Thread for outland Buffalo applicants!

[CandC2009]

So Hubby emailed Buffalo yesterday and today we got this:

"Your application is in process. No further action is required by you at this time."

So I guess they're just not updating ecas (my husbands is still at application received) They didn't say when it started being processed but I'm content knowing that they are processing it.

So if you're application was in Buffalo on or before Jan 26th chances are you are in process as well

[Doiron]

What if you reach the border and PR application is in process, but you do not have proof of ties to home country?  I am a stay at home mom (in the US), my family lives 250 miles away from me currently. I only have a bank statement and all my belongings will be put into storage near the border. My husband and kids will be crossing the border with me.  I am not nervous about the crossing, but anxious to get the formality over with.

[Morena]

What if you reach the border and PR application is in process, but you do not have proof of ties to home country?  I am a stay at home mom (in the US), my family lives 250 miles away from me currently. I only have a bank statement and all my belongings will be put into storage near the border. My husband and kids will be crossing the border with me.  I am not nervous about the crossing, but anxious to get the formality over with.

I am in the same situation. Living in the US, stay at home mom. Wishing to travel back to Canada to wait for my PR with my hubby, but afraid about crossing the border. We have a baby who is dual citizen(US/CAN)

[Morena]

Hi buffalo-toronto,
My attorney got my AOR yesterday and I am from Feb group. I believe if you look at Sparkles spreadsheet you'll be able to see how everyone is progressing.  

Congrats dominico!!  that was super fast!!

Doiron are u the sponsor? did u ger the AOR like an email or a letter? 'My timeline is very close to yours. I wish i can get my AOR next Monday 

[shelleydalyce]

Doiron are u the sponsor? did u ger the AOR like an email or a letter? 'My timeline is very close to yours. I wish i can get my AOR next Monday 

Our ap was filed February 1st and I haven't gotten anything yet...

[Doiron]

Doiron are u the sponsor? did u ger the AOR like an email or a letter? 'My timeline is very close to yours. I wish i can get my AOR next Monday  

Hi Morena

I am the sponsoree, my hubby is a Canadian citizen sponsor. We live together in US with our 3 dual citizen children. Our attorney got an AOR email on the 18th. I am so thrilled it finally arrived as my application was not complete. We still needed to send the FBI and RPRF, which was all sent off today, because we were waiting for the File # from buffalo. My family is going to leave the US in June and I am concerned that there is a chance our family could be split up any given length of time. Because we have no house (we rent), no job, I will purchase a return bus ticket or perhaps a refundable plan ticket back to the states, my belongings in storage and we'll have a bank statement.  But that is pretty much all we will have! My attorney said it would be okay as long as we are honest, but my attorney is paid to give me peace of mind. LOL

I hope you do get AOR soon, it seems like Buffalo is finally waking up! Have you made plans to join your hubby?

[Morena]

Hi Morena

I am the sponsoree, my hubby is a Canadian citizen sponsor. We live together in US with our 3 dual citizen children. Our attorney got an AOR email on the 18th. I am so thrilled it finally arrived as my application was not complete. We still needed to send the FBI and RPRF, which was all sent off today, because we were waiting for the File # from buffalo. My family is going to leave the US in June and I am concerned that there is a chance our family could be split up any given length of time. Because we have no house (we rent), no job, I will purchase a return bus ticket or perhaps a refundable plan ticket back to the states, my belongings in storage and we'll have a bank statement.  But that is pretty much all we will have! My attorney said it would be okay as long as we are honest, but my attorney is paid to give me peace of mind. LOL

I hope you do get AOR soon, it seems like Buffalo is finally waking up! Have you made plans to join your hubby?

Thanks for the reply Dorion! We don't have any plans yet. We are just worry about the possibility of an interview and then need to buy a fligth ticket to NY and then another one for Canada. Too much money. So, we decided to wait for a while to see how things are moving. We paid the RPRF with the application. Buffalo received  the app since March 31th. So...reading your post i understand now that the AOR email or letter is for me the sponsoree! The waiting is driving me crazy!

