My spousal application has been returned the fourth time...
- Thread starter CatCurry
- Start date
I spoke to my lawyer this morning eastern time. My lawyer said that each time the application is returned and we resubmit without withdrawing the application, the system got confused and thought I applied four times. And so, yesterday, 15 minutes before the fourth submission was bounced back, my lawyer received an AOR for the second submission. And now, my lawyer is going to contact the immigration office by letter. And he plans to withdraw my applications to remove the conflicting confusion from the system and resubmit after 90 days. This will cause a big delay to my wife's reunification but what matters most is that the application goes smoothly and approved. I am a Chinese Canadian citizen born in Ontario and my wife is a Vietnam-born Chinese living in Vietnam. My first submission was on Feb21-2024. I feel quite upset because the lawyer fee is $5000 and the government application package costs $1100+. It seems I have to pay the $1100+ a second time in 90 days from now. The reason I am choosing to trust my lawyer for the fifth time is because he is a good friend of mine; kinda like a big brother figure to me. During my father's funeral, he was the only friend who showed up to pray.
This should NOT be the case - one re-applies with the same receipt and one does not need to pay again.
I do not understand what he is talking about with withdrawing the previous multiple apps, sounds like nonsense. I woudl advise he not touch anything more instead and just leave it be, he's more likely to make it worse. (The one thing that does sound correct is I don't believe IRCC would have had time to return apps four times since Feb 24).
You should also ask for the AOR he says he received, get a copy of the COMPLETE application package printed so you have it to hand, and read it and check it yourself. I would suggest you have the text of the AOR email checked to see it is authentic.
He may be a nice guy but he's not competent in this field.
I told my wife in Vietnam that I had to work on the COMPLETE application package, filling out the empty slots and making documents from scratch and guess what my wife said to me... "I thought you hired a lawyer, why are you doing everything yourself??" That actually hit me a little. Do lawyers really do everything for a client like in the movies? Because, you see, I filled out and prepared documents myself while my lawyer gave me pointers. When I had questions for IRCC, I asked my lawyer to send them it but he said, "you are the sponsor, you are an equivalent of the representative or the principal applicant, you should be able to ask them directly" and so I did and the IRCC replied to me, "you are not the representative on file, if you want, you can replace the representative on file to yourself, the sponsor". I became confused. My wife said, "in Vietnam or in Taiwan, lawyers gather information from the client and they prepare all the documents and fill out all the empty slots; it is very bizarre that you paid him $5000 and you did everything yourself for many days and many hours each day". This caused me much conflict and confusion.
Instead of applying for the spousal sponsorship in late October, a month after my wedding and weeks after my marriage registration in Vietnam, my wife told me to find a lawyer from a law firm in Canada to sponsor her but my mother insisted I choose the lawyer we know and are friends with. However, he was busy because he is one of the leaders of the Vietnamese community, acquaintances with the current leaders of the Canadian government, and also an assistant professor at a local university teaching corporate law. I thought he was a super lawyer and so, I waited for him to have spare time to help me. We submitted the application together (after I worked so hard on the complete application package) on Feb21-2024, roughly a 3 months delay. I didn't think it was a problem because other people got their AOR within a week or two by filing their applications online and so, I did the same. However, it had the status of "returned" within 2 weeks with a letter of explanation saying that I cannot prove my lawyer's identity with my provided information; turns out my lawyer didn't put in his membership ID and signature because there was an error with Adobe Acrobat on my end. The application was then resubmitted on the same receipt in the same portal.
Next, within 2 weeks, it was returned again. This time, the error was "incomplete, please review the application" and it was listed under a section where the lawyer instantly thought there was nothing wrong but my mother said in the country spot, we shouldn't put down, "city name, country name" and should just put down "country name". And so, we resubmitted the application. And two months later, it came back with the "returned" status yet again and this time, to my shock is that it is now very weird ~ every document and uploaded item has the subtitle "incomplete, please review the application".
