Thread for Outland LONDON, UK Applications!

[Canooknic]

Been ages since I was on here...I was so surprised not to see any posts by Pinklady! Did she retire from the forum?!!

Anyway..to all of you frustrated with waiting to get your Visas...trust me, it is worth all the frustration & waiting. Moving to Canada was the best thing I've ever done. I Love it here! Canada is a wonderful country. Been here 9 months now and haven't been homesick once! (This is *home* now!!)

Hi!! So pleased that things are going so well for you, I can't believe that we've been here 18 months already! My fiancé is amazed that he has never looked back, we did have a couple of 'wobbly' days (2 best friends weddings and a funeral) but he has never thought about going back.
Enjoy your first Canadian Christmas xxxx

 

[kaede1977]

Yeah!! my COPR is in Canada! it arrived on monday but the post delivered it to the neighbours (wonder why??), so my in-laws only got the notice yesterday and got it today. Now I need to get it at home, and land! probably on saturday, or monday, or tuesday... post is not very reliable I have noticed... But - at least it's here so that's great!
Sweden

Hooray!!! so happy for you that you recieved COPR...keep us all posted on your landing, well done and good luck!!

 

[mirage1964]

Hey M ( makes you sound like you're from a Bond's movie, and with a wife from Scotland, that's almost spooky ! )

yeah! Victoria...not many of us out there It's sad indeed that there is no better communication and that applicants are left so much in the dark about what is actually happening for their file... I hope you hear from them soon - I'll be landing this week end probably (I'm already in Victoria, and the COPR got to Canada today )
Good luck, hopefully you're near the end,
Sweden

lol...well I wish I was in a Bond movie at least I could get some action on the application

One quick question. Due to the length of delay her meds expired on Nov 1, 2012. What will they do? Ask her to get a new one done which will add another 2 months to the process probably!

M

 

[R151NG5UN]

lol...well I wish I was in a Bond movie at least I could get some action on the application

One quick question. Due to the length of delay her meds expired on Nov 1, 2012. What will they do? Ask her to get a new one done which will add another 2 months to the process probably!

M

Hey M,

Wow your meds expired exactly the same day as mine. for me to give an accurate answer can you share your time line?

In my case, Mississauga received our file May 28th. I did the medicals too early, down to a few factors, not being organised, not knowing about this site and a hard drive crash on my PC and a delay on my PCC's hence why medicals were so far in advance of our application. Our 1st stage was approved on July 9th 2012. Since then the file has been with London.

If you share your time line I will be able to answer more accurately. Thanks

 

[Deficient]

I assume you still require an ESTA when going into the USA by land? I read that canadians will require (or perhaps already been implemented) an ESTA also...

ESTA is only required if you are arriving into the US by air or sea. If crossing the land border, you fill out the old I-94 form (ESTA replaced this for air/sea travellers) and pay $7 I think and then once you leave the US you have to surrender the form. (It's not clear to me whether you can hold on to it and use it as a 'multiple entry' thing until its validity is coming to an end and then surrender it. I may ask about that when I go.)

Sweden was right in saying that one doesn't actually have to enter the US in order to land back in Canada, but you do have to get a paper from the US side that states that you approached the US border as this constitutes proof that you left Canada, since there's no exit stamp from Canada and you would also have no US entry stamp.

My concern about that is that some people report having trouble during subsequent entries to the US because they have something akin to a refusal of entry on their US record. Others report no trouble at all. I haven't heard of anybody actually being refused entry as a result of this previous refusal since it's purely administrative and can be explained away, but I imagine something like this can cause delays and being taken aside for a bunch of questioning. It'll probably depend on the officer.

I'm just going to try to enter and do some shopping and hopefully avoid a refusal.


Sweden, congratulations on (almost) having your COPR. Good luck with the landing process. I'll be sure to post about my own experience.

 

[R151NG5UN]

What happened to the spreadsheet again? It looks like all the graph's and data is missing. It looks like somebody was trying to drag all the data to make more space for future applicants.

