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I've been checking weekly/monthly for basically all of 2014, and what shocks me most is the fact that the only information I can actually get from CIC is that incredibly slow moving date on their website.

I bewilders me that CIC can't simply send out an AOR the day an application arrives, without even opening it.
Personally I'd pay an additional fee for CIC-tracking. Some kind of early entry into the tracking system that will at least guarantee no one has lost my important information.

It's nonsense that we need to wait 13 (should be up to 14 soon) months for CIC to just tell us if they got our package or not.
 
MissRepresentation said:
Will you get the initial application package back? No. It's funny how they don't hesitate to send it back if a form happens to be 1 second out of date, but when it comes to an application that they will no longer be working on, they'll just shred the whole thing. So you're gonna have to start gathering all your documents again. As for the translations, ask your translator if they can re-issue your documents (a re-issue is cheaper than a brand new translation).

Hope this helps, and despite all the hassle I still think it's worth it to re-apply outland if you're visa exempt.

Thank you thank you for sharing that response from CIC! Unfortunately, it isn't the translation itself that costs the money, but the fact that they need to be done in Spain and then posted and also, for whatever reason, they are issued on these suuuuperfancy non-forgeable moneypaper stationaries. Gorgeous, embossed and calligraphic, but unbelievably expensive.

We'd have to think seriously hard about trying to amass everything again.
 
PixieDuster said:
Thank you thank you for sharing that response from CIC! Unfortunately, it isn't the translation itself that costs the money, but the fact that they need to be done in Spain and then posted and also, for whatever reason, they are issued on these suuuuperfancy non-forgeable moneypaper stationaries. Gorgeous, embossed and calligraphic, but unbelievably expensive.

We'd have to think seriously hard about trying to amass everything again.

I think I must have been sent the wrong documents (also had to get police checks and birth certificates sent from Spain and they were NOT fancy at all!) :o. It took me 2 months to get the whole package together again so yes, it's a pain in the butt.
 
GustavesF said:
I've been checking weekly/monthly for basically all of 2014, and what shocks me most is the fact that the only information I can actually get from CIC is that incredibly slow moving date on their website.

I bewilders me that CIC can't simply send out an AOR the day an application arrives, without even opening it.
Personally I'd pay an additional fee for CIC-tracking. Some kind of early entry into the tracking system that will at least guarantee no one has lost my important information.

It's nonsense that we need to wait 13 (should be up to 14 soon) months for CIC to just tell us if they got our package or not.

Well, the AOR is proof that the application has been opened and deemed complete, not that it's arrived at the centre. So I get a slight delay. However, anyone who has to wait for more than three weeks for an AOR... that just seems pathetic.

Some days, I feel like stopping in at the Mississauga office on my way home and just offering to work for them. Because I swear - they must have need for some help, right?
 
MissRepresentation said:
I think I must have been sent the wrong documents (also had to get police checks and birth certificates sent from Spain and they were NOT fancy at all!) :o. It took me 2 months to get the whole package together again so yes, it's a pain in the butt.

My husband and I were all agog when we got his in the mail... we wanted to frame it! He's from Catalunya, so maybe that Autonoma is more picky about its stationary? *I wish I were joking...*
 
Huh...mine came from Barcelona too and the first thing I thought when I received them was "what the hell, a 5 year-old could forge this"!
 
MissRepresentation said:
Huh...mine came from Barcelona too and the first thing I thought when I received them was "what the hell, a 5 year-old could forge this"!

How interesting... out of curiosity, was it translated from Spanish or Catalan?
 
MissRepresentation said:
The original documents were in Spanish. Interesting indeed!

Hmmm... I am not sure which my husband's documents were. Potentially Catalan. Maybe that makes a difference?
 
MissRepresentation said:
Who knows. Nothing would surprise me when it comes to Spanish (or Catalan!) bureaucracy.

Hear hear!
 
Doesn't the instruction form for Spain request that they come from Madrid??

That's where my husband's came from....
 
MissRepresentation said:
It would help to know which documents we're talking about.... :)
The documents we are talking about are the police check.
 
ACS said:
Doesn't the instruction form for Spain request that they come from Madrid??

That's where my husband's came from....

I believe all documents had to be authenticated in Madrid... but I could be wrong about that. So yes, at one point, they passed through Madrid.