Can I change my VO from country of residence to home country?

[NKKD Hortons]

Hi Seniors,

I have an important question to be answered. I just sent in my application to CIO on July25th 2011 with Buffalo as VO. USA is our current country of residence and we are eligible to choose Buffalo VO as we have been residing here legally for a period of more than one year. We might soon end up with a situation where we have to go back to our home country for a change of visa status and stay there for a period of 1 to 2 months. Will this effect our application in terms of eligibility to proceed with our application processing with buffalo VO. If not, is there a way to change my VO to my home country? Has anybody done that before? Did anyone have a similar situation? Please give your suggestions and comments.

Thanks in advance for any reply.

[mekeni]

Hi,


 
I applied on May 2010,my representative realized that we requested for a wrong visa office,my lawyer requested for change of VO after receiving my 1st AOR via email. CIO advised us to just re apply again,still with my lawyer advise we submitted my full docs and request again to the wrong VO on March 2011 so 2nd week of July the VO returned my complete documents and advised to re apply again.still waiting for the refund.We re applied just last 7/29/11 and hoping for a continuous and smooth processing this time. I think you can go back to your home country for a while, just update CIO or VO and obtain police clearance,not sure about this,anyways, Goodluck to us!

[NKKD Hortons]

Hi,

I applied on May 2010,my representative realized that we requested for a wrong visa office,my lawyer requested for change of VO after receiving my 1st AOR via email. CIO advised us to just re apply again,still with my lawyer advise we submitted my full docs and request again to the wrong VO on March 2011 so 2nd week of July the VO returned my complete documents and advised to re apply again.still waiting for the refund.We re applied just last 7/29/11 and hoping for a continuous and smooth processing this time. I think you can go back to your home country for a while, just update CIO or VO and obtain police clearance,not sure about this,anyways, Goodluck to us!

Dear mekeni,

Thank you so much for sharing this with me. A +1 to you. Its now partly understood that CIO is not open to changing of VO.

Any other comments my dear friends on the forum?

[mitali]

Dear mekeni,

Thank you so much for sharing this with me. A +1 to you. Its now partly understood that CIO is not open to changing of VO.

Any other comments my dear friends on the forum?

CIC does not entertain requests from applicants to change VO. But they can do so only for the sake of "Program Integrity" purpose.

"Program integrity includes issues such as ability to effectively evaluate documents: knowledge of
local security and criminality environments; or familiarity with business practices and procedures.
Other factors may be taken into account when evaluating the impact of a file transfer on program
integrity."

Mitali

[NKKD Hortons]

CIC does not entertain requests from applicants to change VO. But they can do so only for the sake of "Program Integrity" purpose.

"Program integrity includes issues such as ability to effectively evaluate documents: knowledge of
local security and criminality environments; or familiarity with business practices and procedures.
Other factors may be taken into account when evaluating the impact of a file transfer on program
integrity."

Mitali

Hi Mitali,
Can u please share with me the link from where you have taken the above lines. Thanks for your response.

[scylla]

Hi Mitali,
Can u please share with me the link from where you have taken the above lines. Thanks for your response.

It's taken from this CIC operational bulletin:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/bulletins/2010/ob180.asp

[scylla]

The same operational bulletin also includes the following statement:

"Leaving a visa office's territory alone does not warrant a file transfer. In this case, if an applicant requests a file transfer, the visa office should inform them that the application will not be transferred and that they are required to submit a complete application to the visa office originally specified within the 120 day deadline allotted by the CIO."

[NKKD Hortons]

It's taken from this CIC operational bulletin:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/bulletins/2010/ob180.asp

Thank you scylla. +1 to scylla and mitali.

[mitali]

Thank you scylla. +1 to scylla and mitali.

Thanks...NKKD Hortons. Hope the OP manual link provided by scylla will help you.

Mitali

[mwansaa]

Hi Seniors,

I have an important question to be answered. I just sent in my application to CIO on July25th 2011 with Buffalo as VO. USA is our current country of residence and we are eligible to choose Buffalo VO as we have been residing here legally for a period of more than one year. We might soon end up with a situation where we have to go back to our home country for a change of visa status and stay there for a period of 1 to 2 months. Will this effect our application in terms of eligibility to proceed with our application processing with buffalo VO. If not, is there a way to change my VO to my home country? Has anybody done that before? Did anyone have a similar situation? Please give your suggestions and comments.

Thanks in advance for any reply.

If you are returning back to US after change of visa status, you may not need to change VO to home country. 

[NKKD Hortons]

If you are returning back to US after change of visa status, you may not need to change VO to home country. 

Thank you mwansaa. Everyone who wants to know more about the application process should read the operational manuals in the CIC website.