Canadian Immigration process started… finally!
My wife Andrea and I married in Feb this year after a three year romance and a short 4 month engagement. Last Wednesday (15 Nov 2006) we finally completed the paperwork to apply for my permanent residency here.
I met Andrea at the end of my exchange term at the Rotman School of Management: had it not been for the McMaster Conference on Intellectual Capital in the 3rd week of Jan 2003 I would have left to return to Melbourne Business School without getting to know her. Instead, cancel my vacation to India to go to the Conference and ended up with an extra 3 weeks in Toronto, during which time we partied plenty.
Since 2004 I’ve been fortunate to be able to get work back in Toronto without too much ado. A particular skill set of mine (large scale systems integration: TIBCO, MQSeries) fits squarely in a rare category that circumvents a tremendous amount of hassle an employer would normally need to go through in order to prove that they can’t get a Canadian to do the job. Initially I actually didn’t realise that and so worked on a BUNAC Working Holiday Program. So I’m already on my 3rd Canadian Visa.
From Feb to November - seems like a long time to write up an application, eh? Well, it was a shock to me too. I’d been through Permanent Residency applications before - I am a Permanent Resident of Australia. The difference was in Australia I applied on a Skilled Worker basis: three short forms + evidence of experience and qualifications and 2 years wait.
For Canada I applied on a Spousal basis. What a difference. Instead of 20 pages like Australia. in total it came to about 150 pages of evidence. Stuff like photos, aeroplane tickets, letters from relatives, emails. All to prove that our relationship is genuine.
I’m very glad the application writing process has finished. And now we wait. 42 days (about Christmas day) before they’ll process Andrea’s right to sponsor me and then 3-8 months for London to decide whether I am worthy of being allowed to be in Canada.
In the meantime, I am just grateful that I am allowed to work and remain in Canada anyway. Many couples are kept apart for years during processing.
I thank everyone on the Yahoo Groups canadian_immigration list for their advice and counsel. This community made a tremendous difference to the arduous process.
November 17th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
[…] Canadian Immigration process started finally! […]
November 24th, 2006 at 11:34 am
Hey are you related to any Cleaver’s from Kent, UK or SE England?
I have a tree now going back to 1815
Cheers
Terry Cleaver
Dover, UK
November 24th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
Yes, indeed I am. I was born in Hertfordshire, UK, and my ancesters on the Cleaver side were from London. I’ll give you my Dad’s email address in a separate email.
November 27th, 2006 at 6:09 pm
[…] I am genuinely encouraged by this deregulation, and by Local Number Portability that Canada’s stuffy corporate culture may be eroding. I just hope it won’t take longer than it takes to sell off all the Canadian firms. After all, I’d played to stay here for a good while. […]
December 2nd, 2006 at 6:22 am
I have felt like commenting on your blog for some time now as I feel that our journey is similar to yours….Essex to Canada. I am the Canadian and my partner of many years is English….or is that British?
Anyway….I liked the photo of your pile (aka “the application”)….We went to a stationery store and bought a 1-30 index set, threw away sections 29 and 30, and used the rest as I could never find most of the 28 sections. Keeping the application all together, without the aid of any form of binding, is hard for the compiler-and that was me. I can see that you used blue sheets…I wonder how other people handle that….
