Old Process

[Landagirl]

I have to say I am thankful that our application was done the old way. Sending everything upfront seemed a lot easier and less time consuming. With the difficulties in linking to CIC and the short timeframe to get things done it would of been more stressful. I would take more paperwork any day than scrambling for medical and police reports at the spur of the moment. Then you have the unknown of how long the new process will take. We knew going in it was 4-6 months Outland for Americans, if your application was straightforward and complete.

After reading the message boards it appears more frequent that sent documents seem to be getting lost and a couple of applications getting returned because of it. I am sure with less application pages and proof to go through it will free up time on their end but they still need to go through the same channels for background and security checks. If they have more officers working and requesting those checks quicker and in a greater volume they may get backed up and could delay the process.

I do wish they could find a way to speed up the process for the slower VOs though. Everyone should be able to be with their loved one in a timely manner as long as it is legit and done legally. Hey it's not our fault we found our soulmates in a different part of the world!

To everyone starting their journey, this forum has a wealth of information and knowledgeable people with great advice, good Luck! Those in the middle of the process, patience is a requirement! Congrats to everyone that is now a PR of Canada, Welome!

K I am done babbling for the day

 

[danawhitaker]

I have to agree with you. I remember being frustrated at not being able to link to MyCIC right away, for instance. I eventually was able to, but I never really felt like my application was going to be processed slower it I didn't. I just felt like I wouldn't have access to being able to see when my background check was in progress, or that if they did decide they needed something from me I wouldn't be able to upload it through there. But there was nothing that was mandatory to be uploaded through that channel. I feel for everyone stuck in a position of not being able to link.

I also feel similarly about the medical exams. Based on my proximity to panel physicians, and my lack of ability to travel on sudden notice most of the time, I would have felt incredibly pressured. I cannot imagine the pressure on people who have non-accompanying dependents for whom they'd be trying to get that stuff done in tenuous custody situations. For those of us whose visa offices are almost certainly likely to process in less than a year, I still don't understand the mentality of not allowing up front at all. If an applicant is willing to risk the fact that they might need to pay for a second medical exam up front, that should be their prerogative.

I truly feel that the new system has a dual intent to it. I think there were complaints about the fact that many people never hear anything from the start to the end of the process and they find that frustrating. The new system changes that by providing for some default periods of back and forth with IRCC, so that they know the application is being worked on. But at the same time, that introduces opportunity for miscommunication and delay. The fact that the linking process for MyCIC is so ridiculous (it should be a simple matter of being given a unique code with which to link rather than having to enter a variety of pieces of information that might have been entered into the system incorrectly in the first place) makes the process that much worse.

At the end of the day, I think what it results in is IRCC being able to shift blame directly onto the applicants more easily when processing is slow. They can't easily argue that people who provided every piece of information up front did something to slow the processing of their application. But that case can definitely be made in any situation where the applicant is expected to provide information. By introducing mandatory spots in the application process where people have to provide information, everyone now has room for delay built into the system by default.

I plan to keep hanging around to see how everything plays out. I hope it works well for people. I hope the slower visa offices see things speed up. I really hope the visa offices already processing things at fairly reasonable speeds don't see a slowdown. But like you, I'm very glad that I applied when I did. I was already nervous enough during the process without having to add the worry of the new tighter relationship proof guidelines, worrying about being asked to go do medical, etc. While at times not knowing what they were doing with the application was processing, ultimately I think I really prefer not hearing anything but AOR and SA from start to finish.