Our experience with the Paris visa office

[frege]

Hello,

We've just completed the sponsorship process, and I'd like to share our experience going through the Paris office. Much of what is below relates to the Mississauga office, and I hope it will be useful for some people.

My wife is a UK citizen, but we went through Paris because she resided in France at the time of the application. She landed on Saturday. I've put our timeline below.

Over all, our timeline was pretty long just for them to begin processing in Paris. It seems like an extra month or two compared to Saffy (application received April 19, sponsorship approved July 17, in process Sept. 17) and cdn1 (application received March 29, sponsorship approved July 3, in process Sept. 10), who are the only two recent Paris applicants I've been able to find here.

We're not sure what would explain this. It seems the application sat on agent MO's desk for a month and a half gathering dust. Or perhaps we included too many documents. As of November 23, all the fields in the GCMS notes except medical still said "not started." We emailed them in mid-November to ask about our status - I'd like to think they have a better system than waiting to be contacted before starting to process a file.

The GCMS notes mentioned on August 1, the date of the sponsorship approval, that there was no "CSC date" (client service commitment date) because the RPRF hadn't been paid - or so they believed - and because supposedly there was no visa office written on the IMM 1017 form. But by September, this shouldn't have been a problem any more. I wonder if not having a CSC date means you get lower priority, even if the problems leading to the lack of a CSC date are fixed in the meantime.


Here is our timeline.

2011/12/02: Medical exam.
2012/04/27: Mailed application to Mississauga.
2012/04/30: Application delivered (per Canada Post).
2012/05/01: Application received (per CIC).
2012/06/27: RPRF receipt sent to Mississauga by mail.
2012/07/03: RPRF receipt delivered to Mississauga (per Canada Post). Never processed; probably lost.
2012/07/31: Sponsorship file created (per GCMS notes).
2012/08/01: CIC starts processing sponsorship application (per eCAS).
2012/08/01: Sponsorship approval from CPP-Ottawa, by email.
2012/08/01: Medical passed (per GCMS).
2012/08/05-2012/08/13 (unknown date): eCAS shows "Application Received" and "Medical results have been received." (Not sure about the date as we weren't checking eCAS.)
2012/08/08: File transferred to Paris (per GCMS notes).
2012/08/14: File received in Paris (per GCMS notes).
2012/08/14: RPRF receipt faxed to Mississauga.
2012/09/07: RPRF receipt processed (per GCMS notes).
2012/09/13: Paris office receives 1344A and undertaking (per GCMS notes). The timing is probably related to the CSQ approval.
2012/10/12: Paper file transferred to agent MO in Paris (per GCMS notes).
2012/11/14: We send an email to Paris requesting an update on our status. No reply until 11/28 (see below).
2012/11/27: Paris starts processing application (per eCAS).
2012/11/28: Request for bio page of passport, by email.
2012/11/29: Bio page of passport submitted by email.
2012/11/30 (Friday): eCAS shows "In Process." - So eCAS isn't updated only on Tuesdays!
2012/12/01: Medical extension granted. (Based on content of COPR.)
2012/12/05: COPR issued.
2012/12/09 (Sunday): eCAS shows "Decision Made." A home address in Quebec is shown.
2012/12/11: COPR mailed from Paris embassy (postmark).
2012/12/14: COPR received at home.
2012/12/15: Landed.

Timeline for CSQ and Quebec undertaking:
2012/08/06: CSQ application and Quebec undertaking sent to MICC in Montreal.
2012/08/09: CSQ application delivered to MICC (per Canada Post)."
2012/09/10: CSQ issued.
2012/09/13: CSQ received by mail.

Timeline for GCMS notes:
2012/11/13: Application emailed to CIC.
2012/11/23: Notes pulled from system. (This was just before the real processing started in Paris.)
2012/12/13: Notes received by email.

We notified Mississauga of an address change in May. We couldn't do it online, because there was no eCAS file. We tried doing it by phone, which is what the instruction guide says you're supposed to do. But no call centre agent would accept it because processing hadn't begun yet on our file. So we sent a letter to Mississauga with the Canada Post tracking number of our package and the fee receipt number, which we thought would be enough for them to identify our application. We thought if we mailed it to them, they'd just have to deal with it. Instead, the letter was returned to us a month later with a form letter saying that we were supposed to make the change by phone or online, and informing us that "no record" had been kept of the address change. It's pretty much the bureaucratic equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and humming while someone is trying to tell you something.