I read about someone who had sent their US visa application in to wherever and used the clips that the website said to use and their application was held up 2 months whilst they sent forward a “proper” 3 ring-binder-even though the website still asks for applications using that certain clip. At least with Canada, no clips or anything metal-like are involved. It may make it easier to scan through detectors. Hard to say what any large government facility could be sent…
I will admit that I am a bit over-zealous with paperwork. I redid a lot of pages many times but all the pdf format made with easy to do. I had hoped that if I got a lot of the application right that it would whiz from desk to desk at immigration! I am a lecturer and I know that I just feel better when I pick up something that is well organised. I was surprised at some of the typo’s on some of the forms. For example, “properly deed” instead of “property deed”. Also, there were times when you were supposed to tick a box and then other times when you were supposed to use an x! I did years of editing in the Far East and I was tempted to correct the spelling mistakes with a red pen-but I didn’t. Maybe the “x” and “tick” bits were an embedded English comprehension test. I had trouble with some of the instructions that included 4 phrase and were some 3 lines in length. They included words like “must do…..except in this case….” Some times I had to read and ponder and reflect on some of the directions and I am a native speaker. I know that we could have used a consultant but I believed that we should be able to go to Canada using our own intelligence and understanding of English. I would hate to see it come to the point where the process gets even more complicated and people need help to get through the paperwork.
It a strange kind of way, the visa application process was a way for us to check our relationship and remember a lot of things that we had forgotten about…Things like how we met and when I first met his parents and things like that. That was fun as women and men often remember these things differently! We also pulled out old photos and things that had just been shoved to the back of the closet. I do know that this visa will mean something to us. Thee do not grow on trees and there are benchmarks to clear.
We sent out application through an international carrier at this aforementioned stationery store. We were not sure about using other methods of mailing. I was concerned about the packet bursting open etc so we dropped it in this international carrier’s standardized box and sent it off on November 1st, 2006 and it arrived November 10th, 2006. We tracked its journey on the web. The box surprisingly spent 2 days at Gatwick, follow by 2 days at Heathrow, then a few days in Toronto as they needed to confirm the CIC-M address. Not sure why as the copy of the shipping information that we have shows the shipping address, the same one that is printed in the guide. I even helped the young lad type it in as I didn’t want to get it wrong and everyone at the counter confirmed that it was as printed….but anyway, on November 10th, 2006 the application, in said box, arrived at CIC-M and “Nazma” signed for it….I was surprised that it took ten days to get from Essex to CIC-M. But at least we know that it is in Canada. We did take a back up photocopy of the pile. Just in case we need to refer to it and are asked about something by e-mail. I copied 105 pages of stuff.
Even though we suspect that our application is most likely sitting in a mail bin for the time being, we check E-CAS daily to see if we even appear. I am wondering about something….Should I be searching using the sponsor’s name or the name of the person I am sponsoring? I have tried both. At times, I am not sure if it is my visa or his visa, if you know what I mean….Anyone who has made this visa would understand that last comment. Back to E-CAS, when I search for my partner’s country of birth I have the option of using either England or United Kingdom and Colonies. Does anyone know why there is a difference? So, for now, I check both. When I figure that one out, I will let you know….We are supposed to use the country of birth that is mentioned on the application.
Anyway, I will watch your blog for updates and hope to get some feedback. I know that there will be mistakes along the way. I do hope to see something on E-CAS for Christmas!
G and C
December 15th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
[…] They’ve received our application and processed Andrea’s request to Sponsor me. They verified that we wanted an Outside Application (Inside Applications are slower) and asked whether we wanted London, UK vs. Buffalo to do the processing. They are working faster than normal - its supposed to be 43 days from the date we applied (I can’t remember where the 43 days is written). […]
December 16th, 2006 at 8:11 pm
Thanks Gwenna for your comprehensive comment! While I was preparing the weighty tome I had it in a binder, with each section in numbered section dividers, and pages of each document in a clear drop-in-from-the-top. This pre-structuring really does make a massive difference to compensate for the very inconvenient rules of no staples and holepunching.
I used CutePDF to edit the files: way better than writing by hand (I must have filled in all those pagers by hand at least 3 times before finding CutePDF). But something in that process is quite flawed, as several sections in the PDFs would need to be completely retyped if just a little part was incorrect.
In due course I am sure that Canadian Immigration will offer upload via the internet. But, the enormity of automating that process means I’d say this is not likely to be for several years.
