Thread for outland Buffalo applicants!

[ddobro2]

Lol, good   Good luck with the extension   

I absolutely love you ddobro2!!!!!  lol Okay... ahem, calm now.  But that news just makes me so happy to hear!  Now all I can pray for is I'm approved for extension of stay I'm applying for next month so I can be around for the extra month I need to be CL come May.    Keep your fingers crossed!

[ddobro2]

Well, what does the PPR letter say?

So we've decided to present the passport in person in LA, given the cost of a flight is pretty cheap.

We just need to bring the passport, and the PPR letter right?  Nothing else?

[doublemint]

I don't think he or she means that the VO sent him or her the COPR directly (yes, one case like that recently) but that they sent the passport request asking specifically for the physical passport and not giving the option to send photocopies of all the passport pages.

Hi ddobro2, yes, the PPR email says that I need to mail my physical passport.

[amaranth]

Buffalo is the busiest VO by far, and that includes for all streams, family class, economic, and provincial nominee. Not that I want to be seen as taking their side or anything, but while Buffalo doesn't have the shortest average processing time, it also doesn't have nearly the longest either (I think that honor belongs to 27 months at Abu Dhabi or somewhere). The tradeoff is we have very few cases of interview requests and even fewer cases of refused applications. Don't get me wrong, Buffalo is still FUBAR.

Nairobi is currently the longest at 31 months. Husband's co-worker is sponsoring his wife from Tanzania, and unfortunately they have to go thru Nairobi. The chances of her being able to get a TRV or any visit visa are pretty much nil, so they're truly in it for the long haul. They researched this heavily beforehand though, so they are well prepared for the wait!

[Hobby]

Landing:

Blue Water Bridge: 3.25 CDN to get to the US, 3.00 to get back to Canada.
We had originally wanted to go shopping, but on the bridge discovered there was one person with a VOIDED passport.

So, U turned, and came back. 

We explained what we wanted to do with the landing at the Canadian side, they directed the "Person Landing" to secondary.  He refuses to go without the sponsor.  Fair enough.  We go together.

The system doesn't like our address, they say we have the 'old form' even though we just got the thing in the mail on the sixteenth.  Ah well. 
They forgot to ask about our goods to follow, but we're not having any of the stuff come up anyway, so we leave. 

Home.  Safe.  Now he will have to go to Service Canada and Service Ontario for SIN and OHIP registration.  Then I can do our taxes.  Glory be.  ^^

[eeeeeeeelectric]

Allison et al, moved my UHaul of belongings up to my permanent residence in BC today!  Thank you for all your help in figuring it out!

Next up, car exportation/importation. Eek!  Luckily, CBSA officer told me how today.

[belee1985]

Hey everyone Smiley

Here are my stats:

Application sent to Mississauga: 12/23/2011
Application received by Mississauga: 12/28/2011
Acknowledgment of receipt by Mississauga: 02/14/2012
Approval of sponsorship and notification of file transferred to Buffalo: 02/16/2012

[ddobro2]

Indeed, Nairobi. Ironic that it's the longest processing time and you barely ever see anyone on this forum going through there. Your husband's co-worker is a trooper - the silver lining is that they will come out of this experience being MUCH more patient than the average person, right? 

Nairobi is currently the longest at 31 months. Husband's co-worker is sponsoring his wife from Tanzania, and unfortunately they have to go thru Nairobi. The chances of her being able to get a TRV or any visit visa are pretty much nil, so they're truly in it for the long haul. They researched this heavily beforehand though, so they are well prepared for the wait!

[AW2011]

Good day everyone!
Just got my spouse GCMS note today and found out that he's on the interview list. No interview notice received yet. He is from a visa-required country and a F1 international student in US at the moment. We filed in early June 2011 & received Buffalo AOR end of August 2011.
At the end of the GCMS, it states "Concerns: sponsor still owns & lives in same house with ex but will sell house when spouse moves to Canada". But my ex doesn't live with me in Canada and has been living on his retirement visa in Thailand since we broke up. We are in good talking terms and decided to sell the house later on till my spouse moves here to Canada. 
I can obtain a copy of my ex's lease agreement and retirement visa record from Thailand. Was wondering if it would be a good idea to send those to Buffalo now or wait till the interview and present those to them?
Any ideas would be greatly appreicated. 

[NYQUE]

Good day everyone!
Just got my spouse GCMS note today and found out that he's on the interview list. No interview notice received yet. He is from a visa-required country and a F1 international student in US at the moment. We filed in early June 2011 & received Buffalo AOR end of August 2011.
At the end of the GCMS, it states "Concerns: sponsor still owns & lives in same house with ex but will sell house when spouse moves to Canada". But my ex doesn't live with me in Canada and has been living on his retirement visa in Thailand since we broke up. We are in good talking terms and decided to sell the house later on till my spouse moves here to Canada. 
I can obtain a copy of my ex's lease agreement and retirement visa record from Thailand. Was wondering if it would be a good idea to send those to Buffalo now or wait till the interview and present those to them?
Any ideas would be greatly appreicated. 

