Everywhere you read online it says outland sponsorships are quicker than inland. However, when checking canada.ca at the time of writing, outland and inland are 12 and 10 months respectively. That being said, I also have read pretty consistently that outland sponsorship for Canada-US couples is generally faster and takes 4-6 months. The 12 and 10 month figures are not specific to the US of course, so maybe the difference is really just that big? In that case should I expect a similar decrease in expected wait time from the predicted inbound time, or does it scale differently? Are there any rules of thumb for estimating Canada-US wait time from the overall wait time?
Canada-US Spousal Sponsorship Wait Times
- Thread starter usperson1
- Start date
From my observations of the trackers on this forum, I am really not seeing any data leading me to believe that 4 months is ever realistic. (Anecdotally, my spouse and I are currently entering our 4th month and making great progress, but the eligibility assessment hasn't even begun.) It is probably generally true that wait times for US PAs are shorter on average, but there could easily be complexities for individual US files that draw them out as long as any other country. If there are any rules of thumb to apply, I haven't seen them. I would welcome being corrected by others!
I think I have seen others speak on this forum about published data for VO wait times, but I haven't located it. Though not all US files go to the same VO.
I think I have seen others speak on this forum about published data for VO wait times, but I haven't located it. Though not all US files go to the same VO.
There are really no rules of thumb. Best to assume the posted processing time will apply to your appy and be pleasantly surprised if you are done sooner.
Well on the flip side, 10 months for inbound is shorter than I have ever heard anyone talk about online. Everywhere I look it says 1-2 years. I'm wondering if right now is an exceptionally fast time to apply for inbound sponsorship, or if it always says around 10 months, but realistically it's 1-2 years.
Processing times fluctuate depending on several factors. Not sure what information you're looking at however processing times did slow down during covid. The 10-12 months is realistic.
My spouse is from the US. We are doing inland and we applied Oct 2022, and have had approved-in-principle (AIP) since July 2023. We are in Quebec so it is slower here. That said, I don't know that US-Canada applications go faster in-general, I suspect there's some anecdotal evidence that has led to a belief it is quicker.
The main "thing" that can lead to US citizens PR applications to be faster is that, if the applicant doesn't have any other country to be checked for the background check than the US and Canada, it makes the background check step quicker, as all relevant Canadian authorities involved in the background check have direct access to US records for it. Since the background check step is the longest one in the process, that can lead to better times for the application.
But that one "advantage" goes away the moment the applicant has any other countries involved in their background check. So most likely some anecdotal evidence for people in that one specific case and that's it.
From what I've seen recently, a "reasonable" time frame if no additional document or interview is requested (aka for the simplest applications) for applicants outside Quebec, is around 6 months from submission to eCOPR. Any complexion to your application (like request for additional documents, request for an interview, delays in you providing biometrics or medical, etc) will lead to longer times.
But that one "advantage" goes away the moment the applicant has any other countries involved in their background check. So most likely some anecdotal evidence for people in that one specific case and that's it.
From what I've seen recently, a "reasonable" time frame if no additional document or interview is requested (aka for the simplest applications) for applicants outside Quebec, is around 6 months from submission to eCOPR. Any complexion to your application (like request for additional documents, request for an interview, delays in you providing biometrics or medical, etc) will lead to longer times.
It's a very unclear process. In our case, we have had no issues with extra countries needed for background checks, no extra documentation required etc. Best we can tell is we are just having a long delay as a result of the quotas Quebec set but that's only speculation. However, has been strange that since March 2023 the tracker has listed all milestones as completed (medical, biometrics, eligibility, background ), we have had AIP for nearly 6 months and SA for 5 months.