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Permanent Residency Spousal Sponsorship Open Work Permit ETA

MicMacle

Full Member
Apr 13, 2017
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Hello,

I originally posted this in "Permanent Residency" under the same subject title but was recommended to post this question here in Spousal Sponsorship.

I'll try to make this short and simple.

I'm a Canadian citizen and my husband is American. He submitted a Permanent Residency application through Spousal Sponsorship from within Canada and it was received by CIC on November 9th, 2016. In our package we put everything in it, from Permanent Residency application to Open Work Permit application.

We both received an email a few weeks after that, both with the same Application number. When we check our status using that application number online, it only tells us "We received your application for permanent residence on November 9, 2016."

When we were organizing the application and package we paid a CIC consultant to help us put everything together. He, and the online processing time tool, said the estimated processing time for the open work permit is 4 months, or 18 weeks. We are now at 5 months, or 22 weeks, with no word from CIC, and are getting worried as we were hoping he would be working around this time (currently I am providing for him).

We are fine if it takes another month or so to process (that's what estimated means, right?), but our concern is they haven't even seen, received, or begun processing the open work permit, and it might take an additional 4 months/18 weeks to process from when they do notice it (if they haven't). We have tried calling numerous times a day every day for the past 2 weeks but the lines always say they are busy and won't even put us on hold. We are confused with if the application number they gave us (and the respective status for it we can see online) are for the Permanent Residency/Spousal Sponsorship application, and not the Open Work Permit application which we bundled in with our application as per recommendation from our consultant.

Furthermore, we received an email this week asking for us to send in a Police Certificate "if" we "haven't yet already", which we are positive we did (and haven't been told otherwise). The email is vague as we are not sure if they have it or not, or if they need a new one. Does this give any clue to them being close to done processing the work permit or not at all? Getting another Police Certificate could take another 3+ months which means we could be looking at 8 or so months until we receive a work permit.

Again, we've tried calling numerous times and aren't getting through. We don't know where else to turn. We just want some sort of verification on some things outside of how vague everything seems. Does anyone have any advice or information to relate to? Should we be concerned? Is there somewhere else we can contact if calling (and here) isn't the right place?
 

profiler

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MicMacle said:
Hello,

I originally posted this in "Permanent Residency" under the same subject title but was recommended to post this question here in Spousal Sponsorship.

I'll try to make this short and simple.

I'm a Canadian citizen and my husband is American. He submitted a Permanent Residency application through Spousal Sponsorship from within Canada and it was received by CIC on November 9th, 2016. In our package we put everything in it, from Permanent Residency application to Open Work Permit application.

We both received an email a few weeks after that, both with the same Application number. When we check our status using that application number online, it only tells us "We received your application for permanent residence on November 9, 2016."

When we were organizing the application and package we paid a CIC consultant to help us put everything together. He, and the online processing time tool, said the estimated processing time for the open work permit is 4 months, or 18 weeks. We are now at 5 months, or 22 weeks, with no word from CIC, and are getting worried as we were hoping he would be working around this time (currently I am providing for him).

We are fine if it takes another month or so to process (that's what estimated means, right?), but our concern is they haven't even seen, received, or begun processing the open work permit, and it might take an additional 4 months/18 weeks to process from when they do notice it (if they haven't). We have tried calling numerous times a day every day for the past 2 weeks but the lines always say they are busy and won't even put us on hold. We are confused with if the application number they gave us (and the respective status for it we can see online) are for the Permanent Residency/Spousal Sponsorship application, and not the Open Work Permit application which we bundled in with our application as per recommendation from our consultant.

Furthermore, we received an email this week asking for us to send in a Police Certificate "if" we "haven't yet already", which we are positive we did (and haven't been told otherwise). The email is vague as we are not sure if they have it or not, or if they need a new one. Does this give any clue to them being close to done processing the work permit or not at all? Getting another Police Certificate could take another 3+ months which means we could be looking at 8 or so months until we receive a work permit.

Again, we've tried calling numerous times and aren't getting through. We don't know where else to turn. We just want some sort of verification on some things outside of how vague everything seems. Does anyone have any advice or information to relate to? Should we be concerned? Is there somewhere else we can contact if calling (and here) isn't the right place?

