Ridiculous: photos not according to specs - delay in PR card after landing

[edupolo]

Hello,

After being told a month ago to send my new pictures to the local immigration office in Toronto for my PR card, I decided to call the immigration centre to check that they had been received (I knew they were there because they were signed off as I sent them through Fedex).

However, the person on the phone told me that the procedure has changed and that anybody who is told that their pictures had the wrong specs need to send the new pictures directly to the central office in Sydney, Nova Scotia... what the f??? So many inconsistencies and now it has been nearly 6 months without PR card and not close to get it sorted at all, as he told me that they will probably ignore the letter and pictures I sent to Toronto, as I was told by another colleague of his.

Has anyone heard of this new procedure? I was told it has been going on since October.

Thanks.

 

[PMM]

Hi

Hello,

After being told a month ago to send my new pictures to the local immigration office in Toronto for my PR card, I decided to call the immigration centre to check that they had been received (I knew they were there because they were signed off as I sent them through Fedex).

However, the person on the phone told me that the procedure has changed and that anybody who is told that their pictures had the wrong specs need to send the new pictures directly to the central office in Sydney, Nova Scotia... what the f??? So many inconsistencies and now it has been nearly 6 months without PR card and not close to get it sorted at all, as he told me that they will probably ignore the letter and pictures I sent to Toronto, as I was told by another colleague of his.

Has anyone heard of this new procedure? I was told it has been going on since October.

Thanks.

Yes. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/bulletins/2011/ob299b.asp

 

[edupolo]

Thanks PMM
So is it correct that I should just go ahead and send my new pictures to Sydney, NS as advised by immigration call centre agent? He did not say anything about forms or timelines, but I guess I should send them asap although I have not received anything from them in the post yet saying that my pictures are wrong. It was only the call centre who advised me of that.

Your help will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Juzer]

I had a Similar Problem. My Family of 3, My wife, son and myself became premanent residents on 3rd October 2011. My wife and i received our PR cards in one and a half month but my son didnt receive his. I used to call call centre agents several times but the response i used to get is call after 30 days since officer has not replied. Finally end of december they told me my son photo was not according to specification and they will send me a letter in my post. I received the letter on 6th January 2012. I did his photos again and sent them back to Nova Scotia by mail the following day. I received his PR card in less than two weeks after re-submitting the photo. Received PR on 18/1/2012.
CIC really gave us a hard time. All the best to guys who are still waiting.

 

[faithmd]

Hi Juzer! So it means it's ok to send the photo thru mail and need not to go there personally? I'm just worried coz I am planning to go back to my country after a week and have my PR card sent to me by my husband. Thank you in advance!

 

[Juzer]

@faithmd... Yes photos have to be sent by mail. The new system came into effect from 1st October, 2011. They will send you a simple form that needs to be filled, signed by you and attach photos on them.

 

[pun500]

@edupolo me in the same situation sent the photos to CIC toronto on Jan 9 through DHL. Had received a letter from CIC stating send the photos there. Please tell me what happens in your case as I dont have the supplemental form as well (sent that also to toronto office) now I am worried whether it should go to nova scotia??

:'( :'( :'(

I am really pissed

 

[Juzer]

Just call call centre agents and tell them to mail you the form for photo requirement and they will do that for you. No need to panic. Once you receive the form attach photos, sign and send them to nova scotia and you will get your PR card. You need to be calling cic call centre all the time. Dont worry its your right. I had a similar problem with my son's PR card i kept calling them all the time and i even wrote a diplomatic email to cic nova scotia. I got the red letter in one week and PR card the next week. Am so relieved. It was a hassel but i never gave up.

 

[edupolo]

Hi,

Yes, you will need to send your photos to NS via mail. As I said before, I was misinformed by agent and I had to send my documents again to NS. Their mistake cost me money and time. I am debating whether or not I should make a fuss about it, and ask them for transcript conversations, since I could prove I was mislead and maybe they take this situation more seriously. It has been over six months since I landed and I am very frustrated.

First, it took them 4 months to tell me the pictures were wrong (even though they were taken by professional photographer and met the specs). Then they give me wrong information about where to send new pictures. They also told me they sent me the red letter and I am still waiting. In fact, I had to request it again and I am not even sure they sent me the right one, but they told me to send it to NS anyway.

I have been so patient, but I think I am going to start pestering them until they are so tired of me that they actually produce my PR Cards.

