Thread for outland Buffalo applicants!

[Love-Buf-Wings]

Hi everyone,

    Just an update, with the help of a number of friends and people willing to assist my husband, we have obtained the additional police certificate that was requested last week. It has been shipped from Swaziland to South Africa today and will arrive in Buffalo by Tuesday. The Visa Office will have it by mid next week. Hopefully, the process will be smoother and faster moving forward.

Wishing everyone speedy progress!

[spiritrac]

Thats Good news

[chess101]

Thanks as always for the correction. That was pretty embarrassing. I guess I should not post anything unless I know what I'm talking about, huh. Although, as long as it helps clear it up for someone out there, right? Maybe I was thinking of COPR - Confirmation of Permanent Residence Form, or maybe it's just the inconsistency of putting PPR or writing out the acronym. It seems no matter how many times I study these acronyms if I find them in people's signatures (Leon's, for example), or elsewhere in posts, I still never get the hang of this alphabet soup. I still would say that it's pretty frustrating that your application seems to be going through the requisite stages at a fairly smooth pace, and then you just stop getting anything and it's like in limbo.

No worries! Still waiting for the PPR.

[boomerang11]

Hi everyone,

    Just an update, with the help of a number of friends and people willing to assist my husband, we have obtained the additional police certificate that was requested last week. It has been shipped from Swaziland to South Africa today and will arrive in Buffalo by Tuesday. The Visa Office will have it by mid next week. Hopefully, the process will be smoother and faster moving forward.

Wishing everyone speedy progress!

That's such great news! It seemed like a daunting task..... Best wishes for smooth sailing.

[Stumpedmom]

Ecas finally updated today!!!  Application received in Buffalo on May 6th, 2011....so happy....

[doctorkb]

Thanks as always for the correction. That was pretty embarrassing. I guess I should not post anything unless I know what I'm talking about, huh. Although, as long as it helps clear it up for someone out there, right? Maybe I was thinking of COPR - Confirmation of Permanent Residence Form, or maybe it's just the inconsistency of putting PPR or writing out the acronym. It seems no matter how many times I study these acronyms if I find them in people's signatures (Leon's, for example), or elsewhere in posts, I still never get the hang of this alphabet soup. I still would say that it's pretty frustrating that your application seems to be going through the requisite stages at a fairly smooth pace, and then you just stop getting anything and it's like in limbo.

I had the same issue with the alphabet soup to start with.  Here's the basic order things go in for us:

AOR - Acknowledgement of Receipt (until ~Mar 1, Buffalo was sending these when they started working on the file.  Since ~Mar 1, they started sending them when the file was received in their office)

IA - Initial Assessment.  Describes whether additional documents are required (or not) and whether they are going to want an interview (or not).  Sometimes the IA is not sent and you go straight from AOR to PPR.

PPR - Passport Request.  Buffalo treats this as virtually the last step.  If they request your passport, you're almost guaranteed the visa.  Other embassies do it earlier in the process.

COPR - Confirmation of Permanent Residency.  Sent with the stamped passport after PPR.  The COPR is necessary for landing and is endorsed by the landing immigration officer (IO) at the point of landing.  This serves as proof to government agencies that you are a permanent resident between the time you land and when you get your PR card.

[Rinnerz]

This just got posted on another forum I visit. The original post was made by an immigration consultant on yet another forum (not one I visit often), found here. Bold added for emphasis.

TO ALL

The Visa Section of the Canadian Consulate in Buffalo will be closed to all walk-in temporary resident service from Monday, 06 June through Friday, 10 June 2011.

The closure is necessary to enable us to deal with an unprecedentedly large inventory of mail-in applications that have pushed our processing times for such applications to record lengths. Our goal is to use this time to eliminate this backlog completely.

We will still be accepting mail-in applications during that time. We will also continue to provide service to persons appearing to collect their Permanent Resident Visas on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and persons whose Permanent Resident interviews have been scheduled during that week in Buffalo.

