Thread For applications Through SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA) Office

[marcopolocan]

@ CansponOz

Congrats......I'm envious of the timeline. Good luck with the rest of the process. I thought I read somewhere that you may not need to do your landing at the border but certain international airports (don't quote me) may allow you to land officially?

Cheers

 

[miniejungle]

So we had the passport (copy) request from sydney in late august/early sept and ecas went Decision Made on monday sept 24. The visa arrived in the mail on monday oct 1. So we're pretty much done! We'll be driving out to Niagara falls to do the official landing on the weekend. Good luck to everyone.

Category....................: FAM
Visa Office.................: Sydney
App. Filed..................: 29/05/12
AOR Received............: 04/07/12
Sponsorship approval.: 09/07/12
AOR Sydney..............: 24/07/12
In process on ECAS....: 19/08/12
PPR via letter.............: 06/09/12
Decision Made Ecas....: 24/09/12
Visa rec'd..................: 01/10/12
LANDED....................: 06/10/12 (hopefully)

OMG, SYdney VO is sure quick, congratualtions!!!! I'm so hoping we would be able to get our visa soon too... my "in process" is 1 month exactly behind you... i'm gettting excited now...

 

[CansponsoringAussie]

There is a note on it saying you can "land" by making an appointment with the CIC office in canada. But from what i've read the waiting time on those appointments is a couple months. This way we get it done quicker and get a day trip out of it!

 

[Robhi]

Hi everyone,

I'm a Canadian citizen sponsoring my wife from Australia. We submitted the application the "outside" method as well to expedite the process. Just thought I would post my timelines so far:

Category....................: FAM
Visa Office.................: Sydney
App. Filed..................: 24/08/12
AOR Received............: 04/10/12
Sponsorship approval.: 05/10/12
AOR Sydney..............:
In process on ECAS....:
PPR via letter.............:
Decision Made Ecas....:
Visa rec'd..................:
LANDED....................:

Seems like things are moving along rather quickly, hope the rest goes well too! Just thought I'd share.

Robhi

 

[rachiy]

Thanks for sharing your details Robhi. I have added you to the Sydney spreadsheet, the link is in my signature.

 

[BCRain]

Hi everyone,

I'm a Canadian citizen sponsoring my wife from Australia. We submitted the application the "outside" method as well to expedite the process. Just thought I would post my timelines so far:

Category....................: FAM
Visa Office.................: Sydney
App. Filed..................: 24/08/12
AOR Received............: 04/10/12
Sponsorship approval.: 05/10/12
AOR Sydney..............:
In process on ECAS....:
PPR via letter.............:
Decision Made Ecas....:
Visa rec'd..................:
LANDED....................:

Seems like things are moving along rather quickly, hope the rest goes well too! Just thought I'd share.

Robhi

Wow! That was fast for the first stage! Congrats & thanks for sharing.
I hope that means our application isn't far behind...

 

[miniejungle]

great Robhi, that's fast.

i just got an email from Sydney VO waiving my interview. and requesting for police checks since mine have expired. just as what we expect.

rachiy, pls update spreadsheet... and you're going to Calgary too? same here

 

[rachiy]

great Robhi, that's fast.

i just got an email from Sydney VO waiving my interview. and requesting for police checks since mine have expired. just as what we expect.

rachiy, pls update spreadsheet... and you're going to Calgary too? same here

ss updated.
Yip i have been in Calgary just over three years now, we will have to go for a drink when you get here!

 

[CansponsoringAussie]

We did our landing on Saturday at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. Because Aussies are visa exempt and had a visa waiver in place, we decided it was easier to cross over to the US and see the falls from that side rather than flag-pole. When you flag pole you'll get directed to the US customs where you'll have to wait to see an agent to get a form saying you were not permitted to enter the US and then they direct you back to Canada.

We were admitted, spent maybe an hour walking through the park on the US side before driving back over. The process on the Canadian side was dead easy. Told the agent at the booth we were landing for PR, directed to park and head inside where some forms were filled in by the agent inside, the Working holiday visa was removed from the passport and the PR visa was stapled in (it's a huge legal size sheet folded up). Then the agent went through the next steps (health card, new SIN, waiting time for PR card and how long to wait before citizenship). All in took about 15min. Apparently it's 6-8 weeks for the PR card, and you can't leave the country (unless there is an emergency) in that time period.

Best of luck to everyone else. I can tell you it feels amazing once it's all over.

