Rejected visitor visa application approved after submitting a super visa application!

[Trick_Region]

This is a detailed account of the absolute madness I experienced with IRCC regarding my father's visitor visa application.

I applied for my father, a Sri Lankan Citizen, on July 31st. At the time of application submission, the processing time was 18 days for a visitor visa. After waiting for more than a month, I submitted a request for GCMS notes to check what was happening with the application (September 19th). Then, on October 7th, we received a visa rejection with the boilerplate reason ("not satisfied with financial ties in home country"). I received the GCMS notes on October 8th, but it only mentioned that his application was still in process.

To give a bit of context about my father's background, he is a business owner in Sri Lanka, holds a valid US visitor visa, and has travelled to the US three times in the past 10 years, most recently in 2023. He has zero negative history in his travel record. Since I felt his bank balance was not enough (balance was less than 5k CAD), I provided a letter of financial support along with my employment letter, pay stubs, and bank balance for the last three months. In addition, I included the audited financial statements of his business for the past three years as well. I further went ahead and notarized the invitation letter promising that I will provide financial support covering all his expenses and will make sure that I will ensure his return to Sri Lanka.

There were suspicious statements in the officer's decision notes (at least they felt suspicious to me). The biggest red flag was that even though we submitted financial statements of his business for the past three years, the officer only checked the 2021/2022 financial statement. Another comment was that my father's name was different in his employment letter because his name was abbreviated.
Since the GCMS notes that I received on October 8th only mentioned that his application was still in process, I again requested GCMS notes, hoping I would see some additional information regarding his visa rejection. I received the GCMS notes for the second request on November 4th, and it didn't provide any additional information on the visa rejection. The same information that was included in the officer's decision notes was included in the GCMS notes.

I submitted a reconsideration request on November 8th (I had passed the 30-day deadline to submit a reconsideration request). I did not have much hope, but just did it to try my luck. In the reconsideration request, I reiterated his travel history and also addressed the name concern. Since this is his second TRV rejection (the first rejection was in 2022) and I did not want to risk another rejection, I started a Super Visa application.

I submitted my father's Super Visa application with all the documents on November 17th. From my father's side, I submitted the same documents excluding his bank statements.

I got an application update email in my inbox today morning. I logged in to my account and checked the Super Visa application and did not see anything. So I thought it was just a ghost update. When I got to work, I again logged in to see if I missed anything. To my complete surprise, I saw an update in the application that was rejected. The rejected application was approved!!!

 

[steaky]

This is a detailed account of the absolute madness I experienced with IRCC regarding my father's visitor visa application.

I applied for my father, a Sri Lankan Citizen, on July 31st. At the time of application submission, the processing time was 18 days for a visitor visa. After waiting for more than a month, I submitted a request for GCMS notes to check what was happening with the application (September 19th). Then, on October 7th, we received a visa rejection with the boilerplate reason ("not satisfied with financial ties in home country"). I received the GCMS notes on October 8th, but it only mentioned that his application was still in process.

To give a bit of context about my father's background, he is a business owner in Sri Lanka, holds a valid US visitor visa, and has travelled to the US three times in the past 10 years, most recently in 2023. He has zero negative history in his travel record. Since I felt his bank balance was not enough (balance was less than 5k CAD), I provided a letter of financial support along with my employment letter, pay stubs, and bank balance for the last three months. In addition, I included the audited financial statements of his business for the past three years as well. I further went ahead and notarized the invitation letter promising that I will provide financial support covering all his expenses and will make sure that I will ensure his return to Sri Lanka.

There were suspicious statements in the officer's decision notes (at least they felt suspicious to me). The biggest red flag was that even though we submitted financial statements of his business for the past three years, the officer only checked the 2021/2022 financial statement. Another comment was that my father's name was different in his employment letter because his name was abbreviated.
Since the GCMS notes that I received on October 8th only mentioned that his application was still in process, I again requested GCMS notes, hoping I would see some additional information regarding his visa rejection. I received the GCMS notes for the second request on November 4th, and it didn't provide any additional information on the visa rejection. The same information that was included in the officer's decision notes was included in the GCMS notes.

I submitted a reconsideration request on November 8th (I had passed the 30-day deadline to submit a reconsideration request). I did not have much hope, but just did it to try my luck. In the reconsideration request, I reiterated his travel history and also addressed the name concern. Since this is his second TRV rejection (the first rejection was in 2022) and I did not want to risk another rejection, I started a Super Visa application.

I submitted my father's Super Visa application with all the documents on November 17th. From my father's side, I submitted the same documents excluding his bank statements.

I got an application update email in my inbox today morning. I logged in to my account and checked the Super Visa application and did not see anything. So I thought it was just a ghost update. When I got to work, I again logged in to see if I missed anything. To my complete surprise, I saw an update in the application that was rejected. The rejected application was approved!!!

So you essentially showed flags that your father didn't do well in his business, when you provided a letter of financial support along with employment letter, pay stubs, and bank balance for the last three months.. Your notarized invitation letter holds no value. I don't see any suspicious statements.

 

[Trick_Region]

So you essentially showed flags that your father didn't do well in his business, when you provided a letter of financial support along with employment letter, pay stubs, and bank balance for the last three months.. Your notarized invitation letter holds no value. I don't see any suspicious statements.

However, the visitor visa was approved after an initial rejection, even though nothing had changed in his circumstances. Don't you think that's unusual?

 

[rogersfail]

For a regular visitor visa the denial was correct, your dads application needed to show he has enough money to support himself in Canada independent of you. Your letters were not relevant

For the super visa your letters of support and income are relevant, because if your father for whatever reason uses any form of government funded care or benefits, as a sponsor you legally agreed that the Canadian government can come after you for whatever that amount is.

 

[Trick_Region]

For a regular visitor visa the denial was correct, your dads application needed to show he has enough money to support himself in Canada independent of you. Your letters were not relevant

For the super visa your letters of support and income are relevant, because if your father for whatever reason uses any form of government funded care or benefits, as a sponsor you legally agreed that the Canadian government can come after you for whatever that amount is.

May be I wasn't clear in my original post. They didn't accept my father's super visa application. It's still processing.They accepted his rejected visitor visa application after I submitted the super visa application.