Thread for people using the Guatemala Office

[AmiMarin]

FINALY!!!! My husband is going to get his passport tomorrow morning!! Can he transit through the USA without a visa??? Help! Trying to book his flight for thursday or friday. I cant find a flight from Guatemala city that doesnt stop in the states....Any advice??

 

[ferd2000hn]

The Travel Without Visa (TWV) program in the US was cancelled a few years back. The only direct flight via Taca from El Salvador to Toronto.

 

[Farfelu]

Hey Guys, I need to know if some can tell me whats the phone number for the Guatemala office... long story short I was asked for my passport back in May, but I still hadn't heard any news so my wife conted our MP and he said that there was a letter that I did not received back in May as well asking some questions... I want to call them to see if they can resent the letter or fax it or something... if anyone has it can you please pass it over...

Thanks.

These are the numbers as listed on the Canadian Embassy website:

Mission Tel.: (502) 2363-4348
Immigration Tel.: (502) 2365-1250
Mission Fax: (502) 2365-1210
Immigration Fax: (502) 2365-1214

I hope this helps.

 

[jcasanova]

Thanks, I was able to contacted them and they said that they are just waiting for my fingerprints to be review by the RCMP and that would be it... does anyone know how long that could take??

 

[LeisaP]

FINALY!!!! My husband is going to get his passport tomorrow morning!! Can he transit through the USA without a visa??? Help! Trying to book his flight for thursday or friday. I cant find a flight from Guatemala city that doesnt stop in the states....Any advice??

wow congrats!!!
im so happy your husband is going to land soon!!> how everything is out of the way.
yay!!



do u mind if i ask how long the ARC ended up taking to process?

 

[AmiMarin]

About 2 and a half months. They requested passports and ARC payment on may 4 and he dropped it off at the embassy in guatemala on the 8th. The embassy called him July 24 to say that dhl had the passports and he could pick them up from there. We were starting to get really worried because the meds expire on Aug 9th. And that would have added another couple of months.

 

[LeisaP]

About 2 and a half months. They requested passports and ARC payment on may 4 and he dropped it off at the embassy in guatemala on the 8th. The embassy called him July 24 to say that dhl had the passports and he could pick them up from there. We were starting to get really worried because the meds expire on Aug 9th. And that would have added another couple of months.

Oh okay. So not bad. So far everyone I've asked about it has been about 2 months. So that's good

Do you have to land before aug 8? Because that's when the medical expires??

 

[AmiMarin]

Yes, they said he needs to land in Canadá before august 8 or we will have to reapply from the beginning.

 

[dgoodman]

Just curious, where were you able to get these statistics? I have heard that the 25 mo. processing time is how long it takes for 80% of the applications to be completed. I remember there being a place where we could find the statistics for 25% complete, 50% complete etc. Does anyone know where this is?

To Darcycook:

I have been tracking the Guatemala Office statistics and for Family Class (Spouses, Children, Partners) there has been a backlog of about 550-600 for the past 2 years, with a throughput (approvals + rejections + withdrawals) of about 50 per month, meaning that an application should only take more than 11-12 months on exception, so I also consider the 25 months reported a bit too high.

I would be optimistic and expect your application process to take a about a year. However I would be very careful about the information submitted as the rejection rate really shot up on the first quarter of 2012, from a 12% rejection rate from 2006 to 2011 to a 51% rejection rate in the first quarter of 2012. That's more than four times the rejection rates. Make sure you dot all i's and cross all t's...

Also, I'm Canadian, sponsoring my Salvadorian wife. We are both currently living in Panama, anxiously waiting for the approval. I was approved as sponsor on April 10 and the application arrived in Guatemala on April 20. Since then we haven't heard anything from Guatemala. But, when we looked on the CIC site, we noticed that the application has switched to 'In Process' as of July 18. Hopefully that gives some people an idea of what to expect for time frame, at least up to this point. Also, does anyone know what this means for our application? Should we be hearing from them soon, such as for a passport request?

I am also curious about the prepaid airway bill. When we recieved the AOR of our application at the Guat office, they requested one in an attatched PDF form letter. So should we send them one as soon as possible? Based on what others were saying, is it even possible to send one or should we just wait and send it along with the passport?

 

[Mez007]

Just curious, where were you able to get these statistics? I have heard that the 25 mo. processing time is how long it takes for 80% of the applications to be completed. I remember there being a place where we could find the statistics for 25% complete, 50% complete etc. Does anyone know where this is?



Also, I'm Canadian, sponsoring my Salvadorian wife. We are both currently living in Panama, anxiously waiting for the approval. I was approved as sponsor on April 10 and the application arrived in Guatemala on April 20. Since then we haven't heard anything from Guatemala. But, when we looked on the CIC site, we noticed that the application has switched to 'In Process' as of July 18. Hopefully that gives some people an idea of what to expect for time frame, at least up to this point. Also, does anyone know what this means for our application? Should we be hearing from them soon, such as for a passport request?

I am also curious about the prepaid airway bill. When we recieved the AOR of our application at the Guat office, they requested one in an attatched PDF form letter. So should we send them one as soon as possible? Based on what others were saying, is it even possible to send one or should we just wait and send it along with the passport?

Hi Man,
I'm Glad to hear from you, we have the same Timeline and My Application was sent th Guatemala on April the 20th so a few days after yours. I don't have an answer to your Question, but I'm Glad that you have some Update.

 

[ferd2000hn]

To dgoodman:

Go to page 38 of this thread, last post on the page for info on where to find the stats.

Unless something similar to FSW has happened in Family Class, I don't see why it is reported to take so long.

In the case of FSW there were three classes of applications, MI-1 (Mar/08-Jun/10), MI-2 (Jul/10-Jun/11) and MI-3 (Jul/11-Jun/12). These are being processed in a last in - first out basis (MI-3s first, then MI-2s...) Therefore for FSW as a whole, Guatemala also reports 25 months for 80%, but MI-3s and MI-2s have taken considerably shorter times while MI-1s are stuck and all pending applications have now been in the system for AT LEAST 25 months.

If I come across a reasonably explanation for the Family Class average, I'll let all of you know...

 

[janita]

There are direct flights from San José, Costa Rica to Toronto for 500$ right now. check out air canada.ca!

 

[tica1008]

Thanks, I was able to contacted them and they said that they are just waiting for my fingerprints to be review by the RCMP and that would be it... does anyone know how long that could take??

Hey, How are you?

At what # did you contacted them?

thx!

 

[dgoodman]

Hi Man,
I'm Glad to hear from you, we have the same Timeline and My Application was sent th Guatemala on April the 20th so a few days after yours. I don't have an answer to your Question, but I'm Glad that you have some Update.

Hi Mez,
Yeah, were on almost exactly the same schedule. Hopefully you'll see the CIC website updated to say 'in progress' very soon!

 

[muchacha]

Thanks, I was able to contacted them and they said that they are just waiting for my fingerprints to be review by the RCMP and that would be it... does anyone know how long that could take??

Uhh.... at what point were we supposed to send fingerprints??!

EDIT - I'm assuming the fingerprints are for a police clearance because you've lived in Canada? Yikes... I'm about to send our package to Mississauga (tomorrow) and I think paranoia is setting in!