Thread for outland Buffalo applicants!

[AmericaninQuebec]

There are no files received in October that have been finalized according to the spreadsheet. I acknowledged that it was possible because the latest-applying people to have already received PPR had their files at Buffalo in August and their PPRs 2 to 3 months later. On the other hand, there have been people whose files have been at Buffalo for 7 months or more before they get PPR. So yeah, you're absolutely right when you say that it's random. Just another bit of evidence that when CIC writes in its operations manual that it processes applications in the order it receives them, they are not exactly being honest. In fact, I don't know if anyone has noticed it but there's a big block of green in the June section of the spreadsheet with many people in a row above that are NOT in green. This is becoming like a pattern with CIC. Right now pretty much all the people applying in March are done. But in the summer, there started to be a rapid succession of March applicants getting PPR one after the other, coloring out a big block of green in the spreadsheet, while people from February and earlier remained waiting. CIC thinks it's cute if they skip a month or two and then work exclusively on people who applied in that month. Or maybe they have performance quotas each month and every once in a while, they decide to work exclusively on the latest batch of applicants' files, say June, so they can raise their average dramatically after having sat on their hands for files that CPC-M got in April and May. I don't know. Not cute though, nope.

I think it's either the latter (to make sure that their average doesn't get too long) or the way they assign cases to visa officers. I wonder if they have something like teams, and some teams are habitually faster than others. Or maybe some visa officers are just that much more efficient than others. I don't know, I just know that I didn't get lucky and mine was definitely not handled efficiently. Even down to them getting my passport and COPR back to me, I had to pester them to get it put into the mail. I would so love to be a fly on the wall at Buffalo for the day just to better understand what the major fail is on their end. 

[Quince777]

I would so love to be a fly on the wall at Buffalo for the day just to better understand what the major fail is on their end. 

What a strange wish you have

[Hobby]

Opinions on the following unhappy scenarios, please?

Medical expires March 15, 2012.

Scenario 1:

CIC merrily processes our request, and drops a PPR February 20th-ish to March 15th, effectively giving us no time to have the passport returned and book a rental car to and from the States.

Scenario 2:

CIC decides it "needs more information" or "additional documents".  It sends us a BF date 90 days hence, thereby crashing our medical exam limitation.

Scenario 3:

CIC asks for an interview, after that magic day in March.

Scenario 4:


CIC just plain refuses, either with giving us reasons or not. 


I hope to gracious that they will be able to give us a yooper-type timeline however I am not as sanguine as that.  How freaked out would you be in our shoes, knowing it's January 9 and the medical will expire on March 15?
What would be YOUR major concerns with this?

[mjh49783aa]

Absolutely. I swear the waiting is the worst of it all, and it can place a strain on any marriage that has to contend with this process.

I feel like I am speeding up my aging process with all this immigration crap, thus reducing my "youth" time. Did it make sense to anyone what I just wrote ?

[AmericaninQuebec]

Opinions on the following unhappy scenarios, please?

Medical expires March 15, 2012.

Scenario 1:

CIC merrily processes our request, and drops a PPR February 20th-ish to March 15th, effectively giving us no time to have the passport returned and book a rental car to and from the States.

Scenario 2:

CIC decides it "needs more information" or "additional documents".  It sends us a BF date 90 days hence, thereby crashing our medical exam limitation.

Scenario 3:

CIC asks for an interview, after that magic day in March.

Scenario 4:


CIC just plain refuses, either with giving us reasons or not. 


I hope to gracious that they will be able to give us a yooper-type timeline however I am not as sanguine as that.  How freaked out would you be in our shoes, knowing it's January 9 and the medical will expire on March 15?
What would be YOUR major concerns with this?

My meds expired Nov. 2011, and I got PPR w/o a new meds request Dec. 2011. I did have my meds done by a DMP in Canada though, so I'm not certain if that helped. I wouldn't worry yourself unduly over your meds expiring. If it's an issue they'll request a new set, but hopefully they won't even mention it, give you your PPR and send you on your way.

[mjh49783aa]

I don't know about that. From my view, I'd be much more willing to give CIC $75 for a visitor record extension, than I would give an immigration lawyer $1000 plus, or even $300. Especially when I'm at the point in the process where I might not have even needed that visitor record extension after all. 