In June we sent the RPRF payment to Mississauga by mail, since this was one of the things their form letter said they would accept, and because their website even gives an address to send RPRF receipts to. But this was before we had a file open in Mississauga, and it seems they lost it. In August, the call centre said to try again by fax once six weeks had gone by from the original letter. We did that, and the payment was entered into the system three weeks later, according to the GCMS notes. We realized the payment had to have been processed when the receipt number started working as identification on eCAS.

We notified Paris of the address change by email on August 15, and it was processed by them on August 31. They actually copied and pasted our whole email to them into the GCMS notes.

We also emailed Paris with sort of a complicated question. Namely, the application was delivered by Canada Post on April 30, but was recorded as received by CIC on May 1. My wife stopped residing in France exactly on April 30, so we were concerned that, because of the May 1 date, CIC might decide we were ineligible to apply through Paris and that they'd send our application to London, thus delaying it. On August 15, we asked Paris whether the visa office should be Paris or London in this situation. Our theory was that if it had to be London, it was better that they realize it immediately rather than when they started processing.

They obviously had problems with our English and replied as follows on August 23: "Dear Applicant, Please note that the application was recorded in our date base on May 1st, 2012. The average processing times mentioned on our website are from the date the application was received at CIC." This was followed by a link. (Somewhere on their website they say that 90% of queries they receive are for information already available on their website. I suppose they thought ours was another of these "dumb" questions, not considering that in this instance it might be their reply that was missing the point.) We were amused at the term "date base," thinking it was fitting since it's a data base with dates. We didn't bother asking them again, and just hoped for the best. Luckily, the application was processed in Paris in the event.

The medical extension processing must have been lightning fast, as it would have been requested on or after November 28, and was completed by December 1.

My wife landed at a land border crossing in Quebec, but for a while we thought she might be landing in Toronto. We were never able to figure out with certainty whether it was actually a requirement that she land in Quebec, although the CBSA officer who "landed" her - my wife and I had a laugh about this word - did ask to see her CSQ. Somebody at MICC told me there had been reports of people being denied entry if they landed in the wrong province. Before my wife landed, I called the CBSA to ask how they handle it. A guy there said it made no sense that a person should have a problem landing in any province, and that any problems had to come from the Quebec government, not the federal one. Then he gave me a lecture about how "Quebec thinks it's a nation", even talking about the long gun registry, which I thought was very unprofessional. (Some people in the rest of Canada seem to instinctively believe that we Quebec anglophones are going to be a receptive audience for that kind of crap. Sorry.) So I called CIC, and spoke to a woman who gave a very confusing answer that boiled down to the statement that non-Quebec immigrants could have trouble landing at a Quebec port of entry (God forbid they should have a connecting flight through Montreal - I guess CIC expects them to fly Beijing-Charlottetown direct), but that a Quebec immigrant could land elsewhere if necessary. She said she'd email me with a written reference, but she never did. I'm curious to find an official source on this topic. I'm fed up with call centre people who just guess.

 

[Kev1n]

Hello,

We've just completed the sponsorship process, and I'd like to share our experience going through the Paris office. Much of what is below relates to the Mississauga office, and I hope it will be useful for some people.

My wife is a UK citizen, but we went through Paris because she resided in France at the time of the application. She landed on Saturday. I've put our timeline below.

Over all, our timeline was pretty long just for them to begin processing in Paris. It seems like an extra month or two compared to Saffy (application received April 19, sponsorship approved July 17, in process Sept. 17) and cdn1 (application received March 29, sponsorship approved July 3, in process Sept. 10), who are the only two recent Paris applicants I've been able to find here.

We're not sure what would explain this. It seems the application sat on agent MO's desk for a month and a half gathering dust. Or perhaps we included too many documents. As of November 23, all the fields in the GCMS notes except medical still said "not started." We emailed them in mid-November to ask about our status - I'd like to think they have a better system than waiting to be contacted before starting to process a file.

