Thread for Outland LONDON, UK Applications!

[EagleMan]

Awesome, updated.

If you guys want to be added to the spreadsheet, then please post back here with:
-Date application received in Mississauga
-Whether you applied as Married or Common-Law
-Date of sponsor approval
-Which office is processing Phase 2 of your application (will say on your sponsor approval letter/email)
-Date(s) of any other requests you've had
-Whether or not you are non-visa exempt
-Current location - closest major city is fine

If you post back with all that stuff then I (or one of the other editors) will add you to the spreadsheet.

As for it being months, yes, that is probably correct. Angel28, in your case, your application I think only got to London (or whatever office is processing you) in March - and the posted time of 11 months is from that date, not from the date you originally filed. So it's only been there 6 months, so could be quite a bit longer. In addition, if you are filing from Pakistan (I am guessing that this is the case based on your flag) then I'd expect your processing time to be well above the processing time of Brits. But that's just a guess.

In any case, let me know your dates - it will be interesting to see how processing times vary in London, and will help inform everyone who is applying via London.

-Date application received in Mississauga = 23rd June 2013
-Whether you applied as Married or Common-Law = Married
-Date of sponsor approval = 24th July 2013
-Which office is processing Phase 2 of your application (will say on your sponsor approval letter/email) = Islamabad but I inquired LVO about my file in March 2014 and they said its been transferred to london but i dont know the exact date of transfer to london
-Date(s) of any other requests you've had = nothing yet
-Whether or not you are non-visa exempt = not visa exepmpt
-Current location - closest major city is fine = Islamabad, Pakistan

 

[SchnookoLoly]

Updated, thanks!

 

[EagleMan]

Updated, thanks!

No Problem. But i think you should note my file transfer to london as around 20th feb 2014 as mass transfer of all the files took place at that time and 95 percent chances are that my file transferred to london on that date. this will give you are more clear picture of Pakistani cases transferred to london

 

[SchnookoLoly]

OK, added a note in the Notes column for you.

 

[kalexandra]

thankyou everyone!
I will take all your ideas on board

 

[saeedar]

Hi,
My application status changed to "In Process" exactly one month ago and recently I have found out that the background check is pending because of lacking one document. They have even not asked me yet to send them the required document (I found out via MP)

I have heard that applications with pending status will take more time! Is this correct? What action I can take?
I am afraid it will take more than standard processing time. So far it's been 10 month in LVO.

Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[SchnookoLoly]

Hi,
My application status changed to "In Process" exactly one month ago and recently I have found out that the background check is pending because of lacking one document. They have even not asked me yet to send them the required document (I found out via MP)

I have heard that applications with pending status will take more time! Is this correct? What action I can take?
I am afraid it will take more than standard processing time. So far it's been 10 month in LVO.

Thanks for your suggestions.

You can try sending LVO a case-specific email. Otherwise there's not much to do but wait.

The posted processing time for London is 11 months from the time London receives your application for 80% of decisions to be made. That means that 20% of applications will take longer than 11 months. Your application arrived in London in January of this year, so it's only been in London for 8.5 months. In addition, you are non-visa exempt, and non-visa exempt applications take longer than visa-exempt ones. If you look at the spreadsheet, TooCareless1's application took one year. Heppster's took 8. EagleMan's is still outstanding. Togethersoon's took 9. DesiVoodoo seems to be the exception, taking only 6.

Without knowing more details about your application it's impossible to know what's going on. But you technically are still within London's processing time, and will be for another 2.5 months. Once you pass 11 months in London you can start getting on their case more.

As for saying that 'pending' applications take longer, that's not true. Just look at the spreadsheet and compare dates for 'In Process' to 'Decision Made'. Some are only a few days, others are a few weeks, others are a few months. There's no real pattern.

Send a case-specific email, then wait.

 

[Green5]

Hi everyone,

I've only just discovered this page. We are in a similar situation with my request to be a sponsor accepted at the beginning of August and the immigration request from my common law partners having been received in London on June 13th. I am Canadian and our daughter is as well. He is English, with a clean record and medical exams and he also has an employment waiting for him in Canada so we are hoping that this will be processed quickly.
SchnookoLoly you mentioned a spreadsheet - where can I see this? Maybe I could add my details to it as well in order to feed into it.

My mother is quite ill, she has a cancer and it does not seem like she will get better. I am therefore quite eager to get to Canada in order to be able to visit her, for her to spend some time with her grand daughter, etc. I can imagine that many people have their own situation and emergencies - but I'd like at least to make sure that I can communicate my situation to someone in that office so that they can decide whether or not this is something they wish to factor in. Currently according to the online status update our file is 'received' but not 'being processed' so I guess this could take quite a lot longer right?

It's quite difficult to be honest...

 

[SchnookoLoly]

Hi everyone,

I've only just discovered this page. We are in a similar situation with my request to be a sponsor accepted at the beginning of August and the immigration request from my common law partners having been received in London on June 13th. I am Canadian and our daughter is as well. He is English, with a clean record and medical exams and he also has an employment waiting for him in Canada so we are hoping that this will be processed quickly.
SchnookoLoly you mentioned a spreadsheet - where can I see this? Maybe I could add my details to it as well in order to feed into it.

