Thread for outland Buffalo applicants!

[ao-chan]

I actually received my AI letter from Buffalo in October saying that my medicals had been received. When my husband's MP called Buffalo last week, Buffalo said they had not received my medical records at all. This is so frustrating and it goes to show you that Buffalo is making mistakes every day.

 

[Pharoh]

I actually received my AI letter from Buffalo in October saying that my medicals had been received. When my husband's MP called Buffalo last week, Buffalo said they had not received my medical records at all. This is so frustrating and it goes to show you that Buffalo is making mistakes every day.

And that is EXACTLY why I pray for PPR each day.

I pray not for patience, but that I might be spared the tragedy of some mishap with my file, which seems to happen more often than not around here.

In other news, it looks like Buffalo took the day off today. The lack of PPR (considering how many we've had the last two Mondays) is disturbing.

Good luck this week, everyone.

 

[Rinnerz]

There's one more scenario: You never find out about your medicals (i.e. ecas is never updated with "medical results received" and no IA letter is received). This is what happened to us and at least a few others here.

Yep, this is our situation too.

 

[Ganapatiom]

Trying to stay calm about this whole process, but as others have stated, it is difficult.

My wife is a Canadian citizen who is sponsoring me so we can live together in Canada after her visa runs out here in the States.
We turned in all of our paperwork in late December and so far have received a letter on Jan. 28, stating our application was complete and was being sent onto Buffalo. When we log onto the CIC system it says our Sponsorship status is "Decision Made" but our Perm Res App Status is "Not Available." I'm starting to worry that it should say "In Progress" My wife's job ends here in May and we were hoping to move to Canada the first of June. Anyone think we'll make it? What should I be doing now?

Thank you for any advice.

 

[Pharoh]

Trying to stay calm about this whole process, but as others have stated, it is difficult.

My wife is a Canadian citizen who is sponsoring me so we can live together in Canada after her visa runs out here in the States.
We turned in all of our paperwork in late December and so far have received a letter on Jan. 28, stating our application was complete and was being sent onto Buffalo. When we log onto the CIC system it says our Sponsorship status is "Decision Made" but our Perm Res App Status is "Not Available." I'm starting to worry that it should say "In Progress" My wife's job ends here in May and we were hoping to move to Canada the first of June. Anyone think we'll make it? What should I be doing now?

Thank you for any advice.

Hi Ganapatiom,

Your permanent residence app status will say "Not Available" until such time as you receive an AOR (acknowledgment of receipt) letter from Buffalo, saying they've received your file, and assigned you an immigration file number. As you received sponsorship approval on January 28, your AOR should be arriving literally any day now in the mail. After that, you may or may not get an IA (initial assessment) letter, saying medicals were received, interview waived, etc. At this point, it's very likely the earliest you'd get PR is in May, but may be too close or well into June, even if everything goes smoothly. So I hate to say it, but it's cutting it really close.

 

[buffalo-toronto]

Hi Ganapatiom,

Your permanent residence app status will say "Not Available" until such time as you receive an AOR (acknowledgment of receipt) letter from Buffalo, saying they've received your file, and assigned you an immigration file number. As you received sponsorship approval on January 28, your AOR should be arriving literally any day now in the mail. After that, you may or may not get an IA (initial assessment) letter, saying medicals were received, interview waived, etc. At this point, it's very likely the earliest you'd get PR is in May, but may be too close or well into June, even if everything goes smoothly. So I hate to say it, but it's cutting it really close.

Actually I applied on Feb 3rd and got sponsorship approval on march 1 and I logged in to my sponsor's A/c and it says. Sponsorship Approval,: - Decision Made and Permanent Application Status : - Application received on March 10 so if your status under Permanent application still says Not Applicable, I would check into that if I were you as my status changed this morning to Application received from Not Applicable last week.

 

[Ganapatiom]

Actually I applied on Feb 3rd and got sponsorship approval on march 1 and I logged in to my sponsor's A/c and it says. Sponsorship Approval,: - Decision Made and Permanent Application Status : - Application received on March 10 so if your status under Permanent application still says Not Applicable, I would check into that if I were you as my status changed this morning to Application received from Not Applicable last week.

Who or where should I check with? And could I call or would it have to be my wife (as the sponsor)?