The GCMS notes mentioned on August 1, the date of the sponsorship approval, that there was no "CSC date" (client service commitment date) because the RPRF hadn't been paid - or so they believed - and because supposedly there was no visa office written on the IMM 1017 form. But by September, this shouldn't have been a problem any more. I wonder if not having a CSC date means you get lower priority, even if the problems leading to the lack of a CSC date are fixed in the meantime.


Here is our timeline.

2011/12/02: Medical exam.
2012/04/27: Mailed application to Mississauga.
2012/04/30: Application delivered (per Canada Post).
2012/05/01: Application received (per CIC).
2012/06/27: RPRF receipt sent to Mississauga by mail.
2012/07/03: RPRF receipt delivered to Mississauga (per Canada Post). Never processed; probably lost.
2012/07/31: Sponsorship file created (per GCMS notes).
2012/08/01: CIC starts processing sponsorship application (per eCAS).
2012/08/01: Sponsorship approval from CPP-Ottawa, by email.
2012/08/01: Medical passed (per GCMS).
2012/08/05-2012/08/13 (unknown date): eCAS shows "Application Received" and "Medical results have been received." (Not sure about the date as we weren't checking eCAS.)
2012/08/08: File transferred to Paris (per GCMS notes).
2012/08/14: File received in Paris (per GCMS notes).
2012/08/14: RPRF receipt faxed to Mississauga.
2012/09/07: RPRF receipt processed (per GCMS notes).
2012/09/13: Paris office receives 1344A and undertaking (per GCMS notes). The timing is probably related to the CSQ approval.
2012/10/12: Paper file transferred to agent MO in Paris (per GCMS notes).
2012/11/14: We send an email to Paris requesting an update on our status. No reply until 11/28 (see below).
2012/11/27: Paris starts processing application (per eCAS).
2012/11/28: Request for bio page of passport, by email.
2012/11/29: Bio page of passport submitted by email.
2012/11/30 (Friday): eCAS shows "In Process." - So eCAS isn't updated only on Tuesdays!
2012/12/01: Medical extension granted. (Based on content of COPR.)
2012/12/05: COPR issued.
2012/12/09 (Sunday): eCAS shows "Decision Made." A home address in Quebec is shown.
2012/12/11: COPR mailed from Paris embassy (postmark).
2012/12/14: COPR received at home.
2012/12/15: Landed.

Timeline for CSQ and Quebec undertaking:
2012/08/06: CSQ application and Quebec undertaking sent to MICC in Montreal.
2012/08/09: CSQ application delivered to MICC (per Canada Post)."
2012/09/10: CSQ issued.
2012/09/13: CSQ received by mail.

Timeline for GCMS notes:
2012/11/13: Application emailed to CIC.
2012/11/23: Notes pulled from system. (This was just before the real processing started in Paris.)
2012/12/13: Notes received by email.

We notified Mississauga of an address change in May. We couldn't do it online, because there was no eCAS file. We tried doing it by phone, which is what the instruction guide says you're supposed to do. But no call centre agent would accept it because processing hadn't begun yet on our file. So we sent a letter to Mississauga with the Canada Post tracking number of our package and the fee receipt number, which we thought would be enough for them to identify our application. We thought if we mailed it to them, they'd just have to deal with it. Instead, the letter was returned to us a month later with a form letter saying that we were supposed to make the change by phone or online, and informing us that "no record" had been kept of the address change. It's pretty much the bureaucratic equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and humming while someone is trying to tell you something.

In June we sent the RPRF payment to Mississauga by mail, since this was one of the things their form letter said they would accept, and because their website even gives an address to send RPRF receipts to. But this was before we had a file open in Mississauga, and it seems they lost it. In August, the call centre said to try again by fax once six weeks had gone by from the original letter. We did that, and the payment was entered into the system three weeks later, according to the GCMS notes. We realized the payment had to have been processed when the receipt number started working as identification on eCAS.

We notified Paris of the address change by email on August 15, and it was processed by them on August 31. They actually copied and pasted our whole email to them into the GCMS notes.

We also emailed Paris with sort of a complicated question. Namely, the application was delivered by Canada Post on April 30, but was recorded as received by CIC on May 1. My wife stopped residing in France exactly on April 30, so we were concerned that, because of the May 1 date, CIC might decide we were ineligible to apply through Paris and that they'd send our application to London, thus delaying it. On August 15, we asked Paris whether the visa office should be Paris or London in this situation. Our theory was that if it had to be London, it was better that they realize it immediately rather than when they started processing.