The Visa Sections of the Canadian Consulates in New York, Washington, Detroit, Seattle and Los Angeles will maintain their regular walk-in service during this time.

Temporary Resident service includes applications for Temporary Resident Visas, Work Permits, Student Permits, Permanent Resident Travel Documents, Applications to Return to Canada, Applications for Criminal Rehabilitation and Temporary Resident Permits.


Burke Thornton
Consul (Immigration)
Consulate General of Canada - Buffalo
Consulat général du Canada - Buffalo

[amaranth]

Heh, I actually just commented on this in the other forum. Hopefully this means we will see things moving quickly soon 

[CandC2009]

Quick question do we know if that letter is refering to PR apps or just TR apps? because "an unprecedentedly large inventory of mail-in applications that have pushed our processing times for such applications to record lengths." could refer to just TR applications.

(Side note) Not trying to bring anyone down but I'd like some confirmation that they will be dealing with PR apps before I get my hopes up.

[amaranth]

Hmm... good point. I would hope that the PR apps would be a big part of the eliminating of the backlog.

I will stubbornly cling to this hope. 

[Rinnerz]

The thing is, if they were NOT going to be working on PR applications and/or accepting them, they would have said so. They were very specific about the services that won't be offered due to this shutdown. PR applications are mailed to them from CPC-M.

Regardless, I found this really interesting transcript from a House of Commons meeting held in March this year, where Burke Thornton gave a lot of interesting statistics about Buffalo employees. (It's here, very long.) He stated that there are only 51 employees under Buffalo's immigration section.

51.

And they work on all sorts of applications, not just PR. Given the small number of employees and the large volume of applications received, even if this "backlog" is mainly with TR visas and the "mail-in" applications they are referring to are TR applications, reducing that backlog should still, logically, help with PR applications as well.

[Morena]

I had the same issue with the alphabet soup to start with.  Here's the basic order things go in for us:

AOR - Acknowledgement of Receipt (until ~Mar 1, Buffalo was sending these when they started working on the file.  Since ~Mar 1, they started sending them when the file was received in their office)

IA - Initial Assessment.  Describes whether additional documents are required (or not) and whether they are going to want an interview (or not).  Sometimes the IA is not sent and you go straight from AOR to PPR.

PPR - Passport Request.  Buffalo treats this as virtually the last step.  If they request your passport, you're almost guaranteed the visa.  Other embassies do it earlier in the process.

COPR - Confirmation of Permanent Residency.  Sent with the stamped passport after PPR.  The COPR is necessary for landing and is endorsed by the landing immigration officer (IO) at the point of landing.  This serves as proof to government agencies that you are a permanent resident between the time you land and when you get your PR card.

My application was received in Buffalo on March 31. But i didn't received the AOR yet. Reading what you wrote here make me feel a little worry...should i?

[sparkle]

My application was received in Buffalo on March 31. But i didn't received the AOR yet. Reading what you wrote here make me feel a little worry...should i?

Morena,

You fall into the new computerized system where they probably updated your e-cas and showed Application Received as soon as they received it. It will take time before you get the actual AOR with file number. The last AOR they sent was for files received Feb first week. I got my file number just 2 weeks ago, and my file was received Feb 2. So nothing to worry about, you still have sometime before you get the file number.

[Love-Buf-Wings]

Thanks for the support and well wishes. I also think that things will move along faster than they have been in recent months. Let's keep patient and hopeful.

Have an excellent weekend!

[Morena]

Morena,

You fall into the new computerized system where they probably updated your e-cas and showed Application Received as soon as they received it. It will take time before you get the actual AOR with file number. The last AOR they sent was for files received Feb first week. I got my file number just 2 weeks ago, and my file was received Feb 2. So nothing to worry about, you still have sometime before you get the file number.

Thanks Sparkle! The waiting is part of this game...so for what i see, if they are working with the app received by Feb, and mine was received in March,  maybe i should receive the AOR letter by June then.