Medical/police report question

[Canadaussie]

I am going to be sponsoring my wife from Australia and I have a question regarding the medical and police reports:

- Which is the best time to get these reports done? Before filling out the application forms or after you've sent the forms for processing?

The reason I ask is we were thinking we had to include everything with the forms when they're sent out, including proof of relationship, marriage certificate, *and* the medical and police reports. But now we're seeing that a lot of the time medical and police reports are done *while* the application is being processed. Which way is more efficient? We just want to know the best first step. Filling out the forms or getting the reports done?

Thank you for any info.

[Gdaymate]

Hi Canadaussie

There are two options for applications to be processed - you can choose outland (outside Canada, usually the applicant's home country consulate and tends to be a bit faster) or inland (within Canada, often slower to finalise the whole thing, but if you apply for an Open Work Permit at the same time your wife could be with you and working in around the same time frame as an outland application). 

If you're going the outland route (eg Sydney Consulate) they prefer you to do everything up-front so get the medicals and police reports done and send the whole lot in together.  And if memory serves me, I believe the region specific forms for Oz tell you to do everything upfront.

With the inland route you've got two choices - send them in up front and run the risk you'll need to re-do them if PR isn't  finalised before they expire, or wait until they ask for them, which may hold things up for a little while as they'll mark your file with a "bring forward date" (which can be 1-3 months in the future) while they wait for you to send in the requested items.  It's up to you which way you go with in-land.

In my opinion go outland, as I can also tell you the Sydney Consulate staff are extremely friendly and helpful, they will take calls and emails - and they'll even call you back if they can't answer a question straight away!  They've also told me it's their "policy" to try and get any applications processed within a 6 month timeframe - including the time it takes at CIC Mississauaga.  And your wife still has the option of visiting with you in Canada while it's processed so it doesn't mean you have to be apart.

Hope that helps.