What are the milestones to get to PR?

[OntarioBound]

Is there a sticky or a thread that shows all the milestones from beginning to end? I do have access to the spreadsheet, but I am not even sure what some of the columns mean (ie. Stage 1 AOR, ECAS, etc...) or if we find those things out by calling them up or you (sponsor? sponsored?) get email or you get snail mail, etc.... Sorry for being such a ditz about this... Maybe there is like a milestone workflow kind of thing somewhere?

 

[rhcohen2014]

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/immigration-acronyms-t3007.0.html

 

[OntarioBound]

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/immigration-acronyms-t3007.0.html

Thank you very much for your quick reply.

How do you find these things out? (Stage 1 AOR, Sponsorship approval, e-CAS changed to Decision Made, etc) Do you have to call CIC or they send you (sponsor or sponsored?) emails or snail mails?

Thank you very much.

 

[Ponga]

Is there a sticky or a thread that shows all the milestones from beginning to end? I do have access to the spreadsheet, but I am not even sure what some of the columns mean (ie. Stage 1 AOR, ECAS, etc...) or if we find those things out by calling them up or you (sponsor? sponsored?) get email or you get snail mail, etc.... Sorry for being such a ditz about this... Maybe there is like a milestone workflow kind of thing somewhere?

Basic milestones:

Inland-

1. Making sure your application was delivered (delivery confirmation from Canada Post, or courier)

2. Confirmation from CIC that they received your application (should match your delivery receipt date). THIS is known as AOR (Acknowledgement of Receipt) and takes anywhere from 1 month to many months to receive. It comes via email to the email address of the sponsor (or representative if you're using one). The date that CIC shows as the date they received your application (not the day that you receive the AOR email) is when your clock officially starts.

3. Waiting for CIC to `wake you up' (after a ridiculously long hibernation) to tell you that the sponsor has been approved and hopefully, that the applicant is now eligible to have their portion of the application processed. THIS is AIP (Approval in Principle) and is currently taking ~ 17 months AFTER the date of AOR.

4. Waiting [again] to hear from CIC that your application processing is complete. THIS is [often] the DM (Decision Made) stage.

5. And...yep, you guessed it, waiting some more, for the landing interview date which is when you actually receive your CoPR (Confirmation of Permanent Resident) document and you officially `land' as a permanent resident of Canada.

Oh...and then you wait again to actually receive your PR card in the mail, which takes [who knows] how long. Some get theirs in a month, while others have waited longer.


Outland-

Usually a lot faster!

 

[rhcohen2014]

Thank you very much for your quick reply.

How do you find these things out? (AOR, Sponsorship approval, e-CAS, etc) Do you have to call CIC or they send you (sponsor or sponsored?) emails or snail mails?

Thank you very much.

the sponsor receives aor and sa.

ecas is the computer system to check the status of your application and is generally not available until after the sponsor received approval.

aor and sa usually come in email, though it's not guaranteed, and CIC has been sending SA letters in the regular mail lately, and it's currently taking 3 months. the only processing time on the cic website that is reliable is how long it's taking to process outland sponsor applications. i believe they just started november applications.

the AOR and SA will have the file number that is shared between the applicant and sponsor. the sa will only have the UCI# for the sponsor. the applicant may not get their uci until the visa office requests more information or the passport request or not until the pr approval is received. there are many visa exempt applicants who do not get passport request.

the majority of the process is in silence, and there will be no communication from the visa office for a while. the applications are processed in batch by the "received" date listed in the sponsor eligibility letter. there are some people who don't even here a peep from CIC and receive their approval paper in the mail.

right now ottawa's processing time is going back up to the 7-8 month average seen at the beginning of last year, and the end of 2013. so again, expect silence and no information about anything for a good amount of time.

i would recommend joing the thread specific to the month you applied and adding yourself to the ottawa spreadsheet. that way you can track your progress and get an idea of what to expect.

this of course is about outland sponsorship, and assuming the applicant is from the us.

 

[OntarioBound]

You guys are just so AWESOME! Thank you very much for such quick and detailed posts!

I am applying OUTLAND from US, so I feel for the people who are doing INLAND :-\

I have a better picture of what the milestones are now... I have read some posts but they were all bits and pieces and I couldn't quite comprehend the flow. Either way, my take home is... It will take substantial amount of time and you are mostly in the dark except at the first approval and when it's almost ready for the PR...

I will join the December thread...(Mine was received on 12/31 though, so that's almost Jan...)