Hello, everyone!
It's been a while since I last posted here, but I thought I'd give you guys an update about my case, since I remember I always tried to compare timelines and all. Here it goes:
Family Sponsorship: Brother sponsoring my mother, my father and yours truly.
Visa Office: Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Application Sent: May 2008 - I was a minor then, I turned 19 that year.
Letter Application would start processing: November 2011.
Documents Sent: Late December 2011.
Application Transferred to Brazil: Late February 2012
Police Check: Early May 2012.
ARC Requested and Sent: Late August 2012 (my mother, my brother and I went to Canada for the first time in 2004, we applied for refugee and could stay until 2008, when they asked us to come and we did everything by the book, my brother could stay and apply for our sponsorship because he got married in 2006 to a Canadian)
Medicals Requested: Early October 2012
Medicals Sent: November 2012 (we actually just completed the exams... An important parenthesis: my father had kidney cancer in 2000, this was a huge concern for us, but we never hid it from the immigration, the only additional exam the doctor requested for him was Creatinine)
When they asked for the medicals they ALSO asked for our passports (we were lucky to find someone at the consulate who can quickly check our process whenever we need). When we called in October asking if everything was alright with our ARC application, the woman said we were fine and could already send the passports. But we thought better to wait the exams to be completed and then send (we heard stories of people losing passports at the consulates!).
If there's anything I can help anyone with, please don't hesitate to ask. My family and I are very happy because we feel our visa we'll be our christmas gift this year