Does anyone know how to place a proper complaint to a politician? I would love to do that, not to mention trying to send information to some newspapers, see if that may scare the politicians (bad publicity).

 

[edupolo]

I guess my last post and my ranting worked!

So, I have finally received my PR cards. It has been 6 months and 4 days since I landed. For those of you who are not aware with my situation I will give you the timelines and maybe you can work out what may happen in your situation. My timeline will include the times I actually contacted the call centre.

21 July 2011 – My partner and I landed in Toronto

21 Sept 2011 – We called the centre to check on our cards and we were told to call back in 4 weeks

20 Oct 2011 - We called to check on card but not reply from Sydney NS, they told us to call back in 2 weeks because that was their standards if they failed to reply within 4 weeks the first time.

16 Nov 2011 – We called back and they told us that our pcitures did not meet the specifications (after 4 months!!!). We asked what to do and the agent told us that we were sent a form that we needed to fill out. They said it had been sent weeks ago, but we never got it (in fact, we are still waiting in January for it). She told us that we could write a letter of explanation and send pictures to our Toronto local office, which we did and spent $45 dollars to Fedex it there.

02 Dec 2011 – We called the call centre to ask how long we had to wait since we knew that someone had signed the package in Toronto St Clair. This new agent told us that they would not do anything with it because now we were required to send new pictures to Sydney NS. The process apparently changed on 1 November 2011, so the previous person did not give us correct information and we wasted precious time and money. They did not care about that and told us to re-send to Nova Scotia.

27 Dec 2011 – We were visiting family in the USA for Christmas and we finally sent the new pictures to Nova Scotia via UPS.

08 Jan 2012 – Someone in the Sydney, NS office signed our package and we decided to wait until 08 February to give a call and check when our cards will be coming or if the new pictures were also wrong.

24 Jan 2012 – A friend of mine told me that he had received our PR cards, so we never had to contact
the centre again and we can relax for 5 years until we need to renew them.

It has been a very painful experience; however, we were lucky that we had the time to wait, since we are still in London trying to finish projects so we were not in a real rush to get them, but we just wanted it done.

I hope you all get yours soon, and never give up please. We were close to giving up though. I would still want to write to someone to explain to them how painful this has been.

 

[Rush123]

Hello Everyone,

I am going through the same frustrations as everyone else.

Having landed on November 23rd, I expected to have my PR card in the mail within 2 months. Events since have transpired as below. Will update as I receive them.

25 January 2012 - Letter arrives in the mail stating that I will need to resend my photos as they are not of the correct specs. This is strange given that I paid $30 to professionals at a studio and insisted several times that they make sure this photo is as per the spec sheet on the cic website.

26 January 2012- Sent through ExpressPost 2 new pictures to Sydney, NS. Also included in my package was my ticket confirmation for a flight scheduled to go to the States on February 16th.

30 January 2012 - Mail received in Sydney.

7 February 2012 - Called cic call centre to check status on whether the card has been dispatched. Till yesterday, the status on their end is that "the letter requesting new pictures has been sent"

This is extremely frustrating as reservations/bookings will now have to be cancelled for this trip. I had also booked another trip in early March to the US. I had booked early to receive discounts and deals. However, all this is in jeopardy and I will also lose out on the only 2 trips I had planned for the year.

Will update everyone when I hear an update.

 

[smk_ujs]

did any body have to re send photos from outside of Canada?

 

[tanvirabid78]

For sending the new photos, can someone please tell me the courier address for this address:

Case Processing Centre -
Permanent Residence Card
P.O. Box 4500
Sydney, Nova Scotia
B1P 6L1

I want to send from outside Canada. And the courier company does not deliver to P.O. Boxes. Would be much appreciated.

 

[nikosyozzer]

At what point were you informed that you would have to resubmit pics??

My wife and I were waiting to receive our PR cards and she has received hers today (she was the main Express Entry Applicant). I wondered if these cards tend to come together or seperately? I'm wondering where mine has got to? If anyone has an idea then please share.

 

[next2015]

At what point were you informed that you would have to resubmit pics??

My wife and I were waiting to receive our PR cards and she has received hers today (she was the main Express Entry Applicant). I wondered if these cards tend to come together or seperately? I'm wondering where mine has got to? If anyone has an idea then please share.

It's normal for members of the same family to receive their cards on different days. I was once told by a CIC agent: "it happens if the family's applications are handled by different officers". That said, you should give them a call - mention your wife's card was delivered.