Would suggest paying the increased fee just to get the file moving and then you can argue with IRCC about whether you should be entitled to a refund.
PR Visa stamping delay
- Thread starter Guiltbright
- Start date
Would suggest paying the increased fee just to get the file moving and then you can argue with IRCC about whether you should be entitled to a refund.
Good point. If you can confirm that IRCC is actually waiting for payment - pay it. They are usually good about returning overpaid amojnts later (no guarantee of course).
Update on my case , i send an email to my MP, who replied by saying your RPRF is attached to the file but the officer hasn't reviewed the submitted receipt. The MP office said that there are still 3 months of processing time remaining on my application, and I should contact them if nothing happens in these 3 months. i further called IRCC who told me nothing but what i can see online. i was also told that my application is being processed from Kenya.
timeline
17th July 2026 - Passport request
21st July 2026 - Passport recieved by IRCC
25th Aug 2026 - RPRF request letter
26th Aug 2026 -- Webform with reciept sent
03 Nov 2026 - still waiting for passport to come back
Any ideas or suggestions of what to do at this stage
timeline
17th July 2026 - Passport request
21st July 2026 - Passport recieved by IRCC
25th Aug 2026 - RPRF request letter
26th Aug 2026 -- Webform with reciept sent
03 Nov 2026 - still waiting for passport to come back
Any ideas or suggestions of what to do at this stage
The key detail here is not just when you paid the fee, but when IRCC actually received your application.
According to IRCC's official announcement, the increased PR fees apply to applications received on or after April 30, 2026.
If your complete application was submitted before April 30 and you paid the correct fee at that time, the increase generally shouldn't apply to your original processing fee.
However, if you paid on April 4 but submitted your application on or after April 30, the difference may still be required.
There's also a separate rule for the Right of Permanent Residence Fee (RPRF) if you chose to pay it later.
I wouldn't recommend paying an additional amount just to speed things up without first checking whether it's actually owed. And there's no guarantee IRCC would refund it afterward.
Could you confirm two things?
- When did you actually submit your application?
- Is IRCC requesting the fee difference, or is your application simply delayed?
- My application submission date is July 2025.
- IRCC is not asking for a fee difference. Rather they specified how much I must pay in their request letter. An amount that I had already paid. I subsequently provided proof of payment through a web form.
- My real issue now is that visa stamping has been delayed so much and I don’t know what to do. Send in webform and it comes back with generic information to check the application on the tracker. I called IRCC and they said nothing except that it’s still processing and the receipts have been attached to the file. Passports are with IRCC since July 2026. I submitted the required RPRF in August 2026 and till date the passports are not yet processed. The application tracker is still not updated. The VFS tracker still shows passports recieved with IRCC.
I perhaps missed that the passports were submitted to the visa office at the High Commission in Nairobi (presumably).
Bluntly - this appears to be quite likely a plain old incompetence issue at the visa section. There is no way in any world that putting the stamp in the visa should take two months. The amount of 'processing time' that your MP has referred to is irrelevant - once the passport is requested, unless some MAJOR problem has been found, it can be done quickly. This stuff about the fee is bullshit - once you've provided that, they should be taking action quickly, SINCE THEY ARE SITTING ON THE PASSPORTS.
Raise hell. Ask the MP to write to the High Commissioner directly (the HC will not 'action' or do anything more than head it to the head of the visa section - but that person will notice). Ask MP to also CC the head of the visa section. Now, MP's offices are reluctant to do the steps beyond just checking the system first - you'll have to explain to the MP's constituency officer that this is not normal, this is not a stage at which there should be delays beyond a few weeks, and you are now well past that.
Make sure that you complain that the Visa Section is holding the passports, and therefore preventing you/your family members from travelling anywhere. Heck, I'd consider mail from a lawyer vaguely threatening legal action - eg that if the Visa Section is not prepared to issue the visa as per their Visa Request, they should return the passports within X days. (This would be a silly legal threat of course on many levels - but it's designed to get attention, and it would)
Call, write, hassle the head of the visa section, fax them, send cc's to the High Commissioner, email the High Commissioner, tag them on facebook or whatever other socials the mission has, make yourself the squeaky wheel.
If you're in Nairobi, send mail directly to the High Commission and the HC's office - regular mail, hand-delivered, registered mail, etc.
I feel quite confident that in actual fact this is sitting on some desk (or fallen behind it) in the visa-stamping section - or someone's desk who's not in that line of work and they don't know what to do with it or have forgotten - and your job is to make sure someone gets reamed out by their boss when this is discovered.
Now a small thing on approach: don't yell at them yourself, keep the communications serious and demanding - but basically polite. Even the ones that are threatening further action. You want to convey, you're not a crank, but your position is righteous and they will be better off taking action than delaying. Start with the non-threatening ones first, escalate by steps.
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Thank you for taking your time to read and give your valuable suggestions, i spoke to the MP's office and they totally got my frustration and they have suggested to sent a specific webform instead of an email. which they did within minutes of talking to them. i have also sent a webform and tried calling the Kenya office.
You can of course give each step a few days, but the problem I have with the 'webform' approach is that it says right there - as I recall - that while webforms do eventually get read and acted upon (if there's some point of action), they can take weeks and weeks to even get to them to read, let alone do something with them. And the ones they most ignore? The ones saying how long will it take/it seems to be taking too long - even when it is objectively taking too long and something seemingly wrong.
So I'd keep at it with emails and mail and faxes and others. They can all be ignored but sometimes they can get attention.
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