I contacted my lawyer and he wasn't happy that my mother also contacted and rushed him to help out; he had to come over to our home and explained what to do next within 12 hours. And that was his plan, he will write a letter to the IRCC asking to explain the situation and what needs to be done. He said, my wife needs to wait another 90 days to restart the application from scratch, then wait between a time frame of 9 months and 18 months before she can come to Canada. My wife is shocked to hear parts of the story; she still doesn't know about restarting the application from scratch in 90 days from now and that she needs to wait 18 months after the 90 days or more. Speaking of which, my lawyer big bro is also suggesting I do a postnuptial agreement with my wife because she have to wait so long to come to Canada, she might decide not to come. However, the contents of the postnuptial agreement is somewhat leaning towards pro-divorce and fear that she might split assets. I don't think it is a good idea to sign something like that with my wife after making her wait over 8 months for no reason.
I feel so exhausted over this sponsorship application. My lawyer gave me pointers and I did everything FULLY COMPLETED. I don't see any room of error yet it bounced back four times and I feel somewhat worried that the wait may be until 2026 or worse... Will she ever come to Canada? I live with my mother and she is 75 years old. She is waiting to drink the daughter-in-law's cup of tea. It is taking forever...
The AOR I checked, it looks authentic but when I enter it into the tracker site, it said the numbers don't exist in the system and won't let me open an account yesterday. I might have to close up my online store and put a few week stop on my side job and go to Vietnam to meet and live with my wife for a few weeks as instructed by my lawyer so that we keep in touch in-person. This will cost a lot of money though.
To be honest I skimmed your extra-long post. This part I agree with. Too much extraneous info for me to get through, perhaps others have the time.
Fire your lawyer and do it yourself. DON'T cancel anything already in process.
Note you probably will have to cancel the representative's authorization and authorize yourself for access.
I can't figure out your timeline (and not going to try). Wait a few days, there is sometimes a delay between AOR and being able to enter the system.
But I'm torn between your lawyer being a scammer, completely incompetent, or just taking your money while making you do stuff. Probably some of all three. He should return your money. Spousal apps are not that complicated (most anyway).
The lawyer forwarded me three emails yesterday and two of them made me very worried.
"This confirms that your application to Sponsor a Member of the Family Class has been received by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) on 2024/03/08 on behalf of the following member(s):"
"April 3, 2024
We are returning your Permanent Resident Portal submission, including all the supporting documents you provided, as it does not meet the requirements for processing. As per the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, a second sponsorship cannot be filed until a final decision has been made on the first application."
Even though he received this big problem email on April 3, he didn't let me know anything until June 15, 2024.
"This confirms that your application to Sponsor a Member of the Family Class has been received by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) on 2024/03/08 on behalf of the following member(s):"
"April 3, 2024
We are returning your Permanent Resident Portal submission, including all the supporting documents you provided, as it does not meet the requirements for processing. As per the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, a second sponsorship cannot be filed until a final decision has been made on the first application."
Even though he received this big problem email on April 3, he didn't let me know anything until June 15, 2024.
It sounds like the first one (dated 2024/03/08) has been accepted and is in process. The other ones were (rightfully) just returned because the other in process. Main thing is he should not touch anything and screw up the one that was accetped.
I agree, the lawyer seems to have made things complicated and confusing for you, the whole point of using a lawyer is to make things easier! If these three emails he's sent you yesterday have made you worried, for crying out loud phone the guy and ask him to explain everything rather than sitting there brooding about it. That's what he's supposed to be doing.
Thank you so much for the replies everyone. I got an answer by calling IRCC directly and an officer spoke to me directly. Apparently, I already have a valid AOR and the application is progressing. The duplicate will be cancelled soon. I don't need to do anything; just have to wait for the March 8 AOR to progress. I feel so relieved. I should have called the IRCC directly from the beginning.
Good! Which is probably why most people decide to do the application themselves.. doing it yourself gives you complete control and transparency about what's going on.
That's great news. As a next step, please get rid of your lawyer. I would personally consider filing a complaint with the law society.
