Singapore timeline

[jupiter16]

one january applicant got PPR from SVO ai-hopeful, congrats .

i heard recent bangladeshi applicants r getting interview coz of some recent unwanted incidences.

my bad luck. this time i was supposed to get a PPR or so.
my medical is expiring on october.

 

[buonqua]

congrats Ai-Hopeful!

But how can they refuse his/her applicantion when he/she been in Canada almost a year.

VO: want to come to Canada for status? Oh you're already in Canada.

But it does give hope for others that applied through Singapore office and gives an idea how backlogged
they are in approving a sure application in 8 months.

 

[ai_hopeful]

June 24 - police check from Malaysia...
August 2 - police check from Canada..
August 23 - PPR
I guess without the extra police check it should be 7 months for SG VO these days?

 

[mrwestjet]

For those who are on the interview queue or DNA queue with Singapore visa office, I am going to share my insights on how visa offices operate in the regions where marriage or document frauds are the challenges (speaking from an``inside knowledge" if you believe it . These offices, including Singapore, usually hire local staff to do initial assessment checks simply for an effort to save operational costs. The local officers will look at the overall quality of your applications, including all the information on the forms and proof of relationship and make a recommendation to the Canadian immigration officers what the next steps should be. Only immigration officers who work under Foreign Affairs and IRCC, and appointed by Minister of Immigration can make the final decisions on cases. However the Canadian officers typically work on 2-year rotational assignments at each visa office. It is believed that the non-rotational local staff who usually work much longer than Canadian staff at visa offices have a better in-depth knowledge about the local procedure and cultural norms for the countries they are posted, thus can detect abnormal things in the applications. Is this belief true or not, I am not sure, but most recommendations by the local staff will usually be seconded by Canadian officers.

As for SVO, Singaporean staff will look at and make first recommendations on family class files from all the countries under SVO's jurisdiction, be it Thailand, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Malay, Indo, etc. In most cases they do good jobs, in some cases (and it is not rare at all) they solely use their personal prejudice to decide if whether or not cases should go through the more extensive check routes, with interviews or DNA, or whatever they can think of to make the process more frustrating.

Problem is Canadian visa offices are usually giving too much credits to the works done by local officers without proper oversight by higher management. And this is exceptionally true, and also a major challenge for Singapore. You will see a lot of files that will be put in the interview or DNA queues where they should have not. In many cases the reasons for such extended requests are not even properly documented by local staff. They just "feel like it". If you can confirm there are NO documented reasons provided on GCMS note, definitely write to the Canadian immigration officers or managers to request a second look at the file, and to provide you with a written reason why those requests were made. This could help trigger a close review on your file by Canadian officers and they will be willing to help cancel the requests and put your files back to regular processing queue with much shorter wait time. Most steps in the PR processing are done by local Singaporean staff, Canadian officers conduct visa interviews, or render final decisions on GCMS and that’s about it.

Each visa offices usually have a handful of Canadian staff, for Singapore maybe 4-5 Canadian decision makers maximum. In less busy or smaller offices, even less, might be one to two. Thailand 1-2. Vietnam 1-2 officers who make decision on TRV.

You can see big American consulates around the world that can handle interviews for hundreds or even thousands visa applicants a day; unfortunately, Canada operates on a much smaller scale due to cost restrain and immigration service is never given enough attention by the federal government, intentionally.

 

[ImABule]

For those who are on the interview queue or DNA queue with Singapore visa office, I am going to share my insights on how visa offices operate in the regions where marriage or document frauds are the challenges (speaking from an``inside knowledge" if you believe it . These offices, including Singapore, usually hire local staff to do initial assessment checks simply for an effort to save operational costs. The local officers will look at the overall quality of your applications, including all the information on the forms and proof of relationship and make a recommendation to the Canadian immigration officers what the next steps should be. Only immigration officers who work under Foreign Affairs and IRCC, and appointed by Minister of Immigration can make the final decisions on cases. However the Canadian officers typically work on 2-year rotational assignments at each visa office. It is believed that the non-rotational local staff who usually work much longer than Canadian staff at visa offices have a better in-depth knowledge about the local procedure and cultural norms for the countries they are posted, thus can detect abnormal things in the applications. Is this belief true or not, I am not sure, but most recommendations by the local staff will usually be seconded by Canadian officers.

As for SVO, Singaporean staff will look at and make first recommendations on family class files from all the countries under SVO's jurisdiction, be it Thailand, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Malay, Indo, etc. In most cases they do good jobs, in some cases (and it is not rare at all) they solely use their personal prejudice to decide if whether or not cases should go through the more extensive check routes, with interviews or DNA, or whatever they can think of to make the process more frustrating.

Problem is Canadian visa offices are usually giving too much credits to the works done by local offices without proper oversight by higher management. And this is exceptionally true, and also a major challenge for Singapore. You will see a lot of files that will be put in the interview or DNA queues where they should have not. In many cases the reasons for such extended requests are not even properly documented by local staff. They just "feel like it". If you can confirm there are NO documented reasons provided on GCMS note, definitely write to the Canadian immigration officers or managers to request a second look at the file, and to provide you with a written reason why those requests were made. This could help trigger a close review on your file by Canadian officers and they will be willing to help cancel the requests and put your files back to regular processing queue with much shorter wait time. Most steps in the PR processing are done by local Singaporean staff, Canadian officers conduct visa interviews, or render final decisions on GCMS and that’s about it.

