Thread for Outland LONDON, UK Applications!

[Becki567]

Heyhey

My husband (British national) and I (Canadian national) applied for him to be sponsored by me November 25, 2013 (date the Mississauga office got it), we got my approval to act as sponsor via email to our lawyers January 27th though decision made on that was a month earlier (email took its time, evidently). They received the medicals back in November as well, same date as the date of application. Since then we've been sitting on our butts awaiting more info from the London office. During that time the average wait has jumped from 9 months to 11 and not a single note has been made on the file so far. However I am assuming the London office was given the file containing our application by now. We prepaid the fee, submitted the criminal checks and medicals back when we first applied so there hasn't been much need for communication. Plus since we're using lawyers, the communication is through them to the office. Only update we've given to them since we applied is that recently my husband has renewed his passport. Is this utter lack of info from them to be expected?

I had a quick look at the spreadsheet posted earlier and if those who applied in August of last year are getting their approvals roughly during this next month of June. Now if I were to use that as a loose base for estimating our own process (which is a guess at best, nothing is even remotely in stone) then would it be safe to say we could expect the A-Okay by November? With the possibility of it being in December.

The reason for asking is that we currently reside in Cyprus and I have a visa in order to do so and since my passport is nearing it's 6 months to expiry in December I need to go back to Canada. The problem comes with informing the Cypriot government who is very well known in the immigrant community of making issues with updating their files. Some times making so much of a hassle the person attempting to be dutiful... ends up being arrested on some trumped up charge, usually under the assumption of it being a marriage of convenience despite in some cases there being legitimate biological children involved. Changing my passport requires me to update that file with them and we're thinking it might be easier just to ship me off to Canada for good before Christmas time than it would be updating them only to leave weeks later. Just in case they try to have another go being difficult. So our current plan is to update my passport but do not return to Cyprus and then my husband can fly in when he gets the A-Okay.

I might be missing something here but... what spreadsheet are you looking at? If you are looking at the London Visa Office that is linked in my signature then all except for 1 person from August has had a decision made. And most decisions were received by March. I am confused when you say this - "those who applied in August of last year are getting their approvals roughly during this next month of June."

They seem to be working on November applicants now, so if I am not misunderstanding something I think your decision would be coming significantly sooner than this November or December.

Did you apply outland to London Visa Office? If so, do you want to be added to the spreadsheet? Its always nice to have more data. Please confirm the following if you want to be added:
Data application was received by Mississauga
Date of sponsor approval
Married or common law?

 

[GWN86]

I think I was possibly linked to it in a comment, I may have horribly misread it though.

We went through a lawyer who handled the paperwork, however I assume it was outland (via the London branch) as we live abroad with plans to move to Canada. My husband hasn't lived in the UK properly for some years. You can add us to the sheet if you want

Data application received by Mississauga: November 25, 2013
Date of Sponsor approval: Janurary 27th, 2014.
Married/CL: Married.

I gather that I can loosely estimate my husband's visa acceptance/denial from the date of sponsorship approval (since it's then sent to London for further processing) correct? What, if you could,is your best guess at possibly a likely range of months it miiight happen? I've read so much info on the timeline that I can't form one decent guess in my own brain any more. Sorry about the billion questions. We're looking at a possible time line to get things in order/saved since we're shipping our apartment's contents back to Canada the moment we get the visa issued. $5k cost there in addition to the $2k flight homeward from here so having to plan without the faintest idea of a time line is a complete pain in the backside.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

so from your experiences is it worth it to switch the PR application to another embassy? especially that I can travel to the UK for any interview or further required steps if requested by the embassy within my UK residency validity period. Are there any legal restrictions from the embassy against leaving my PR within the London office?

CIC doesn't generally change visa offices for an application. There are no legal restrictions with leaving the app to be processed in the UK.

I think I was possibly linked to it in a comment, I may have horribly misread it though.

Data application received by Mississauga: November 25, 2013
Date of Sponsor approval: Janurary 27th, 2014.
Married/CL: Married.