[pdb1]

Hi Morena

I am the sponsoree, my hubby is a Canadian citizen sponsor. We live together in US with our 3 dual citizen children. Our attorney got an AOR email on the 18th. I am so thrilled it finally arrived as my application was not complete. We still needed to send the FBI and RPRF, which was all sent off today, because we were waiting for the File # from buffalo. My family is going to leave the US in June and I am concerned that there is a chance our family could be split up any given length of time. Because we have no house (we rent), no job, I will purchase a return bus ticket or perhaps a refundable plan ticket back to the states, my belongings in storage and we'll have a bank statement.  But that is pretty much all we will have! My attorney said it would be okay as long as we are honest, but my attorney is paid to give me peace of mind. LOL

I hope you do get AOR soon, it seems like Buffalo is finally waking up! Have you made plans to join your hubby?

Hi Doiron,

Just a quick question, what information did you exactly send when you refer to FBI and RPRF. I do not know what RPRF stands for?

Thanks,

[pdb1]

Our ap was filed February 1st and I haven't gotten anything yet...

Are you able to access e-cas now? I only applied on May 6th and reading your post to seems there could be long wait without any feedback.

[Doiron]

Hi Doiron,

Just a quick question, what information did you exactly send when you refer to FBI and RPRF. I do not know what RPRF stands for?

Thanks,

We sent the FBI clearance letter to buffalo so they see I have no criminal record in the US. We also sent the "RPRF" which is short for Right of Permanent Residence Fee ($490 CAD) which is the fee you can pay up front when you submit your application to Missisauga or you can delay it, like we did, but it will inevitably delay your application by paying it late.

Thanks for the reply Dorion! We don't have any plans yet. We are just worry about the possibility of an interview and then need to buy a fligth ticket to NY and then another one for Canada. Too much money. So, we decided to wait for a while to see how things are moving. We paid the RPRF with the application. Buffalo received  the app since March 31th. So...reading your post i understand now that the AOR email or letter is for me the sponsoree! The waiting is driving me crazy!

I hope you don't have an interview. Argh that would be alot of trouble to go through for it. So I can understand why you are worried. I am pretty sure we wont have an interview, but you never know for sure. We are going to Toronto, so if there is an interview Buffalo is not to far way. The wait is crazy!!  I have faith that we all will see miracles in the next  months and that we all will be so blessed to be where we need to be in Canada!
Where are you headed to in Canada?

[Morena]

I hope you don't have an interview. Argh that would be alot of trouble to go through for it. So I can understand why you are worried. I am pretty sure we wont have an interview, but you never know for sure. We are going to Toronto, so if there is an interview Buffalo is not to far way. The wait is crazy!!  I have faith that we all will see miracles in the next  months and that we all will be so blessed to be where we need to be in Canada!
Where are you headed to in Canada?
[/quote]

Thanks Dorion. I will be in Vancouver, British Columbia. Very far from Buffalo...that's why.

[QCSunshine]

I wanted to write and update on my trip to Buffalo last week to get the visa because I know I read about others' experiences before I went to get mine, so I would have a better idea what to expect. Maybe this will help somebody else as they prepare to go to Buffalo...?

Because of train and bus schedules that didn't work well with getting to Buffalo during their Tues/Thurs office hours from where I am at the moment, I ended up buying a plane ticket. I flew in on Monday and spent the night at a hotel by the airport (they have shuttles between the airport and the airport hotels). That evening, I booked a taxi to pick me up on the following morning, Tuesday, at 7 am. The guy who checked me in at the hotel recommended the taxi company. The taxi arrived on time, and it took less than 20 minutes to get to the HSBC building downtown. The fare was about $35. (I flew with only a large purse-sized bag, since Buffalo CIC says that only purses and briefcases are allowed into their offices; no luggage.)

I walked in, took the escalator up to the main lobby, then was told to go back down and wait behind the escalator near the Tim Horton's. The guard came down around 7:30 or so and led us all back up to the lobby. There were maybe 15 of us at this point. We each showed our passports and received a numbered sticker that we were told to place on our right or left side. We then were told to take the elevator to the 30th floor (which has a Canadian flag on the floor button.) I was maybe 10th in line.