Maybe a note if it can be fixed to move the data quite a way down the page, maybe even the bottom.

 

[Deficient]

What happened to the spreadsheet again? It looks like all the graph's and data is missing. It looks like somebody was trying to drag all the data to make more space for future applicants.

Maybe a note if it can be fixed to move the data quite a way down the page, maybe even the bottom.

I've now restored it back a few versions to the last working version of the graphs, as there had only been minimal changes since then. Hoping I haven't messed anything up.

I am not sure how to achieve adding more lines without knocking out the data that feeds into the graphs, I will leave it to somebody who knows what they are doing.

 

[mirage1964]

Hey M,

Wow your meds expired exactly the same day as mine. for me to give an accurate answer can you share your time line?

In my case, Mississauga received our file May 28th. I did the medicals too early, down to a few factors, not being organised, not knowing about this site and a hard drive crash on my PC and a delay on my PCC's hence why medicals were so far in advance of our application. Our 1st stage was approved on July 9th 2012. Since then the file has been with London.

If you share your time line I will be able to answer more accurately. Thanks

Hi R15ING5UN..

lol..wow..small world

Here is the info as I have it as of today:

Category........: FAM
Visa Office......: London
App. Filed.......: 30 March 2012
AOR Received.: 27 June 2012. (Canada)
2nd stage AOR: 15 Nov 2012 (LVO)
Med's Done....: 01 November 2011 (Expired)
Interview........: Hopefully not
Passport Req..: Exempt

Thanks for your help..

M

 

[R151NG5UN]

Going by your timeline, it is even earlier than mine. London VO in all probability request an extension to your medicals. What I gather is the time for this can be anywhere from about 3-6 weeks providing everything else in finalised and a medical is the only thing stopping issuance of the visa.

It is recommended that you wait for an instruction from the VO for your redo if you do actually have to have 1 (which I believe is unlikely) the reason being is.

1) London will send you a sealed envelope in which you take to the panel physician and at that point he/she will tell you exactly what is required to be completed (a lot of people only need an additional chest X-ray). Without the instruction some doctors won't entertain the 2nd medical without the VO's instruction.

2) Doing a medical without instruction can result in worse delays than waiting for instruction as I have heard they have a hard time matching the examination with your file. I presume that maybe to do with the fact an extension on your existing expired medical is in progress. Some have also said that doing a 2nd medical without instruction is fine but recently a lot of people do advise waiting for that instruction.

I wish you good luck and since I am in your position I will also follow the advice of waiting until I am instructed otherwise. Good luck and I hope you have some news soon

 

[mirage1964]

Going by your timeline, it is even earlier than mine. London VO in all probability request an extension to your medicals. What I gather is the time for this can be anywhere from about 3-6 weeks providing everything else in finalised and a medical is the only thing stopping issuance of the visa.

It is recommended that you wait for an instruction from the VO for your redo if you do actually have to have 1 (which I believe is unlikely) the reason being is.

1) London will send you a sealed envelope in which you take to the panel physician and at that point he/she will tell you exactly what is required to be completed (a lot of people only need an additional chest X-ray). Without the instruction some doctors won't entertain the 2nd medical without the VO's instruction.

2) Doing a medical without instruction can result in worse delays than waiting for instruction as I have heard they have a hard time matching the examination with your file. I presume that maybe to do with the fact an extension on your existing expired medical is in progress. Some have also said that doing a 2nd medical without instruction is fine but recently a lot of people do advise waiting for that instruction.

I wish you good luck and since I am in your position I will also follow the advice of waiting until I am instructed otherwise. Good luck and I hope you have some news soon

Thanks R151NG5UN..

I know about the time. Our level of frustration kept growing every time we see someone after us getting their COPR...

Just some clarification:

What I gather is the time for this can be anywhere from about 3-6 weeks providing everything else in finalised and a medical is the only thing stopping issuance of the visa.