I gather that I can loosely estimate my husband's visa acceptance/denial from the date of sponsorship approval (since it's then sent to London for further processing) correct? What, if you could,is your best guess at possibly a likely range of months it miiight happen? I've read so much info on the timeline that I can't form one decent guess in my own brain any more. Sorry about the billion questions. We're looking at a possible time line to get things in order/saved since we're shipping our apartment's contents back to Canada the moment we get the visa issued. $5k cost there in addition to the $2k flight homeward from here so having to plan without the faintest idea of a time line is a complete pain in the backside.

Spreadsheet link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvI5l_hMO7UKdHc2LUJuZ2Itcld2Vk1WR25GeVZxYVE#gid=19

You'll see that about half of November 2013 applicants have already been approved.

From your previous post, your sponsor approval date was actually around end of December. It isn't the date that you heard about it at the end of January.

CIC's posted processing times aren't averages. They are the times it took to process 80% of apps, which means that 79% were processed faster than that. London averages around 8 month for a straightforward app, so you should get approval quite soon.

 

[GWN86]

Bingo, cheers.

Months of waiting, not hearing much and reading probably to much has muddled my brain on this. Now as for Sponsorship, I looked back at my calender for the start of the year and we had 'Decision Made' on that within a week of Newyears either side of it. So you're more than likely right about that. Cheers.

It's nice having someone who can see the facts through the mess that is immigration!

 

[Becki567]

Bingo, cheers.

Months of waiting, not hearing much and reading probably to much has muddled my brain on this. Now as for Sponsorship, I looked back at my calender for the start of the year and we had 'Decision Made' on that within a week of Newyears either side of it. So you're more than likely right about that. Cheers.

It's nice having someone who can see the facts through the mess that is immigration!

So I will put December 27 as your Sponsorship approval date then?

 

[Becki567]

GWN86 - I have added you to the spreadsheet. Have a look to make sure it is all correct.

Please keep us updated on your progress so we can add your decision made when you receive it.

 

[haf07]

CIC doesn't generally change visa offices for an application. There are no legal restrictions with leaving the app to be processed in the UK.

Okay thank you for that, by the way in case you are keeping track of the applicants for the spreadsheet, my data is as follows:

Data application received by Mississauga: January 18, 2014
Date of Sponsor approval: January 28th, 2014.
Married/CL: Married.

Since the sponsorship approval from my wife's side, I was not requested to provide any further documents, we had a pretty fast sponsorship approval (I guess), so hoping for the PR decision within the summer hopefully...

 

[ghunter]

Okay thank you for that, by the way in case you are keeping track of the applicants for the spreadsheet, my data is as follows:

Data application received by Mississauga: January 18, 2014
Date of Sponsor approval: January 28th, 2014.
Married/CL: Married.

Since the sponsorship approval from my wife's side, I was not requested to provide any further documents, we had a pretty fast sponsorship approval (I guess), so hoping for the PR decision within the summer hopefully...

Added you to the spreadsheet. It's always nice to have more data!

 

[GWN86]

So I will put December 27 as your Sponsorship approval date then?

That seems good enough for me

 

[EricandLinda]

An update to the spreadsheet please:

We received AOR on June 5th.

We still haven't received SA and are getting worried :/

 

[canuck_in_uk]

An update to the spreadsheet please:

We received AOR on June 5th.

We still haven't received SA and are getting worried :/

Have you been able to log in to ECAS since you received AOR?

 

[Becki567]

An update to the spreadsheet please:

We received AOR on June 5th.

We still haven't received SA and are getting worried :/

I would contact them. The website says as of June 11 they were working on applications received April 16.

Normally, I would not worry much with SA as long as the sponsor hasn't been on welfare or had any criminal charges that would disqualify them (ex. domestic battery). But you are before the date they are currently working on, so I would contact them.

 

[EricandLinda]

Have you been able to log in to ECAS since you received AOR?

Yes, I have been able to check the status of the app... all it says is app received for both sponsorship and PR application.

 

[Christopholus]

The spreadsheet is an awesome resource- I was planning to make an inland application as it would allow me to maintain a work permit, but looking at the results from 2013 it looks like I could potentially become a resident through an outland application to London before I would even have obtained a work permit taking the inland route.

I am just wondering though, are applications generally taking longer this year, or has the spreadsheet simply not been updated recently?

 

[james_baxter]

Decision made !