My mother is quite ill, she has a cancer and it does not seem like she will get better. I am therefore quite eager to get to Canada in order to be able to visit her, for her to spend some time with her grand daughter, etc. I can imagine that many people have their own situation and emergencies - but I'd like at least to make sure that I can communicate my situation to someone in that office so that they can decide whether or not this is something they wish to factor in. Currently according to the online status update our file is 'received' but not 'being processed' so I guess this could take quite a lot longer right?

It's quite difficult to be honest...

Sorry to hear about your mum, that's never easy.

The spreadsheet is linked in my signature, easiest place to find it!

Happy to add you, always useful to have more information! I need:
-Date application received in Mississauga
-Whether you applied as Married or Common-Law
-Date of sponsor approval
-Which office is processing Phase 2 of your application (will say on your sponsor approval letter/email)
-Date(s) of any other requests you've had
-Whether or not you are non-visa exempt
-Current location - closest major city is fine if you don't want to be too specific!

Edited to add: Meant to actually answer your question about going to visit. Because you have applied as common-law, it is best if you and your partner travel together. If you are able to go to Canada together for a visit and remain travelling together, then that would be the best option as you don't want to risk your application being rejected.

If you want to actually move now, that should be fine. You can book one-way flights for you and your daughter (assuming your daughter is Canadian). Your partner should book a return flight, but travel out the same day as you to Canada, and he can enter under what's called Dual Intent. Intention 1 is to stay as a visitor, abide by restrictions imposed on visitors, etc. Intention 2 is to stay permanently, but only once PR is granted. Bring evidence of your application being filed (copy of receipt of fees paid, copy of sponsor approval letter, screenshot of ECAS) and you shouldn't have any issues. Your partner can request up to 12 months as a visitor, he may or may not get it. If he just gets 6 months, he can apply for an extension online within 30 days of the first status expiring.

IT's tricky because you are common-law, so it's best for your application if you stay living/travelling together. Separation could cause you problems down the road. If moving together really isn't an option, or you want to spend more time in Canada with your mother than your partner can, then I would suggest getting married before you go so that you don't risk falling out of status.

Hope that helps, and sorry again to hear your news.

 

[Green5]

If you guys want to be added to the spreadsheet, then please post back here with:
-Date application received in Mississauga
-Whether you applied as Married or Common-Law
-Date of sponsor approval
-Which office is processing Phase 2 of your application (will say on your sponsor approval letter/email)
-Date(s) of any other requests you've had
-Whether or not you are non-visa exempt
-Current location - closest major city is fine

- Application received June 13th
- Applied as common law partner (we have one child also if relevant)
- Sponsor approval on 7th of August 2014
- The letter refers to 'a visa office abroad for further processing' and does not mention which one. I am given the contact details of the visa office in Ottawa in case I have further enquiries. It also says that the 'visa office was selected based on tour relative's home address and the requirements of the immigration and refugee protection act. We live in London/UK so I'd imagine it was sent to London?!
- No other requests have been received until now but our file is not marked as 'in process' yet.
- He is visa exempt I believe being English?
- London is our current location

Thanks a lot for what you are doing!

 

[SchnookoLoly]

- The letter refers to 'a visa office abroad for further processing' and does not mention which one. I am given the contact details of the visa office in Ottawa in case I have further enquiries. It also says that the 'visa office was selected based on tour relative's home address and the requirements of the immigration and refugee protection act. We live in London/UK so I'd imagine it was sent to London?!

You're being processed in Ottawa then. London is backlogged as they are picking up slack from Islamabad applications, so as a result a bunch of British applications that would normally go to London are being kept in Ottawa or Mississauga instead. So if you have to send a case-specific email or something you are sending it to Ottawa instead of London, even though you 'requested' London. We aren't sure how this affects processing times, though, hence we are tracking which office has the application to see if it changes between Mississauga, Ottawa, and London.

Cheers!

 

[Green5]

Sorry to hear about your mum, that's never easy.
[...]
Hope that helps, and sorry again to hear your news.

It helps a lot - and also thank you for your kind words.
I had not thought about this for even one second. I had no idea that me going without him for a period could mean that we could fall out of status - is that even the case when we have a daughter together? I guess they could consider us separated right? I honestly thought that common law (and with children) or married had the exact same 'status' but I am wrong.

We'll wait to know what the latest medical results of my mom say and decide what we do. My partner is quite eager to move to Canada really, but going there without being able to work for an unknown number of months (and by the look of things it could be quite long?!) is not financially sustainable for us. Thanks a lot for the inputs and ideas though it's really appreciated.

Also found the spreadsheet thanks!

 

[Green5]

We aren't sure how this affects processing times, though, hence we are tracking which office has the application to see if it changes between Mississauga, Ottawa, and London.