There are some who are able to find the OWP application in myCIC, though we didn't have enough time -- ours came just before 4 months. If you ask in the 2016 inland thread: http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/spousal-sponsorship-inland-applications-2016-timeline-and-updates-t389295.0.html there is definitely a few who are waiting/have recently received OWP's who might be able to help... Calling the call centre us typically the last option, unfortunately.
 

MicMacle

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Apr 13, 2017
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There are some who are able to find the OWP application in myCIC, though we didn't have enough time -- ours came just before 4 months. If you ask in the 2016 inland thread there is definitely a few who are waiting/have recently received OWP's who might be able to help... Calling the call centre us typically the last option, unfortunately.
Thank you for the references.

It appears someone in Ontario (possibly closer to where they mail the OWP? I'm in Vancouver) who submitted their application a week after me received their OWP 2 days ago. This is the best news I've heard so far (also received the same PCC email as me on the same day) but has me concerned for if I don't receive an OWP in the next week or two. What then?
 

profiler

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MicMacle said:
Thank you for the references.

It appears someone in Ontario (possibly closer to where they mail the OWP? I'm in Vancouver) who submitted their application a week after me received their OWP 2 days ago. This is the best news I've heard so far (also received the same PCC email as me on the same day) but has me concerned for if I don't receive an OWP in the next week or two. What then?
If they still use the same structure as before, the OWP's are issued from Vegreville, AB.

The PCC email from earlier this week was a mass email reminder for everyone in process, to make sure that, if they have yet to submit a PCC, to do so. If you're certain you have submitted one, then you can disregard. If you're uncertain, or you are worried, you can:
- Call the call centre to verify
- Send a copy of the one you submitted via Case Specific Enquiry (IRCC Web Form)
and/or
- Commission a new PCC and submit that.

Also, if the inland 2016 thread cannot help you locating the PCC in myCIC, you might call the call centre anyway to ask for the status on that...
 

Ponga

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If only you would have submitted an Outland application. :)

No OWP, but the entire PR would probably be complete before your OWP arrives (U.S. citizens are seeing 4-6 month processing times).

Moot point, I know, so I'll just hope the OWP arrives today. ;)
 

MicMacle

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Apr 13, 2017
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profiler said:
If they still use the same structure as before, the OWP's are issued from Vegreville, AB.

The PCC email from earlier this week was a mass email reminder for everyone in process, to make sure that, if they have yet to submit a PCC, to do so. If you're certain you have submitted one, then you can disregard. If you're uncertain, or you are worried, you can:
- Call the call centre to verify
- Send a copy of the one you submitted via Case Specific Enquiry (IRCC Web Form)
and/or
- Commission a new PCC and submit that.

Also, if the inland 2016 thread cannot help you locating the PCC in myCIC, you might call the call centre anyway to ask for the status on that...
I wish we could call to get an answer, both in regards to PCC and OWP... Legitimately called multiple times a day for about 2 weeks now without able to get through. I'm not kidding when I say we've woken up right when call hours open for an entire week and it's instantly too busy to even be put on hold. I'd say together we average maybe 15-20 call attempts a day.
We are certain we submitted it though. We for sure went through the entire process. We waited about a month to even submit the application because we were waiting for the PCC. Mailed everything together once we got the PCC.
I guess my only concern is if they need another one. I know PCCs expire and processing this application seems to be taking a while so I don't know if they'd need a more updated one.
Do you think they'd send a more concrete email if they for sure didn't have one? Or wanted a new/updated one? Would it make the OWP take longer to process (do they need the PCC for the OWP)?

Ponga said:
If only you would have submitted an Outland application. :)

No OWP, but the entire PR would probably be complete before your OWP arrives (U.S. citizens are seeing 4-6 month processing times).

