Hi Everyone,
This forum has been very helpful in the PR Timeline thread so I figure I will post my experience for anyone who may find themselves in a similar situation, to give them some hope or guidance. The story will be long but I figure I will share.
My wife and I like to travel a lot, and always knew her existing PR card will expire in 2019, but it always seemed so far away. I am a Citizen but she isn't. Fast forward to last December, December 7th to be exact, and my wife and I were ready to go to Mexico for our winter vacation. I login to WestJet for online checkin, and for the first time ever, it asked if we had a PR card, and if we did, to input that information. I pulled out the PR card and started filling in the info, when I noticed that the PR card will expire in February...normally not an issue, except we have a trip booked for all of February, and by the time we come back, the card will be expired! In a panic, I dropped EVERYTHING I was doing at work and went into a crazy PR renewal mode.
Since I have access to my home PC from work, I connected remotely and pulled up our previous renewal papers to make filling out the new ones easier. The forms have changed but for the most part many things were the same. We always kept track of all our travel, so I had all that handy. I filled out all the forms, made all kinds of photo copies of documents, travel tickets and itineraries. I wrote a letter asking for Urgent processing, but I knew I didn't qualify, but figured I try anyways. At the end of the day I rushed home, told my wife about our issue, and right away we went to Walmart to take the required pictures. My wife signed all the proper areas and we dropped by the closes courier office and spend $58 to send a letter to the processing center. During this time the Canada post was still on strike so we figured whatever, we need to send it as fast as possible, and we can't wait. We didn't want to delay until we are back from vacation a week later, so we send it and hopped for the best.
At this time, the timeline for processing was showing 67 days....67 days from the time we sent would be about 2 weeks into our 3 week vacation, so chances of getting that card were slim, even if the card came and my parents rushed it to Japan. I spent all my Christmas break researching what my options were, seeing if my wife would be able to get on the plane back to Canada, but thanks to this forum, I learned quickly that she would be denied boarding, regardless of how much we pleaded with the company. We looked into the travel record option as well, but in Japan they don't create the cards, apparently all request are forwarded to Manila, with a 10 to 30 day timeline given. If my wife was to send her passport in and not get it back for 30 days....we would be worse off as she would have to spend another week in Japan...she has family there so not too bad, but still, time off work etc. After much research, we realized our only real option would be to fly to Seattle, and then drive across the boarder from there all the way to Calgary.
Our plan at this point was that with a few days left on our vacation, when all chance of getting the PR card in time were gone, we would buy a one way ticket to Seattle for my wife, one day our initial tickets. I would fly back to Canada by myself, short check my luggage, and get out in Vacouver as it's a stop over point, instead of flying all the way back to Calgary. I have a sister in Vancouver so I could stay with her for the night. My wife would fly to Seattle the following day, where I would get a rental car, drive to pick her up, and then drive all the way back to Calgary. We pretty much settled into this fact and kind of moved on...except I couldn't take my mind off it.
I came back to this forum and started looking at the timeline thread...seeing how everyone's processing times were. I figured since our application was delivered mid December, and with all of the holidays, there would be no way it would get to us on time. I kept checking and at some point someone posted a timeline from the end of November...which was only a few weeks away from ours, and their application got processed on January 8th! This gave me confidence that there may actually be a chance that I will get our PR card in time! I kept checking and the timeline was moving pretty quickly, with someone posting a December timeline...at this point I was very optimistic! We carried on, and on Jan 18th, we got an e-mail from the processing center that they received our application! We were so happy! I tried to check the status online, but there was no information yet, I checked on Saturday and still nothing, and then finally on Sunday, there it was, our application is finally in the system.....but wait!!! WTF!! The address listed was 3## Everglade Way, Kanata, ON......what in the world....our address is 3## Everglen Rise, Calgary, AB....other side of the country!!!!