They obviously had problems with our English and replied as follows on August 23: "Dear Applicant, Please note that the application was recorded in our date base on May 1st, 2012. The average processing times mentioned on our website are from the date the application was received at CIC." This was followed by a link. (Somewhere on their website they say that 90% of queries they receive are for information already available on their website. I suppose they thought ours was another of these "dumb" questions, not considering that in this instance it might be their reply that was missing the point.) We were amused at the term "date base," thinking it was fitting since it's a data base with dates. We didn't bother asking them again, and just hoped for the best. Luckily, the application was processed in Paris in the event.

The medical extension processing must have been lightning fast, as it would have been requested on or after November 28, and was completed by December 1.

My wife landed at a land border crossing in Quebec, but for a while we thought she might be landing in Toronto. We were never able to figure out with certainty whether it was actually a requirement that she land in Quebec, although the CBSA officer who "landed" her - my wife and I had a laugh about this word - did ask to see her CSQ. Somebody at MICC told me there had been reports of people being denied entry if they landed in the wrong province. Before my wife landed, I called the CBSA to ask how they handle it. A guy there said it made no sense that a person should have a problem landing in any province, and that any problems had to come from the Quebec government, not the federal one. Then he gave me a lecture about how "Quebec thinks it's a nation", even talking about the long gun registry, which I thought was very unprofessional. (Some people in the rest of Canada seem to instinctively believe that we Quebec anglophones are going to be a receptive audience for that kind of crap. Sorry.) So I called CIC, and spoke to a woman who gave a very confusing answer that boiled down to the statement that non-Quebec immigrants could have trouble landing at a Quebec port of entry (God forbid they should have a connecting flight through Montreal - I guess CIC expects them to fly Beijing-Charlottetown direct), but that a Quebec immigrant could land elsewhere if necessary. She said she'd email me with a written reference, but she never did. I'm curious to find an official source on this topic. I'm fed up with call centre people who just guess.

Thank you posting your experience,

Good luck for the future...

 

[quebeq1]

Hello,

We've just completed the sponsorship process, and I'd like to share our experience going through the Paris office. Much of what is below relates to the Mississauga office, and I hope it will be useful for some people.

My wife is a UK citizen, but we went through Paris because she resided in France at the time of the application. She landed on Saturday. I've put our timeline below.

Over all, our timeline was pretty long just for them to begin processing in Paris. It seems like an extra month or two compared to Saffy (application received April 19, sponsorship approved July 17, in process Sept. 17) and cdn1 (application received March 29, sponsorship approved July 3, in process Sept. 10), who are the only two recent Paris applicants I've been able to find here.

We're not sure what would explain this. It seems the application sat on agent MO's desk for a month and a half gathering dust. Or perhaps we included too many documents. As of November 23, all the fields in the GCMS notes except medical still said "not started." We emailed them in mid-November to ask about our status - I'd like to think they have a better system than waiting to be contacted before starting to process a file.

The GCMS notes mentioned on August 1, the date of the sponsorship approval, that there was no "CSC date" (client service commitment date) because the RPRF hadn't been paid - or so they believed - and because supposedly there was no visa office written on the IMM 1017 form. But by September, this shouldn't have been a problem any more. I wonder if not having a CSC date means you get lower priority, even if the problems leading to the lack of a CSC date are fixed in the meantime.


Here is our timeline.

