Tips for making the spousal sponsorship application go more quickly?

[Plynn]

Hello! We're in the process of finishing up our application for spousal sponsorship and from reading on the forum it's crazy how different couples processing times can be. I've seen some that only took 4 months and others that took well over a year.

Do you know what factors might make a difference in the speed of application processing?

We want to do everything we can to make the process as smooth as possible (just like everyone else who's applying I imagine). So I'm curious to know what might speed things up - even if they're factors that are out of our control.

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Our situation is pretty solid and I can't imagine would bring up any red flags.

We live in France and so we'll have to go through the Paris VO. My husband's a French citizen and I'm Canadian by descent (though I only applied for the certificate of citizenship very recently) + American citizen. We met, dated for almost two years, and have been married for 6 years. It's a first time marriage/serious relationship for both of us. We have two small children together, and none of us have ever had any trouble with the law or been involved in any weird organizations.

I haven't lived in Canada before, but I've spent a lot of time there and a very large part of my family lives in Canada. Now that I have kiddos, I really want to move back closer to family and I prefer the Canadian education system - so those are the main reasons we're hoping to get PR for my husband and children.

Hopefully our situation is straightforward for the Parisian visa office as well.

One person on this forum who shared how she was able to get PR said that they sent in over 100 pages of proof of intent to return to Canada and that seems a bit much to me. Does any one know if the officers looking at the application prefer to see lots of documents, or is it better to send in only what they ask for?

 

[mashulia_26]

Hello! We're in the process of finishing up our application for spousal sponsorship and from reading on the forum it's crazy how different couples processing times can be. I've seen some that only took 4 months and others that took well over a year.

Do you know what factors might make a difference in the speed of application processing?

We want to do everything we can to make the process as smooth as possible (just like everyone else who's applying I imagine). So I'm curious to know what might speed things up - even if they're factors that are out of our control.

_____________________________________________________
Our situation is pretty solid and I can't imagine would bring up any red flags.

We live in France and so we'll have to go through the Paris VO. My husband's a French citizen and I'm Canadian by descent (though I only applied for the certificate of citizenship very recently) + American citizen. We met, dated for almost two years, and have been married for 6 years. It's a first time marriage/serious relationship for both of us. We have two small children together, and none of us have ever had any trouble with the law or been involved in any weird organizations.

I haven't lived in Canada before, but I've spent a lot of time there and a very large part of my family lives in Canada. Now that I have kiddos, I really want to move back closer to family and I prefer the Canadian education system - so those are the main reasons we're hoping to get PR for my husband and children.

Hopefully our situation is straightforward for the Parisian visa office as well.

One person on this forum who shared how she was able to get PR said that they sent in over 100 pages of proof of intent to return to Canada and that seems a bit much to me. Does any one know if the officers looking at the application prefer to see lots of documents, or is it better to send in only what they ask for?

There are no factors that will speed up your application. Everybody is equal in this situation. It just depends on the office, officer and your luck. Our case was even more straight forward than yours but took us over a year.

 

[zardoz]

Hello! We're in the process of finishing up our application for spousal sponsorship and from reading on the forum it's crazy how different couples processing times can be. I've seen some that only took 4 months and others that took well over a year.

Do you know what factors might make a difference in the speed of application processing?

We want to do everything we can to make the process as smooth as possible (just like everyone else who's applying I imagine). So I'm curious to know what might speed things up - even if they're factors that are out of our control.

_____________________________________________________
Our situation is pretty solid and I can't imagine would bring up any red flags.

We live in France and so we'll have to go through the Paris VO. My husband's a French citizen and I'm Canadian by descent (though I only applied for the certificate of citizenship very recently) + American citizen. We met, dated for almost two years, and have been married for 6 years. It's a first time marriage/serious relationship for both of us. We have two small children together, and none of us have ever had any trouble with the law or been involved in any weird organizations.

I haven't lived in Canada before, but I've spent a lot of time there and a very large part of my family lives in Canada. Now that I have kiddos, I really want to move back closer to family and I prefer the Canadian education system - so those are the main reasons we're hoping to get PR for my husband and children.

Hopefully our situation is straightforward for the Parisian visa office as well.

One person on this forum who shared how she was able to get PR said that they sent in over 100 pages of proof of intent to return to Canada and that seems a bit much to me. Does any one know if the officers looking at the application prefer to see lots of documents, or is it better to send in only what they ask for?

Your biggest concern is likely to be proving to IRCC’s satisfaction that you will return to reside in Canada after PR is granted. It appears that IRCC are now asking for more evidence than previously and this has led to additional document requests. Obviously, this negatively impacts the case timeline.