December 17th, 2006 at 8:55 am
Hi, I use a Mac and so I just used the forms that were on the CIC website…I think they were called “fillable PDF” forms or something like that. It was easier than doing it by hand but it would have been nice to save all of the forms that we did fill in. There is probably a really good reason for not being able to do that.
I am impressed to see how hi-tech the process is. I do hope to see more of it. I don’t think that other countries are like this. It was the spelling mistakes and logic skips that surprised me. I expected all of the forms to be perfect. I am thinking of “properly deed” for “property deed”. I kept a list and I may offer it up at a much later date. I counted maybe 10 flat out errors like the this properly deed one. It is a curse to be an editor…You can’t take me anywhere…especially where there are spelling mistakes….like menus and things like that….Oh, well.
Has your progress appeared on E-CAS yet or just the phone call? We keep checking
https://services3.cic.gc.ca/ecas/security.do?app=ecas
(I couldn’t get that to hyper-link)
and get nothing as of yet though we think that we are about a week early and it is Christmas season too. Any theory on why both England and the United Kingdom and Commonwealth are options in the place of birth drop down box? You know, the bit where you type in your famiy name, receipt number, date of bith and place of birth…. There must be a reason for that demarkation betweeen the United Kingdom and Commonwealth and England. I wrote “the UK” on the forms to CIC as “the United Kingdom” would not fit in block print and I refuse to cut “the” from “the United Kingdom” and the forms clearly stated that they wanted everything in block print.
I look forward to the process. We are not too bothered either way and we will just take it as it comes. Chat with you soon. Regards, Gwenna
December 17th, 2006 at 10:58 am
Hi Gwenna,
I just tried looking at E-CAS. We are not listed. I tried logging in using: 1,2,3) Receipt Number + both “England” and “United Kingdom and Colonies” 4,5,6) my Client ID + both “England” and “United Kingdom and Colonies”.
I have a client id because I already have existing visas for Canada.
December 22nd, 2006 at 9:07 am
[…] Dated 15 December, we just yesterday received our Application to Sponsor confirmation from the Case Processing Centre, Mississauga (CPC-M). (See Canadian Immigration process started… finally!) […]
December 22nd, 2006 at 11:45 am
Hi, Like you we are fumbling along….We know that our application was received on November the 9th, 2006 at CIC-M. I have checked E-CAS using my UK partner’s name and England….that failed. I used the UK place of birth and that failed and then I always tried my info as the Canadian Spouse who is the sponsor and today that is what worked. I know that some of this permanent visa is from myself but the rest is his. As we have different surnames we had put the receipt and things like that in his name. Very surprised that it is under my name as I am the Canadian sponsor. On E-CAS I can see my name, our address, my partner’s name and that a decision has been made. We are told that they confirm that they received our application on November 9th, that they processed it on December 20th and then mail us the decision on December the 21st. So we hope to have that soon. It appears as though they opened the packet on the 20th and decided right away but there has got to be more to it than that. Will let you know when we get the letter. Who knows, maybe they require more information but I feel that I was most thorough. It is neat to read where you are at as you two and our time frames are close but other things are different too…C has never had a Canadian visa before which is to your advantage I would imagine. We don’t have children either so it is just the one visa. Chat with you soon! G and C
January 28th, 2007 at 8:24 am
You haven’t up-dated your blog….All I can add is that we got our letter from CIC on January 2, 2007 and we know from E-CAS that our application arrived at the Canadian Embassy in London on January the 4th, 2007. The letter from CIC asked for the medical to be done. C had his medical on January the 11th. The assumption is that all the bits are at the Embasy now and we just wait. C was not asked for a police check of any kind. We did get one anyway as C will most likely need to be bonded when he gets to Canada so we are hoping that that documention from Scotland Yard will help him get bonded. Let us know how you are doing? G and C
March 10th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Just wondering how it is going? We are still waiting for the next bit of information from the Canadian High Commision. We have sent off for C’s CAIPS just to make sure that they have everything that they are supposed to have. We think that everything is all right but we might as well check….G and C
March 11th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Hi Gwenna,
You want to watch the category, http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/category/living/canadian-immigration/, there you’ll see new postings.
