First, thank-you to all those who help provide answers on this forum. I have been reading others' questions and responses for so long, but finally have to turn to you for help with a question of my own.
My husband and I are currently awaiting PR approval, as well as Criminal Rehabilitation approval (which must be received first, before decisions are made for PR). Everything is passing through the Guatemala office. We first applied for PR in April 2010, I was approved as a sponsor in May 2010, we received a request from CIC to send my husband's passport to them in September 2011 (which we sent), and then received a request from CIC to submit an application for Criminal Rehabilitation (which we did in May 2011). In January 2012 we received a request from CIC that we must submit the extra $800 for further criminal rehabilitation application processing for our application to be submitted to the Minister. Our lawyer has advised us that this is good news, as he has never had a file get forwarded to the Minister with the likelihood of the Minister providing the approval. I have read through the CIC "ENF 14" document (found online) that outlines the following:
"Case Review, Case Management Branch (BCM), will review the application for accuracy and completeness and complete its own rehabilitation assessment. If BCM is making a positive recommendation, the rehabilitation submission and the recommendation are forwarded to the
Minister of C&I for a decision on whether to grant rehabilitation to the applicant. If the recommendation is negative, BCM will forward the rehabilitation assessment and any other documents not previously disclosed to the responsible office for disclosure to the applicant."
Am I correct in assuming that the fact that our application is being forwarded to the Minister is evidence to support that the Case Management Branch is making a positive recommendation for rehabilitation (or do all serious rehabilitation cases - whether recommended for approval or not by CIC officers - reach the Minister level)? We are tying to evaluate the odds of us receiving the criminal rehabilitation approval.
In addition, in January 2012 when CIC requested the $800 cheque from us they also requested a return air waybill (CIC has had our passport for 1.5 years, so they didn't need to request this from us) and new medical tests (our original set of medicals completed in February 2010 have expired). I have heard that when CIC is close to issuing PR they will request passport and new medicals if these have expired (in order to issue the PR visa with the expiry date as 1 year from the last medical exam date).
In everyone's personal opinion, are the facts that our rehabilitation application is being forwarded to the Minister, CIC has asked for new medicals, and CIC has asked for an air waybill to send us back my husband's passport a good sign? Has anyone had (or heard of) an experience where the rehabilitation application was recommended by the CIC officer but then refused by the Minister (I know it is possible, as the Minister does not need to agree with the officer's recommendation, but does this happen often?), and/or an experience where new medicals are requested and the passport is planning to be sent back, but the PR is not issued (except obviously in the case where there is a problem with the medical exam results, as this could be grounds for refusal)? If so, I don't know why CIC would request new medicals nearing the end of this 2-year process if they were not planning on issuing the PR.
Thank-you to anyone and everyone who replies!
My husband and I are currently awaiting PR approval, as well as Criminal Rehabilitation approval (which must be received first, before decisions are made for PR). Everything is passing through the Guatemala office. We first applied for PR in April 2010, I was approved as a sponsor in May 2010, we received a request from CIC to send my husband's passport to them in September 2011 (which we sent), and then received a request from CIC to submit an application for Criminal Rehabilitation (which we did in May 2011). In January 2012 we received a request from CIC that we must submit the extra $800 for further criminal rehabilitation application processing for our application to be submitted to the Minister. Our lawyer has advised us that this is good news, as he has never had a file get forwarded to the Minister with the likelihood of the Minister providing the approval. I have read through the CIC "ENF 14" document (found online) that outlines the following:
"Case Review, Case Management Branch (BCM), will review the application for accuracy and completeness and complete its own rehabilitation assessment. If BCM is making a positive recommendation, the rehabilitation submission and the recommendation are forwarded to the
Minister of C&I for a decision on whether to grant rehabilitation to the applicant. If the recommendation is negative, BCM will forward the rehabilitation assessment and any other documents not previously disclosed to the responsible office for disclosure to the applicant."
Am I correct in assuming that the fact that our application is being forwarded to the Minister is evidence to support that the Case Management Branch is making a positive recommendation for rehabilitation (or do all serious rehabilitation cases - whether recommended for approval or not by CIC officers - reach the Minister level)? We are tying to evaluate the odds of us receiving the criminal rehabilitation approval.
In addition, in January 2012 when CIC requested the $800 cheque from us they also requested a return air waybill (CIC has had our passport for 1.5 years, so they didn't need to request this from us) and new medical tests (our original set of medicals completed in February 2010 have expired). I have heard that when CIC is close to issuing PR they will request passport and new medicals if these have expired (in order to issue the PR visa with the expiry date as 1 year from the last medical exam date).
In everyone's personal opinion, are the facts that our rehabilitation application is being forwarded to the Minister, CIC has asked for new medicals, and CIC has asked for an air waybill to send us back my husband's passport a good sign? Has anyone had (or heard of) an experience where the rehabilitation application was recommended by the CIC officer but then refused by the Minister (I know it is possible, as the Minister does not need to agree with the officer's recommendation, but does this happen often?), and/or an experience where new medicals are requested and the passport is planning to be sent back, but the PR is not issued (except obviously in the case where there is a problem with the medical exam results, as this could be grounds for refusal)? If so, I don't know why CIC would request new medicals nearing the end of this 2-year process if they were not planning on issuing the PR.
Thank-you to anyone and everyone who replies!
