stevenjones said:
Hey Everyone,
My wife is a Canadian citizen and I am a British citizen.
We are currently living in South Africa and would like to apply
for a spousal sponsorship visa. What would be the best and
quickest way to do this?
- Apply through the Canadian Embassy in the UK
- Apply directly to Mississauga, Ontario from S.Africa
- Enter Canada and apply for my visa while there
Any advice would be really appreciated!
Cheers,
Rob
Options 1 and 2 are considered the same. The terminology is "outland application" for both. You
cannot directly apply through the UK. First the application will have to go to Mississauga, and once Mississauga is done assessing the sponsor's (your wife's) eligibility to sponsor you, they will then forward the application to the visa office in the UK (London, to be exact).
According to:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-fc.asp
At the time of this writing, theoretically the stage 1 assessment (sponsor assessment) takes 55 days (so, about 2 months). Stage 2 (sponsored person's assessment) takes 9 months at the London office. Total = 2 + 9 = 11 months.
Option 3 is called inland (inland means the sponsor and sponsored person stay together in Canada). According to the above link, stage 1 takes 6 months, and stage 2 takes 8 months. Total = 14 months.
So,
theoretically speaking, the inland option takes longer than outland. However the numbers posted on that webpage act more like a guide, rather than something really exact. It's possible that that your actual processing time is faster or slower than predicted, depending on how complete your application is, how straightforward it is, how busy the processing visa office is, and last but not least, I think luck plays a role as well
.
By the way, be extra careful about the following:
- When applying outland (i.e: Mississauga followed by London) the sponsor (your wife) is free to choose to stay in or out of Canada during the process (that's the perk of her being a Canadian citizen, or else she would be required to be in Canada). But keep in mind: if she remained in South Africa with you during the process, she'd have to provide a detailed plan and supporting documents that demonstrate that she intends to resettle in Canada once you're granted PR.
- Inland (through Vegreville): if the application is rejected, there's no chance to appeal. But if your relationship is genuine (which I am sure yours is), there's no need to worry; you'll get approved
.
And during the inland process, you as the sponsored person would have to stay in Canada during the whole process.
