Thread for outland Buffalo applicants!

[ddobro2]

No PPRs so far this week? Boo......

 

[seattlegirl]

PPR today!!! ;D ;D


Calgary-bound my bring forward date was Nov 21 and we have similar timelines so hopefully you are very very close!! Good luck!


Has anyone returned to the states before submitting their passport for visa issuance? Hubby and I have a trip home next wed and I don't want to send in my passport yet.... I know I have 30 days just curious if they give you a hassle at the border?

Thanks for everything! Hoping many others get an early Christmas gift this year as well. Santa can skip my house, I've got all I wanted now!! ;D

 

[Mark5]

My Dear Buffaloes,
We will so much appreciate your suggestion on this matter.
We applied for Family Class in Feb, 2010 and the Visa office is Buffalo
My spouse is not from a visa exempt country but we got an
ecas tracker telling us that an interview is required in Buffalo with a date
so he will require a Visa to enter US bcos he is on study permit here in Canada.
We will like to know if we can request for a US visa for him at the POE since i the
Sponsor will be going with him or If we can apply for US at the consulate in Canada
by just showing them the Interview letter from Buffalo before the US Visa will be issued.

Thanks to u all in advance!!

 

[AmericaninQuebec]

PPR today!!! ;D ;D


Calgary-bound my bring forward date was Nov 21 and we have similar timelines so hopefully you are very very close!! Good luck!


Has anyone returned to the states before submitting their passport for visa issuance? Hubby and I have a trip home next wed and I don't want to send in my passport yet.... I know I have 30 days just curious if they give you a hassle at the border?

Thanks for everything! Hoping many others get an early Christmas gift this year as well. Santa can skip my house, I've got all I wanted now!! ;D

Funny story (I'll keep it short, promise) when I was on the phone with the border guard the other day about my car export/import questions I mentioned that I couldn't come down to the border to do anything yet, because I didn't have my passport with me. He said that if I had other identification that confirmed I was a U.S. citizen they couldn't deny me entry at the border. Then I looked on CBSA's website and saw that U.S. citizens don't need a passport to get into Canada. All this time I thought I had to have my passport for crossing the border, and I was mistaken.

That said I'm sure it's much faster and easier if you have your passport, but if you wanted to send it in and travel without you could always call the U.S. border station you'd be crossing at to confirm it would be fine and then send your passport in to Buffalo.

Otherwise, I really doubt they'll give you trouble. It should show in their system that your passport has been requested for visa issuance or something along those lines.

 

[seattlegirl]

I had no idea! I checked out CBSA also (wasn't second guessing you, I promise : )

I'm thinking I will just hold on to my passport. I was refused entry and issued an exclusion order 3 years ago, so each time I cross the border they pull me into their really neat private office and give me the gears. I'm a nervous wreck each time I cross now so I'll carry it as my security blanket. Better over prepared than under, I've learned the hard way.

Excellent to know I can just carry my nexus card in the future though!

We will be driving across, does any one have any insight on bringing a dog with? Any helpful advice?

 

[Mark5]

My Dear Buffaloes,
We will so much appreciate your suggestion on this matter.
We applied for Family Class in Feb, 2010 and the Visa office is Buffalo
My spouse is not from a visa exempt country but we got an
ecas tracker telling us that an interview is required in Buffalo with a date
so he will require a Visa to enter US bcos he is on study permit here in Canada.
We will like to know if we can request for a US visa for him at the POE since i the
Sponsor will be going with him or If we can apply for US at the consulate in Canada
by just showing them the Interview letter from Buffalo before the US Visa will be issued.

Thanks to u all in advance!!

Anyone with experience on this type of situation? Help needed

 

[moochops]

So up until the last thing I heard on the 9th of August (file transferred from Miss to Buff) - there ha been no movements.

Now I'm totally aware that Buffalo are well within their processing times - but I was starting to get itchy (in a non std kind of way). So I emailed them last night attempting to force an aor, a song and dance or even a christmas present.

Lo and behold at 11am Alberta time - I got a reply - stating that they had recieved my application in Buffalo on the 24th of August and it is awaiting it's turn to be looked at - it also said file #, (which unfortunately was blank :.

So at least I have conformation that the whole dept isn't sunning themselves on some beach somewhere and something to carry me probably through the next 6 months (I did re-email to say - ummmm there's no file number there!)