Moot point, I know, so I'll just hope the OWP arrives today. ;)
No, a valid point. It makes me wonder why our consultant didn't suggest or recommend it, unless he was unaware this would take so long or something else we said made him recommend the in-Canada option.
 

profiler

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MicMacle said:
I wish we could call to get an answer, both in regards to PCC and OWP... Legitimately called multiple times a day for about 2 weeks now without able to get through. I'm not kidding when I say we've woken up right when call hours open for an entire week and it's instantly too busy to even be put on hold. I'd say together we average maybe 15-20 call attempts a day.
We are certain we submitted it though. We for sure went through the entire process. We waited about a month to even submit the application because we were waiting for the PCC. Mailed everything together once we got the PCC.
I guess my only concern is if they need another one. I know PCCs expire and processing this application seems to be taking a while so I don't know if they'd need a more updated one.
Do you think they'd send a more concrete email if they for sure didn't have one? Or wanted a new/updated one? Would it make the OWP take longer to process (do they need the PCC for the OWP)?

No, a valid point. It makes me wonder why our consultant didn't suggest or recommend it, unless he was unaware this would take so long or something else we said made him recommend the in-Canada option.
Try 8am Eastern time. The other time I get them is lunch (12pm Eastern).

Usually they would send a letter outlining which country they wanted the PCC from. That's what they did in last year's email blast. An OWP is unconnected to their criminality checks for PR.

As to Ponga's point, we have been in the queue for 13 months (applied March 2 2016, inland). We had an invalid medical that was holding up a final decision that has been corrected. When we started, the processing times were 26 months for inland. And that was a posted time on the website. So, your consultant/lawyer/rep would have known that -- it was visible for everyone. That said, once my wife got her OWP, our life has been normal. No thought or stress about CIC at all. We just live day to day, and know that one day they will ask her to land.
 

MicMacle

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Apr 13, 2017
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profiler said:
Try 8am Eastern time. The other time I get them is lunch (12pm Eastern).

Usually they would send a letter outlining which country they wanted the PCC from. That's what they did in last year's email blast. An OWP is unconnected to their criminality checks for PR.

As to Ponga's point, we have been in the queue for 13 months (applied March 2 2016, inland). We had an invalid medical that was holding up a final decision that has been corrected. When we started, the processing times were 26 months for inland. And that was a posted time on the website. So, your consultant/lawyer/rep would have known that -- it was visible for everyone. That said, once my wife got her OWP, our life has been normal. No thought or stress about CIC at all. We just live day to day, and know that one day they will ask her to land.
Yeah, we are personally fine with waiting years for the PR, it's the OWP we are hoping for ASAP. Not being able to work is stressful for the both of us, we wanted the fastest option for him to live and work in Canada. Our consultant showed us the 26 month eta so we were aware of that. I don't recall hearing a time for outland, though. We probably said something to make him assume we wanted to do inland, like "wanting to be with each other asap" which probably made him think inland does that faster but outland does PR faster it seems. Not sure which would get him working here faster. Irrelevant now, it's in the past. Just want this OWP haha.

Will try again 8am Eastern time though with the upcoming 4 day weekend it seems we'll need to wait 5 or so days to give that a try.

Thank you all for all the help by the way.
 

canuck_in_uk

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MicMacle said:
No, a valid point. It makes me wonder why our consultant didn't suggest or recommend it, unless he was unaware this would take so long or something else we said made him recommend the in-Canada option.

The consultant most likely didn't even know that outland US apps average around 4-6 months. I bet he just looked at the processing times on the website (which I believe was around 15 months for Ottawa back then), took that to be the actual average processing time and advised you based on that. Honestly, most consultants seem to cause more problems than they solve. Some actually become members on here to ask questions from their clients' point of view when they don't know the answers themselves.
 

MicMacle

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Apr 13, 2017
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canuck_in_uk said:
The consultant most likely didn't even know that outland US apps average around 4-6 months. I bet he just looked at the processing times on the website (which I believe was around 15 months for Ottawa back then), took that to be the actual average processing time and advised you based on that. Honestly, most consultants seem to cause more problems than they solve. Some actually become members on here to ask questions from their clients' point of view when they don't know the answers themselves.
That's a shame to hear but I wouldn't put it past him.

The reason I'm here and not asking him these questions is because last time I asked him for a link to something we discussed in a previous session (this was really early in the decision/planning process) and he required another $100 session for it. He spent the entire 1 hour session talking about everything but the link and at the end he said he doesn't "normally give links but he'll email it to me in the next week or so".

After that I figured getting anything from him was just going to cost me more money than it should. This forum has already given me more answers than he did in multiple sessions.

Now I just need to get that OWP, or actually be able to contact the phone reps...