Canadian Immigration Wait Times Update

[sangria]

As of today, new timelines are posted.

Average time to sponsor someone under the family class is now 9 to 20 months.

Application Processing Times: Applications Processed Outside of Canada

Hopefully this wont affect those of us that are still waiting. :ermm:

 

[liam1]

I wonder if the number of applicants is going up or are the agents just getting older, lazier and slower?

 

[laurar]

Great another slap in the face!

 

[Candy Girl]

Hopefully it wont affect the ones who are still waiting and have already started the process. You have been waiting long enough. Try to keep thinking positive and staying strong laurar

 

[princesa_pineda]

Well that doesn't suprise me that wait times have gone up because there were quite a few people in this forum that had a very long process last year and people who continue to have long processes still, Fireman is still waiting(although almost done) as well as Carlos(who still knows nothing) and myself(just waiting to book the interview). I am praying for everyone to get their happy ending very soon as this feels like torture wether you wait 6 months of 20 it is hard. We are all very strong people and our spouses as well. Just think in the long run how happy we will all be and how much more we will appreciate what we have with our spouse and vice versa. If a couple can make it through all the immigration process/long distance relationship they can make it through anything. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed for all of us<3<3<3

 

[liam1]

Honestly i can't imagine how bad it must be for those of you who are separated and waiting to reunite. I am fortunate that i am living here while the process takes the time, and i am happy being here, even tho i am looking forward to going back to Canada and working again, life here is very expensive and every time i see the bank statement i get a little heart attack. My account needs some serious jump-starting. Well, i guess somewhere in 2011.

 

[sangria]

the part that really makes me mad is that some countries process visas so quickly in only a few months start to finish.

if family class sponsorship is about reuniting families and is not discriminatory then why are some offices significantly faster.

should they not be about the same...give or take a month or 2

why is my friends arranged marriage from India processed in 3 months and my application based on a 4 year relationship, 1 year of marriage and a baby taking forever? my friend didnt even meet her husband until the night before the wedding....

i have no problem waiting my turn but why do people from other countries get to go through so quickly...it annoys me so much!

i guess just another thing that doesnt make much sense!!

 

[Johana]

Hey Sangria,

I know how you feel. When I was sponsoring my husband my manager's brother-in-law was sponsoring her sister. He was a new permanent resident in Canada and was able to sponsor her in 3 months beginning to end!! They are from China.

I still believe that the processing times are related to where the government wants the immigrants to come from and therefore those embassies are staffed in order to be able to process the applications in a more timely manner.

How does someone fulfill the requirements of proof of relationship if the marriage was arranged? Or is it not as important to prove at some embassies?

Hang in there everyone!! I know it's tough and only more frustrating when you see the new stats.

 

[sangria]

im not sure how she got her husband here so quickly but there is a section on the application that asks if your marriage was arranged. i can only tell you that from the day she mailed the application to the day he arrived in canada it was exactly 3 months.

i think maybe CIC shouldnt promote their goal as family reunification if really its family reunification for certain people with more ideal relatives!!

i just really think that I am canadian and pay taxes and all of that stuff and should have the right to have my husband with me in a timely manner.

its kind of ironic that the government is paying me maternity benefits and is forcing me to live in the DR and spend their money here while we wait...although this is good for me it doesnt make much sense!

hopefully it will be over soon and the policies will change for the better somewhere down the road.

 

[caredbl84]

I knew this was coming... I called the embassy in Sto. Dgo. and the receptionist told me she heard from the inmigration lady that it's now taking up to 2 years to complete 1 case... and i will not expect this will NOT affect the ones that started already and have been waiting like me... i am sure that if my case goes past july, they will blame the delay on the fact that the waiting time has been extended by 3 months... so for me it would be October now... fk that sucks... i dont know why but every time I do some research or try to find information about my wife's case I feel worse... more dissapointed...

 

[AnnaC]

Carlos why are you calling SD? Is it because they speak Spanish?

 

[princesa_pineda]

He is probably calling SD because they are actually nice and answer the phone unlike the people in Haiti who are rude and don't answer the phone.

Carlos I am praying for you that you're will hear something soon and that she will be here with you by July. Please don't give up, you have to keep believing that it will happen.

