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ariesking said:
Hi Guys,

Just received an email from London that they requested new Schedule A form, and asked me to sent it in 60 days and then they require 4 months to review it, does this mean that they are going to take another six months to request for passport?

My ECAS went into In Process on August 15th.

I don't see you on the spreadsheet. Would you like to be added? We appreciate having as much data as possible.
 
Caroline T. said:
Hey guys! to everyone who's application went to Ottawa, KarlR and I recieved an email today saying this:

"Effective May 1, 2014, processing of certain family class permanent residence (PR) applications for a spouse (FC1) or common-law partner (FCC) residing overseas will be centralized in Canada. The Case Processing Centre in Mississauga (CPC-M) will triage FC1 and FCC applications based on defined criteria for in-Canada processing. All other applications will continue to be processed at the appropriate visa office.

Therefore, it is not an error – your application will be processed here in Ottawa unless the Visa Officer refers it to the Visa Office overseas.

Kind regards,"

So, it doesn't really say the exact reason why they sent it to Ottawa or whether it's for workflow reasons, just certain applications residing overseas. But at least it's not a mistake! good luck to everyone else! Oh if anyone else is wondering too, it took them a week the email us back.

There are still some 2013 applicants waiting for a decision made and some of those applications have received this in August. The slow down could be due to summer vacations and other visas requiring more urgent review such as student visas.

We have decided for the time being to keep the London applicants that are being processed in Ottawa on the spreadsheet. Because this is new we do not know how it will effect application times, and would be helpful to others down the line. If you are not still on the spreadsheet, do you mind if we add you back? And please keep us updated on your applications progress.
 
GWN86 said:
There were a lot of DM during the July 15th acceptance batch, I haven't seen that many go through since the start of our own application. So many at once made me think they were doing a batch update to try and clear some of the backlog. I did notice that a bunch of us went into processing at the same time this month though.

For us, until it went into processing almost two weeks ago we hadn't had a single update on our file aside from the 'application is received, medicals are received' and I was approved as sponsor since we first applied (Nov last year). Depends on your case but if all things are as they should be, you may not hear from them until they either need something from you or they've moved your file into processing.

Note: I'm going through an immigration lawyer for my husband's visa and we have had one communication via them from the High Commission for an additional police check. We had to write a letter about getting it waved for various reasons and they haven't officially told us if it was or was not waived. They never updated our file to reflect this, at least not on ECAS.

So you basically waited 8 months before hearing anything about your application being In Process? Okay, obviously I was hoping for a miracle 6-month turnaround but given that fact I'll just continue waiting. I'm still honestly unsure whether there's any type of order to which files they look at -- which is unfortunate but not surprising.

Also, in regards to your note about the Criminal Record waiver, could you explain your situation further if possible? My wife had lived in Dubai for more then 6 months and as such we were required to obtain a Criminal Record Check from there ... The Criminal Record Check was only valid for 3 months (which I find total bullshit) and unfortunately we were unable to send the application form in time prior to the expiry date of the Criminal Record Check. This delay was caused in large part because my wife was living in Cairo during the Revolution that took place and made it very difficult to obtain Criminal Record Checks from the Egyptian government. I wrote a long letter explaining our situation and the reason the Dubai Criminal Record Check was expired ... I really hope they accept it as it is extremely difficult and costly to obtain another one, especially when you are not residing in the UAE and need to have one sent to you.

Also, if certain applications are being routed to Ottawa instead of being sent to the London Visa Office ... will those applications be processed faster? If so, that seems quite unfair to all those who have been patiently waiting to hear any updates (not that being "fair" matters) ...

Appreciate your reply and look forward to hearing from you.

Shayreef
 
Caroline T. said:
Hey guys! to everyone who's application went to Ottawa, KarlR and I recieved an email today saying this:

"Effective May 1, 2014, processing of certain family class permanent residence (PR) applications for a spouse (FC1) or common-law partner (FCC) residing overseas will be centralized in Canada. The Case Processing Centre in Mississauga (CPC-M) will triage FC1 and FCC applications based on defined criteria for in-Canada processing. All other applications will continue to be processed at the appropriate visa office.

Therefore, it is not an error – your application will be processed here in Ottawa unless the Visa Officer refers it to the Visa Office overseas.

Kind regards,"

So, it doesn't really say the exact reason why they sent it to Ottawa or whether it's for workflow reasons, just certain applications residing overseas. But at least it's not a mistake! good luck to everyone else! Oh if anyone else is wondering too, it took them a week the email us back.

