Work Visa Expiring, and PR applicaiton Pending :(

[sonimal]

Hi All,

so heres my Case, My husband is on Work-visa here in canada, the Visa expires on Aug 22nd/2009, and I have sponsered him for PR through outland application, Its been 7 months ( Mississauga office recieved our application on Jan 15th), the status still shows as "in process - Medical results have been received"since FEb 25th, thats when New delhi started processing his application.

We have tried contacting the office twice to get updates on the status but we havent had any reply from them ( on their website it says that 80% of the cases are done in 7 months) so shouldnt they be replying to our e-mails by now as its been over 7 months now ?

Also, Does anyone if my husband can extend his stay here in canada probably as a visitor while we wait to hear on his PR application.

Its so sad that pretty much everything in our lives is on hold right now until he gets his PR. I am planning on going with him to india when he receives his passport request letter, but how in the world can i plan my vacation when everything is so uncertain..and I would love for us not to stay apart..

Is there any way around this situation...how can i get an update on the status.. ( My MP contacted them back in May, so that option is out )

Please help

thanks

soni

[Leon]

It's not been 7 months though, your total right now is 6 months and 5 days.  To break it down further, if Mississauga got your application on January 15th and sent it to New Delhi on Feb 25th, that took about 41 days which right now takes 43 days according to CIC, see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/canada/process-in.asp#sponsorship so normal processing.  As you said, New Delhi didn't start processing until February 25th.  Today is July 20th.  That means that your processing in New Delhi is so far at less than 5 months.  According to http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/international/05-fc-spouses.asp#asia New Delhi processes in 2-7 months so nothing out of the ordinary yet.

Can your husband apply to extend his work visa giving him at least implied status to continue working for a while longer?  If that doesn't work out, he can apply to change his status to visitor. 

[sonimal]

Hi leon,

thanks for your reply, Yes  you r right, its been 6 months ( My bad). so when they say 80% of cases are finalized in 7 months, do they count from when Mississauga received the application or NEw delhi?

to apply for the work visa extension, he would need a LMO, and we suspect that his current employer would wanna go through the hassle of getting one. So if he applies for visitor and stays in canada beyond Aug 22nd (  work -visa expiration date) and lets say that he receives the passport request letter on Aug 30, while his visitor visa request is still in process. Will that cause any trouble for him at the airport as then this work-visa would be expired, but Visitor visa would be still in process.

should we take that risk atall, or should he just go back to india before 22nd, and wait there for the passport request letter.

Life would be so much better if we didnt have to make such risky decisions :-S

[Leon]

When he applies to change his status to visitor, he should say that he has a PR application in process and give them the file number.  There will not be any problems for him to leave Canada with applications pending and once he comes back he's a PR so no worries.

When you look at the processing times for New Delhi, those are actually the processing times for New Delhi, not Mississauga.  I hope that clarifies it

[sonimal]

makes sense, thanks a lot Leon :-)