abroad via Buffalo on May 2011. They transferred my case to such VO in October 2011 and right after they requested the police records from Mexico within 60 days--in addition to the ones I provided from the countries I have lived. For your reference my medicals were done in January 2011.
So right away I asked my brother to get the Police Records from the state and everything went through. In parallel, I requested the Certificado de Datos Registrales via the VO in Mexico and in December--50 days after--I received the notification that I had a shadow in the mustache and therefore the photos did not comply with the specs.
I immediately sent a letter to the CIC requesting additional time. They did not answer anything meaning my petition was granted.
I applied again via VO in Mexico--perfectly shaved of course--and they sent the results in February 2012 (I knew this because I asked to the VO in Mexico to see what was going on).
After that, everything was silence. I had to go to Canada and applied for a Single-visit Visitor visa via VO in Buffalo. The visa was easily granted for 3 months only, though.
I began to worry about the medicals because a year passed and nothing. So I decided to write them, in March 2012, to check my application status as the status from the CAS was always In Process. Well, the answer from the CIC was: "your application is in process, so far you do not need to provide additional information".
Out of the sudden the VO in Buffalo shut down!! and I said "now what???" So I wrote in September 2012 to the Ottawa Pilot Programme to see what was going on with my application. Their answer: the same one.
The holidays are around the corner and we decided to be in Canada to spend them there. Thus I applied in October 2012 for a second Visitor Visa via Detroit. This time for the Multiple-entry and with the maximum available validity period. The multiple-entry visa was granted right away with a validity period of 6 years!!!!!
Now here comes the best part: 3 days later (today) I received my PPR which will be processed via VO in Los Angeles!! You may ask yourself "and the medicals???". Well, I found out that my medicals are valid for 2 years!! So it is more likely that I receive my PRV with a validity period of 2 months.
Anyway, the key points of this story is that:
1. to exactly follow the instructions provided to you during the application (if they say no mustache is "NO MUSTACHE")
2. to keep writing them to check the status of your application, if a reasonable time has passed--it is your right!
3. you can apply for a Visitor Visa meanwhile your application for PRV is in process--who says is not possible?
4. definitely a good point of reference, to know approximately when you will receive the PPR, is your medicals.
5. you can apply abroad from Canada and from your country of birth, as far as you are legally residing in the country where you are applying (that includes your spouse).
6. it is clear you are a File number for them, but soon or later you will receive the big news!
7. everything happens for a reason (my plans were to be in Canada by the end of 2011 beginnings of 2012, and they will be exactly a year later)
Good luck to everybody.