Thread for outland Buffalo applicants!

[pinay_juliet]

I am nervous! Lol... Hubby is in Buffalo right now to submit passport. Hoping everything is alright! Just checked Ecas, still "in process" Good Morning you all!

Hoping for a greet vibe to fellow Buffalo's!

 

[pinay_juliet]

DECISION MADE!!!!!

eCas Tracker emailed me at 4:45AM CST... still waiting on physical letter or PPR email.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Congratulations!!!!!!! Your PPR will come any day now. Wow! CIC is really inconsistent! I received PPR via email, but until now I am still in process... this is the reason why I am nervous. Lol

Yeeee!! Happy for you Pharoh!

 

[Nemeria]

I have never posted on these boards before, but I have been reading them for a while now. I am an American. I married a Canadian gentleman in September of 2010. My husband and I have been along the same timetable as Pharoh. We submitted a few days after him, but after that most of our news was coming at the same pace. We are also going through Buffalo. Firstly, I would like to say congratulations. Secondly, I would like to tell you that after I read this morning where your ecas has changed to read "decision made" I checked ours. We too have decision made and no email yet.

I can't tell you how excited I was to see that! It's been a bit of a crazy ride (even though we didn't have any additional documentation requests or an interview) and now we wait for it to conclude. I wanted to thank all the people who are sharing or have shared their information and experiences with the people who visit these forums. Though you may never hear from people like me, your stories and experiences serve to help us understand the process and give insights into what we might face. You have my heartfelt appreciation.

 

[sparkle]

Congrats Pharoh and Nemeria for the progress !!

I have a quick question for everyone...would really appreciate if someone could help with it!
I travel across the border to US every weekend to see him (we aren't too far). My passport is expiring on May 22 this year and already they've started bugging me a bit at the border every time I try to cross. I was going to wait until we get the PPR before I send my passport for renewal as I was planning on changing my name at the same time (taking my husband's last name)
Now if I renew the passport right now and change the name, I will have to change it on every official document and I guess send all that Buffalo maybe as the information they would have for me, the sponsor won't be exactly correct. I just hope all that won't delay our file. Or should I just wait until May end, and hope to get the PPR until then, and then renew the passport !
Please help !!

 

[adetia9]

my passport arrived in fort erie this morning, so, hoping to see the return mailer's tracking activate in a day or two... fingers crossed.

Also -- sparkle -- I am facing the same issues of changing my name etc... I decided to leave that mess until I get my visa and have landed, then figure out everything I have to do to change my name... in both countries. At this point, I just didn't want to take any chances with slowing down anything or having trouble crossing down the border...

 

[dhd]

Sponsoring my wife, application sent end of January... Hope everything goes as quickly as it seems to for some people in this thread!

 

[linalizzie]

DECISION MADE!!!!!

eCas Tracker emailed me at 4:45AM CST... still waiting on physical letter or PPR email.

Wow!! Such GREAT news!!! Congrats!!! ;D ;D

 

[sparkle]

my passport arrived in fort erie this morning, so, hoping to see the return mailer's tracking activate in a day or two... fingers crossed.

Also -- sparkle -- I am facing the same issues of changing my name etc... I decided to leave that mess until I get my visa and have landed, then figure out everything I have to do to change my name... in both countries. At this point, I just didn't want to take any chances with slowing down anything or having trouble crossing down the border...

Good luck with your PPR ! I ma sure it will all go smoothly..

Hmm...I guess that makes sense...but then my husband's PPR should arrive by May end, otherwise I will have an expired passport in my hand. I just wanted to avoid all that questioning they do at the border.....So either I take it easy on crossing the border every weekend ....I just don't want them to deny me entry at a point stating that my passport is expiring soon...!

 

[dominico]

my passport arrived in fort erie this morning, so, hoping to see the return mailer's tracking activate in a day or two... fingers crossed.

Also -- sparkle -- I am facing the same issues of changing my name etc... I decided to leave that mess until I get my visa and have landed, then figure out everything I have to do to change my name... in both countries. At this point, I just didn't want to take any chances with slowing down anything or having trouble crossing down the border...

congrats! just wondering looking at your timeline, i see that you started your app early in 2010? any reasons why it took over a year, when others in this thread are getting it done in around 5 months?
just curious, as my app was sent in feb of this year.

 

[Cindy1]

So happy for you Pharoh!!!!


