Risk of waiting VO to request medical exam result

[braveblade]

Hi everyone. I need your help.

I sent my sponsorship application for my wife in March 2015. And in Jun 2015 our application reached Hongkong visa office. Please note my wife didn't do medical exam upfront, so I didn't have the medical exam result when I sent the application. She didn't want to do the exam upfront is because the current processing time in HK VO is likely to be greater than 1 year. So she plans to do the exam when VO requests for it.

In the SA letter I received from CIC M, there is a paragraph talking about the medical exam:

Requirement for Medical Examination
If your sponsored relative(s) has (have) not already done so, your relative(s) must provide an original Upfront Medical Report form (IMM1017B UPFRONT) signed by a Panel Physician or an E-Medical Up-front Medical Notification information sheet. Your relative(s) must complete the medical examination and, once completed, forward this information directly to the visa office noted above along with a copy of this letter. Your application has been transferred to the visa office noting this deficiency. Your relative must forward the medical information directly to the visa office to allow continued processing of his/her application. Failure to do so will result in delays and possible refusal of your relative's application.

Can I consider the above paragraph as the VO is requesting the medical exam result? My wife believed it is not the requesting letter. She said the medical exam requesting letter should be a letter from HK VO with a defined deadline for the exam. I'm also hearing some people saying some officers will return the whole package back when they notice the medical exam result is missing after they begin to process the application.

I'm so frustrated right now. I want her to do the exam asap but it is just so hard to convince her. Can I consider the paragraph on the SA letter as the request for medical exam? And if say she has not finished the exam when Hong Kong visa office begins to process our application, is there any risk that the officer will send the whole application back because of missing medical report? Is she correct on the request letter should be a letter from HK VO with a defined deadline for the medical exam?

Thanks for the help in advance!

 

[Majromax]

Even if Hong Kong will specifically request the medical results, your wife is assuming that the request will not delay her application.

It's very possible that the visa office will get around to processing the application, note the missing medical, request it, and not open the file again until medical results are in. What point is there in spending agents' time looking at the relationship history and criminality and such if the application isn't even complete?

The request could even boot the application back to the end of the queue, behind complete applications received in the interim. We really don't know what the internal priorities are within each visa office.

 

[bigredmoose]

That is them requesting it. We did the medicals upfront and we had no such message. She should do it ASAP. She should have done it upfront because that's what CIC wants and making them ask for it only adds to the processing time. Not only that but they often waive the 1 year validity requirement.

As for the waiting times you mention, is that from the CIC website, or based on member's experiences?

 

[bethanycupcakes]

You should always do whatever it requests. Sending medicals upfront does run the risk of them expiring before processing, however, they can extend the medical date sometimes and it helps reduce extra processing times. Yes, it stinks to pay for it send it in, and then do it again, but most likely it will aid in the long run to submit upfront if it says to do so. Then it can't be rejected based on it not being submitted. Better safe than sorry right?

 

[Rob_TO]

Hi everyone. I need your help.

I sent my sponsorship application for my wife in March 2015. And in Jun 2015 our application reached Hongkong visa office. Please note my wife didn't do medical exam upfront, so I didn't have the medical exam result when I sent the application. She didn't want to do the exam upfront is because the current processing time in HK VO is likely to be greater than 1 year. So she plans to do the exam when VO requests for it.

In the SA letter I received from CIC M, there is a paragraph talking about the medical exam:

Requirement for Medical Examination
If your sponsored relative(s) has (have) not already done so, your relative(s) must provide an original Upfront Medical Report form (IMM1017B UPFRONT) signed by a Panel Physician or an E-Medical Up-front Medical Notification information sheet. Your relative(s) must complete the medical examination and, once completed, forward this information directly to the visa office noted above along with a copy of this letter. Your application has been transferred to the visa office noting this deficiency. Your relative must forward the medical information directly to the visa office to allow continued processing of his/her application. Failure to do so will result in delays and possible refusal of your relative's application.

Can I consider the above paragraph as the VO is requesting the medical exam result? My wife believed it is not the requesting letter. She said the medical exam requesting letter should be a letter from HK VO with a defined deadline for the exam. I'm also hearing some people saying some officers will return the whole package back when they notice the medical exam result is missing after they begin to process the application.

I'm so frustrated right now. I want her to do the exam asap but it is just so hard to convince her. Can I consider the paragraph on the SA letter as the request for medical exam? And if say she has not finished the exam when Hong Kong visa office begins to process our application, is there any risk that the officer will send the whole application back because of missing medical report? Is she correct on the request letter should be a letter from HK VO with a defined deadline for the medical exam?

Thanks for the help in advance!

You do realize the posted time for HK office is only 10 months, and most apps are even finished quicker than processing times?

The app will most likley not get rejected outright due to missing medical, but you are supposed to do the medical upfront to get quickest processing times. By delaying it and having the VO actually make a request for it there are 2 very negative things that could happen:
1. The VO sends the request for medical to the wrong email address or for some reason you don't get the request, and later find that your app is simply cancelled due to this and even though it's their mistake you can go through months/years of further delays trying to get everything straightened out. In general you want to limit the number of times CIC needs to contact you to the bare minimum.
2. The VO will request the medical, and then set what's called a "bring forward" date on the application. i.e. they request the medical and then set a due date of 60 days to do it, so won't even look at the application until 60 days later no matter if you complete the medical the next day. This would basically delay your app 60 days longer vs if you had just done the medicals upfront. Some VOs do this, and others don't. But there is no need to even risk the unnecessary potential for delay here.

