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mcmasters said:
francohoosier: I also have Progressive and (had) BlueCross BlueShield until yesterday, when my company changed over to Catholic Health (which is still somehow related to BcBs. ?). Do you pay the full premium yourself or do you still get a discount through work?

>.> Wasn't me! I never said who my insurance was, just that they didn't give the best customer service :P I have Westfield though, through my parents actually - I work for a tiny non-profit, so I don't have any benefits like that (though believe me, that's gonna be the first thing to change once I land! lol). I actually don't have any health insurance at the moment. I had traveller's insurance but it expired.
 
Hey everybody I haven't been on in a while, but I just wanted to say: Good luck to you all, and I hope that things are getting better with CIC.

I received my carecard a couple of weeks ago, and have found a good job. I start school in January...I never thought I would be able to say all this when I started the horrificly long process and being 7-8 months into the PR timeline with a letter stating that I could be denied because I didn't have enough proof that my sponsor was legit....but I can now say it, and am happy.

Regardless, everything happens for a reason, and although you may feel like poking your eyes out and cursing CIC, your time will come and things will slowly, but SURELY come into place.

You're in my prayers!
cheers!
keri anne.

PS a funny story, I used to get so much grief coming into Canada...now that I have my PR card, I get grief when I enter the states!! and fly by customs when I enter Canada now.
 
I have some landing/exporting car questions...if anyone can help me with these? :)

I contacted Toyota about obtaining a recall letter. They said to go to a nearby dealership, which wound up giving me a print out showing my vin # and vehicle service history. The word 'recall' is not mentioned at all in the print out. I was told by the dealership if there were any recalls on my car it would have been reflected on the print out.
Anyone get a similar print out from their dealership? And was it acceptable?

Driving abstract - I noted the 'drivetest.ca' website mentions driving abstract must indicate the date the licence was first issued. My abstract doesn't reflect this (will this be ok?) and it's only for a 5 yr history. Can I provide the 5 yr history? Or does it have to be 10 yrs like I read somewhere on this thread?

Has anyone brought their furniture into Canada after landing? I'm planning on stuffing my car with small stuff and leaving big items for a later date. Is this acceptable?

What is this AC fee for vehicles? It was mentioned somewhere on this thread.

Thanks in advance if u can help! ;D
 
Thank you so much for the encouragement, kerianne. :)

I'm not 100% sure what you mean when you say you didn't have enough proof your "sponsor was legit"....I'm assuming this means evidence of a genuine relationship with your sponsor. May I ask on what basis CIC doubted the genuineness of your relationship? Did they ask for an interview or did they just send you this letter saying you could be denied while waiving an interview? ???

kerianne said:
Hey everybody I haven't been on in a while, but I just wanted to say: Good luck to you all, and I hope that things are getting better with CIC.

I received my carecard a couple of weeks ago, and have found a good job. I start school in January...I never thought I would be able to say all this when I started the horrificly long process and being 7-8 months into the PR timeline with a letter stating that I could be denied because I didn't have enough proof that my sponsor was legit....but I can now say it, and am happy.

Regardless, everything happens for a reason, and although you may feel like poking your eyes out and cursing CIC, your time will come and things will slowly, but SURELY come into place.

You're in my prayers!
cheers!
keri anne.

PS a funny story, I used to get so much grief coming into Canada...now that I have my PR card, I get grief when I enter the states!! and fly by customs when I enter Canada now.
 
Still with no news yet...Hoping for the best for everyone waiting!! Not sure what has slow down Buffalo

Just a question and will be happy to get a positive answer...lol
Question: What is the probability of an application been refuse after Interview is waived and Medical has been received?
 
Thanks for sharing. Looks like most of the stats came from this table: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/data-release/2011-Q2/index.asp. It's a pretty good reminder of how we as Family Class applicants don't even represent a quarter of all the PR applications that go through the system.....and not all Family Class applicants are spousal ones, either.

Notice how for every quarter in 2011, the corresponding quarter in 2010 had more applications, for all PR streams across the board. Yeah, some progress, Canada.

Very interesting the bit about asylum claimants decreasing due to the introduction of temporary resident visa requirements for people from the Czech Republic and Mexico.

And also about approximately a quarter (just over) of new immigrants not knowing either language :o ......hmn, thoughts anyone?

AmericaninQuebec said:
Just spotted this article on the Montreal Gazette website: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Canadian+immigration+numbers/5647556/story.html

It's a quick write up of Immigration to Canada this year by the numbers. My favorite part is at the end,

"Authorities fell shy of processing time targets for family class applicants. Officials expect to meet the 12-month target by March."

::)
 
AmericaninQuebec said:
Just spotted this article on the Montreal Gazette website: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Canadian+immigration+numbers/5647556/story.html

It's a quick write up of Immigration to Canada this year by the numbers. My favorite part is at the end,

"Authorities fell shy of processing time targets for family class applicants. Officials expect to meet the 12-month target by March."

