Should I get the medical exam up front, or when they request it??

[dakoda]

I am applying out-land for the Family Class with my Canadian husband. I am a US citizen residing in California.

It looks as though you have two options for the medical exam:

1.) Do it upfront and submit with the application
2.) Get the medical exam after application is submitted, upon the request of CIC

Can anyone tell me which is the ideal option? I did read that Permanent Residence time frame is granted on the expiry date of the medical exam, or your passport, whichever is first. So it seems it may be better to get a medical exam when CIC requests it. However, does having a medical exam up front make the processing faster? I'm not sure which is the better option....someone please advise!

 

[mikeymyke]

ALways do upfront, never wait for CIC to request, it will just delay your application, even if just by a couple months.

 

[civic]

ALways do upfront, never wait for CIC to request, it will just delay your application, even if just by a couple months.

Medical is only valid for one year. The processing time will unlikely be less than one year. You have a great chance of being asked to redo it. Singapore visa office never asked applicants to submit medical upfront, it's not meant to expedite the process just because you have medical expiring soon. But IOM makes money from it so they tell people to do so. Most people will be asked to do it again when visa is ready. So a waste of money.

 

[mikeymyke]

It's not a big issue, because if your application is still in process, and they have not gotten to the medical stage yet, and your old medical is about to expire, you can always get a new medical done and send it to them. My wife's from a SIngapore VO, and if she does not get passport request before January 2015 (which is when her current medical expires), then we will just simply get a new medical done and submit it before they even request it.

 

[dakoda]

Thank you for the feedback. It is a bit of a tough decision because the medical exam costs $500 USD so I don't want to have to pay that twice! However, at the expense of my application processing slower...I would rather risk having to do it twice. Ahh..what a process!

 

[mikeymyke]

It is a bit of a trade off. Do you want to delay your application to save $500? Or speed it up at the risk of paying another $500? Keep in mind, this won't matter if you're from a speedy visa office and their processing time is less than a year. My wife and I are just focused purely on the speed aspect, so we don't care if we have to pay for another re-med, because it's only $200US for her in Vietnam.

 

[Rob_TO]

US citizens are processed mainly in CPC-Ottawa, and most are done in well less than 1 year. So US citizens should always do medical upfront to get quickest possible processing time.

 

[Zarilenth]

On another note I applied outland as well, and my husband is from the USA. We didn't do our medicals upfront, and we really wish we had. At first we worried our heads off every day wondering if Mississauga was going to send back our application as incomplete. Now Ottawa has it and we worry everyday that our application is being delayed because of the fact that we submitted the medical after sponsorship approval. We got a request to do it ASAP with sponsorship approval, and sent it in a couple weeks later (that was in March but we had some issues with the medical so it ended up being April 1st) and still no word as of yet.

In the end: do it before. If you can, come up to Canada to do it as it is cheaper. But only do that if you were going to visit your wife/husband anyway

 

[dakoda]

Thank you very much I will be doing it before I go up there for sure! I might be able to do the medical in Canada since we are still waiting on FBI background check, and another background check to get processed.

Thank you all for your feedback - this forum is such a great resource.

 

[steerpike]

For Outland: do upfront medicals

For Inland: wait until they ask you (because stage 1 wait times have been creeping up. You dont want your medical expiring before they have a chance to look at it.)

 

[Obronibini]

Thank you for the feedback. It is a bit of a tough decision because the medical exam costs $500 USD so I don't want to have to pay that twice! However, at the expense of my application processing slower...I would rather risk having to do it twice. Ahh..what a process!

some doctors offer cheaper fees compare prices and go for the less , that's what we did , unless you are stucked to one

 

[PMM]

Hi

For Outland: do upfront medicals

For Inland: wait until they ask you (because stage 1 wait times have been creeping up. You dont want your medical expiring before they have a chance to look at it.)

Inland up front as well, if it is expires, it will be extended.