Hello everyone. My wife just received a phone call from the visa office in Guatemala. They said that her application, for permanent residency, was approved. They will be sending her passport with the visa back to Costa Rica today. Here is a timeline of all that transpired in our case:
July 7th, 2011. The Immigration office in Mississauga got the file.
Sept 16, 2011. Received an acceptance letter for being a sponsor. The file was being forwarded to Guatemala.
Sept 28th, 2011. Recieved an Acknowledgment of Reception e-mail from Guatemala.
Oct 3rd, 2011. Received a Request for her Original Passport and prepaid airway bill - nothing else.
Oct 4th, 2011. Sent passport away to Guatemala by DHL.
Oct 5th, 2011. Guatemala received passport.
Oct 19th, 2011. Visa approval - passport being sent back with visa.
We obtained our approval in less than 3 1/2 months after Mississauga received our original application. Only after she received her approval call was her eCAS updated and now says "decision made". We filled out all of the forms ourselves with no legal or consultancy help. It did take almost 2 months to gather all of the necessary documents, evidence and fill out the forms. We were very careful and went over the instructions maybe 10 times or more. I believe that our case was straight forward with no complications. We also could prove that our relationship was ongoing for several years before the application. Still, we were expecting to have to wait at least 12 months. Even Guatemala told us that the average wait time is between 12-18 months when they sent her AOR letter (only 3 weeks ago). I'm still shocked at the short timeframe for approval. It appears that Guatemala is becoming more efficient. Here are some other speedy approvals from this forum:
- costaricacanada received visa in 4 months.
- Belizian received visa in a similar timeframe.
- margrey in 5 months
At first, it appeared that they got approvals fast because there was either a pregnancy or a child involved. However, my Wife is not pregnant nor do we have children.
I appreciate the responses and support that all of you gave. I especially enjoyed reading all of the past experiences on this forum, it was informative. To all members and readers of this forum, I hope you receive your visas soon.
THANKS!