Overwhelming is being told your medical has expired because its taking so long to give us a decision made its time to do another one. Then finding out they want to do extra Tuberculosis testing even though the first medical 1 year prior had special tuberculosis testing already done and proved negative. (they found spots in her x-ray and assumed TB so they did all the relevant testing which was no problem). But during the second medical exam at the same clinic, with the same doctor they find the same spots in her x-ray and require us to do additional testing for a second time. Then finding out that this new test will take 4 months to complete (the clinic wants more $ obviously). Then the CiC telling you they can't find the medical file which was uploaded from Nationwide the CiC approved clinic my wife had to FLY just to get to. Nationwide showed us the CiC had not only accepted the digital upload but confirmed receipt and do not require any additional information. Then they say its going to take 3 months to process the medical that already took 4 months to do making a grand total of 7 months of medical processing. By the way both TB tests 1 year before and recently were negative...of course. Now here we are watching other people finish their entire application in 4 months total while our medicals alone doubled that time. While GCMS notes state and I quote "file is in PUT-AWAY-FILE" although Criminality is PASSED, Security is PASSED, Eligibility is PASSED, Medical is PASSED so instead of an officer picking our file up and approving it...it sits in the "lets look at it when i feel like it pile". Under normal circumstances a person would hire a lawyer or contact the media to have such atrocious parts of this immigration system reviewed and whatever faults remedied as to make it easier for the next applicant. But for us...we are not even allowed to phone CiC to inquire about our obviously problematic application.
Did i mention that 1 year and 6 months ago my wife applied to Canada for a study permit. She got accepted into our college very easily as she is already a university graduate in the Philippines and is an English teacher. But after 6 months of processing we got denied the study permit based upon a single criteria. "You are married to a Canadian thus we believe after your 4 year bachelor degree in Canada you will not leave the country" to which they recommend to us to do a spousal sponsorship instead. Yes we have been stuck in this wonderful system for a year and a half already and she has not once been allowed to even visit me in Canada while every 6 months I come to visit her...overwhelmed is a very accurate word.
Sorry for the long post but ahhhhhhhhhhh that felt so good to let out. If the CiC will not listen to our problems and help us...I am glad I have friendly ears to talk with.