Each visa offices usually have a handful of Canadian staff, for Singapore maybe 4-5 Canadian decision makers maximum. In less busy or smaller offices, even less, might be one to two. Thailand 1-2. Vietnam 1-2 officers who make decision on TRV.

You can see big American consulates around the world that can handle interviews for hundreds or even thousands visa applicants a day; unfortunately, Canada operates on a much smaller scale due to cost restrain and immigration service is never given enough attention by the federal government, intentionally.

I was reading a lot about SVO including the last CIC audit of svo and the summary of the last inspection of svo (you can find this through google) and so I was already aware of most of this except the "because they feel like it" bit.

Either way excellent post west jet +1

The entire high commission is comprised of 20 Canadian based officers and 55 local staff for all programs not just immigration so it seems about right to have maybe 5 assigned to FC.

 

[mrwestjet]

I was reading a lot about SVO including the last CIC audit of svo and the summary of the last inspection of svo (you can find this through google) and so I was already aware of most of this except the "because they feel like it" bit.

Either way excellent post west jet +1

The entire high commission is comprised of 20 Canadian based officers and 55 local staff for all programs not just immigration so it seems about right to have maybe 5 assigned to FC.

Yeah. 4-5 immigration officers for 11 countries under SVO, so you name it. The immigration section is mostly staffed by Singaporean employees and these people actually have the power to make your life a living hell for a couple years lol.
Local officers do have the great capabilities to make a difference in most of the assessments.

They have individual GCMS user id and they can access almost any immigration records of any person seeking entry or already living in Canada, can make tasteful notes on your GCMS too which could ruin your life later on.

In some places they are also called local support staff, or locally engaged staff, they are not recruited by Foreign Affairs but got hired directly by the immigration section. They get paid in local currency, or USD, however all other employment standards are comparable to that of Canadian federal employees. These jobs are hard to take, even for Canadians who are willing to just work as local staff without Foreign Service status.

 

[ImABule]

Yeah. 4-5 immigration officers for 11 countries under SVO, so you name it. The immigration section is mostly staffed by Singaporean employees and these people actually have the power to make your life a living hell for a couple years lol.
Local officers do have the great capabilities to make a difference in most of the assessments.

They have individual GCMS user id and they can access almost any immigration records of any person seeking entry or already living in Canada, can make tasteful notes on your GCMS too which could ruin your life later on.

In some places they are also called local support staff, or locally engaged staff, they are not recruited by Foreign Affairs but got hired directly by the immigration section. They get paid in local currency, or USD, however all other employment standards are comparable to that of Canadian federal employees. These jobs are hard to take, even for Canadians who are willing to just work as local staff without Foreign Service status.

I did read in the inspection that they found that there was one LES who was actually making final determinations..

 

[mrwestjet]

I did read in the inspection that they found that there was one LES who was actually making final determinations..

Haha yeah you caught that too. I don't think that is still happenening under Thomas Richter. But yeah, Singapore got red flagged at the time when they used local officers for the final decisions. Funny though, the Act clearly states only immigration officers designated by the Minister can close the files. Also the LES are not supposed to title themselves on any correspondences as 'immigration officer', but they do.
Several offices got caught using LES for the entire process which is against IRPR.

 

[ImABule]

Haha yeah you caught that too. I don't think that is still happenening under Thomas Richter. But yeah, Singapore got red flagged at the time when they used local officers for the final decisions. Funny though, the Act clearly states only immigration officers designated by the Minister can close the files. Also the LES are not supposed to title themselves on any correspondences as 'immigration officer', but they do.
Several offices got caught using LES for the entire process which is against IRPR.

Yep.

Slightly ridiculous

 

[ThunderBay_vn]

do u guyz have any idea how many days it ll tak to give a interview date after put in interview queue?

I received the letter for interview queue in May 2016. Then yesterday, I received the email said my interview will be on Sep 21, 2106
We have prepared and organized all documents, proofs, photos... Counting down!!!

 

[ImABule]

I received the letter for interview queue in May 2016. Then yesterday, I received the email said my interview will be on Sep 21, 2106
We have prepared and organized all documents, proofs, photos... Counting down!!!

Good luck!

3 months to interview date is not bad at all.

 

[Shineon39]

I received the letter for interview queue in May 2016. Then yesterday, I received the email said my interview will be on Sep 21, 2106
We have prepared and organized all documents, proofs, photos... Counting down!!!

Good luck, everything will be ok

 

[jupiter16]

thunderbay 3 months to get interview date?
anyway r u from Bangladesh? i just had news 2 applicants from BD with no red flag hav interview in september and one applicant got call from canadian embassy that her interview date has been rescheduled.

 

[ImABule]

thunderbay 3 months to get interview date?
anyway r u from Bangladesh? i just had news 2 applicants from BD with no red flag hav interview in september and one applicant got call from canadian embassy that her interview date has been rescheduled.

The VN is for Vietnam

 

[mikeymyke]

I did see one applicant apply sept 15 and had their interview held in June this year so maybe it won't be too long.

I believe she was Bangladeshi as well.

Man this news has me paranoid now too as my wife and I applied 3 weeks behind Jupiter and AOR2 is only 16 days apart.

Wish u best of luck, cant believe how long its taking for u to get any news, eagerly waiting for those new gcms notes

On another note, glad to see the interview wait times are getting shorter. That could be a relief for you jupiter