Well- I mailed my MP yesterday got a standard office reply so far but hoping to speak with someone this week.
If anyone else is planning to send a letter, you can use mine as an example:
Dear Mr. Dennis Bevington,
I wanted to inform you that I am a Canadian citizen in your constituency, and I appreciate what you have done for our community. In the last election, I was the first person in MY TOWN to have Don come over and nail up a NDP sign! I was born and raised in the North, and we have full intentions of staying in the north.
I am getting in touch with you because my husband has applied to come to live here as a permanent resident under family class spousal sponsorship. We applied in November 2010. Like many individuals, we are stuck because there was a recent computer change for all the US offices that caused a delay in the processing of our application. Basically what we're seeing on a number of forums online, is all applicants registered on said forums through Buffalo (USA) between October 2010 and February 2011 are at a standstill, while applicants from March April and even May through the same embassy (Buffalo) are already receiving their passport requests. It seems as if they have skipped over 4 months of people and just started handing out visas to all the newer applicants.
Here are the addresses to the forums, if you have time to look you will see better than I can explain here, what we are going through.
http://www.roadtocanada.com/forums/index.php
http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/family-class-sponsorship-b5.0/
http://www.immigration.ca/forum/default.asp
Here is a link to a spreadsheet one of the members had made, logging all reported applicant activity through the Buffalo group. as I write this I am on day 212 of waiting. My name on the spreadsheet is "Trish1982".
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?authkey=CLSRv0c&pli=1&hl=en&key=tSwhpbL3i0FEVj1Fw4efAcg&hl=en&authkey=CLSRv0c#gid=0
It is beyond frustrating to me, to sit here and look at all the time involved in preparing our application, making sure everything is just right then to see someone who applied 5 months after me land in Canada. My husband and I have been together since 2004, we were married in 2008, we have 2 small children together aged 3 and 5. We sent a great application with tons of proof of our marriage and relationship.
I am bringing this to your attention because I am afraid that the process is taking too long. Trying to raise our children on a single income is taking it's toll, we are living cheque to cheque and I honestly don't think we would be able to make it if it weren't for childtax benefits. Luckily, my husband is in Canada now with us on a Visitors Record (expiring May 2013)and he watches the children while I work.
By contacting you, I hope you are able to assist us, and also the large number of people that applied from October 2010 to February 2011 that I fear are also delayed. Specifically, I hope that something can be done to allow Buffalo speedier processing of their very heavy Canadian family class workload, and/or there is concerted effort made so that families can be reunited sooner to avoid the system (computer changes) from affecting us. I have contacted the embassy a few times, twice regarding an address change from my husbands American address listed on the application, to my Canadian address after he was issued his visitor extension. There was no response both times. We waited a few weeks, then sent a general inquiry concerning the dating on our AOR. Ecas lists Application received Jan 2011, the letter we received in the mail lists application received as March 2011. I questioned the dates, and buffalo responded by saying they received our application in January but didn't create a file for us until March. So our file sat there untouched for 3 months. Also, in the email we had asked if the address change had been processed, they responded with the address currently on file for us and it was not changed. We responded by asking AGAIN for an address change to which we have no response yet. If you are able to inquire about our case, and maybe find out why our application is not being worked on, but yet applicants from 3-4 months AFTER us are already getting APPROVED. If we can get an address change done, and if we can find out the status of our application. We have not received anything from Buffalo besides the AOR, no initial assessment, no medicals received, nothing. Your help is much appreciated.
My information is the following:
Name:
DOB:
Address:
Contact #:
Spouse's Name:
Spouse DOB:
Client #
Kit ID#:
If you need to know anything else, please don't hesitate to call. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
