Just wanted to share some information about my experience now that I've received COPR. Not sure if any of this will be useful, but I wanted to address some of the things that I personally looked in to during my application process. Hopefully, someone can find this helpful.
I am a US citizen with a Canadian citizen husband who is sponsoring me. Currently living in the US and plan to land in June. We have no dependents.
A few notes:
Our completed application was approximately 100 pages, including photos and documentation. Other than photos of us together at different times throughout our relationship in different places and photos of our wedding, we included Facebook screenshots of posts related to our relationship (relationship status change, photos, people liking and commenting on photos/post we were both in). We had taken photocopies of our wedding and wedding reception guest book and included those in our application packet. We also included letters from family members explaining their thoughts on our relationship, although I don't believe this was required. We did this because we had only been married for two months before submitting our application and wanted to cover all of our bases if there was any question about the genuineness of our relationship . We also submitted numerous pages of Skype phone/video logs I was able to generate using SkypeLogView.
I went to Canada for my medical exam. I live about 4 hours away from the closest Canadian doctor that's authorized to do immigration exams so I made a one-day trip to get my medical exam done there. It was quite a bit cheaper than going to a doctor in the US and, in my case, it was also about 2 hours closer than an approved US doctor. (note: US cost was quoted at about $450USD (~$575CAD) for all required tests and exams. My total for medical exam in Canada was about $250USD (~$320CAD). I had no issues crossing the border for this. Told the agent that I had a doctor's appointment and he let me on my way.)
Like many others, we did not consult or use the services of an immigration lawyer and ran in to no problems with this process (other than the fact that I'm one of the most impatient people I've ever met.) I'm happy to answer questions if anybody has any.
3 days shy of 5 months from the time they received our application to decision made.
ECAS updated twice: once with "medical results recieved" in the middle of February, and "in process" on April 27, 2018.
GCKey updated with "decision made" when COPR was mailed back to me, 6 days after I received PPR.
I used FedEx to send a copy of my passport and new photos to CPC Ottawa. I had to create an account online in order to create the return shipping label. When I went to a shipping store, I was told I could not create a return label for international shipments, however, I called the FedEx customer service and was told to create an account online to do so. From what I've read on this forum, some FedEx reps are able to do it in person, some don't think it's possible. I guess it depends on where you go. Note: I did not see a total on my fedex account before I created the shipping label and did not know how much it costed me until 4 days after my package was received in Ottawa when the charge was taken out of my bank account. Shipping was about $90USD one way for FedEx International Overnight. (not sure why I chose this option as I'm not landing for over a month, but, again, I'm crazy impatient lol)
I'm so grateful I found this forum, it answered so many questions and addressed many of my concerns during this process and helped to ease my mind at some points.
VO: Mississauga
Application mailed: November 27, 2017
Application Received: November 30, 2017
AOR1: January 25, 2018
Schedule A + PCC Uploaded: January 25, 2018
Medical Request date: February 9, 2018
Medical Exam date: February 14, 2018
Medical Passed date: February 21, 2018
SA: March 9, 2018
AOR2: February 16, 2018
BG Check in Progress: March 15, 2018
DM: April 27, 2018
PPR: April 27, 2018
PPR Docs Mailed: April 27, 2018
COPR Received: May 4, 2018
I am a US citizen with a Canadian citizen husband who is sponsoring me. Currently living in the US and plan to land in June. We have no dependents.
A few notes:
Our completed application was approximately 100 pages, including photos and documentation. Other than photos of us together at different times throughout our relationship in different places and photos of our wedding, we included Facebook screenshots of posts related to our relationship (relationship status change, photos, people liking and commenting on photos/post we were both in). We had taken photocopies of our wedding and wedding reception guest book and included those in our application packet. We also included letters from family members explaining their thoughts on our relationship, although I don't believe this was required. We did this because we had only been married for two months before submitting our application and wanted to cover all of our bases if there was any question about the genuineness of our relationship . We also submitted numerous pages of Skype phone/video logs I was able to generate using SkypeLogView.
I went to Canada for my medical exam. I live about 4 hours away from the closest Canadian doctor that's authorized to do immigration exams so I made a one-day trip to get my medical exam done there. It was quite a bit cheaper than going to a doctor in the US and, in my case, it was also about 2 hours closer than an approved US doctor. (note: US cost was quoted at about $450USD (~$575CAD) for all required tests and exams. My total for medical exam in Canada was about $250USD (~$320CAD). I had no issues crossing the border for this. Told the agent that I had a doctor's appointment and he let me on my way.)
Like many others, we did not consult or use the services of an immigration lawyer and ran in to no problems with this process (other than the fact that I'm one of the most impatient people I've ever met.) I'm happy to answer questions if anybody has any.
3 days shy of 5 months from the time they received our application to decision made.
ECAS updated twice: once with "medical results recieved" in the middle of February, and "in process" on April 27, 2018.
GCKey updated with "decision made" when COPR was mailed back to me, 6 days after I received PPR.
I used FedEx to send a copy of my passport and new photos to CPC Ottawa. I had to create an account online in order to create the return shipping label. When I went to a shipping store, I was told I could not create a return label for international shipments, however, I called the FedEx customer service and was told to create an account online to do so. From what I've read on this forum, some FedEx reps are able to do it in person, some don't think it's possible. I guess it depends on where you go. Note: I did not see a total on my fedex account before I created the shipping label and did not know how much it costed me until 4 days after my package was received in Ottawa when the charge was taken out of my bank account. Shipping was about $90USD one way for FedEx International Overnight. (not sure why I chose this option as I'm not landing for over a month, but, again, I'm crazy impatient lol)
I'm so grateful I found this forum, it answered so many questions and addressed many of my concerns during this process and helped to ease my mind at some points.
VO: Mississauga
Application mailed: November 27, 2017
Application Received: November 30, 2017
AOR1: January 25, 2018
Schedule A + PCC Uploaded: January 25, 2018
Medical Request date: February 9, 2018
Medical Exam date: February 14, 2018
Medical Passed date: February 21, 2018
SA: March 9, 2018
AOR2: February 16, 2018
BG Check in Progress: March 15, 2018
DM: April 27, 2018
PPR: April 27, 2018
PPR Docs Mailed: April 27, 2018
COPR Received: May 4, 2018