::)
Interesting Article but the ending was hilarious. If only it will help to decrease the processing time for Family Class.
 
Hoping they are hunkering down for a big balloon PPR sweep before Remeberance Day!
 
I checked the October 27th updated PR portion processing times and it's still at 11 months for Buffalo. Rabat, Morocco, for instance, has decreased from 9 to 8 months.

Eddy070 said:
Still with no news yet...Hoping for the best for everyone waiting!! Not sure what has slow down Buffalo

I don't know the answer to this probability question, but I would say, low. There are many reasons why an application could be refused. The major one is the MOC issue.....that the relationship between sponsor and PR applicant is not genuine and thus the applicant is found not to be a member of the family class. The PR can also be found inadmissable on health grounds and for criminality. S/he can also be inadmissable on the grounds of security, violating human or international rights; serious criminality with respect to a crime that was punished in Canada by a term of imprisonment of at least two years; organized crime; or misrepresentation. The last four categories are actually not appealable and I'm sure, very rare. If the interview was waived, I'm sure we can correctly conclude that the IO did not find sufficient doubt about the genuineness of the relationship given the evidence presented. So, if an application were to be denied, it would have to be for some other reason, which the IO is obligated to stipulate in the refusal letter.

Eddy070 said:
Just a question and will be happy to get a positive answer...lol
Question: What is the probability of an application been refuse after Interview is waived and Medical has been received?
 
LV said:
I have some landing/exporting car questions...if anyone can help me with these? :)

I contacted Toyota about obtaining a recall letter. They said to go to a nearby dealership, which wound up giving me a print out showing my vin # and vehicle service history. The word 'recall' is not mentioned at all in the print out. I was told by the dealership if there were any recalls on my car it would have been reflected on the print out.
Anyone get a similar print out from their dealership? And was it acceptable?

Driving abstract - I noted the 'drivetest.ca' website mentions driving abstract must indicate the date the licence was first issued. My abstract doesn't reflect this (will this be ok?) and it's only for a 5 yr history. Can I provide the 5 yr history? Or does it have to be 10 yrs like I read somewhere on this thread?

Has anyone brought their furniture into Canada after landing? I'm planning on stuffing my car with small stuff and leaving big items for a later date. Is this acceptable?

What is this AC fee for vehicles? It was mentioned somewhere on this thread.

Thanks in advance if u can help! ;D

Make sure that the drivers abstract from the DMV in your area is notarized...that's the ONLY way they will accept it. We have never been asked for the recall clearance letter that we got. If you go to the dealership and explain what it is, and if they print out a sheet with you vin and info on it, and there is nothing else, you are good.

The AC charge was mentioned by me...we got charged $100 bucks or something like that to import the vehicle at the border because it had AC on it...Just remember when you are planning on money, if you are coming to Ontario, you need a safety and e-test as well before you can register the vehicle, and you need an ontario license to register the vehicle because you can not get insurance without the ontario license....hope that helps!!!
 
Good news, y'all! My application hasn't been cancelled - phew!

We heard back from the MP's office yesterday and this is what she said:

***

I've just received a response from CIC regarding your wife's application.

They are currently pending for background verifications, unfortunately we could
not obtain a time frame for your file specifically. However, the general
processing time is 4 months. Other than the above mentioned activity, everything
on file looks good.

***

Does anyone know anything about these "background verifications?" Is that what someone was talking about last week with the RCMP? I've never lived in Canada, so I'm not really sure what this means for me. We ordered or GCMS notes, so hopefully that will be better explained in the notes, and if there's anything we can do to facilitate the process, we'll find out then.

Three weeks until we hit 30 days since our RPRF receipt was received. About 30 days from now until we can expect to get our GCMS notes. Looks like we can't really expect anything to happen until end of November/early December at the earliest. Blugh.

Does the Buffalo CIC office work on American Thanksgiving? Hmm probably not. ::)
 
Got another reliable e-cas update this morning saying decision made. ::) Preparing for the long drive back to the states tomorrow to inventory and clean out everything I left at my parents' house!
 
francohoosier said:
Got another reliable e-cas update this morning saying decision made. ::) Preparing for the long drive back to the states tomorrow to inventory and clean out everything I left at my parents' house!

Weeeee! So you're going to post a play-by-play of your landing procedure afterward, right? ;) 10 days to go, very exciting stuff!
 
mcmasters said:
Weeeee! So you're going to post a play-by-play of your landing procedure afterward, right? ;) 10 days to go, very exciting stuff!

Lol! And in that 10 days my best friend is also getting married. SOO busy but in a good way! I'll write a small novel about it, rest assured. Once I'm done I'll post my entire timeline too, just for kicks! ;D