Outland spousal sponsorship

[kw1997]

I filed the application to sponsor my wife who lives in Pakistan in April 2013. received the AOR in May 2013 and CHC approval on 10the may 2013 but the application was forwarded to Islamabad. Thier reasoning is that since the home address of the sponsored wife is islamabad , the papers will be sent there .

I had requested them to send it to London Visa office since I am going to go with my wife to study in UK for 18 months. My question is , how to request CIC/CHC to change the visa office to London once I start living there .

 

[Rob_TO]

I filed the application to sponsor my wife who lives in Pakistan in April 2013. received the AOR in May 2013 and CHC approval on 10the may 2013 but the application was forwarded to Islamabad. Thier reasoning is that since the home address of the sponsored wife is islamabad , the papers will be sent there .

I had requested them to send it to London Visa office since I am going to go with my wife to study in UK for 18 months. My question is , how to request CIC/CHC to change the visa office to London once I start living there .

If you haven't already been living in London for 1 full year at the time you sent in the application, you can NOT request the application to be processed there. You are stuck with Islamabad.

 

[blueboom]

If you haven't already been living in London for 1 full year at the time you sent in the application, you can NOT request the application to be processed there. You are stuck with Islamabad.

In order to use the London office, the applicant has to be legally admitted to the UK for at least a year, whether it's past or upcoming for a year. In other words, an applicant can apply within a month of arriving in the UK if he or she so wishes, as long as he or she is admitted for at least a year. Conversely, an applicant can apply a few months before the expiry of the UK visa as long as s/he would have been admitted for at least a year.

However, kw1997, this is not your situation. Your wife would have to already be living in the UK and maintaining a UK home address in order to use the London office. From what I understand, you and your wife have intention to be in the UK for 18 months but you are not there yet. You can ask Islamabad to transfer your file, but you have a slim chance of them listening, especially because your wife was still in Pakistan at the time of filing. CIC does not transfer files unless there are extenuating circumstances. Changing country of residence is not by itself an extenuating circumstance.

 

[Rob_TO]

In order to use the London office, the applicant has to be legally admitted to the UK for at least a year, whether it's past or upcoming for a year. In other words, an applicant can apply within a month of arriving in the UK if he or she so wishes, as long as he or she is admitted for at least a year. Conversely, an applicant can apply a few months before the expiry of the UK visa as long as s/he would have been admitted for at least a year.

However, kw1997, this is not your situation. Your wife would have to already be living in the UK and maintaining a UK home address in order to use the London office. From what I understand, you and your wife have intention to be in the UK for 18 months but you are not there yet. You can ask Islamabad to transfer your file, but you have a slim chance of them listening, especially because your wife was still in Pakistan at the time of filing. CIC does not transfer files unless there are extenuating circumstances. Changing country of residence is not by itself an extenuating circumstance.

Thanks for the clarification. I had always interpreted that rule to mean you had to be actually living there for 1 year, not just that you had to be living there for any time but have a valid visa for at least 1 year.

It should also be noted that even if an applicant fully meet the rules of residency and requests an application to be processed in their current country of residence, CIC sometimes just decides to send the application to applicant's home country VO regardless and completely ignores the request. From what i've read, there is little chance a VO will transfer a file to new VO at request of applicant.

 

[blueboom]

Thanks for the clarification. I had always interpreted that rule to mean you had to be actually living there for 1 year, not just that you had to be living there for any time but have a valid visa for at least 1 year.

It should also be noted that even if an applicant fully meet the rules of residency and requests an application to be processed in their current country of residence, CIC sometimes just decides to send the application to applicant's home country VO regardless and completely ignores the request. From what i've read, there is little chance a VO will transfer a file to new VO at request of applicant.

CIC does what it wants only when it wants it with respect to file transfers. I can't figure out their logic. I've seen it happen with some posters at the Singapore VO.