 

[Calgary-Bound]

PPR today!!! ;D ;D


Calgary-bound my bring forward date was Nov 21 and we have similar timelines so hopefully you are very very close!! Good luck!


Has anyone returned to the states before submitting their passport for visa issuance? Hubby and I have a trip home next wed and I don't want to send in my passport yet.... I know I have 30 days just curious if they give you a hassle at the border?

Thanks for everything! Hoping many others get an early Christmas gift this year as well. Santa can skip my house, I've got all I wanted now!! ;D

Congrats now you dont have to worry about the medicals wich is a good thing.Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[ddobro2]

Congrats seattlegirl, how come you took so long?

PPR today!!! ;D ;D


Calgary-bound my bring forward date was Nov 21 and we have similar timelines so hopefully you are very very close!! Good luck!


Has anyone returned to the states before submitting their passport for visa issuance? Hubby and I have a trip home next wed and I don't want to send in my passport yet.... I know I have 30 days just curious if they give you a hassle at the border?

Thanks for everything! Hoping many others get an early Christmas gift this year as well. Santa can skip my house, I've got all I wanted now!! ;D

 

[seattlegirl]

Wish I knew....? :-\ Very straight forward case... Hubby played hockey in my hometown for WHL, dated 5 years, got married. Tons of proof, hired a good lawyer, no clue why we took so long.

On the bright side I became a good cook and an even better wife in a year! Just glad to be wrapping it all up!

 

[AmericaninQuebec]

We will be driving across, does any one have any insight on bringing a dog with? Any helpful advice?

I've heard that you have to have paperwork from the vet showing that all shots (especially rabies) are up to date.

 

[imp]

We will be driving across, does any one have any insight on bringing a dog with? Any helpful advice?

The only vaccination that's required is the rabies vaccination so you should have some proof from your vet that your dog has an up to date rabies vaccination. I've crossed the border by car several times with my cat (same requirement) and once with my dog. Never once have they actually asked to see the animal or the proof of vaccination even when I had to go into the building. This is not to say that you don't need them but that it doesn't seem to be a big deal to bring an animal. You should definitely have proof with you just in case.

 

[AmericaninQuebec]

The only vaccination that's required is the rabies vaccination so you should have some proof from your vet that your dog has an up to date rabies vaccination. I've crossed the border by car several times with my cat (same requirement) and once with my dog. Never once have they actually asked to see the animal or the proof of vaccination even when I had to go into the building. This is not to say that you don't need them but that it doesn't seem to be a big deal to bring an animal. You should definitely have proof with you just in case.

Did you know that animals, at least in QC, are not required to have a rabies vaccine? I was really confused when we adopted a cat the other year and the vet told me this. Since ours is a house cat that doesn't go outside the vet didn't give him the vaccine. She said we'd only need it if he started going outside, and he would only be required to have it if he was going to be crossing the border back and forth.

I'm full of fun little facts this week.

 

[imp]

Did you know that animals, at least in QC, are not required to have a rabies vaccine? I was really confused when we adopted a cat the other year and the vet told me this. Since ours is a house cat that doesn't go outside the vet didn't give him the vaccine. She said we'd only need it if he started going outside, and he would only be required to have it if he was going to be crossing the border back and forth.

I'm full of fun little facts this week.

Nope, sure didn't know that.. it's interesting because both my cat and dog are indoor only and I always thought it was a little silly that they would be exposed to rabies inside the house. Of course there's also the terrible chance that bats would decide to join us for an evening The raccoon population around here is also pretty massive but I don't know any statistics on how often they have rabies. I suppose that it is nice to know my pets are safe even if the likelihood of exposure is pretty low.

On another note since we're off topic already are you required to have cat licenses where you live? Where I grew up (and lived my entire life until now) only dog licenses were required but here dog and cat licenses are required.

 

[AmericaninQuebec]

On another note since we're off topic already are you required to have cat licenses where you live? Where I grew up (and lived my entire life until now) only dog licenses were required but here dog and cat licenses are required.

Yes, they do require a license, at least in QC. If you adopt your cat or dog from the shelter they will actually call you once a year to ask if you've renewed. My husband actually told them once that his older cat (that he had before I met him) died so he could get out of renewing. This year though with the new cat he was caught off guard when they called and asked how he was, and he ended up having a whole conversation about the cat before realizing who it was. We paid his $25 license fee.