 

[buffalo-toronto]

When you or your wife is in Canada you can call the CIC call center, the number is on their website otherwise send Buffalo a case inquiry email asking about the status.

 

[quakingaspen]

I think they're doing something different starting with the February applicants. Several of them are showing "Application Received" on their eCAS. They have Not had a communication from Buffalo by e-mail or mail yet. My best guess is that they're doing something new now - opening the boxes and scanning in the applications as they come in.

For the December applicants, your experience is completely normal.

You're welcome to call, of course... but keep in mind that any time they spend answer calls/e-mails is time that they are not working on our applications.

 

[Pharoh]

I think they're doing something different starting with the February applicants. Several of them are showing "Application Received" on their eCAS. They have Not had a communication from Buffalo by e-mail or mail yet. My best guess is that they're doing something new now - opening the boxes and scanning in the applications as they come in.

For the December applicants, your experience is completely normal.

You're welcome to call, of course... but keep in mind that any time they spend answer calls/e-mails is time that they are not working on our applications.

...you probably won't get a useful answer anyways.

 

[Eddy070]

I think AOR is either sent to the sponsor or the applicant depending on
the mailling address provided in the PR application.

Note: But to be more cleared what do you call an update on your Ecas
that changes from not yet available to Application Recieved. With the
following statement from Buffalo as follows..........We received xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx application for permanent residence on March xx, 2011.

Someone please explain and what next follows.....or what to expect.

 

[rjessome]

I think they're doing something different starting with the February applicants. Several of them are showing "Application Received" on their eCAS. They have Not had a communication from Buffalo by e-mail or mail yet. My best guess is that they're doing something new now - opening the boxes and scanning in the applications as they come in.

For the December applicants, your experience is completely normal.

You're welcome to call, of course... but keep in mind that any time they spend answer calls/e-mails is time that they are not working on our applications.

They are changing their computer system to GCMS - Global Case Management System. Hopefully it will prove to be much more consistent than ECAS. While the switch over is going on, there will be several issues with ECAS having things "disappear" so don't panic.

 

[quakingaspen]

Thanks, rjessome. I wasn't aware that they were moving to a new system, but that's great news! From what I have seen in the December thread, Buffalo was the slowest Visa office at getting AOR's out, and this will be a great solution.

I bet they're just starting to institute that, and as they receive boxes of applications from Mississauga they're opening them and scanning them - and that is giving people up to date information that their applications have been received. Great news for February and March! But I think they will continue to work through December and January as they have been up to this point - which means news will be slower to come.

So, yes, February is already receiving their AOR's. But they should expect a (probable) two month wait for it to move to "In Process." Whereas December has had a two month wait to get their AOR's, and they are moving almost immediately to "In Process".

Hopefully the new system will be much more reliable in getting up to date information to people. It would make this process much less painful.

Oh, and I forgot to mention (but I'm going to so other people don't get confused or worried), my information hasn't disappeared. It has never been posted. The last update we've had on eCAS is that there's been a decision made on our sponsorship application. We received our AOR e-mail last week, and my eCAS (the applicants) still isn't accessible, and they haven't added information to the sponsors. So, if you're from December (and probably January) and haven't had an eCAS update yet, don't worry. It will come. We're just on the old system.

 

[Love_Young]

They are changing their computer system to GCMS - Global Case Management System. Hopefully it will prove to be much more consistent than ECAS. While the switch over is going on, there will be several issues with ECAS having things "disappear" so don't panic.

Hi, rjessome. I hope everyone here doesn't mind me asking a question.
I am just wondering since you say they are getting a new system, do you think that I will later be able to sign into ECAS? I haven't been able to for this whole process. (I know several other inlanders haven't either). Will they more consistent with updates and not just the standard up dates of received, started processing, etc? And when do you think this new computer system will be introduced and running?

 

[Baloo]

Hi, rjessome. I hope everyone here doesn't mind me asking a question.
I am just wondering since you say they are getting a new system, do you think that I will later be able to sign into ECAS? I haven't been able to for this whole process. (I know several other inlanders haven't either). Will they more consistent with updates and not just the standard up dates of received, started processing, etc? And when do you think this new computer system will be introduced and running?

The GCMS system is running, not all offices are using it at present, some are in transition.