2011/12/02: Medical exam.
2012/04/27: Mailed application to Mississauga.
2012/04/30: Application delivered (per Canada Post).
2012/05/01: Application received (per CIC).
2012/06/27: RPRF receipt sent to Mississauga by mail.
2012/07/03: RPRF receipt delivered to Mississauga (per Canada Post). Never processed; probably lost.
2012/07/31: Sponsorship file created (per GCMS notes).
2012/08/01: CIC starts processing sponsorship application (per eCAS).
2012/08/01: Sponsorship approval from CPP-Ottawa, by email.
2012/08/01: Medical passed (per GCMS).
2012/08/05-2012/08/13 (unknown date): eCAS shows "Application Received" and "Medical results have been received." (Not sure about the date as we weren't checking eCAS.)
2012/08/08: File transferred to Paris (per GCMS notes).
2012/08/14: File received in Paris (per GCMS notes).
2012/08/14: RPRF receipt faxed to Mississauga.
2012/09/07: RPRF receipt processed (per GCMS notes).
2012/09/13: Paris office receives 1344A and undertaking (per GCMS notes). The timing is probably related to the CSQ approval.
2012/10/12: Paper file transferred to agent MO in Paris (per GCMS notes).
2012/11/14: We send an email to Paris requesting an update on our status. No reply until 11/28 (see below).
2012/11/27: Paris starts processing application (per eCAS).
2012/11/28: Request for bio page of passport, by email.
2012/11/29: Bio page of passport submitted by email.
2012/11/30 (Friday): eCAS shows "In Process." - So eCAS isn't updated only on Tuesdays!
2012/12/01: Medical extension granted. (Based on content of COPR.)
2012/12/05: COPR issued.
2012/12/09 (Sunday): eCAS shows "Decision Made." A home address in Quebec is shown.
2012/12/11: COPR mailed from Paris embassy (postmark).
2012/12/14: COPR received at home.
2012/12/15: Landed.

Timeline for CSQ and Quebec undertaking:
2012/08/06: CSQ application and Quebec undertaking sent to MICC in Montreal.
2012/08/09: CSQ application delivered to MICC (per Canada Post)."
2012/09/10: CSQ issued.
2012/09/13: CSQ received by mail.

Timeline for GCMS notes:
2012/11/13: Application emailed to CIC.
2012/11/23: Notes pulled from system. (This was just before the real processing started in Paris.)
2012/12/13: Notes received by email.

We notified Mississauga of an address change in May. We couldn't do it online, because there was no eCAS file. We tried doing it by phone, which is what the instruction guide says you're supposed to do. But no call centre agent would accept it because processing hadn't begun yet on our file. So we sent a letter to Mississauga with the Canada Post tracking number of our package and the fee receipt number, which we thought would be enough for them to identify our application. We thought if we mailed it to them, they'd just have to deal with it. Instead, the letter was returned to us a month later with a form letter saying that we were supposed to make the change by phone or online, and informing us that "no record" had been kept of the address change. It's pretty much the bureaucratic equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and humming while someone is trying to tell you something.

In June we sent the RPRF payment to Mississauga by mail, since this was one of the things their form letter said they would accept, and because their website even gives an address to send RPRF receipts to. But this was before we had a file open in Mississauga, and it seems they lost it. In August, the call centre said to try again by fax once six weeks had gone by from the original letter. We did that, and the payment was entered into the system three weeks later, according to the GCMS notes. We realized the payment had to have been processed when the receipt number started working as identification on eCAS.

We notified Paris of the address change by email on August 15, and it was processed by them on August 31. They actually copied and pasted our whole email to them into the GCMS notes.

We also emailed Paris with sort of a complicated question. Namely, the application was delivered by Canada Post on April 30, but was recorded as received by CIC on May 1. My wife stopped residing in France exactly on April 30, so we were concerned that, because of the May 1 date, CIC might decide we were ineligible to apply through Paris and that they'd send our application to London, thus delaying it. On August 15, we asked Paris whether the visa office should be Paris or London in this situation. Our theory was that if it had to be London, it was better that they realize it immediately rather than when they started processing.

They obviously had problems with our English and replied as follows on August 23: "Dear Applicant, Please note that the application was recorded in our date base on May 1st, 2012. The average processing times mentioned on our website are from the date the application was received at CIC." This was followed by a link. (Somewhere on their website they say that 90% of queries they receive are for information already available on their website. I suppose they thought ours was another of these "dumb" questions, not considering that in this instance it might be their reply that was missing the point.) We were amused at the term "date base," thinking it was fitting since it's a data base with dates. We didn't bother asking them again, and just hoped for the best. Luckily, the application was processed in Paris in the event.

The medical extension processing must have been lightning fast, as it would have been requested on or after November 28, and was completed by December 1.

