MY FIANCEE IS 20 YEARS YOUNGER THAN ME..............PLEASE ADVISE

[Canadian-loyal]

I do work for CIC... CPC-Mississauga to be exact.

I am curious. Are CIC officers allowed to get involved in such immigration forums.... Not only this buta also to admit frankly their work and work place?

[hoping75]

It is really a great help to get answers from someone who is directly involved in the process. I have seen many of TaaDow's answers, and he or she, has been a great asset to this Forum.

[Gotchaa]

I must thank you for your detailed and comprehensive reply. It does help me to soothe out a bit and seems like my patience level for waiting has gone up! Just wanted to share my experience about how Islamabad embassy is processing my case. I received AOR in late January 2007 and I had an interview around late September 2007. I have provided every document to their satisfaction and didn't get it back for resubmission or something. I received a phone call after one month of my interview to submit some more information which I did the very next day. After one month again I received a phone call  for the same request! I humbly explained that I have sent you a letter with the information and have also got confirmation receipt from the courier company that it has been delivered to the right place with name of the recipient and time. However, I sent the same letter again and faxed the delivery confirmation receipt for the record. I have two concerns with this procedure with all due respect. Firstly, isn't it contrary to CIC's policy not to disclose any information over telephone to the applicants yet to ask personal information regarding the case through same medium? Secondly, wouldn't it raise doubts in the minds of the applicants towards the credibility of the staff to waste one month while the information has been delivered and still I have no prove if they got it again or not? I got double bad luck since my application is being processed through Islamabad and my medical file was sent to New Dehli and you have already informed that New Dehli is among the slowest due to heavy load of applications. Islamabad itself seems to be among the slowest as well. Upon my recent query about status of my case I was given a reply that my case is under review with the senior officer and they will contact me for further  instructions once senior officer has reviewed the case so I should wait patiently. Cant applicants be told the specific reason for delay? is it because they might try to manipulate something to speed up the process? for instance, if embassy has sent a letter to any local authority for some background check and waiting for a reply, an applicant might approach the department and bribe someone to either send a favorable reply or quick reply. Is that why it is kept secret? I do appreciate the fact that due to fraud and forgeries thousands of immigrants have abused the Canadian immigration system. But mostly it seems that genuine people are scrutinized to the fullest and yet maybe denied eventually after a long waiting. On the other hand, those who have ill intentions are still going to Canada much more quickly than the deserving ones. I have heard of sister sponsoring her brother as husband! which is gross but then those who have immoral approach for their vested interests are making it harder for genuine, sincere, honest applicants. And CIC instead of deporting such fraudulent people later on, gets more vigorous with honest applicants. This is my opinion and could be wrong. If CIC denies my application after more than a year I have nothing else to do but to go throw yet another agonizing process of appeal. Cant they sent a letter to the applicant indicating that application apparently has been accepted but we have to make certain check before issuing you a visa and it will take this much time? this way the applicant is satisfied that his case has been accepted subject to certain formalities. For example, police verification. The applicant is sure he has no police issue either in the past or present so it will be resolved eventually. But the one who does have a police issue will try to do something about it and might make a mistake and get caught in his own trap. similarly medical report from new dehli is taking long due to heavy load of application so please rest assured that your application has been principally accepted subject to clearance of your medical. In case applicant knows he has some major decease which might hinder his visa will know that before hand, vice versa someone who knows he has no medical issues will wait patiently and happily that he will have the visa eventually. But this uncertainty and then sudden death decision after such a long waiting is very devastating. Some applicants reach to the point of just having the decision no matter what it is rather than going through this waiting game. Sorry for writing so long but I couldn't resist pouring my thoughts out. Thanks for bearing me everyone.

[TaaDow]

I am curious. Are CIC officers allowed to get involved in such immigration forums.... Not only this buta also to admit frankly their work and work place?

While I'm sure it's not encouraged, and we do have rules about giving legal advise, I simply try to provide a service that makes both our lives easier. You'll note that I never provide legal advise in my responses and everything I offer are to be taken as Suggestions and it is all information that is publicly available. You will also note that my profile contains no personal information or contact information that could identify me, and I work in an office of 140 or more staff, so identifying me through my posts is unlikely. Even in our written communications with sponsors and other clients, we only use initials which we have been assigned to identify ourselves (these are not usually our actual initials).

So I feel I've met the obligations of my position and will continue to provide suggestions that will help your processes and hopefully make my job just a little but easier.

NOTE: a few members of this forum have attempted to contact me through private messages with questions, I have not and will not respond to these as they tend to be requesting much more specific/legal advise and I will not provide that service as per my position with CIC. If you cannot get the information you need here or from the CIC website, I suggest contacting a local community immigration centre or an immigration lawyer depending on your situation.

but then those who have immoral approach for their vested interests are making it harder for genuine, sincere, honest applicants.

Truer words have never been typed... it's unfortunate... and I'll be the first to admit that our system for removal of those here illegally is very broken, but also very difficult to fix. One look at how other countries, with similar governing bodies to that of Canada, deal with illegal immigration proves there is no simple answer.

[Canadian-loyal]

I am curious. Are CIC officers allowed to get involved in such immigration forums.... Not only this buta also to admit frankly their work and work place?

While I'm sure it's not encouraged, and we do have rules about giving legal advise, I simply try to provide a service that makes both our lives easier. You'll note that I never provide legal advise in my responses and everything I offer are to be taken as Suggestions and it is all information that is publicly available. You will also note that my profile contains no personal information or contact information that could identify me, and I work in an office of 140 or more staff, so identifying me through my posts is unlikely. Even in our written communications with sponsors and other clients, we only use initials which we have been assigned to identify ourselves (these are not usually our actual initials).

TaaDow

Do you have membership in other forums? Do you answer and help members there as well?

[TaaDow]

I've stopped by a couple other boards, but I find this one has the most traffic and the greatest variety of questions of those I've seen... not crazy about the fact that it's tied to an immigration lawyer/consultant, but that's another issue, but at least it's Cohen and I've had very few problems with him... ALTHOUGH I WISH HIS OFFICE WOULD STOP PUTTING PAGE DIVIDERS AND PROTECTIVE COVERS ON EVERYTHING, WE JUST REMOVE AND TRASH THESE AND IT'S A WASTE OF OUR AND YOUR TIME.

See another noted suggestion... if you include any binders, protective covers, page seperators etc... these will be removed and either trashed or the employee will keep them if they're worth re-using. I've obtained some beautiful photo albums and decorative binders in this way. So please, save yourself and my staff some time and cost and don't add these items... oh and don't give us Musical Cards and CD/DVD's, these cannot be sent overseas and will either be destroyed (if a copy) or returned to the sponsor.

If you can recommend other sites I'd definately go take a peak. I don't really devote a lot of time to this as it's just to kill time, and once I'm home I don't think about work issues any more.