MSP2YYZ said:
What would happen if you withdrew a spousal application and immediately filed a new one for the same person? The only reason I ask is CIC seems to have forgotten about people that filed last year, but all the ones filed this are flying through the process.
Has the sponsor already been approved? If so, have the applicant withdraw the application, not the sponsor. Otherwise, have both parties mutually agree to withdraw the application. What you do not want is the sponsor to withdraw the sponsorship because when you reapply the first question they are going to ask is "um, why are you applying if you just withdrew your sponsorship."
In other words, make it very clear that you are mutually withdrawing it.
Something else to consider: if they've already started processing the application, you won't get the fee back. In that case, you might as well just leave the application in process and start a new application - there's no
benefit to withdrawing the old application and nothing prevents you from having multiple simultaneous applications (personal experience - it does work.)
One final suggestion (after looking at your timeline): you may just want to file an application with the Federal Court of Canada for Mandamus. You are now way beyond the published processing time. While I'd normally suggest using an attorney, if you're a little bit brave, you could get away with filing this yourself (go look up some mandamus cases on CanLii, buy their filings from the Registry, draft your own application, and get it filed.) With a 5 page application you are likely to find that Justice Canada pokes CIC into "clearing up" your case so it is moot and they don't need to respond - or they can respond with "this issue is moot and the court shouldn't hear it at this point." The total cost is probably no more than $100 out of pocket if you're willing to do a bit of your own leg work.
Oh, the point of "moot" is that you'd have your COPR issued.