Question. My husband is "visiting" me in Canada, he gets a 6 months visitor stamp in his passport.
Assuming next month he gets a request to send his passport, does it matter that he's sending it from Canada, and not being mailed from the US where he resides?

The next step after the Passport being sent to Buffalo, seems to be a week/two later you go to the office to land...right? If he is in Canada, sends his passport, will he be able to cross the boarder into the US to land?

Any insight will be most helpful.

 

[Rinnerz]

Yay Pharoh!
I'm going to mail my passport, I can't justify the $300 airfare to Buffalo. Going to make my last day of work April 10th.
I did not sleep last night!

Wow. I -wish- it was just $300 to Buffalo from where we are. Both of us really badly want to be able to go there ourselves when/if I get PPR, but flying even just me there would be $1000+, not counting the hotel stay for 1 night in Buffalo or food or transport. Over 2700 km road trip one-way. Yeah... no.

And I just checked my eCAS. Still "In Process".

So happy for you Pharoh!!!!


Question. My husband is "visiting" me in Canada, he gets a 6 months visitor stamp in his passport.
Assuming next month he gets a request to send his passport, does it matter that he's sending it from Canada, and not being mailed from the US where he resides?

The next step after the Passport being sent to Buffalo, seems to be a week/two later you go to the office to land...right? If he is in Canada, sends his passport, will he be able to cross the boarder into the US to land?

Any insight will be most helpful.

1) Assuming you did get PPR that soon, no it doesn't matter where he's sending it from. People "visiting" in Canada send it from there all the time. Buffalo has specific mailing instructions for people mailing it from Canada who want it returned to them in Canada when it's ready; these instructions will be included in his passport request letter.

2) It usually takes about 2-3 weeks to receive the passport back in the mail from Buffalo. Once he has it, he can either drive to the nearest border and flagpole to land, or schedule a landing interview with his local CIC office if he still has valid temporary status at the time. Local offices tend to be booked up though and, depending on where he is, he might have to wait a few weeks or so for the landing interview.

 

[TreeLover]

Congrats Pharoh! I know you were anxiously awaiting this! Hope you get the email or letter very soon. Well, I also got a notification from e-cas tracker that something changed and when I logged in, it still says "in process" and there was nothing changed or added. :'( So I'm not sure why it emailed me in the first place, I logged in with all my different receipt numbers, client ID and file ID and it still just says in process since January 28, 2011.

But I know that some people's e-cas doesn't change until quite a bit AFTER PPR, so I guess I shouldn't be worried about it then. I just got excited as I saw that I had an update and then I logged on here and saw that Pharoh got decision made (and we have been on the same timeline) and then I logged into e-cas and was so disappointed that it still said the same ol' thing.

 

[Cindy1]

1) Assuming you did get PPR that soon, no it doesn't matter where he's sending it from. People "visiting" in Canada send it from there all the time. Buffalo has specific mailing instructions for people mailing it from Canada who want it returned to them in Canada when it's ready; these instructions will be included in his passport request letter.

2) It usually takes about 2-3 weeks to receive the passport back in the mail from Buffalo. Once he has it, he can either drive to the nearest border and flagpole to land, or schedule a landing interview with his local CIC office if he still has valid temporary status at the time. Local offices tend to be booked up though and, depending on where he is, he might have to wait a few weeks or so for the landing interview.

Thank you Rinnerz.

Just a couple follow-up questions.

I was under the impression if we mailed it into Buffalo, we could pick-it up? But your response leads me to believe, if we mail it in then it's mailed back.

So when we get the request for passport, could we drop it off to Buffalo and get it back at the same time? We are only about an hour drive from Buffalo. If we drop off the passport to Buffalo, do we need to make an appointment, or just show-up?

Also, my husband is currently a permanent resident of the US/greencard. When he lands, does he have to turn in his permanent residence/greencard status?

Again, many many thanks to you.

 

[Iamrobot85]

My status changed last night to "Decision Made" as well. People seem pretty excited about this when it happens to them, so this is a good thing, right? I am surprised because I never received an AOR or an initial assessment saying my interview was waived. But my feeling after reading these posts is that it's extremely rare that they would reject you without giving you an interview first, no?

Also, how long, usually, does it take to receive PPR after your status changes to Decision Made?

Thanks

 

[jckovacs]

Congrats to anyone who is approved. When Buffalo is done with my stuff, and if I get approved. I need to go pick something up from them. Can I go alone, or does my partner need to also attend?