 

[Irina1]

application

I have a question ...i tried to call to the immigration office ..nobody even answers the phone....can someone tell me....do u have to have a job to sponsor a spouse???( i am a student on osap)

 

[caredbl84]

thanks Princesa Pineda. The reason why I called Santo Domingo is because I can talk to the lady in the inmigration section and she is actually very helpful when it comes to giving you information on whatever she can (she cannot give specific information about my wife's case but she is very helpful, trust me). she did something for me last year when I called her for the 2nd time and I really appreciated it... and I have spoken spanish with her only 1ce out of the 5 times I have called there... and I spoke spanish with her the latest time I called (i think it was last week). she mentioned that she doesnt know exactly when the interviews are taking place but she will call the people to be interviewed 2 weeks prior to the interview... and by the way, she even said she can understand me better if I speak english rather than spanish because I speak very fast... super fast

 

[MBG]

Well, in my case I called both Ha?ti and Santo Domingo. I did not get anything from Ha?ti, a woman picked up. She was expeditive and told me she couldn't give any info by phone that e-mailing was my best bet. When I called SD the person who picked up was really nice, told me when interviews will start in SD. I also asked about the ones in Ha?ti, he told me he didn't know when they'd be done but said I should e-mail them and gave me a e-mail address.

 

[Fiesta Mama]

I sponsored my husband to Canada in March 2005 and he had his pr visa to Canada by June 2005. He didn't come until July because he had to deal with some things there before moving his life to Canada.

At that time, I knew of several other couples that took less than six months from time of application until the Dominican spouse had their visa. Does anyone know why they are taking so much longer now? Are there that many more applications? Are they checking more strictly? Are there more requirements? I just don't understand.

Also, about contacting SDQ instead of Haiti, I also found the people at the SDQ Canadian Embassy much more helpful than those at the Haiti office... however, I must admit, since our process was so short I didn't really get all worked up enough to call very often. I can sympathize with you all because I know for me even three months was far too long. Hang in there... it's worth it in the end.

 

[AnnaC]

FM when you went through the process did you send in originals or copies of marriage, birth certificate etc? It seems that some are sending copies (could be what they were asked for) and months later they are asked to send in originals plus more evidence of relationship. I know your application had every T crossed and i dotted plus the fact that you lived in the DR.

Not sure what takes so long. I Imagine with the world financial situation the way it is more people are applying. Last year there were over 900,000 applications world wide and as you know Canada accepts about 250,000 per year but that has been raised a bit.

 

[Fiesta Mama]

FM when you went through the process did you send in originals or copies of marriage, birth certificate etc? It seems that some are sending copies (could be what they were asked for) and months later they are asked to send in originals plus more evidence of relationship.

I only sent copies of everything because that is what the instructions asked for at that time but they did ask my husband to see originals of his birth certificate and our marriage certificate when he had to drop off his passport and those were returned to us. We were not asked for any further evidence but I included every possible speck of evidence I had so there would not have been anything else I could have given them - i.e. phone bills; copies of stamps in my passport; my flight tickets from visits after I moved back home; lots of pictures of us doing lots of different things on the island so they could see we didn't just pose in front of his house; my will naming my husband as beneficiary; joint bank account information from the DR; letter from my landlord stating how long I had lived there and that she my husband and I to be a couple; I wrote a story of how we met, etc.... Everything you can think of helps.

Anna, you say I dotted every i and crossed every t but there is no reason that everyone can't do that same thing. Your package needs to be perfect! Read the instructions 20 times before you even begin! Don't give them a reason to hold up your application.

 

[Johana]

Whether it's more applications, less Visa officers, more stringent checks or some combination thereof the waits are now much longer.

There are many of us that can also say that we read the application 20x, sent every piece of proof of relationship that we had and still the best outcome is a 6-7 month wait with no interview.

I have wondered if each Embassy is allotted a certain amount of each visa type to issue each year. If there are more applicants than visas then they would need to prolong the process which would push some into the next year. Now, how they decide on which ones to take longer to process remains a complete mystery.

 

[AnnaC]

I have a question ...i tried to call to the immigration office ..nobody even answers the phone....can someone tell me....do u have to have a job to sponsor a spouse???( i am a student on osap)

Not sure what office you called but here is the website Sponsoring your family: Spouses and dependent children

The whole process is expense.

Edited to add
Osap is a financial aid program so I'm not sure if you qualify as a sponsor

Taken from the above site


You may not be eligible to be a sponsor if you:

• failed to provide financial support you agreed to when you signed a sponsorship agreement to sponsor another relative in the past
• defaulted on a court-ordered support order, such as alimony or child support
• received government financial assistance for reasons other than a disability
• were convicted of a violent criminal offence, any offence against a relative or any sexual offence—depending on circumstances such as the nature of the offence, how long ago it occurred and whether a pardon was issued
• defaulted on an immigration loan—late or missed payments
• are in prison or
• have declared bankruptcy and have not been released from it yet.

Other factors not included in this list might also make you ineligible to sponsor a relative.