Hello,
My common-law partner and I (I'm a Canadian citizen) have recently been both approved for PR Family Class. It took just over a year to get to this point and we are now waiting for the interview invitation letter.
We received a letter this week that appeared to be a standard template style letter that mentions things you need to have for the interview, but no mention of the interview time/date. We were confused and called IRCC (CIC) immediately to clarify. The CIC agent (#1) told us that the letter is sent out to pretty much everyone.
In our particular case, my partners holiday working visa expired a few months ago and we were told on a separate occasion a few months ago from a CIC agent (#2) that my partner no longer has legal status in the country. They continued to say "because you are in process for PR on our system and still in Canada and have passed multiple stages of the process so far (at the time), you should just wait until you get final notification from CIC".
Back to CIC agent (#1), who was our most recent call (today), after we explained our issue, she said now that your sponsor has been approved, you are now allowed to reapply for an open work permit, BUT she said to not do that because it doesn't make any sense to reapply at this point when both of us have been approved as sponsor/applicant and all medical, criminal background checks have been completed and we are very close to the last stage of finalization... she said to just sit and wait until we receive a letter regarding our interview. She said we would have to call the number provided on the letter and discuss the Flag Pole crossing option. So instead of going to CIC local office in Ontario, she said we will have to do it the other way and do the Flag Pole procedure at a land border such as Niagara. (We understand that the Flag Pole option doesn't mean cross into the USA, but rather, cross the bridge and explain to US officials we are flag poling for permanent residence in Canada and they turn you around back to Canada with a letter to present to Canadian border officials.)
Does anyone have similar experiences as an inland sponsor/applicant to perform your PR LANDING at a flag pole land border area instead of a local immigration office? What to expect? What to bring? Anyone who flag poled with no active permits (i.e. work permits and holiday working visas)?
We imagine this will happen very soon, so if anyone has information or help clarify this, we would both greatly appreciate it!
Thank you very much for your time.
My common-law partner and I (I'm a Canadian citizen) have recently been both approved for PR Family Class. It took just over a year to get to this point and we are now waiting for the interview invitation letter.
We received a letter this week that appeared to be a standard template style letter that mentions things you need to have for the interview, but no mention of the interview time/date. We were confused and called IRCC (CIC) immediately to clarify. The CIC agent (#1) told us that the letter is sent out to pretty much everyone.
In our particular case, my partners holiday working visa expired a few months ago and we were told on a separate occasion a few months ago from a CIC agent (#2) that my partner no longer has legal status in the country. They continued to say "because you are in process for PR on our system and still in Canada and have passed multiple stages of the process so far (at the time), you should just wait until you get final notification from CIC".
Back to CIC agent (#1), who was our most recent call (today), after we explained our issue, she said now that your sponsor has been approved, you are now allowed to reapply for an open work permit, BUT she said to not do that because it doesn't make any sense to reapply at this point when both of us have been approved as sponsor/applicant and all medical, criminal background checks have been completed and we are very close to the last stage of finalization... she said to just sit and wait until we receive a letter regarding our interview. She said we would have to call the number provided on the letter and discuss the Flag Pole crossing option. So instead of going to CIC local office in Ontario, she said we will have to do it the other way and do the Flag Pole procedure at a land border such as Niagara. (We understand that the Flag Pole option doesn't mean cross into the USA, but rather, cross the bridge and explain to US officials we are flag poling for permanent residence in Canada and they turn you around back to Canada with a letter to present to Canadian border officials.)
Does anyone have similar experiences as an inland sponsor/applicant to perform your PR LANDING at a flag pole land border area instead of a local immigration office? What to expect? What to bring? Anyone who flag poled with no active permits (i.e. work permits and holiday working visas)?
We imagine this will happen very soon, so if anyone has information or help clarify this, we would both greatly appreciate it!
Thank you very much for your time.