My PR application has been sent to the wrong country!!!!

[pip_kerr]

Hello, I sent my offshore Family Class Sponsorship PR on December 10th to Mississauga for the first step of processing and we received a letter back today saying that I met the requirements for eligibility as a sponsor. This is obviously great news, however, the letter came with some bad news also. They said that the application has been sent to London for further processing due to my nationality. I was born in England but I live in Australia and have duel citizenship. I was assuming it would be processed in Sydney as I always put my Australian passport as the primary and all of my police checks and addresses are there. I don't know why they would have picked it to go there when all of my family and life is in Australia.
What should I do here? I am heading home to Australia from Canada in a couple of weeks and was planning to stay there until I heard some about the visa, that way I would be around if an interview was needed. Also because my police check and addresses and everything is Australian wouldn't that affect it? Plus isn't the Sydney office the quickest at processing? Oh I hope this doesnt add time on to all.

 

[scylla]

It's up to CIC where they send your application for processing and recently it seems they have been generally sending applications to the applicant's country of birth. There's really nothing to do but wait for the application to be processed. You don't have to submit your passport for stamping or anything like that. So no impact there. Very unlikely an interview will be required.

 

[Hurlabrick]

Hello, I sent my offshore Family Class Sponsorship PR on December 10th to Mississauga for the first step of processing and we received a letter back today saying that I met the requirements for eligibility as a sponsor. This is obviously great news, however, the letter came with some bad news also. They said that the application has been sent to London for further processing due to my nationality. I was born in England but I live in Australia and have duel citizenship. I was assuming it would be processed in Sydney as I always put my Australian passport as the primary and all of my police checks and addresses are there. I don't know why they would have picked it to go there when all of my family and life is in Australia.
What should I do here? I am heading home to Australia from Canada in a couple of weeks and was planning to stay there until I heard some about the visa, that way I would be around if an interview was needed. Also because my police check and addresses and everything is Australian wouldn't that affect it? Plus isn't the Sydney office the quickest at processing? Oh I hope this doesnt add time on to all.

Wot Scylla said above.

If it is any consolation, London seem the be speeding up a bit if the last few approvals are anything to go by (including my own!!). Straightforward and complete applications can be as 'quick' as 6 - 8 months overall from receipt at Mississauga to COPR....

 

[pip_kerr]

Thanks for the replies!!! And wow that is great news knowing they have been speeding up, lets just hope everything is all there and correct!

But will I have to get a UK police check now or it doesn't matter?

 

[Hurlabrick]

Thanks for the replies!!! And wow that is great news knowing they have been speeding up, lets just hope everything is all there and correct!

But will I have to get a UK police check now or it doesn't matter?

IIRC you need a police certificate for any country where you lived for six months or more. Did you live in the UK for more than 6 months? If so, then AIUI, yes, you would need a police certificate. Easy enough to obtain over the internet though. Check here:

https://www.acro.police.uk/police_certificates.aspx

 

[canuck_in_uk]

IIRC you need a police certificate for any country where you lived for six months or more. Did you live in the UK for more than 6 months? If so, then AIUI, yes, you would need a police certificate. Easy enough to obtain over the internet though. Check here:

https://www.acro.police.uk/police_certificates.aspx

To clarify, it's only if you lived there for 6 months over the age of 18.

 

[pip_kerr]

I lived in the UK for 1 year about 10 years ago, I only provided an Australian Police certificate as I thought it was being processed there. Do I need to apply for a UK one now and then forward it on?

 

[canuck_in_uk]

I lived in the UK for 1 year about 10 years ago, I only provided an Australian Police certificate as I thought it was being processed there. Do I need to apply for a UK one now and then forward it on?

It doesn't matter where the app is processed. If you lived in any country (with the exception of Canada) for at least 6 months after the age of 18, you need to provide a PCC. The instructions are pretty clear about that.

 

[Britcan]

I lived in the UK for 1 year about 10 years ago, I only provided an Australian Police certificate as I thought it was being processed there. Do I need to apply for a UK one now and then forward it on?

I just found this about the new process:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/guides/5525ETOC.asp
Police certificates:
Sponsored spouses, partners and dependent children do not have to include police certificates with their application package.

Once the application is being processed, we will ask for police certificate(s) from the principal applicant and any family members over the age of 18 (whether they will accompany the principal applicant to Canada or not). This is used to help assess admissibility.

When we ask you for police certificate(s) at this stage, you’ll have to submit them for:

the country where you currently live, if you have lived there for six months or more; and
the country where you have spent most of your adult life since the age of 18.
The same applies to your family members who need to submit a police certificate.

 

[cheng9999]

I just found this about the new process:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/guides/5525ETOC.asp
Police certificates:
Sponsored spouses, partners and dependent children do not have to include police certificates with their application package.

Once the application is being processed, we will ask for police certificate(s) from the principal applicant and any family members over the age of 18 (whether they will accompany the principal applicant to Canada or not). This is used to help assess admissibility.

When we ask you for police certificate(s) at this stage, you’ll have to submit them for:

the country where you currently live, if you have lived there for six months or more; and
the country where you have spent most of your adult life since the age of 18.
The same applies to your family members who need to submit a police certificate.

This is new, which means that some of the advice you get here would not apply. The old rules stated getting police certs for all countries lived greater than 6 months continuously (and that continuously was subject to interpretation to, for example weekend trips outside may not be considered a break in that 6 months). The new rules "potentially" eliminate that need, only focusing on current residing country as well as where you spent majority of your life. Majority, I would expect, to be at the discretion of the visa officer, which is why there's still statements saying the VO may ask for more information.

This is a big improvement to those who have spent a year here and there, and have a lot of difficulties getting police certs. Hopefully a lot more common sense judgement involved. Plus, there are also background checks which would flag problems anyway, and would not need to be uncovered by the police reports.

Good luck.