Haha, true but it beats dealing with CIC and giving them your money 

[ddobro2]

Chances are very slim you will have an interview. Those are almost always waived, unless you are not a U.S. citizen. Given that a waived interview means they believe your relationship is bona fida, you can count on your visa not being denied on the grounds of not being a member of the family class, so that would leave criminality, security, or medical reasons for inadmissability (or by virtue of an accompanying family member being inadmissable for one of those reasons, but since I assume you are the only applicant for PR, that doesn't apply in your scenario). By the way, I have only heard of one person going through Buffalo that had a visa denied and that was for an "inadmissable kid."

I have also not really heard of someone going through Buffalo being asked to redo their medicals (in contrast, they ask people at other VOs such as Damascus to redo them all the time). Apparently, they extend them for you on their end and you're none the wiser. And you have a very good chance of getting PPR before March in any case. Looking at GCMS would eliminate alot of the speculation about docs requests too.

Opinions on the following unhappy scenarios, please?

Medical expires March 15, 2012.

Scenario 1:

CIC merrily processes our request, and drops a PPR February 20th-ish to March 15th, effectively giving us no time to have the passport returned and book a rental car to and from the States.

Scenario 2:

CIC decides it "needs more information" or "additional documents".  It sends us a BF date 90 days hence, thereby crashing our medical exam limitation.

Scenario 3:

CIC asks for an interview, after that magic day in March.

Scenario 4:


CIC just plain refuses, either with giving us reasons or not.  


I hope to gracious that they will be able to give us a yooper-type timeline however I am not as sanguine as that.  How freaked out would you be in our shoes, knowing it's January 9 and the medical will expire on March 15?
What would be YOUR major concerns with this?

[moochops]

What a strange wish you have

oooh I don't know - I wouldn't mind that one either!!!!

[imp]

Did anyone else have a visitor record stapled into their passports when they had to send it in after PPR?  I'm trying to decide if I'm supposed to just leave it in there or if I should take it out before I send it.

[AmericaninQuebec]

Did anyone else have a visitor record stapled into their passports when they had to send it in after PPR?  I'm trying to decide if I'm supposed to just leave it in there or if I should take it out before I send it.

I did, and my passport is currently out for delivery with the mailman according to the tracking info, so when it gets here later today I'll post and let you know if they left the visitor record in there or not.

[Pigey]

Ooooh! Now that's exciting news!

I did, and my passport is currently out for delivery with the mailman according to the tracking info, so when it gets here later today I'll post and let you know if they left the visitor record in there or not.

[Pigey]

There are two DMPs in my area (near San Francisco), I will be paying $400 US each for my daughter and myself. The other MD said $445... He will not be doing the pap smear, but does want to see the results of a recent pap smear. Reading through the physician's forms, it is an item that they are supposed to request. I may have my husband call his physician and ask how much they would charge.

Wait, what? I can't believe I just assumed they all charged the same thing! I wonder if I got cheated or not...I ended up paying $210 CDN (if I recall correctly) at the DMP I saw in Montreal. Is that over/under what you paid?

[AllisonVSC]

Thankfully not according to Ddobro2's spreadsheet. A 3 month total turn around time? I don't think anyone has seen that out of Buffalo in a few years now. I know someone who got PPR back in 2009 or 2010 (forget which) after a 4 mth wait (including spousal sponsorship app processing time), but that's pretty much the shortest I've ever heard of. I think a safe bet average is about 6 or 7 mths.

Mine was just less than 3 months start to finish (including sponsorship) in late 2009.

[AllisonVSC]

I have also not really heard of someone going through Buffalo being asked to redo their medicals (in contrast, they ask people at other VOs such as Damascus to redo them all the time). Apparently, they extend them for you on their end and you're none the wiser. And you have a very good chance of getting PPR before March in any case. Looking at GCMS would eliminate alot of the speculation about docs requests too.

I know 3 non-forum B'lo spousal applicants that had to re-do medicals. One took over 2.5 years, another is still in process from July 2010 and I don't have the details on the third.

[Quince777]

I know 3 non-forum B'lo spousal applicants that had to re-do medicals. One took over 2.5 years, another is still in process from July 2010 and I don't have the details on the third.

Ohh my.. Was their circumstances any more different from ours which is why they had to wait for so long to get processed?