Few questions please...

[Craveman]

Hey guys!

I have a few quick questions and I hope you can help me? Any inputs would be much appreciated - thanks in advance...

FYI: I have a South African passport and living here with my Canadian girlfriend in Vancouver. Not that long ago, around mid-December 2014, we mailed off our Family Sponsorship application by using registered mail. Thus far, we have not received any confirmation that they have actually received our application...Here are my questions:

1. Does CIC actually send out a confirmation that they received my application? (We tracked our application and saw that it was delivered but nothing from CIC...)

2. Is there a general time frame on how long it takes for them to let us know that they have received our application?

3. Now for the big one...As our application was done WITHIN Canada, can I travel back to South Africa for a month or so and re-enter Canada again? I'm nervous about leaving, as there is no way for me to prove to immigration that they actually have my application (other than our registered mail receipt). I do have a visitor's visa which is valid until August 2017.

4. Have any of you gone through the whole Family Sponsorship? Any tips?

Thanks

 

[tink23]

1. Sometimes CIC sends an acknowledgement of receipt, but often not, so not hearing anything is the norm.

2. You will hear something in a couple months when they actually open the application. Right now it is probably just sitting in a pile.

3. Since you have applied Inland you're not supposed to leave Canda. There is no guarantee that you will be allowed back in, even with a visitor visa, and if denied entry your application will be deemed abandoned and thus rejected. It is at your own risk. You could show the copy of your psyment receipt as proof it is submitted along with the registered mail receipt.

 

[surleplateau]

Here is the CIC page that lists Processing Times: Family Sponsorship. Please note that there are 2 tables, one for Outland, followed by another for Inland. You can also see that this page gets updated. It's supposed to be updated weekly, but that doesn't always happen (like around the holidays).

Right now it states: Last update: January 14, 2015.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-fc.asp

For Inland spousal sponsorship, they are currently working on "Working on applications received on September 3, 2013".