I wonder whether applications being sent to Ottawa are ones CIC consider more straightforward and lack any red flags that could potentially slow the process down. Pure speculation on my part but they are obviously filtering them out using some form of criteria. I suppose only time will tell if they are processed any faster.
 
brucem said:
I wonder whether applications being sent to Ottawa are ones CIC consider more straightforward and lack any red flags that could potentially slow the process down. Pure speculation on my part but they are obviously filtering them out using some form of criteria. I suppose only time will tell if they are processed any faster.

Interesting, I wonder what the criteria is??

It would be nice if CIC could announce these changes!!

There dosent seem to be any pattern to this so far eg married or common law or with kids, countries lived in etc

I remember KarlR saying he lives in Australia right now and I think I read somewhere that Brucem had a Canadian daughter

Anyway good luck to you all, hopefully you are right Brucem on your theory... I wonder where an interview would be held if needed?!
 
Chevy23 said:
Interesting, I wonder what the criteria is??

It would be nice if CIC could announce these changes!!

There dosent seem to be any pattern to this so far eg married or common law or with kids, countries lived in etc

I remember KarlR saying he lives in Australia right now and I think I read somewhere that Brucem had a Canadian daughter

Anyway good luck to you all, hopefully you are right Brucem on your theory... I wonder where an interview would be held if needed?!
My partner and I were just discussing the interview issue, I can't see them expecting us to go there if they require it. But maybe the already decided an interview would not be required, or they would have to have it in London. I wish we could figure out how they decided who's application goes to Ottawa.
 
crdadams said:
My partner and I were just discussing the interview issue, I can't see them expecting us to go there if they require it. But maybe the already decided an interview would not be required, or they would have to have it in London. I wish we could figure out how they decided who's application goes to Ottawa.

I agree, London has a very low percentage of interviews requested anyway

Make sure all you Ottawa guys post updates - it will be interesting to see how this effects processing times :)
 
I am Canadian citizen and my wife is Pakistani, we have two kids both are born Canadian citizens. As a sponsor of my wife, I have sent her application on 6th August and received on 8th at Mississauga as indicated by FedEx tracking. Wife's medical was upfront and done on July 24, 2014. We both are in Pakistan right now, I am living exclusively there. Haven't heard anything yet, waiting for good news!! Kindly put it on spread sheet
 
Chevy23 said:
Interesting, I wonder what the criteria is??

It would be nice if CIC could announce these changes!!

There dosent seem to be any pattern to this so far eg married or common law or with kids, countries lived in etc

I remember KarlR saying he lives in Australia right now and I think I read somewhere that Brucem had a Canadian daughter

Anyway good luck to you all, hopefully you are right Brucem on your theory... I wonder where an interview would be held if needed?!

I suppose I'm only going by my own circumstances Chevy as I thought myself and my good lady are a pretty straightforward case, we also paid all the fees up front! But you're right there doesn't seem to be any particular consistency. Last time I was in Ottawa it was about -30 so I dont fancy doing a winter trip there for an interview!
 
Chevy23 said:
I know how you feel - each little step is so exciting!

If you haven't got 'Medical results received' yet showing... that will be your next burst of excitement

That appeared for me about a week after SA and I was like OMG I now have 2 steps on ECAS haha

Yep that's appeared now! They have now updated it to show DM on the sponsorship side and on the PR side it now shows Application Received but also medical results received (we sent them initially) so at least they are looking at it!
 
GISGeek said:
I am Canadian citizen and my wife is Pakistani, we have two kids both are born Canadian citizens. As a sponsor of my wife, I have sent her application on 6th August and received on 8th at Mississauga as indicated by FedEx tracking. Wife's medical was upfront and done on July 24, 2014. We both are in Pakistan right now, I am living exclusively there. Haven't heard anything yet, waiting for good news!! Kindly put it on spread sheet

Hi, you should look for the Islamabad thread on this forum, as this thread is meant for people who will have their case processed in London. Unless, for some reason, London would be you visa office.
 
Graihn said:
Hi, you should look for the Islamabad thread on this forum, as this thread is meant for people who will have their case processed in London. Unless, for some reason, London would be you visa office.

Islamabad applications all now go through London

That's why he has posted here
 
Chevy23 said:
Islamabad applications all now go through London

That's why he has posted here
Spousal cases Pakistan are being processed by LVO since Aug 2013. Thanks, Chevy23
 
Hi all,

I haven't been on here since I updated with the fact that we received our COPR (2 months ago), so excuse my absence. Just wanted to let everyone know that we are landing at Pearson tomorrow (!!!!!) and we will update you with how the process goes. As ever, good luck to those who are still waiting.