Withdrawing spouse sponsorship: Do I get refund?

[charliem]

Hi there,

I'm considering withdrawing my PR application (inland) as it would take a much shorter time when I apply from Nairobi. Would I get a refund and my original police certificates back? I applied only about 9 days ago and have not received acknowledgement.

My plan is to leave Canada and relodge the application from outside. We were married in Africa late last year and I've been in Canada on visitor visa since February.

Thanks

 

[ACS]

I would advise to call CIC and ask them this. I am not 100% sure myself. Maybe someone else can provide some insight, but CIC should have the most accurate info. Take down the name of the person you speak to. And if you have the patience, try to call more than once and see if you get the same response. CIC is famous for not giving consistent answers.

Something to consider, if you leave Canada and apply outland, there may be a bit of a backlog of applications since the strike just ended. So the wait time posted for your specific Visa office may be even longer than what it says at the moment.

Plus the paper work for outland Applications is even more detailed than the Inland one. You will have to fill out most (if not all) of the forms all over again, which is a pretty big task!

Best wishes!!

 

[scylla]

What's the date on your police certificates? As you probably know, they can't be more than three months old at the time you submit them to CIC. Once you cancel your inland application, it will probably take at least a month to receive your application back. Will the police certificates be less than three months old at that point? You may have to get new ones before you file outland.

 

[Leon]

If you just applied 9 days ago, they will not have started processing your application so you should be able to get a refund if you withdraw now.

You do not have to leave in order to apply outland. You say you have been in Canada on visitor status since February so you must have applied to extend. You may stay until your visit visa expires or apply to extend again if you want to.

However, I don't see why you think it will be faster applying through Nairobi. Looking at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm/fc-spouses.asp#africa I see a processing time of 25 months. That plus one month in Mississauga at the start.

With inland if all goes well, you can expect an open work permit after 11 months and PR after another 8, see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-fc.asp That would be 19 months for inland.

 

[screech339]

I may be wrong here but I think you won't even get your originals back. The only originals would be worth getting back are the original notarized translations. The police check would likely to be out of date by the time you submit an outland since it must be valid within 3 months of issuance.

The reason I say that you are not likely to get your documents back is on the document checklist, it does say that it will not return any documents. This is why they ask for photocopies of documents. The applicants get to retain their originals.

Screech339

 

[charliem]

I would advise to call CIC and ask them this. I am not 100% sure myself. Maybe someone else can provide some insight, but CIC should have the most accurate info. Take down the name of the person you speak to. And if you have the patience, try to call more than once and see if you get the same response. CIC is famous for not giving consistent answers.

Something to consider, if you leave Canada and apply outland, there may be a bit of a backlog of applications since the strike just ended. So the wait time posted for your specific Visa office may be even longer than what it says at the moment.

Plus the paper work for outland Applications is even more detailed than the Inland one. You will have to fill out most (if not all) of the forms all over again, which is a pretty big task!

Best wishes!!

Thanks for the feedback.
I called CIC-Vegreville a while ago. They say it takes 6 weeks for PR application processing to begin. So I can ask to cancel the application as soon as possible. As far as processing times are concerned, those are not always accurate. I see that 90 percent of outland applications, whether from India or Kenya, take less than a year to obtain a PR visa.
Most of the supporting information needed for the application (outland) is the same, so we can save time on that.

 

[charliem]

I may be wrong here but I think you won't even get your originals back. The only originals would be worth getting back are the original notarized translations. The police check would likely to be out of date by the time you submit an outland since it must be valid within 3 months of issuance.

The reason I say that you are not likely to get your documents back is on the document checklist, it does say that it will not return any documents. This is why they ask for photocopies of documents. The applicants get to retain their originals.

Screech339

Thanks for the feedback.
My police certificates are dated 15 September. I will be applying again 15 November (that is just 2 months).
I have lived in several countries and would be hell requesting those certificates again. All the same, I will ask for the certificates to be returned (or kept on file since I'm not withdrawing because sponsor is walking away!!)