Hi everyone,
I got my PR cards today. A friend of mine, whose address I submitted at the airport, received it for me and sent it to me.
Thank God I was able to circumvent the issue of the photo specs.
In regards to circumventing the photo specs issue, here is what I did:
Before I left the US, I took new photos based on the updated specs.
The day after I landed in Calgary (some time in April), I went downtown to get my SIN at the Service Canada office located in the Harry Hays building. While there, I told the officer attending to me that I wanted to submit new PR photos based on the updated specs. The officer told me that the process is handled by CIC, which also has an office at the Harry Hays building (Thank God).
So, I went to the CIC office and submitted the updated photos. The lady that took the pictures gave me a form to fill and sign and said the updated pics will be forwarded to division that handled the processing of PR cards.
Now that I have received my PR Card, I see that the updated picture I submitted while in Calgary, is the picture that was used for the card.
The address that had both the Service Canada Office and the CIC Office is:
Harry Hays Building
220 4 Avenue SE,
Calgary, AB T2G 4X3
Note: It pays to be persistent. When I landed at the airport, I told the immigration officer processing me that I wanted to submit new photos that were based on the updated specs. She looked at the photo on my COPR (which was based on the old specs) and said it was fine. But I was not satisfied because I knew CIC had updated the specs and was asking people to come and retake their pics. So, the following day I submitted the pics at CIC as explained above.
I hope the above helps others.
Jovan