Are you saying that they will approve our application and then send us a note saying the medical extension will take another 3-6 weeks to approve before we can get our final COPR?

That seems a long time given it is their delays..

Thanks

M

 

[R151NG5UN]

Thanks R151NG5UN..

I know about the time. Our level of frustration kept growing every time we see someone after us getting their COPR...

Just some clarification:

What I gather is the time for this can be anywhere from about 3-6 weeks providing everything else in finalised and a medical is the only thing stopping issuance of the visa.

Are you saying that they will approve our application and then send us a note saying the medical extension will take another 3-6 weeks to approve before we can get our final COPR?

That seems a long time given it is their delays..

Thanks

M

Nobody seems to be able to give a definitive answer to that exact question and believe me I think the same thing to myself and I hope that all the extensions and processing is done entirely. I would hate to think just like yourself, they would say hey your application is all complete and were ready to issue visa BUT we can't because now we need to request medical extension lol. I would be lying if I said I knew 1 way or the other definitively. I would hope they requested the extension as the old medical expired and between the period of it being granted they could finalise the application but this is CIC and who knows.

It is quite new this medical extension and we can only hope that logic is applied when processing. Also I find that now especially with VO processing times being extended again, is a 12 month medical validity enough in the 1st place? If the answer is no then it is a bit like a ponzi scheme. What is the point of having a medical when you know a 2nd will be needed. Maybe CIC should pay for the 2nd medical if the process drags on. Perhaps that would speed them up lol.

 

[mirage1964]

Nobody seems to be able to give a definitive answer to that exact question and believe me I think the same thing to myself and I hope that all the extensions and processing is done entirely. I would hate to think just like yourself, they would say hey your application is all complete and were ready to issue visa BUT we can't because now we need to request medical extension lol. I would be lying if I said I knew 1 way or the other definitively. I would hope they requested the extension as the old medical expired and between the period of it being granted they could finalise the application but this is CIC and who knows.

It is quite new this medical extension and we can only hope that logic is applied when processing. Also I find that now especially with VO processing times being extended again, is a 12 month medical validity enough in the 1st place? If the answer is no then it is a bit like a ponzi scheme. What is the point of having a medical when you know a 2nd will be needed. Maybe CIC should pay for the 2nd medical if the process drags on. Perhaps that would speed them up lol.

lol..so true..when it comes to logic and process I guess government agencies are not always the best bets to do what is right, but what is procedure...guess it comes down to that intangible in the sense of what officer you get. One who understands the system and the goal of reuniting people or a bureaucrat officer whose only goal is to follow procedure and push the paper..

Just more waiting I guess..

M

 

[R151NG5UN]

I restored the spreadsheet back by about 17-18 hours ago. If anybody has added any information between now and then it will have been removed. Those graphs and stats are stopping anybody else adding themselves to the spreadsheet. If anybody knows how to drag them right down to the bottom that would be appreciated so others including M can join.

Thanks guys

 

[emceemouli]

I restored the spreadsheet back by about 17-18 hours ago. If anybody has added any information between now and then it will have been removed. Those graphs and stats are stopping anybody else adding themselves to the spreadsheet. If anybody knows how to drag them right down to the bottom that would be appreciated so others including M can join.

Thanks guys

Hi

I have created the following website to help New comers to Canada to find all the information they need in a single location. I am still working on to update this site. Please do let me know what information I can add to this site to make it more useful.


https://sites.google.com/site/newcanadianimmigrants/

Please feel free to check it

Thanks
Chandra

 

[mirage1964]

I restored the spreadsheet back by about 17-18 hours ago. If anybody has added any information between now and then it will have been removed. Those graphs and stats are stopping anybody else adding themselves to the spreadsheet. If anybody knows how to drag them right down to the bottom that would be appreciated so others including M can join.

Thanks guys

Thanks R151NG5UN..

Added our data into the spreadsheet

M