We’re just waiting, nothing new. I’d not known about the CAIPS system - did you use http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/forms/IMM5563B.pdf to request it?
Cheers, M.
March 12th, 2007 at 2:25 am
Hi, I will post here so I can read what you wrote and reply at the same time. OK…We used http://www.caips.ca/ as we are not living in Canada. I know that there is another way of doing this and if you are living in Canada it may be the better way to go. There is also something called FOSS for people who are living in Canada…I found the caips.ca website educational and you can know why you may or many not want to get CAIPS. I think that the interesting thing is to know that all the paperwork is with them and that they aren’t missing anything. C did the medicals in January and they were sent off so we assume that went well. If there is to be an interview then we can also get an idea of the questions that they might ask as CAIPS notes will show what questions you will be asked…All we did is fill out the paperwork for caips.ca and are now waiting for our CAIPS. Just thought that it might be interesting to know as much as we can about this process so that there are no time consuming mistakes…G and C
March 12th, 2007 at 2:28 am
Oh, I forgot…do you know about http://www.trackitt.com/canada-immigration-trackers/family-class/…This is not and official site but here people like us who are in the immigration process can input their details. You can see how you are progressing etc…You kind of have to go there to understand what I am talking about….G and C
March 12th, 2007 at 10:50 am
[…] Thanks to Gwenna for mentioning this, Field Operations Support System (FOSS) Description: The FOSS database is a central repository of information on all persons who have been, may be or are wanted to be seen by Immigration staff. FOSS is the main operational support system for immigration operations in Canada. The system is comprised of numerous components including query functions, status entry, document creation, refugee monitoring, case processing support, medical profiles, registry functions, client name and address, statistical functions, airport primary inspection line functions, access and security, appeals and litigation, quality assurance and records maintenance. FOSS also provides query capabilities for lost, stolen and fraudulent documents. All Immigration staff that work with the public and the staff that support these officers use FOSS. It is also used at all international airports by customs inspectors and by a number of specialized groups, such as: Case Management, Query Response Centre, Social Insurance Registry, Immigration Health, Immigration Statistics, External Affairs Protocol , Canadian consulates in various locations in the United States. There are over 18.75 million client records and over 32.5 million document reference records. Topics: Immigration, Visitors, Students, Foreign Workers, FOSS, Computerized System and System. Program Record Number: CIC APB 010 (formerly CIC IMM 110) […]
March 13th, 2007 at 3:41 am
Hi, I know that you are curious about the different sites that pertain to this quest that we are on, I don’t think that I have mentioned this site before.
http://www.trackitt.com/canada-immigration-trackers/family-class/
You can input your bits if you like or you can just look at the progress of people who are having their files go through London. Just a bit more information…. Gwenna
April 10th, 2007 at 4:48 am
Hi, Just to let you know, we received a small packet from London about March 21. The one with the 2 photos and also a request for the medical. There was a bit of confusion at this point as we had done the medicals…But we got that resolved and also handed over the police check. We got that done in November so we had it ready to hand over. This moring, April 10th, I received a letter requesting C’s passport and 2 photos. I assume that this means that we have the visa but I guess until we are in Canada we don’t “have” it in total. How about you? What is the latest word from the embassy? G and C
April 30th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Hi, We just came home and our neighbour had signed for our passport. We have a good relationship with our post woman and our neighbour so they were on the look out for it. So the passport request came on April the 10th, we sent it by DHL, Fifi at the embassy signed for it on April the 12th and we got it today, April 30th. So, 30 days. It might have been faster if we had gone into London…by a week or so but if the mail service is good and reliable then people might opt for this way.
August 9th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Insurance Quotes…
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…
March 21st, 2008 at 1:25 am
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