Hi all,
I am a long time lurker on this forum who has benefited greatly from the experiences of other PR applicants. So, I thought I would post my journey and experiences for other people's benefit.
I decided to apply in December 2004 through a canadian immigration law firm (Abrams and Krochak). My assessment at that time was favorable for immigration. However, I could not apply at that time due to personal reasons.
When I decided to apply again in January 2009, I was told that my NOC was struck off the list and I was not eligible. Thankfully, my wife was eligible through her qualification and experience.
We applied through the Buffalo office ( i had been in the states for 11 years without applying for a US green card!!!) in March 2009 since I was doing my MBA then and my wife was on a F2 visa. At that point, we were debating about whether to apply from Buffalo or from New delhi. We took a major gamble by applying from the Buffalo office, since my F-1 and her F-2 were only valid for the next 15 months and we would have had to transfer our case to New delhi, if we left the US before our medicals were requested. As many of you know, transferring a case to another VO is akin to starting over again!!!!
We got our full document request in April 2009 and submitted our documents just in the nick of time with about a week to spare. My wife's PP was expiring and we had to get a new PP issued and get her PCC from the indian consulate in the states ( this took almost 3.5 months). We sent all our docs in the last week of July 2009 and got our AOR in August 2009. After that the waiting period started and everyday which passed without any communication from the VO added to my stress level.
Finally in march 2010, we got a mail form the buffalo VO saying that our case was being transferred to the Detroit VO to expedite processing. Exactly a week later we got our Medical request!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We went for our medicals in April 2010 and our medicals reached ottawa by the end of may. I had graduated with my MBA by then and went back to India in June 2010. After 4 months of waiting, we got our PP request at the end of september.
I know that quiet a few people are in the same situation as I was: Applied at the US VO, went back to India and got PPR when in India. I was also contemplating my options of how to send the PP to the VO: (1) Personally, (2) through my parents and (3) through mail. Option 3 was ruled out since it was illegal and too risky. Option 2 sounded reasonable since my parents both had tourist visas to the US ready and were willing to go. I finally chose Option 1 because I had just gotten a full time job and was starting off my post MBA career. I asked my employer for emergency leave to go personally and he refused. So I quit my job as I thought why not goto Canada and start off there...I had heard a lot about how Canadian firms require Canadian experience. So it would be prudent for me to go there and look for a job and get Canadian experience rather getting experience in India, which would be redundant when I eventually moved to Canada.
We went to the US consulate in India, got our visitor visas, packed up our belongings and went to Detroit last week. When we went to the Detroit office, I was pleasantly surprised when we got our PPs stamped and our COPRs within 2 HRS!!!!!
I landed in Toronto, yesterday and went through immigration without any problem. Even though we had our application for PR form filled and ready, the IO did not need it. He just took our mailing address in Canada, and the photo which was pasted on our COPR and told us that we would get our PR cards by mail in 3-6 weeks. We had our B4 and B4A forms filled and ready, and customs was a breeze through. Please remember to get your receipt forms from the Customs officer before you exit the airport.
Anyways, here we are in our new homeland, hoping and trying to find a good job and make our lives, just as a lot of pepole before us have done.
I would really like to thank all the contributors to this forum (Qorax, PMM being at the top of the list) for helping clarify my doubts without me having to post even once!!! THAT IS THE BIGGEST COMPLIMENT I CAN GIVE TO THIS FORUM...ALL THE NECESSARY PROCEDURES/QUESTIONS/QUERIES ARE ALREADY IN THE THREADS CREATED BY PREVIOUS APPLICANTS.
I would like to offer a few pointers based on my experience: (1) Apply through a Canadian licensed immigration law firm (not consultants, but a group of attorneys who are licensed by the canadian courts/bar to represent PR applicants). My lawyers were very professional and would give me 24 hrs reply to my queries (email only)
(2) Plan ahead by looking through the CIC website and forums like these for actions which need to be taken in the future. For example, the moment you file your application, you should start collecting your documents. You should get estimate approximate lead times for all your documents and plan for bottlenecks etc.
(3) if you dont have any of the needed documents, pls do not wait past the 120 day deadline. Pls submit whatever you have by the 120 day deadline. You can either tell the VO that you will submit at a later date or send a letter outlining the reasons why you cannot provide one. For example, I could not provide an original offer of employment form one of my previous employers because the company had gone belly up. So i sent my tax forms and my last 2 pay stubs and a letter stating that the company was no longer in existence to the VO.
(4) Pay minute attention to detail and DONOT ASSUME things!!! For example, the deadline for document submission or medical request starts from the date that is there on the letter sent by the VO. It is not the date you received it or your lawyer received it etc.
All in all, treat the whole process like you would if you were handling a very important project at your full time job. (Project milestones, timelines, resource allocation, activity coordination....all the good project management stuff
).I certainly treated mine that way and it paid off for me.
I would be more than happy to answer any of your questions which you may have about my Canadian Immigration Journey/Experience.