My wife landed at a land border crossing in Quebec, but for a while we thought she might be landing in Toronto. We were never able to figure out with certainty whether it was actually a requirement that she land in Quebec, although the CBSA officer who "landed" her - my wife and I had a laugh about this word - did ask to see her CSQ. Somebody at MICC told me there had been reports of people being denied entry if they landed in the wrong province. Before my wife landed, I called the CBSA to ask how they handle it. A guy there said it made no sense that a person should have a problem landing in any province, and that any problems had to come from the Quebec government, not the federal one. Then he gave me a lecture about how "Quebec thinks it's a nation", even talking about the long gun registry, which I thought was very unprofessional. (Some people in the rest of Canada seem to instinctively believe that we Quebec anglophones are going to be a receptive audience for that kind of crap. Sorry.) So I called CIC, and spoke to a woman who gave a very confusing answer that boiled down to the statement that non-Quebec immigrants could have trouble landing at a Quebec port of entry (God forbid they should have a connecting flight through Montreal - I guess CIC expects them to fly Beijing-Charlottetown direct), but that a Quebec immigrant could land elsewhere if necessary. She said she'd email me with a written reference, but she never did. I'm curious to find an official source on this topic. I'm fed up with call centre people who just guess.

Thank you for sharing the experience.
Do you think that if they file status is IN PROCESS, it's almost the end? The Paris office requested the copy of my husband's passport, after 2 days later the status changed in PROCESS. They had our file since may 15th, but only begun to work on it on dec 13th.

 

[frege]

Thank you for sharing the experience.
Do you think that if they file status is IN PROCESS, it's almost the end? The Paris office requested the copy of my husband's passport, after 2 days later the status changed in PROCESS. They had our file since may 15th, but only begun to work on it on dec 13th.

You're saying that the file was received in Paris on May 15? Wow! I can't believe it's taken them seven months just to start working on it. I'm sorry you've had to wait so long.

Once it's "in process", that means that any further delays will be caused by difficulties in the file, additional documents needed, etc., not waiting your turn. The fact that they've asked for your husband's passport probably means that they're very close to finalizing your file. We got "decision made" about 10 days after it went in process, and received the COPR a week after that. For us, they still needed to ask for a medical extension after the passport request, since the validity of the medical exam is only 1 year. But the medical extension was quick. (They actually never told us about the medical extension, but we can deduce what happened from other things we know.)

 

[quebeq1]

You're saying that the file was received in Paris on May 15? Wow! I can't believe it's taken them seven months just to start working on it. I'm sorry you've had to wait so long.

Once it's "in process", that means that any further delays will be caused by difficulties in the file, additional documents needed, etc., not waiting your turn. The fact that they've asked for your husband's passport probably means that they're very close to finalizing your file. We got "decision made" about 10 days after it went in process, and received the COPR a week after that. For us, they still needed to ask for a medical extension after the passport request, since the validity of the medical exam is only 1 year. But the medical extension was quick. (They actually never told us about the medical extension, but we can deduce what happened from other things we know.)

Thank u Frege,
I don't know the way they work. I sent my application on may 14th 2012 (Mississauga received it) and it is the same date that paris tells that he received it ??? ??? ???

 

[frege]

Thank u Frege,
I don't know the way they work. I sent my application on may 14th 2012 (Mississauga received it) and it is the same date that paris tells that he received it ??? ??? ???

No. If Mississauga received your application on May 14, then you have about the same processing time that we did. Mississauga received our package on May 1. The only reason we knew the date Paris received the application (August 14) was because we ordered GCMS notes from our file. Some people get an acknowledgment of receipt from their visa office, but we didn't.

 

[ananias]

Thanks for sharing your process, you do not hear much about the Paris office on these boards, so it was really nice to see this post. I am also applying for permanence residency for my husband, and we are going through the Paris visa office as well. Our application was received July 19, 2012. It was sent to Paris on August 29, 2012, and they only started to process his application November 30, 2012. My husband had to redo his medicals, as they expired, so he redid them on November 27, 2012. I am worried he has to redo his police checks, as they expired awhile ago, and I am afraid that it our application will take longer, as he had to redo his medicals, and most probably his police checks. I'm hoping for the best.