Once there on the 30th floor, we were told to turn off and check in our cell phones and they gave us a number that corresponded to the lock box/mini locker thing where they were stored in at the guard's desk. We then had to wait in another line to check in. This is the line leading to a window where one turns in the documents (for PR it would be the passport, the email requesting the passport, the page with the height and eye color, and the 2 photos). I was given a number and told to wait in the lobby until my number was called. This took a while and I was thankful for the book I had brought with me to pass the time. The lobby kept getting fuller as time passed until it was pretty much completely full, with people still waiting in the long check-in line. Just after 9:30 am, they called my number and some other numbers and told us to line up at a particular interview cabin (which was right there in the lobby area).  We took turns going in, and were each given our COPR and passport with the visa. We were told to check our details (spelling of our name, country of citizenship, etc) before leaving their office, and instructed not to sign the COPR until we are at the border and are in the process of actually landing. (My eye color was wrong on my COPR, but when I told the person at the window, she said it was fine and that it didn't matter, so I left without getting it corrected. But it still makes me a little nervous even though she seemed quite certain it was not a problem.)

After leaving the building, I walked around a little, but it was cold and after getting some pizza at the nearby mall (Gino & Joe's Pizza) which was thankfully open and serving pizza when I went around 10-something in the morning, I ended up deciding to go back to the airport about 6 hours early for my flight. (And I had to buy another book to pass all that time!)

I will be landing next week...

[mishabear96]

Morena, if you're in Vancouver, my understanding is that you can indicate Seattle for interview in the Country Specific Instructions.  Admittedly they can still make you go to Buffalo...but seems to me in the unlikely event of interview CIC will try to accommodate?

BTW, I'm in the Vancouver area as well ("visiting") and am just getting my stuff together to apply Outland after much foot dragging.  I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions for all you veterans  .

[mommyk]

Doiron and Morena,

My family is in very similar circumstances to yours so I thought I would share my experience.

I am a Canadian-US dual citizen who resided in the US for over 15 years.  My husband is a US citizen and our 4 children, all born in the US are dual.  We decided we wanted to move to Canada but for the last 2 years my husband has been a stay at home dad and I have been working full time.  We don't own any property in the US and have been renting for the last several years.  We lost everything when my husband's business failed a few years ago so we really have no financial assets of any kind and I was worried about the lack of ties to the US as well.

We all came to Canada together in March and like you both, we were a little concerned about the border crossing, so we left most of our belongings in storage in the US so we didn't throw up any red flags.  The officer at the border where we crossed with both of our vehicles and 1 small u-haul trailer was very helpful once we explained our situation.  He gave my husband a 6 month visitor visa in his passport and said he should be able to renew it if the PR is still not processed when it expires.  He said that since we are married and have been living together, we can't really separate our possessions into his and mine so he just let me bring everything we had with us listed in my name as a returning Canadian.

We were up front with him that we understand the law and that if for any reason my husband is not approved, we will all just move back to the US as we cannot be separated.  He didn't seem concerned and now I sort of wish we had just brought all of our stuff then since now we probably have to wait until he lands to get it.  We have been in temporary furnished housing for the last 2 1/2 months but in a week we will move into a completely empty apartment..... we are thinking of it as camping

The one thing that was a concern was that we were going to keep one of our vehicles registered in the US until my husband got his PR but the border officer at the Canadian border asked us if we had a physical residence in the US and since we don't (we just have a UPS store address for mail), he said we were not allowed to keep a vehicle registered there.  So, we had to import both of our vehicles, which was a hassle because we hadn't done the advance paperwork and export from the U.S. of the second vehicle beforehand. 

I'm sure the fact that we have been married for 14 years and have 4 children together proves the legitimacy of the relationship but I was still concerned about them not allowing my husband to accompany us due to horror stories I have read.  In our case, it worked out fine, though I must admit I am still nervous about crossing the border again before he gets his PR even though I am dying to cross to do some shopping.  I still worry that a different border officer might refuse my husband back for some reason.

[shelleydalyce]

Are you able to access e-cas now? I only applied on May 6th and reading your post to seems there could be long wait without any feedback.

Oh yeah.. the last update from ecas said the pr ap was received by buffalo march 10. since then - nothing.