 

[braveblade]

Thanks everyone for the valuable information. I will tell my wife to do the exam asap!

 

[BrianDell]

"That is them requesting it."

No, it isn't. If the original poster insists that it is, his credibility with his wife is going to be further compromised when she goes to the panel physician and she's told that she doesn't appear in the system he has access to and there's no record of a request. My wife's file was forwarded to the Hong Kong visa office earlier this year and we decided to wait on doing the medical until after the fact it hadn't been done yet was pointed out by Mississauga at the time Mississauga forwarded the file to China. That's NOT the same as waiting for it to be formally requested by the visa office, however.

She will still have to ask the panel physician to proceed as if it's up front. She can go ahead and hand the doctor the letter the sponsor got pointing out the deficiency, but the doctor isn't going to be able to find anything in the system using that letter. I'm speaking from first hand experience here. The letter should just be used to argue that the doctor should proceed to do the medical, it shouldn't be presented as the formal request.

As far as I'm concerned, I think the wife is largely correct here that there is no rush. It's going to be another 5 months yet before her file goes in process according to recently reported wait times for Hong Kong such that doing the medical could easily wait until next month or the month after. Maybe Hong Kong will even send a formal request in the mean time (or at least create some sort of entry for her in the system doctors have access to) so she doesn't have to plead with the doctor to do it as if it were up front.

After the medical is done, if it's done as if it is upfront ensure that Hong Kong can find it by using the electronic mechanism for communicating with that visa office described in the sponsor approval letter. Have her scan what the doctor gives her and send that as an electronic attachment. A couple weeks later it should indicate on e-CAS that medical results have been received.

I will note that in any case the medical should be done before there's any chance of her file going "In Process". In my wife's case because of the delay in updating e-CAS I didn't know she was in process until she'd been IP almost a week and then a week later it was Decision Made (DM). Hong Kong can move quickly once they've actually started on the file. We've ended up delayed, but not because we didn't do the medical until after sponsorship approval, we've been delayed because we waited for a passport request (PPR) instead of sending in the passport (and material for permanent residence card like photos and height/eye colour) well in advance of the PPR (which came at the same time as DM).

There are no shortage of posters around here who will insist on the medical being done before the application even goes to Mississauga, but none of them have produced any evidence that a file was ever sent back if the medical wasn't done up front, never mind delayed. There was a reported case of an application being returned without the up-front form, but it wasn't because the medical wasn't done, it was because it WAS done before sending the application to Mississauga and the form indicating that it had been done wasn't submitted.

 

[bigredmoose]

+1 BrianDell, IMO first hand experience trumps opinion.

I'll admit that I know nothing of how HK processes apps, but I would say in general if a visa officer is looking at an app, but can't proceed because anything is missing, then surely it will add time for the officer to send the resquest and more time for the request to be met. Meanwhile who can say what happens to your app? Back of the pile? Nobody knows, so why risk it?

 

[Rob_TO]

There have been cases here of people having bring-forward dates applied to their PR app (as seen when applicants order their GCMS notes), and there have been cases of people having PRs denied outright due to CIC sending requests that the applicants never received for whatever reason (many of these cases end up in the news).

For an outland app through a visa office like HK with a pretty quick processing time, it's always safer to do the medical upfront and not wait until requested. An app where no requests from VO are required, will always see quicker processing than a similar app but with missing pieces. That in itself should be enough to convince anyone to do as much as they can upfront (i.e. medical, pay RPRF, etc).

 

[BrianDell]

I agree with not waiting to do the medical until it is requested by the overseas visa office, but I don't agree with doing it prior to sending in anything. There's no evidence that anything is gained so long as the medical is done before the overseas office starts looking at the file and they obviously won't be looking it before Mississauga sends it to them.

I see reports of medicals expiring all the time, and even if they don't expire, an unnecessarily early medical constrains when an immigrant can land. Given that sponsorship approval takes two months and the vast majority of visa offices report at least 20% of applicants taking more than 10 months to process, that's more than 12 months for a lot of people right there and that's assuming the medical is done the day before the file goes to Mississauga.

I really don't see the point of doing the medical while the chance that the overseas visa office has started to process the file remains nil. People should be using their time to make sure their applications are complete in all OTHER respects prior to mailing Mississauga so that there aren't unexpected requests for more documentation that can both delay processing and potentially fail to reach the applicant. An application that has something missing when the overseas visa officer starts looking at it, and this includes a passport for applicants from countries needing a visa, is always at risk of delay.

By the same token, I don't see why the Right of Permanent Residence Fee couldn't wait to be paid until after the file goes into the visa office inventory and starts its wait there. I got asked for the RPRF receipt anyway by the overseas VO even though I'd paid it many months ago. Apparently Mississauga didn't include that receipt in what they sent in the visa office, or this gets asked for regardless of whether it's in the file or not.

 

[braveblade]

Thanks Brian! My wife tried to book the medical exam and got the same response as Brian described: They cannot find her information in the system using her UCI. My lawyer suggested to do the exam as an up-front exam (without giving any UCI, application number information, just bring the pasport), and then scan anything given by the physican and submit to CIC. My lawyer also stated there is no rush to do the exam since HK VO just received our application in June. But he also said if she can get it done asap, we can get a piece of mind. My wife is going to do the exam in the end of July. Since I submitted my application in March 2015, should be plenty of time for HK VO to process until the exam expiry date which will be July 2016. Finger crossed! And thanks for everyone's input!