When to submit application?

[AndrewInUK]

Hello all,
This looks to be an active and helpful forum. Thanks to you all for helping so many people.
I'm sure my questions have already been answered, but the sheer number of threads in this forum is overwhelming.

Our situation is actually quite simple:
I am a Canadian citizen with a current Canadian passport. My wife is British. We married here in 2007. We have two young children, both ours. We are currently living in the UK. We wish to move to Canada.
My basic problem is that I don't understand the timelines. It looks like it will take up to a year to process our application. But what are we supposed to do in the meantime?
In order to move, I need to find a job in Canada, we need to sell our house, not to mention making all the other arrangements involved in moving a family to another continent. 
Are we supposed to wait until we have our papers before moving? Or can we just submit the application and get going?
If the latter, what do we tell immigration, and how can we ensure that we are allowed in? I don't want to uproot our entire lives just to be turned back at the border.

Further to the above, there are some vexing questions on my sponsorship form, such as:
Question 10: "When do you plan to return to Canada to resume residency?" The answer to this is: depends on when I am approved!
And below that, they want proof of job offers, mortgage, property deed, or rental agreements.
If I submit now I will have none of these. Or do I make all the arrangements first, then submit?

So, to summarize - it's about timings. I don't understand how to time the submission of the application versus when to start preparing in earnest for a move (job-hunting, selling the house, etc).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Andrew

[dakonej]

Our situation is actually quite simple:
I am a Canadian citizen with a current Canadian passport. My wife is British. We married here in 2007. We have two young children, both ours. We are currently living in the UK. We wish to move to Canada.
My basic problem is that I don't understand the timelines. It looks like it will take up to a year to process our application. But what are we supposed to do in the meantime?
In order to move, I need to find a job in Canada, we need to sell our house, not to mention making all the other arrangements involved in moving a family to another continent. 
Are we supposed to wait until we have our papers before moving? Or can we just submit the application and get going?
If the latter, what do we tell immigration, and how can we ensure that we are allowed in? I don't want to uproot our entire lives just to be turned back at the border.

Further to the above, there are some vexing questions on my sponsorship form, such as:
Question 10: "When do you plan to return to Canada to resume residency?" The answer to this is: depends on when I am approved!
And below that, they want proof of job offers, mortgage, property deed, or rental agreements.
If I submit now I will have none of these. Or do I make all the arrangements first, then submit?

So, to summarize - it's about timings. I don't understand how to time the submission of the application versus when to start preparing in earnest for a move (job-hunting, selling the house, etc).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Andrew

Andrew, I'm in a similar situation to yours, except that I live with wife and kids in Central America. I'm in the preliminary stages of document gathering, job researching, etc.

I don't feel I can answer your questions with authority, so I'd suggest check the following threads in this forum or get in touch with other members who are in a situation more like yours:

London, UK, Outland Thread: http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/thread-for-outland-london-uk-applications-t49436.0.html

London Office Thread: http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/london-office-t72752.0.html

cowtown gal (case processed in about 5-6 months): http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/profiles/cowtown%20gal-u34608.html

pinklady (case processed in about 4 months!): http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/profiles/pinklady-u87487.html

I hope this helps some.

[Darque]

Hi Andrew

welcome to the forum. I am in a similar situation to yours except we have no kids. We are both living and working in the UK and we have no intention of quitting our jobs or selling our house until my husband gets his PR Visa. We plan to do this only after we are both approved as it seems unfathomable to give up everything here in the UK before we have confirmation we are okay to relocate to Canada.

London currently averages 3.5 / 4 months processing time. As I have no idea on the exact date I'll be returning to Canada, I put a provisional date in December, however I have been told that the date you put on the form is just that, a date. You don't have to be in Canada by then however you will need to "land" in Canada to get her PR card before the Visa's expiry date in her passport (which is 1 year from the date of when the medical was done)

When I submitted my application last month, I had no job offers or mortgage/rental agreements in Canada for the reasons explained above. My parents did however write & sign a letter confirming we could live with them when we move to Canada while we look for employment and housing of our own. Thankfully we have already shipped alot of our stuff over to Canada which my parents have stored in their basement so I also provided evidence of that.

I have heard of people printing off their internet browser history to show they have at least been looking at job offers in Canada and looking for real estate listings.

Feel free to join us in the "London UK, Outland thread" where you'll find that most of us didn't have any of the documents requested in Question 10 and most people seems to be approved just fine.

So in short, we submitted our applications to get going and hopefully land in Canada later this year, subject to approval.

Hope this helps!

[AndrewInUK]

Hi Darque,
Thanks for the reply - that's very helpful.

I'm confused about the waiting times though.

(I just tried to post links to the waiting times pages I've found, but this board isn't letting me...)
But both pages are on cic.gc.ca, and they say that Step 1 takes 41 days; Step 2 (from London office) take 9 months!

So that's 10+ months rather than the 3.5/4 you mentioned. Am I going to the wrong pages?

Thanks,
Andrew

[Darque]

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

You're going to the correct pages

However, even though London does state 9 months it's seems to be alot quicker.

If you have a look at the statistics spreadsheet for London applicants on this forum, sponsors are approved in less than the 41 days stated and the total processing time average currently stands at 107 days (3.5 months)

London VO Processing Times
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AovjfA1KvIIIdDR3NnZvd3JKZlZ0aURxWWZzUUNub0E&authkey=CJyi-IYE&hl=en_GB#gid=0

The spreadsheet is frequently updated in the London thread, so it's worth checking it out

[AndrewInUK]

Thanks for the link the the spreadsheet, Darque. That has helped clarify things for me.

Thanks,
Andrew