Thread for January 2011 Applicants

[doctorkb]

We mailed ours on Jan 3/11.  Sponsorship decision made Feb 3/11.  Approval letter in the mailbox today (Feb 9/11).

Here's hoping the rest of it goes quickly as well!

[Kaycee1]

Name	Office	Ap.Rcv	ecas active	Spons Appr	InProcess	AOR	PPR	LANDED
AKGAZ	London	04/01	28/01	26/01 (24d)
IndividualLike	London	04/01	02/02	31/01 (27d)
Vish	New Delhi	06/01		01/02 (27d)		07/02
doctorkb	Buffalo	06/01	06/02	03/02 (28d)
mikeandem		07/01
ariannecat		10/01
kdr	Mexico	10/01	07/02	04/02 (25d)
pmary	Buffalo	13/01	09/02	07/02 (25d)
Wells Dad	Buffalo	15/01		01/02 (17d)
AlieW	Tel Aviv	17/01	10/02	08/02 (22d)
ocu_canadian	Buffalo	17/01
shandymoo	London	18/01
shykitten	London	19/01?
dishy_max	London	19/01?
Kaycee1	Paris	20/01
arunsgirl	Vienna	20/01
def_col_male	New Delhi	21/01
fleo	Vegreville	24/01
palomadiego	Accra	26/01
davidgarcin	Buffalo	27/01

Please let me know what Visa office you are going through for the new people just added

[doctorkb]

I'm not sure what's meant by "e-CAS e-mail" -- I haven't received anything by e-mail yet, though e-CAS was active for me (as sponsor) on the 6th of Feb with "Decision Made".

AND, to correct your table, the App wasn't RECEIVED by CPC-M until Jan 6 (or 10, depending on whether you trust Canadapost or CPC-M's record more)

[Kaycee1]

OK, I fixed it - and changed it to ecas "active" instead

[arunsgirl]

Congratulations to everyone who got sponsorship decisions! 

I wish you all the best in faze 2.

For all of us who are just about to get checked by the Mississauga office...I hope it goes fast and well.

[AlieW]

Hey All,

I just got an email from ecas and signed in and we have a 'decision made' !!

They made the decision on Feb 8th

 I can not tell you how happy I am (we didn't send our medical receipt with the original package as per the instructions of the visa office proccessing our application and I have been stressing out for the last 3 weeks that they would return our package to us)!

My partner and I are in israel so i'm sure it will be a while before we get the letter from them, but just throught I would update you all as there are several of us who sent the application in around the same time

Cheers and and keeping our eyes on the mail!

[Vish]

Good morning all,
E-CAS says "Application received by ND on Feb 7,2011". So far so good!
Cheers,
V

[def_col_male]

 @ AlieW

Congrats!!

Hey All,

I just got an email from ecas and signed in and we have a 'decision made' !!

They made the decision on Feb 8th

 I can not tell you how happy I am (we didn't send our medical receipt with the original package as per the instructions of the visa office proccessing our application and I have been stressing out for the last 3 weeks that they would return our package to us)!

My partner and I are in israel so i'm sure it will be a while before we get the letter from them, but just throught I would update you all as there are several of us who sent the application in around the same time

Cheers and and keeping our eyes on the mail!

[Kaycee1]

Lots of exciting news! Congrats to everyone, hopefully we can fill in more of our table this week!!!

[palomadiego]

Hi everyone, good to know a forum like this exist, my husband is sent out our application jan 25 and cic received jan 26. my vo is ghana. congrats to all those who scaled through and for those of us waiting we'll get there.   

[Panda]

Cuts to family-reunification visas upset Asians
Community 'angry' elders may be kept out of country for years
By Suzanne Fournier, The Province February 10, 2011

Vancouver's Asian community is furious at allegations Immigration Canada is planning to dramatically cut visas issued this year for family reunification.

The reduction in visas in 2011 cuts to the heart of Asian and South Asian families, who especially cherish the contribution of elders to family life.

Seniors are being sentenced to a 13-year wait that many of them won't survive, say immigration experts.

Thomas Tam, chief executive officer of SUCCESS immigrant services, called the reduced visa numbers "a big surprise and so disappointing -everyone is angry."

"Traditionally for Asian immigrants, the reunion with grandparents is very important. Parents rely on them for childcare and our community looks after grandparents. They are not a financial burden."

Immigration Canada is planning for "fewer immigrant visas overall, a reduction from 230,450 in 2010 to 217,800 visas in 2011, a drop of over five per cent," noted Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland, who got the never-released data under an Access to Information request.

"You're more likely now to get a coffin than a visa to Canada," Kurland said Wednesday.

"If you're hoping to bring a grandparent over for a christening, they'll be lucky to get here before the child graduates from high school."

Although Kurland notes there will be slight increases in visas issued in 2011 to business immigrants, such as entrepreneurs or wealthy investors, "the only group chosen for the back of the bus are parents and grandparents."

Particularly hard-hit will be elders from cities such as New Delhi, "which will see the number of its visas drop from 4,500 in 2010 to 2,500 in 2011," said Kurland.

Charan Gill of Progressive Intercultural Community Services was incensed at the apparent drastic reduction in the numbers of parents being allowed to emigrate from India.

"Already we have so many families waiting five, six years to bring parents over. Now people will die before they see their family in Canada," said Gill.

And while Asia/Pacific visa quotas are reduced overall, the city of Beijing appears to have been given an increase.

"That means there will be only 11,200 parents/grandparents come to Canada from China in all of 2011, but one in four of them will be from Beijing," noted Kurland. "Everyone else has to wait."

Johanne Nadeau, spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, cautioned that "the visa targets only serve as a planning tool to help allocate scarce resources, manage applications and minimize processing delays across a global network."

Nadeau said the "visa targets change from year to year" and are "adjusted as necessary."

It would be "wrong to infer from planning numbers how many people Canada will actually welcome in 2011," she said.

Nadeau noted that, in 2010, Canada "welcomed the highest level of permanent residents in 50 years."

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/Cuts+family+reunification+visas+upset+Asians/4255890/story.html#ixzz1DZkExbNz

-----------------------------

If the above is true IT SUCKS big time, in the news release in November it said that quotas have been increased for family reunification and now they are saying it's decreased drastically, I hope SPOUSE Visas are not affected with this, For Parents and Grand Parents it will be a 13 year wait now WTF sorry for being agitated but it really is bad, Canada is really tightening down the way it's allowing the immigrants.

Hope for the best folks!

Cheers;
Panda

[shelleydalyce]

AS I said in the February thread... Parents/grandparents and spouses are two completely different processes. With two different processing times. Ours is 20-30 days for the first step. Theirs is 9 or 10 months. This article says NOTHING about spouses. It's ridiculous to freak people out unneccesarily. Read before you freak yourself out. 

[shandymoo]

Wow AlieW congrats, i am extremely jealous!
  still nothing for me...
hopefully tomorrow 

[AlieW]

Wow AlieW congrats, i am extremely jealous!
  still nothing for me...
hopefully tomorrow 

I'm sure you'll see an update tomorrow - i was quite surprised when i got mine, i wasn't expecting it until next week! Have you signed up for e-cas tracker yet? I got an email to my inbox saying my ecas was activated as well as what it said. Good luck and keep me posted!

[shandymoo]

yes i signed up for the tracker last week.

no emails, no letters 
I really didn't think it would be this hard as I have been in a long distance relationship for over 6 years now but i think that knowing that it's close to the end that makes it so much more difficult.