And all day I was trying to get in touch with London :'( I should have found you earlier! So we don't know how this affects processing time... but I guess if there is a backlog that can't be any good?
Requests also processed from Canada were considered to take MUCH MUCH longer - so whilst it's hard to tell for sure, it seems likely that this might quite negatively affect the overall processing times - would you not say so?

Thank really for all these insights.

 

[SchnookoLoly]

It helps a lot - and also thank you for your kind words.
I had not thought about this for even one second. I had no idea that me going without him for a period could mean that we could fall out of status - is that even the case when we have a daughter together? I guess they could consider us separated right? I honestly thought that common law (and with children) or married had the exact same 'status' but I am wrong.

We'll wait to know what the latest medical results of my mom say and decide what we do. My partner is quite eager to move to Canada really, but going there without being able to work for an unknown number of months (and by the look of things it could be quite long?!) is not financially sustainable for us. Thanks a lot for the inputs and ideas though it's really appreciated.

Also found the spreadsheet thanks!

CIC is really, really strict about common-law. There's a thread on the other board right now where the guy and girl lived together for 18 months solid, then she went back to Canada and now they are trying to work out what to do, and they can't apply as common-law because they no longer qualify, since they are living apart.

Canada is one of the few countries that recognizes just living together as common-law, but then as you know from your application, they are really strict about how much evidence they want to see to convince themselves that you are living as though you are a married couple. Of course having a child together helps, but tons of people who are separated/divorced/broken up also share children. They figure that if you aren't going to get married, you need to be fully living together and have evidence of that. Living apart, even in separate countries, calls the common-law 'marriage-like' status into account.

Not everyone is asked for additional rpoof of cohabitation with common-law applications, but if you look through the Notes column on the spreadsheet, you'll find a handful who have been asked for it, and they want to see that proof up until they day they request. So if you moved to CAnada now and then in two months are asked that, they'll see that you are no longer living together and that can render your application invalid. Which you really don't want to do.

So if it's not feasible for your partner to move to Canada with you now, then I suggest getting married. There's nothing wrong with going down to your council office with two witnesses and just getting the paperwork - it doesn't need to be a big affair, but it might cause you fewer headaches legally.

Average processing time right now is looking to be around 7 months, but things are slowing down so more like 9ish might be more realistic. You filed your application in June... so go forward 9 months, I'd say probably late next winter or otherwise Spring, maybe March-ish. Could be earlier, could be later, we'll get a better idea when more approvals come through, there have hardly been any in the past month!

Feel free to post back with more questions.

And just to add on for your second post, you aren't being processed as an inland application, so it's hard to say whether the applications staying in Mississauga/London are going to take notably longer. I suspect they will not - they encourage people to apply outland for this reason. Evelyned applied at the end of March; their application went to Ottawa and was approved last week. Theirs is the first and only one that's not London that we have any data on, so it's hard to say what the effect will be, so keep an eye on the spreadsheet... we're all just guessing right now!

 

[Graihn]

CIC is really, really strict about common-law. There's a thread on the other board right now where the guy and girl lived together for 18 months solid, then she went back to Canada and now they are trying to work out what to do, and they can't apply as common-law because they no longer qualify, since they are living apart.

Canada is one of the few countries that recognizes just living together as common-law, but then as you know from your application, they are really strict about how much evidence they want to see to convince themselves that you are living as though you are a married couple. Of course having a child together helps, but tons of people who are separated/divorced/broken up also share children. They figure that if you aren't going to get married, you need to be fully living together and have evidence of that. Living apart, even in separate countries, calls the common-law 'marriage-like' status into account.

Not everyone is asked for additional rpoof of cohabitation with common-law applications, but if you look through the Notes column on the spreadsheet, you'll find a handful who have been asked for it, and they want to see that proof up until they day they request. So if you moved to CAnada now and then in two months are asked that, they'll see that you are no longer living together and that can render your application invalid. Which you really don't want to do.

So if it's not feasible for your partner to move to Canada with you now, then I suggest getting married. There's nothing wrong with going down to your council office with two witnesses and just getting the paperwork - it doesn't need to be a big affair, but it might cause you fewer headaches legally.

Average processing time right now is looking to be around 7 months, but things are slowing down so more like 9ish might be more realistic. You filed your application in June... so go forward 9 months, I'd say probably late next winter or otherwise Spring, maybe March-ish. Could be earlier, could be later, we'll get a better idea when more approvals come through, there have hardly been any in the past month!

Feel free to post back with more questions.

And just to add on for your second post, you aren't being processed as an inland application, so it's hard to say whether the applications staying in Mississauga/London are going to take notably longer. I suspect they will not - they encourage people to apply outland for this reason. Evelyned applied at the end of March; their application went to Ottawa and was approved last week. Theirs is the first and only one that's not London that we have any data on, so it's hard to say what the effect will be, so keep an eye on the spreadsheet... we're all just guessing right now!

You need to have lived together for 12 consecutive months when you apply, what you do afterwards doesn't matter. I don't know where you got your information from.