Good Luck and All the Best
Asty16
I am a long time lurker on this forum who has benefited greatly from the experiences of other PR applicants. So, I thought I would post my journey and experiences for other people's benefit.
I decided to apply in December 2004 through a canadian immigration law firm (Abrams and Krochak). My assessment at that time was favorable for immigration. However, I could not apply at that time due to personal reasons.
When I decided to apply again in January 2009, I was told that my NOC was struck off the list and I was not eligible. Thankfully, my wife was eligible through her qualification and experience.
We applied through the Buffalo office ( i had been in the states for 11 years without applying for a US green card!!!) in March 2009 since I was doing my MBA then and my wife was on a F2 visa. At that point, we were debating about whether to apply from Buffalo or from New delhi. We took a major gamble by applying from the Buffalo office, since my F-1 and her F-2 were only valid for the next 15 months and we would have had to transfer our case to New delhi, if we left the US before our medicals were requested. As many of you know, transferring a case to another VO is akin to starting over again!!!!
We got our full document request in April 2009 and submitted our documents just in the nick of time with about a week to spare. My wife's PP was expiring and we had to get a new PP issued and get her PCC from the indian consulate in the states ( this took almost 3.5 months). We sent all our docs in the last week of July 2009 and got our AOR in August 2009. After that the waiting period started and everyday which passed without any communication from the VO added to my stress level.
Finally in march 2010, we got a mail form the buffalo VO saying that our case was being transferred to the Detroit VO to expedite processing. Exactly a week later we got our Medical request!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We went for our medicals in April 2010 and our medicals reached ottawa by the end of may. I had graduated with my MBA by then and went back to India in June 2010. After 4 months of waiting, we got our PP request at the end of september.
I know that quiet a few people are in the same situation as I was: Applied at the US VO, went back to India and got PPR when in India. I was also contemplating my options of how to send the PP to the VO: (1) Personally, (2) through my parents and (3) through mail. Option 3 was ruled out since it was illegal and too risky. Option 2 sounded reasonable since my parents both had tourist visas to the US ready and were willing to go. I finally chose Option 1 because I had just gotten a full time job and was starting off my post MBA career. I asked my employer for emergency leave to go personally and he refused. So I quit my job as I thought why not goto Canada and start off there...I had heard a lot about how Canadian firms require Canadian experience. So it would be prudent for me to go there and look for a job and get Canadian experience rather getting experience in India, which would be redundant when I eventually moved to Canada.
We went to the US consulate in India, got our visitor visas, packed up our belongings and went to Detroit last week. When we went to the Detroit office, I was pleasantly surprised when we got our PPs stamped and our COPRs within 2 HRS!!!!!
I landed in Toronto, yesterday and went through immigration without any problem. Even though we had our application for PR form filled and ready, the IO did not need it. He just took our mailing address in Canada, and the photo which was pasted on our COPR and told us that we would get our PR cards by mail in 3-6 weeks. We had our B4 and B4A forms filled and ready, and customs was a breeze through. Please remember to get your receipt forms from the Customs officer before you exit the airport.
Anyways, here we are in our new homeland, hoping and trying to find a good job and make our lives, just as a lot of pepole before us have done.
I would really like to thank all the contributors to this forum (Qorax, PMM being at the top of the list) for helping clarify my doubts without me having to post even once!!! THAT IS THE BIGGEST COMPLIMENT I CAN GIVE TO THIS FORUM...ALL THE NECESSARY PROCEDURES/QUESTIONS/QUERIES ARE ALREADY IN THE THREADS CREATED BY PREVIOUS APPLICANTS.
I would like to offer a few pointers based on my experience: (1) Apply through a Canadian licensed immigration law firm (not consultants, but a group of attorneys who are licensed by the canadian courts/bar to represent PR applicants). My lawyers were very professional and would give me 24 hrs reply to my queries (email only)
(2) Plan ahead by looking through the CIC website and forums like these for actions which need to be taken in the future. For example, the moment you file your application, you should start collecting your documents. You should get estimate approximate lead times for all your documents and plan for bottlenecks etc.
(3) if you dont have any of the needed documents, pls do not wait past the 120 day deadline. Pls submit whatever you have by the 120 day deadline. You can either tell the VO that you will submit at a later date or send a letter outlining the reasons why you cannot provide one. For example, I could not provide an original offer of employment form one of my previous employers because the company had gone belly up. So i sent my tax forms and my last 2 pay stubs and a letter stating that the company was no longer in existence to the VO.
(4) Pay minute attention to detail and DONOT ASSUME things!!! For example, the deadline for document submission or medical request starts from the date that is there on the letter sent by the VO. It is not the date you received it or your lawyer received it etc.
All in all, treat the whole process like you would if you were handling a very important project at your full time job. (Project milestones, timelines, resource allocation, activity coordination....all the good project management stuff
).I certainly treated mine that way and it paid off for me.I would be more than happy to answer any of your questions which you may have about my Canadian Immigration Journey/Experience.
Good Luck and All the Best
Asty16