At this point I was furious! After waiting all this time, they had the wrong address in the system! I saw people post about this before, but it was usually an apartment number missing...not a whole different province all the way across Canada!!! I filled out the online address change, which takes 2 days to reflect, so first thing on Monday we called Immigration and spoke to an agent, who said that our card is already in production...and they can't guarantee that it will be shipped to the proper address! We were so mad and frustrated, but kept hope that it would come to the right place, because after all, from the time of first communication to card shipped is usually 2 to 10 days from what I can see on the timeline thread, so we were hoping the right address would make it. With nothing else to do, I went to work. Once I got to work I got an idea.....what IF I could find the person who lives at the wrong address.....and get in touch with them, maybe I can get them to ship the card to the right address if it makes it there! I started googling, and found some invoice on some Chinese import site, with a name. I appended my google search to include the address and the name, and at this point, found an ad for an item on sale on a Kijiji type site. The site listed the phone number to contact the seller, and the address!
I figured my message would be ignored, but I tried it anyways, and sent a TXT message to the phone number. Within minutes,someone replied! They asked for more details by email!. At this point, I wrote up an email again explaining the situation, sending a screenshot of the wrong address from the government site, a picture of me and my wife in front of our house with house number in the picture...a google streeview image of our house and the address...any kind of proof to show that this isn't some kind of a scam....and sent it. The lady replied and said she would be on a lookout. I kept checking every day the status, and on Jan 22nd, the site updated to state that our card has shipped! At this point it was a waiting game. On Thursday, Jan 24th, I got a txt message from the lady out in Kanata, she got my card!!! I asked if she could please forward the mail to me, using a traceable service, I didn't care what it cost, just whatever was most convenient for her.
On Friday, Jan 25th, my PR card was forwarded by Xpresspost at a cost of $20....and today, Jan 30th, it's finally in my hand, one week before our vacation! I am so happy and stress-free now! I sent the lady $50 via e-transfer for her troubles, and she invited me to visit her if we are ever in that area! I am so lucky that we found such a great and understanding person! I highly encourage people in the same situation, with an urgent need for a card, to research online and see if you can find who lives in the address, I think most people would help!
After all this, we learned that this whole experience has caused us great stress, so we won't be making that mistake in the future, but there is a happy ending! I would like to thank this forum and everyone who has contributed to the various posts, it's very useful. Sorry for the long thread, but I figure it might help someone someday, so here it is.
Take care everyone, and goodluck with your PR renewals!
This forum has been very helpful in the PR Timeline thread so I figure I will post my experience for anyone who may find themselves in a similar situation, to give them some hope or guidance. The story will be long but I figure I will share.
My wife and I like to travel a lot, and always knew her existing PR card will expire in 2019, but it always seemed so far away. I am a Citizen but she isn't. Fast forward to last December, December 7th to be exact, and my wife and I were ready to go to Mexico for our winter vacation. I login to WestJet for online checkin, and for the first time ever, it asked if we had a PR card, and if we did, to input that information. I pulled out the PR card and started filling in the info, when I noticed that the PR card will expire in February...normally not an issue, except we have a trip booked for all of February, and by the time we come back, the card will be expired! In a panic, I dropped EVERYTHING I was doing at work and went into a crazy PR renewal mode.
Since I have access to my home PC from work, I connected remotely and pulled up our previous renewal papers to make filling out the new ones easier. The forms have changed but for the most part many things were the same. We always kept track of all our travel, so I had all that handy. I filled out all the forms, made all kinds of photo copies of documents, travel tickets and itineraries. I wrote a letter asking for Urgent processing, but I knew I didn't qualify, but figured I try anyways. At the end of the day I rushed home, told my wife about our issue, and right away we went to Walmart to take the required pictures. My wife signed all the proper areas and we dropped by the closes courier office and spend $58 to send a letter to the processing center. During this time the Canada post was still on strike so we figured whatever, we need to send it as fast as possible, and we can't wait. We didn't want to delay until we are back from vacation a week later, so we send it and hopped for the best.
At this time, the timeline for processing was showing 67 days....67 days from the time we sent would be about 2 weeks into our 3 week vacation, so chances of getting that card were slim, even if the card came and my parents rushed it to Japan. I spent all my Christmas break researching what my options were, seeing if my wife would be able to get on the plane back to Canada, but thanks to this forum, I learned quickly that she would be denied boarding, regardless of how much we pleaded with the company. We looked into the travel record option as well, but in Japan they don't create the cards, apparently all request are forwarded to Manila, with a 10 to 30 day timeline given. If my wife was to send her passport in and not get it back for 30 days....we would be worse off as she would have to spend another week in Japan...she has family there so not too bad, but still, time off work etc. After much research, we realized our only real option would be to fly to Seattle, and then drive across the boarder from there all the way to Calgary.
