Question about where to send application

[thomas365]

Hello everyone. Sometime next month our application will be ready to submit. This is for outland family class. My wife is a citizen of Singapore which has a very long wait (for most people). She is currently working 2 years now, in Hong Kong with a very short wait of 7 months.

I'm getting conflicting advice about where to submit. Some say take the shorter processing time, but others, and upon reading this site, advise do it in the country to which you're a citizen.

If we do this in Hong Kong, will our file be transferred to Singapore and then back to Hong Kong?

Will it mean that we would wait 33 months Singapore and then another 7 months in Hong Kong?

I keep thinking our file would be forgotten, lost or misplaced if it's shuttled between embassies.

Any experience with the situation?

 

[Rob_TO]

Everyone always sends the entire application package to CPC-Mississauga for sponsor approval.

You can request either office in the application forms for where applicant is processed, but the final decision on which office the app goes to is entirely up to CIC. They will send it where they think is best, and you don't have any control over that.

So you can request HK if you want to get a quicker processing time and due to your wife's current residency there, but just be prepared that CIC may send it to Singapore anyways based on her citizenship.

 

[nelsonhk]

My wife is from the Philippines but works in HK using only a work visa. I filled our application using the HK checklist. Somewhere in the forms it says that as long as you are presently living in HK you can use HK forms. I haven't read anything anywhere to contradict that.

 

[abbybc]

My wife is from the Philippines but works in HK using only a work visa. I filled our application using the HK checklist. Somewhere in the forms it says that as long as you are presently living in HK you can use HK forms. I haven't read anything anywhere to contradict that.

My wife as well from the Philippines working in Macau. Ours went to Hong Kong. But I don't think it's a guarantee of a shorter process time. We are at 7 months, the standard for Hong Kong and absolutely nothing from the embassy regarding our file. My feeling is it will take 15 months, the average time for Manila - based on her citizenship, not where it was filed.

 

[mikeymyke]

Avoid Singapore VO at all costs. It's actual processing length for people with minimal problems is around 7-9 months, not 31. However, it's the 24 month interview wait that's extremely brutal.

 

[thomas365]

Hi Mikeymike

Our application is straightforward, our lawyer corrected a few documents that I had completed (luckily we hired her otherwise my errors would have caused issues).

Despite the Singapore backlog, the lawyer suggested the possibility my wife quit her job and move back to Singapore. Reasoning was that if we involve two VO's it will definitely add several months to complete our application. She feels that even if HK has short processing, that is only for HK citizens, not foreigners working there.