My husband and I were residents of Cyprus and had to choose Syria as the visa processing office. My husband was born in Canada and submitted our spousal sponsorship application to Mississauga last July. The website states they started processing our file on the 30th of September 2011 and that it would be forwarded to the visa office abroad for further processing. I have not received any confirmation that Syria has received our file or that they have begun processing it. Is this normal? Does everyone receive confirmation from Syria that they have received their file? I'm a little worried due to the trouble over there and how it may prolong the processing of my application. I don't want to call Syria because I feel bad about the situation there. I have read on this forum that someone called Syria and were told Mississauga had their file after one year, even though they were told the sponsor was eligible and their file would be forwarded to Damascus. This makes me nervous. Any advice would be most appreciated, thank you.