 

[schweisy]

To be honest, by far the biggest factor -- based purely on my experience as someone who applied recently -- is ultimately going to be whether you get chosen to be forwarded for processing to Mississauga or if they send you to Paris after all. Apart from the fact that you've never lived in Canada your case looks a lot like the ones that do get sent to Mississauga -- your partner is from a visa-exempt country and you have children together and a long-term relationship. I think there's a good chance you get sent to Mississauga if current trends continue, in which case you will probably get processed much more quickly. Unfortunately, there's really nothing you can do to control whether you go to CPC-M or not, so might as well just do the best job you can on the application and then cross your fingers.

Speaking as another person who is currently sponsoring from abroad (albeit I did grow up in Canada and have current ties there), I would agree with @zardoz that if you're looking for one area in which to focus your efforts then focus on proving your commitment to moving to Canada and why. You don't have to include a boatload of documents; just focus on providing quality stuff (you can include a document explaining your reasoning as you have here, letters from your family in Canada, research on schools for your kids, etc).

Of course it's all anecdotal, but if it's any reassurance, our eligibility was approved really quickly and my husband and I have no kids and have been married far less time, and we were not asked for any additional documents either. As harsh as it is to say, IRCC absolutely looks at some couples/countries of origin as higher risk than others and the burden of proof reflects that. You're almost as low risk as it can get in their eyes, so I wouldn't fret or overdo it.

 

[Plynn]

To be honest, by far the biggest factor -- based purely on my experience as someone who applied recently -- is ultimately going to be whether you get chosen to be forwarded for processing to Mississauga or if they send you to Paris after all. Apart from the fact that you've never lived in Canada your case looks a lot like the ones that do get sent to Mississauga -- your partner is from a visa-exempt country and you have children together and a long-term relationship. I think there's a good chance you get sent to Mississauga if current trends continue, in which case you will probably get processed much more quickly. Unfortunately, there's really nothing you can do to control whether you go to CPC-M or not, so might as well just do the best job you can on the application and then cross your fingers.

Speaking as another person who is currently sponsoring from abroad (albeit I did grow up in Canada and have current ties there), I would agree with @zardoz that if you're looking for one area in which to focus your efforts then focus on proving your commitment to moving to Canada and why. You don't have to include a boatload of documents; just focus on providing quality stuff (you can include a document explaining your reasoning as you have here, letters from your family in Canada, research on schools for your kids, etc).

Of course it's all anecdotal, but if it's any reassurance, our eligibility was approved really quickly and my husband and I have no kids and have been married far less time, and we were not asked for any additional documents either. As harsh as it is to say, IRCC absolutely looks at some couples/countries of origin as higher risk than others and the burden of proof reflects that. You're almost as low risk as it can get in their eyes, so I wouldn't fret or overdo it.

Thank you for your response!! That’s really interesting. I didn’t realize that it could get sent to Mississauga. I assumed the application had to pass through Paris since we live in France.

And what you’ve said about other couples does match up to what I’ve seen on the Paris VO threads. People from North African countries almost always have to have an interview and their documents often take over a year to process.

Thank you again for your response!

 

[Plynn]

Your biggest concern is likely to be proving to IRCC’s satisfaction that you will return to reside in Canada after PR is granted. It appears that IRCC are now asking for more evidence than previously and this has led to additional document requests. Obviously, this negatively impacts the case timeline.

Thank you for your advice!! I guess we’ll over do it a bit with the documents proving intent to return.

 

[Plynn]

There are no factors that will speed up your application. Everybody is equal in this situation. It just depends on the office, officer and your luck. Our case was even more straight forward than yours but took us over a year.

I do think luck has a lot to do with it it as well. But from what I’ve read on the Paris VO forums, there do seem to be some factors that make it take longer generally (I.e. multiple divorces, living in multiple countries, coming from certain countries, etc.)

 

[zardoz]

Thank you for your advice!! I guess we’ll over do it a bit with the documents proving intent to return.

When I was sponsored back in 2013, CIC (as it was then) were quite happy with the single letter of intent from my sponsor (both living in the UK at the time) and a single letter of support from her parents in Canada. I'm absolutely certain that IRCC would not accept the same now. Times have changed and IRCC has become much, much, stricter on preventing the use of PR status as a "substitute visitor visa", where the sponsor never intended to come back.

 

[mashulia_26]

I do think luck has a lot to do with it it as well. But from what I’ve read on the Paris VO forums, there do seem to be some factors that make it take longer generally (I.e. multiple divorces, living in multiple countries, coming from certain countries, etc.)

You are right. There are factors that will make the application process longer but ,unfortunately, nothing to speed up the app.