Yikes that is worse than the Caribbean offices!!
Typically what happens is that all spousal apps. first go to CIC in Mississauga, hence the CIC-M (near Toronto and my hometown btw). CIC posts the average sponsor approval processing times on the website too (aka Stage One) and last time I checked it was about 30 days. Then the sponsor (your hubs) gets an e-mail with his (UCI) "Unique Client Identifier" number (if you folks checked off to communicate by e-mail, snail mail if you didn't) saying he has been "approved to sponsor, the applicant file will now be going to "X" office for further processing". Stage Two processing is when the applicant part of the file
arrives at the VO abroad. When the VO abroad gets your part of the file they are supposed to send an Acknowledgement of Receipt (AOR). Some visa offices do, some don't and if you have waited more than 90 days for an AOR (i.e. 90 days after sponsor approval (SA) you can e-mail the visa office directly. This happened to me and I got a reply within 24 hours saying that POS had my file but the actual AOR did not arrive until after I inquired. Some folks (i.e. Kingston) never get them but it is a part of their so called "service standard".
When the applicant (you) part of the file arrives at the VO then the applicant usually gets a different UCI and file/application number. Both will work on ecas but once hubby is approved for sponsor no more ecas info. gets updated for him. At that point it will only be your side of ecas to be updated. What I mean is either one of you can log in and check it as long as you share with each other your UCI numbers (and if couples don't do that they should not get married
!) but on his side he needs to put in his date of birth and country and on your side you need to put in yours along with the corresponding UCI. Honestly my hubs never bothered with it, I was more how shall we say ummm....OBSESSED!! Yes that is the right word
.
Ecas is extremely limited and misleading as there are usually only about 4- 6 times during the
entire process where it will actually change (and if your process is anywhere near 26 months it will be of little use). If I recall correctly they are - application received, sponsor approved, meds received, (mine showed both app and meds received once I was able to log in) not sure about interviews......in process, decision made and completed. The PPR request comes via e-mail. Also you only know your interview is waived if the file goes to "in process". They only notify people who have to come for interviews, there is no notification if you
do not have an interview. I believe the only other spot where you would know if an interview is waived is the GCMS notes. Don't quote me on this (I think the ladies on the JA thread know for sure) but if the interview is waived and you are ordering your case notes every month or so it might say "eligibility passed".
Now in your case, because they have to determine which office to send it to, I do not know the impact of that or the CSQ on your timeline. So......your lawyer should also be advising you as to the steps in the process, timelines etc. The wait times now at POS are shorter so maybe CIC will route your app. there simply because of the volume that goes through the LA office?? These are things I wish I could help you with more, maybe another member will chime in. Also you can post some of your specific questions in the main thread or even via the LA office thread (if there is one) and you may get more info. that way. You can also start a new topic with the heading "Seniors Pls. Help" and some of the more experienced forum members will usually look at those. Last but not least there are a few seniors, you could PM, I am thinking of PMM, Leon, Sweden, Rob_TO (think that's his "handle"). Hope some of this helps a bit my dear. Blessings.
