Thread for Acrra Ghana applicants

[ola22]

Good morning friends. I have been offline since Friday, as I took a half day from work. I have had the time to catch up and must commend @RoamingSpirit for her amazing work in taking up this issue of the agonizingly slow processing times of the affected visa offices. I tried to log in to the site from home, but forgot my password and got locked out of my account (I'm logged in automatically at work)
That being said, My husband received his pre-arrival services mail on Friday evening. It was hard for me not to be able to share this news over the weekend, but here it is! I want to encourage EVERYONE waiting. It will be sooner than you think. Before month end, everyone waiting here will receive favorable news. I am off to sign the petition!

@donchik A very big congratulations to you and your husband.

 

[me2605]

Good morning friends. I have been offline since Friday, as I took a half day from work. I have had the time to catch up and must commend @RoamingSpirit for her amazing work in taking up this issue of the agonizingly slow processing times of the affected visa offices. I tried to log in to the site from home, but forgot my password and got locked out of my account (I'm logged in automatically at work)
That being said, My husband received his pre-arrival services mail on Friday evening. It was hard for me not to be able to share this news over the weekend, but here it is! I want to encourage EVERYONE waiting. It will be sooner than you think. Before month end, everyone waiting here will receive favorable news. I am off to sign the petition!

Congrats dear... the wait is finally over. I still wonder how AVO treats this file, going through your timeline, they started processing your application November 2017 means October and previous months have also started being processed but no Pre arrival mail for them. I just feel, they delay the applications on purpose

 

[Righteous]

Good morning friends. I have been offline since Friday, as I took a half day from work. I have had the time to catch up and must commend @RoamingSpirit for her amazing work in taking up this issue of the agonizingly slow processing times of the affected visa offices. I tried to log in to the site from home, but forgot my password and got locked out of my account (I'm logged in automatically at work)
That being said, My husband received his pre-arrival services mail on Friday evening. It was hard for me not to be able to share this news over the weekend, but here it is! I want to encourage EVERYONE waiting. It will be sooner than you think. Before month end, everyone waiting here will receive favorable news. I am off to sign the petition!

awesome and congratulations. We got pre-arrival service on Friday too. Now we are just waiting for PPR

 

[ola22]

awesome and congratulations. We got pre-arrival service on Friday too. Now we are just waiting for PPR

Congratulations

 

[Akanni2017]

I just hope many flood office today. My wife in Canada sent one one as well to all email , her MP and also to opposition immigration minister michelle.rempel@parl.gc.ca. Michelle is the progressive conservative member who keeps Ahmed Hussen accountable for their actions in immigration she is opposite side house liberals is opposite side house parliament progressive convervatives and NDP and independents sit on other side. Just history lesson this morning and Andrew Scheer progressive convervative leader of party are official opposition to the liberals . Thank God for everything. We all should stay hopeful this week and the rest of the month.

 

[donchik]

Congrats dear... the wait is finally over. I still wonder how AVO treats this file, going through your timeline, theyvestarted processingn your application November 2017 means October and precious months have also started being processed butbno Pre arrival mail for them. I just feel, they delay the applications on purpose

Thank you dear. So from what I see there are different processing times for the sponsor and the PA. my timeline was really weird, as Mississauga started processing my file in May, and my sponsor approval came end of October. With these folks one cannot tell what move they will make or when. On Ecas there is no update even as we have pre arrival. We were not able to link accounts therefore no GC Key. My hubby's processing started in November

 

[donchik]

Congrats!!

Thank you Maki, have you gone to the VO yet?

 

[donchik]

So here is a summary of what we are asking people to do:

1) Sign and share the petition: http://chn.ge/2oHm7yt
And maybe this one: https://www.change.org/p/canada-immigration-office-dependent-visa-for-canadian-citizen-s-spouse?recruiter=852510025&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=share_petition​

2) Send the following letter to the Minister for Immigration and their local MP:

Minister@cic.gc.ca, Ahmed.hussen@parl.gc.ca, Ministerial.Enquiries.Division@cic.gc.ca
And use this searchable database to find your MP: http://www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members​

Subject Line: Inconsistent Processing Times: Accra Visa Office (UCI xxxxxxxx)



The processing times between visa offices for spousal visas varies considerably. This seems to be especially true of the Accra Visa Office which appears to lag considerably behind other visa offices, especially those in developed countries. We believe that additional resources should be assigned to offices such as the Accra Visa Office to ensure that applications are processed efficiently regardless of their location. Processing times for applications should be consistent.

Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights guarantees equal rights. Yet those of us relying on offices such as the Accra Visa Office do not feel that our applications are being treated equally especially when we consistently witness other visa offices processing applications much faster.

Not only are our applications taking considerably longer to process, the political climate in many of the countries served by the Accra Visa Office prevents many of us from being with our spouses during the processing time. Visa offices with the faster processing times are also those where the applicants have more freedom to move between countries during the processing time.

Applicants from developed countries are usually freer to enter Canada before an application is submitted, and may are able to stay in Canada while their applications are being processed, or are free to visit with their spouses during the processing of their applications. But many of the countries that are served by the Accra Visa Office also have travel warning advisories. That is, our government is warning us not to travel to these particular countries, these countries where those we love are living.

Not only is the processing time longer for us and our ability to spend time with our spouses limited, but we also have limited information on the progress of our application during the processing period. Messages in the online applications aren’t kept up-to-date, or are inconsistent. We have noticed also that applications aren’t always processed in the same order that they were submitted.

Newcomers to Canada are expected to abide by the values of Canada, which we believe to be demonstrating fairness, respect, equality and equity. Our expectation is that our government demonstrates the same values when delivering services.

While we do acknowledge and appreciate that considerable work has been achieved to reduce overall processing times of spousal visas, and while we understand that some processes are out of the control of the Canadian government, resources should be in place to ensure fairness, respect, equality and equity when processing of applications. We need to not only reduce the processing times, but also reduce the gap in processing times between visa offices to ensure fair treatment of all current and future Canadians.

signed***

 

[AtGod]

it depends on their nationality . Some nationals have shorter timelines . eg Rwanda takes 6 to 8 months for their nationals. whiles other countries are from 12, 16 or 24 months etc. however one can check on their website to see how much time they have left for them to wait. That way if it's long over due you can write a letter to notify them. What I know it's the Ghanaian timeline is shorter than the Nigerians. And how fast you receive your visa depends on the the number of applicants who applied , it turns to go fast if there are only few applicants. With the AVO I think they are slow due to the number of different countries sharing the same facility . The Canadian embassy In Accra here doesn't only serve Ghana, Nigeria & Liberia applicants. Some other neighboring countries also have to apply through AVO. so just imagine how crazy it is!

But this is not fair at all. My husband and I are from Benin. Our application was received since 24th January 2017 and still no word from AVO. Nothing has changed in the file since 1year. We sent a lot of emails, make my MP email them but they are still sending us the same answer "your application is in queue for review" Since 13months. Wr are in queue to have someone take a first look on our file! This is so unfair.

 

[AtGod]

I also created a petition on Change.org:
http://chn.ge/2oHm7yt

Please share with friends and family. I am going to post it around some other threads also.

Thank you so much for you work. God bless you

 

[Agi2009]

Hello everyone, my husband submitted his passport to Accra since February 14th, it's been 3weeks. My question is, can we email them for a follow up plz? And would they do something about it if we tell them his ticket has been purchased? Plz we need advice... thanks

 

[RoamingSpirit]

Hello everyone, my husband submitted his passport to Accra since February 14th, it's been 3weeks. My question is, can we email them for a follow up plz? And would they do something about it if we tell them his ticket has been purchased? Plz we need advice... thanks

I don't think it would hurt to at least try. They won't change their minds.

 

[Agi2009]

I don't think it would hurt to at least try. They won't change their minds.

Thanks my dear.... really appreciate it

 

[Righteous]

Hello everyone, my husband submitted his passport to Accra since February 14th, it's been 3weeks. My question is, can we email them for a follow up plz? And would they do something about it if we tell them his ticket has been purchased? Plz we need advice... thanks

I believe turnaround time is between 2 - 4 weeks.

There's no harm in sending am email to AVO though.

 

[me2605]

@RoamingSpirit how was your day? Please I think you need to compose another mail. Let’s send mails to the minister everyday. Let them know we are hurt. They can’t keep treating us this way. Imagine an application, over 13 months and Accra isn’t Saying anything. Let’s have updates on our files, let’s know the stage we are, let’s know how long more we need to wait. It isn’t fair. Please compose the mail and we need to know how many people are sending these mails because only 3 or 5 people sending it might not have an effect. Even if your application was submitted in October, November please send a mail because in the end the backlog will still affect you. Something like this was done last year and there was an effect.