Hello, I just wanted to share we are on the same boat, however I do have now an interview date but the time between receiving notice of interview is required and the actual date of the interview (not to discourage you in any way) is 8 months, I (sponsored person) was also an F1 Student in the US and also from a non-exempt visa country, for what I have seen Buffalo tends to profile you based on nationality as the rate of interviews for US citizen is almost non-existent.

Me and my wife file on April 15, 2011, I received notice that an interview was required on August 2011, I finished College on May 2011, I applied to renew my visitor visa to come to Canada and to be my wife, I have been here in Canada since then, I received the letter with the date of the interview on December 2011 saying the interview was scheduled for April so I still have 2 more months to go, I also required a visitor visa to the US which I had to renew here while in Canada.

My GCMS notes states that they have concerns as me and my wife haven't spent significant amount of time together, we are not worried about the interview itself just the processing time, when we see in this forum people filing on June-July and are already approved, well I guess you know what I'm talking about, I guess the date of my interview is far because I'm already in Canada with my wife, who knows.

Wish you the best of luck.

B.

[AW2011]

Thank you NYQUE.
Did you submit any additional documents after you received the interview letter? I was also noticing some applicants got their interview dates a couple of weeks after they received the interview letter lately. Guess it depends on at what stage they request the interview. Yours seems to be during the early stage right after the AOR time. I saw our "concerns" note  and interview request appears middle of Jan. 2012. So hopefully the letter comes soon. My spouse lives in US and visitor's visa was not granted to come and see me. I could only travel to him every time. Luckily he lives not far away from the border. 

[AmericaninQuebec]

Good day everyone!
Just got my spouse GCMS note today and found out that he's on the interview list. No interview notice received yet. He is from a visa-required country and a F1 international student in US at the moment. We filed in early June 2011 & received Buffalo AOR end of August 2011.
At the end of the GCMS, it states "Concerns: sponsor still owns & lives in same house with ex but will sell house when spouse moves to Canada". But my ex doesn't live with me in Canada and has been living on his retirement visa in Thailand since we broke up. We are in good talking terms and decided to sell the house later on till my spouse moves here to Canada. 
I can obtain a copy of my ex's lease agreement and retirement visa record from Thailand. Was wondering if it would be a good idea to send those to Buffalo now or wait till the interview and present those to them?
Any ideas would be greatly appreicated. 

So sorry to hear that they're requesting an interview. I didn't go through this situation myself, but I feel like if I were you I'd send a copy of that info now via email/fax and have your spouse bring originals to the interview. I don't know if they ever go back and waive an interview requirement, but maybe if you provide enough info upfront they'll reconsider or it will make the interview less strenuous on your spouse. Just an idea though, and hopefully others can weigh in on it. Also, you should probably get a letter from your ex (since you're on good terms) stating that he no longer lives in the house, and has no plans to return to live with you, but rather you've both agreed to wait to sell the house until you're ready to buy a new one with your spouse.

[AW2011]

So sorry to hear that they're requesting an interview. I didn't go through this situation myself, but I feel like if I were you I'd send a copy of that info now via email/fax and have your spouse bring originals to the interview. I don't know if they ever go back and waive an interview requirement, but maybe if you provide enough info upfront they'll reconsider or it will make the interview less strenuous on your spouse. Just an idea though, and hopefully others can weigh in on it. Also, you should probably get a letter from your ex (since you're on good terms) stating that he no longer lives in the house, and has no plans to return to live with you, but rather you've both agreed to wait to sell the house until you're ready to buy a new one with your spouse.

Thank you so much AmericanQuebec. I think that's a good idea. We've chosen Seattle as interview location. Guess we should still send the papers to Buffalo? I was talking with my ex and he's happy to do that for us. We already had the Declaration of
Severance of Common Law Relationship attached with our file initially. 

[AmericaninQuebec]

Thank you so much AmericanQuebec. I think that's a good idea. We've chosen Seattle as interview location. Guess we should still send the papers to Buffalo? I was talking with my ex and he's happy to do that for us. We already had the Declaration of
Severance of Common Law Relationship attached with our file initially.  

It sounds like they're just confused as to why you still own a house with your ex if you're trying to sponsor your spouse. I can only imagine how quickly they read through files, and how little time is probably spent analyzing them in any depth. On the surface it does seem odd, but once you explain it, at least to me, it makes sense.

Is your file at Buffalo or was it transferred? If it was transferred you'll want to send it directly to the satellite office. Otherwise yeah, you'll forward the copies to Buffalo.

[Rouge]

hello,
I was wondering what the Initial Assessment (IA) letter is? Do people under Family class sponsorship get one or is it for other categories and is it like the AOR, some people get it while other never get one?
Thanks