Our plan at this point was that with a few days left on our vacation, when all chance of getting the PR card in time were gone, we would buy a one way ticket to Seattle for my wife, one day our initial tickets. I would fly back to Canada by myself, short check my luggage, and get out in Vacouver as it's a stop over point, instead of flying all the way back to Calgary. I have a sister in Vancouver so I could stay with her for the night. My wife would fly to Seattle the following day, where I would get a rental car, drive to pick her up, and then drive all the way back to Calgary. We pretty much settled into this fact and kind of moved on...except I couldn't take my mind off it.
I came back to this forum and started looking at the timeline thread...seeing how everyone's processing times were. I figured since our application was delivered mid December, and with all of the holidays, there would be no way it would get to us on time. I kept checking and at some point someone posted a timeline from the end of November...which was only a few weeks away from ours, and their application got processed on January 8th! This gave me confidence that there may actually be a chance that I will get our PR card in time! I kept checking and the timeline was moving pretty quickly, with someone posting a December timeline...at this point I was very optimistic! We carried on, and on Jan 18th, we got an e-mail from the processing center that they received our application! We were so happy! I tried to check the status online, but there was no information yet, I checked on Saturday and still nothing, and then finally on Sunday, there it was, our application is finally in the system.....but wait!!! WTF!! The address listed was 3## Everglade Way, Kanata, ON......what in the world....our address is 3## Everglen Rise, Calgary, AB....other side of the country!!!!
At this point I was furious! After waiting all this time, they had the wrong address in the system! I saw people post about this before, but it was usually an apartment number missing...not a whole different province all the way across Canada!!! I filled out the online address change, which takes 2 days to reflect, so first thing on Monday we called Immigration and spoke to an agent, who said that our card is already in production...and they can't guarantee that it will be shipped to the proper address! We were so mad and frustrated, but kept hope that it would come to the right place, because after all, from the time of first communication to card shipped is usually 2 to 10 days from what I can see on the timeline thread, so we were hoping the right address would make it. With nothing else to do, I went to work. Once I got to work I got an idea.....what IF I could find the person who lives at the wrong address.....and get in touch with them, maybe I can get them to ship the card to the right address if it makes it there! I started googling, and found some invoice on some Chinese import site, with a name. I appended my google search to include the address and the name, and at this point, found an ad for an item on sale on a Kijiji type site. The site listed the phone number to contact the seller, and the address!
I figured my message would be ignored, but I tried it anyways, and sent a TXT message to the phone number. Within minutes,someone replied! They asked for more details by email!. At this point, I wrote up an email again explaining the situation, sending a screenshot of the wrong address from the government site, a picture of me and my wife in front of our house with house number in the picture...a google streeview image of our house and the address...any kind of proof to show that this isn't some kind of a scam....and sent it. The lady replied and said she would be on a lookout. I kept checking every day the status, and on Jan 22nd, the site updated to state that our card has shipped! At this point it was a waiting game. On Thursday, Jan 24th, I got a txt message from the lady out in Kanata, she got my card!!! I asked if she could please forward the mail to me, using a traceable service, I didn't care what it cost, just whatever was most convenient for her.
On Friday, Jan 25th, my PR card was forwarded by Xpresspost at a cost of $20....and today, Jan 30th, it's finally in my hand, one week before our vacation! I am so happy and stress-free now! I sent the lady $50 via e-transfer for her troubles, and she invited me to visit her if we are ever in that area! I am so lucky that we found such a great and understanding person! I highly encourage people in the same situation, with an urgent need for a card, to research online and see if you can find who lives in the address, I think most people would help!
After all this, we learned that this whole experience has caused us great stress, so we won't be making that mistake in the future, but there is a happy ending! I would like to thank this forum and everyone who has contributed to the various posts, it's very useful. Sorry for the long thread, but I figure it might help someone someday, so here it is.
Take care everyone, and goodluck with your PR renewals!
