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Thank you everyone!

You have all helped so much! I now feel a lot less worried. I was starting to regret outland and having thoughts that I should have gone with inland instead ;D
 
princesstigger said:
Just wanted to add to the already great advice and help put your mind at rest too. We have a common law outland application in process and I have extended my visitor visa online no problem so far. I have extended three times, each time for 6 months. I just added details of my payment to CIC for PR and a screen shot of ECAS, with a brief cover letter explaining that I understand I will have to leave at the end of my visit and visa, should my PR be denied.

When you applied for the visitor extension did the application ask for a medical and an option of sending a common law declaration? I have both obviously as I took photo copies before sending off our app.... just wondering though if I am looking at the wrong application.
 
You definitely don't need a medical for a visitor extension... wtf?
 
The list of documents generated depends on your answers in the questionnaire.

I have renewed my visitor record a couple of times and it allows me to provide a medical document but it is optional. I provide it because it is in the list.
 
PurpleJellyBean said:
When you applied for the visitor extension did the application ask for a medical and an option of sending a common law declaration? I have both obviously as I took photo copies before sending off our app.... just wondering though if I am looking at the wrong application.

The application for visitor visa extension does ask if I you have done a medical in the last year. (as Andrewbrit commented, this requirement was generated from the questionnaire) I just added a copy of my emedical that I had done for PR. It updated online that it was seen but obviously not required.
It didn't ask for the common law declaration anywhere.. you could always send it as additional supporting docs if you really want, but I doubt its necessary. I think just sending a copy of your AOR will probably be enough, if you have one. I had sponsor approval, so as I say I sent a copy of that and an ECAS screenshot.
 
SchnookoLoly said:
You definitely don't need a medical for a visitor extension... wtf?

the medical is only required for SPECIFIC countries. from what i understand, it says this on the application somewhere (or instructions?) and it's not necessary to submit it if you are not from one of the countries on the list.
 
rhcohen2014 said:
the medical is only required for SPECIFIC countries. from what i understand, it says this on the application somewhere (or instructions?) and it's not necessary to submit it if you are not from one of the countries on the list.

When I applied it didn't say the medical is required, it just asks if you have done one in the last year. This is the questionnaire you have to fill in, to generate a number you need to use to apply for your visitor visa extension online. As I had to say yes to that question, as I had to submit a medical for my PR application, they asked for a copy of the emedical in the list of required documents. When I applied for an extension before I had my medical, I answered no to the question, and it wasn't in the document list.
 
With the delays right now I am tempted to apply via mail because the processing time is over 100 days.

I assume would still get implied status if I applied by mail rather than online.


Or I could just apply by mail and hope they give me at least 6 months and that I am granted a second extension if needed. I have heard of some people getting up to a year in one shot.


mmm decisions decisions...


I'm in Alberta and from my research I think I get to keep my health card if I am on a visitor visa of at least 6 months. So that makes me side towards just applying online. I don't want to be without it for too long. Will have to lock myself away so I can't have any accidents lol
 
PurpleJellyBean said:
With the delays right now I am tempted to apply via mail because the processing time is over 100 days.

I assume would still get implied status if I applied by mail rather than online.


Or I could just apply by mail and hope they give me at least 6 months and that I am granted a second extension if needed. I have heard of some people getting up to a year in one shot.


mmm decisions decisions...

I'm sure someone will correct if I'm wrong... you will get implied status if you apply online or by mail. The six months will, from what I understand, start from the date of expiration of your last visitor record, NOT from the decision, if you are thinking you will get 100 days PLUS 6 months. If that's not what you are thinking I apologise. You can apply for a year, six months, whatever you want. I know people that got a year, I only applied for 6 months. If you apply for a year, they still may only grant 6 months, or whatever they choose.
 
princesstigger said:
I'm sure someone will correct if I'm wrong... you will get implied status if you apply online or by mail. The six months will, from what I understand, start from the date of expiration of your last visitor record, NOT from the decision, if you are think you will get 100 days PLUS 6 months. If that's not what you are thinking I apologise. You can apply for a year, six months, whatever you want. I know people that got a year, I only applied for 6 months. If you apply for a year, they still may only grant 6 months, or whatever they choose.


Oh that's exactly what I was thinking.... I thought It would give me extra time. Well in that case I suppose I may as well just apply online.
 
princesstigger said:
I'm sure someone will correct if I'm wrong... you will get implied status if you apply online or by mail. The six months will, from what I understand, start from the date of expiration of your last visitor record, NOT from the decision, if you are thinking you will get 100 days PLUS 6 months. If that's not what you are thinking I apologise. You can apply for a year, six months, whatever you want. I know people that got a year, I only applied for 6 months. If you apply for a year, they still may only grant 6 months, or whatever they choose.

The expiry date of your visitor record renewal is the date you enter on the form (assuming you didn't ask for something silly like 5 years).

For example the past 2 times I extended my record, the first time I asked for 3 months and I applied on June 24th. It took a month to process and when I received it around the end of July I had until September 24th. So the processing time is included. In the form to extend it asks you how long you want to be a visitor for.

The most recent time I applied in September and asked for 6 months and it expired March 24th (6 months from Sept 24th).
 
PurpleJellyBean said:
Oh that's exactly what I was thinking.... I thought It would give me extra time. Well in that case I suppose I may as well just apply online.



I believe people apply by mail (slower processing) if they suspect that they may get a no decision. This way they could stay on implied status beyond the expiration of their visitor visa, until they get a decision. Again, I might be talking out of my bottom, but that's my understanding. (my visitor visa was dated from the expiration of the last, plus 6 months each time) I applied online as I just wanted to know the decision as soon as possible, also to renew my drivers license so I wasn't unable to drive for a few weeks. Similar to your health card reasonings!
 
On another note.

A few months ago when some of the applications started staying in Canada I knew a couple of applicants who were fully processed in 4-5 months. I know applications obviously aren't processing that quick at the moment due to stage one now taking 3+ months but do we have any indication that apps kept in Canada are still being processed quicker than London?

from looking at the spread sheet it seems not many people have had decision made recently so I guess my question probably doesn't have an answer yet.... ]

I'm just pondering on if I should be jumping for joy if when I finally get my SA it says the application is staying in Canada.
 
PurpleJellyBean said:
On another note.

A few months ago when some of the applications started staying in Canada I knew a couple of applicants who were fully processed in 4-5 months. I know applications obviously aren't processing that quick at the moment due to stage one now taking 3+ months but do we have any indication that apps kept in Canada are still being processed quicker than London?

from looking at the spread sheet it seems not many people have had decision made recently so I guess my question probably doesn't have an answer yet.... ]

I'm just pondering on if I should be jumping for joy if when I finally get my SA it says the application is staying in Canada.


andyb2404 just received COPR on March 27 his/her application stayed in Mississauga and was submitted December 3. :) It looks like the recent trend was the Mississauga applications flying through, and they seem to be keeping up with that trend.

If you read back a few pages, I was advised that Mississauga and Ottawa were both preferable over London for your application to be processed in. :)

All in all though an average 8 ish months for London isn't terrible as far as a time line is concerned. We went in bargaining for 12 months approximately anything shorter than that was a bonus, anything longer was to be expected in some regard.