 

[frege]

Thanks for sharing your process, you do not hear much about the Paris office on these boards, so it was really nice to see this post. I am also applying for permanence residency for my husband, and we are going through the Paris visa office as well. Our application was received July 19, 2012. It was sent to Paris on August 29, 2012, and they only started to process his application November 30, 2012. My husband had to redo his medicals, as they expired, so he redid them on November 27, 2012. I am worried he has to redo his police checks, as they expired awhile ago, and I am afraid that it our application will take longer, as he had to redo his medicals, and most probably his police checks. I'm hoping for the best.

Well, things are going faster for you so far. Mississauga was 40 days for you versus three months for us, and it took you three months to go in process in Paris versus four months for us.

The good news is that the regional medical office in Paris seems relatively fast. Our medical extension was processed in a few days, whereas others on the forum have reported six to eight weeks. I'm not sure how long a new medical exam will take, but it doesn't sound to me like they have much of a backlog to speak of.

I think I read somewhere that the police checks have to be no more than three months old when you apply, BUT they're good for a year if your VO can make a decision within that time. So if your police checks are from 2012, you should be all right, unless there are additional delays in processing for some reason. Also, I'm not sure how strict they are about this.

I hope you'll be approved soon!

 

[hereforu]

Thank you for sharing ur experiences. Its quite difficult to find Paris applicants.
We r going through the Paris office as well,inchallah we ll hear some good news soon. They started processing our file on Nov 29th.

Good luck to all of us

 

[frege]

Thank you for sharing ur experiences. Its quite difficult to find Paris applicants.
We r going through the Paris office as well,inchallah we ll hear some good news soon. They started processing our file on Nov 29th.

Good luck to all of us

Yes, let's hope so. In our case, it took a long time for them to start processing our application, but once they'd started, things went quickly.

I had the same experience of not finding Paris applicants here.

 

[hereforu]

Yes, let's hope so. In our case, it took a long time for them to start processing our application, but once they'd started, things went quickly.

I had the same experience of not finding Paris applicants here.

 

[quebeq1]

No. If Mississauga received your application on May 14, then you have about the same processing time that we did. Mississauga received our package on May 1. The only reason we knew the date Paris received the application (August 14) was because we ordered GCMS notes from our file. Some people get an acknowledgment of receipt from their visa office, but we didn't.

ok. I see, the may 14th is written on ecas, as the date paris received my husband's file, and I know it is the same date mississauga received it,... but seeing your timeline, I think we are 2 or 3 weeks behind you. I'm waiting january, may be it will bring good news

 

[quebeq1]

Hi guys,

I don't know if some of you speak french,... I was telling myself that with paris visa office, most may speak french, that's why I started a new discussion in french, so that we may have more people to come and share their experiences.

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/bureau-de-visa-paris-partagez-vos-experiences-t129470.0.html

Hope to read you very soon

 

[hereforu]

Hi guys,

I don't know if some of you speak french,... I was telling myself that with paris visa office, most may speak french, that's why I started a new discussion in french, so that we may have more people to come and share their experiences.

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/bureau-de-visa-paris-partagez-vos-experiences-t129470.0

Sorry i don't speak French :/

 

[cdn1]

Not many Paris applicants on the forum. I even created a thread a few months back looking for Paris applicants but it disappeared.

Anyway, our application took 3 months just in Mississauga, that time they were taking 90 days to open/create applications.
File transfer in July, Acknowledgement from Paris after 5 weeks, in August.

Started processing September, and in November we got the PPR. We did not send a lot of documents, just some phone bills. But we sent a lot of photos, from wedding/reception.

Once processing started on Sept 10th, so after about 20 days of that we sent some more photos and tickets, etc of touring europe. Also sent a fresh pcc to them. Ordering GCMS after processing started allowed us to get a snapshot from the notes.

One thing though, I've noticed, that one should avoid changing addresses when dealing with CIC.

Paris office dealt only though email. They emailed the sponsor for everything, as that was in the sponsor's information.
They used that for sending acknowledgment, sending PPR, etc.

For us it was a good experience as it was swift for us, eventhough our nationality/passport, etc was not European, but residing in Portugal.
What probably helped was our origin country's documents are mostly in English anyway and alot has been computerized/modernized so it complies with ICAO for identity documents.

But I can truly say, that alot depends on how you present the file to CIC. A well-organized and clearly explained file makes it easier for the officials to process it quickly and easily. Writing a short note to explain confusing docs/timelines helps a lot in the end too.