 

[bagelbagel81]

We did our landing on Saturday at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. Because Aussies are visa exempt and had a visa waiver in place, we decided it was easier to cross over to the US and see the falls from that side rather than flag-pole. When you flag pole you'll get directed to the US customs where you'll have to wait to see an agent to get a form saying you were not permitted to enter the US and then they direct you back to Canada.

We were admitted, spent maybe an hour walking through the park on the US side before driving back over. The process on the Canadian side was dead easy. Told the agent at the booth we were landing for PR, directed to park and head inside where some forms were filled in by the agent inside, the Working holiday visa was removed from the passport and the PR visa was stapled in (it's a huge legal size sheet folded up). Then the agent went through the next steps (health card, new SIN, waiting time for PR card and how long to wait before citizenship). All in took about 15min. Apparently it's 6-8 weeks for the PR card, and you can't leave the country (unless there is an emergency) in that time period.

Best of luck to everyone else. I can tell you it feels amazing once it's all over.

Congratulations! It must be a relief to have finally gotten to the finish line.

I was curious, I have heard that upon landing, you didn't necessarily have to wait the 6-8 weeks for the PR card to arrive, as long as you had a valid address inside of Canada that it could be sent to, you could actually exit the country? (Just because some people land and then need to go back to their home country to tie up loose ends before coming back a few weeks or even months later).
I guess I understand it from the POV that you require the PR card to re-enter the country, however have heard that the stapled COPR inside the passport acts as a temporary PR card whilst you are waiting.

Did they happen to elaborate on this point, or just mention you can't leave the country unless it's an emergency?

 

[miniejungle]

ss updated.
Yip i have been in Calgary just over three years now, we will have to go for a drink when you get here!

surely!!! let's meet!! aren't you coming back to Australia for Christmas?

We did our landing on Saturday at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. Because Aussies are visa exempt and had a visa waiver in place, we decided it was easier to cross over to the US and see the falls from that side rather than flag-pole. When you flag pole you'll get directed to the US customs where you'll have to wait to see an agent to get a form saying you were not permitted to enter the US and then they direct you back to Canada.

We were admitted, spent maybe an hour walking through the park on the US side before driving back over. The process on the Canadian side was dead easy. Told the agent at the booth we were landing for PR, directed to park and head inside where some forms were filled in by the agent inside, the Working holiday visa was removed from the passport and the PR visa was stapled in (it's a huge legal size sheet folded up). Then the agent went through the next steps (health card, new SIN, waiting time for PR card and how long to wait before citizenship). All in took about 15min. Apparently it's 6-8 weeks for the PR card, and you can't leave the country (unless there is an emergency) in that time period.

Best of luck to everyone else. I can tell you it feels amazing once it's all over.

congrats, CansponsoringAussie. i'm so hoping our paperwork will be smooth and we can do this landing like yours... unlikely though, as I will be in Australia though. hopefully things will move fast for all of us here.

 

[B-Nation]

We did our landing on Saturday at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. Because Aussies are visa exempt and had a visa waiver in place, we decided it was easier to cross over to the US and see the falls from that side rather than flag-pole. When you flag pole you'll get directed to the US customs where you'll have to wait to see an agent to get a form saying you were not permitted to enter the US and then they direct you back to Canada.

We were admitted, spent maybe an hour walking through the park on the US side before driving back over. The process on the Canadian side was dead easy. Told the agent at the booth we were landing for PR, directed to park and head inside where some forms were filled in by the agent inside, the Working holiday visa was removed from the passport and the PR visa was stapled in (it's a huge legal size sheet folded up). Then the agent went through the next steps (health card, new SIN, waiting time for PR card and how long to wait before citizenship). All in took about 15min. Apparently it's 6-8 weeks for the PR card, and you can't leave the country (unless there is an emergency) in that time period.

Best of luck to everyone else. I can tell you it feels amazing once it's all over.

Did your PPR and COPR arrive via a letter or an email?

 

[CansponsoringAussie]

bagelbagel81 - what they told us is your PR card will come in the mail in 6-8 weeks. You CAN'T leave the country on your COPR, but if there is an emergency or urgent reason you can apply at the Canadian consulate for a temporary one time pass. They specifically said the COPR is not vailid to get you back in the country. We were already living in Canada and there was no option for a rush on the cards.

B-Nation - the PPR came as a large envelope with the return of some of our original photos and cards. The COPR comes via registered post and it a legal size sheet you can't bend or fold.

 

[freezing_aussie]

We just heard from the CIC via email - sponsorship approved and file is being transferred to Sydney. Yay!

 

[figgy]

my boyfriend got an email last night saying our application has been received in sydney and they gave him his own UCI #! yay! So i am pretty sure this is our stage 2 AOR