SOWP in Mexico office, waiting over 1 year

[Daria13]

Hello there,

Before the pandemic started in march 2019 I left Canada to be with my common-law (3years now) in Panama. On may 26, 2019 we have applied for SOWP based on my PGWP that expires in oct 2022. It has been sent to Mexico and has not given us any update for over a year now. At the moment of application my spouse was in Panama for less than 6 months so medical exam was not required. We have recently spoken with a consultant who has suggested I stayed in Panama to keep our common-law status and get the medical exam done before they request it to hopefully speed up the process.

I've heard that Mexico is terribly slow in processing (getting my visa stamp took 2 months) and that SOWP applications suffer the most right now. Do you think there is a chance we can get a reply soon? I do not see any guidelines on what Mexico is processing right now so it is hard to tell where we stand. I want to go back to Canada and i want to do it with my spouse but my stay outside keeps getting extended because of this huge wait.

If anyone is in the same situation, or knows something about processing in Mexico, let's talk about it.

 

[scylla]

Hello there,

Before the pandemic started in march 2019 I left Canada to be with my common-law (3years now) in Panama. On may 26, 2019 we have applied for SOWP based on my PGWP that expires in oct 2022. It has been sent to Mexico and has not given us any update for over a year now. At the moment of application my spouse was in Panama for less than 6 months so medical exam was not required. We have recently spoken with a consultant who has suggested I stayed in Panama to keep our common-law status and get the medical exam done before they request it to hopefully speed up the process.

I've heard that Mexico is terribly slow in processing (getting my visa stamp took 2 months) and that SOWP applications suffer the most right now. Do you think there is a chance we can get a reply soon? I do not see any guidelines on what Mexico is processing right now so it is hard to tell where we stand. I want to go back to Canada and i want to do it with my spouse but my stay outside keeps getting extended because of this huge wait.

If anyone is in the same situation, or knows something about processing in Mexico, let's talk about it.

I don't know why processing it taking so long.

Based on the information you have provided, it doesn't sound like the SOWP has any chance of being approved. For the SOWP to be approved, you must be working in Canada on your PGWP in a NOC A, B or 0 job. You need to provide an employment letter and three pay slips proving you are working in a job that meets these requirements.

 

[Daria13]

I don't know why processing it taking so long.

Based on the information you have provided, it doesn't sound like the SOWP has any chance of being approved. For the SOWP to be approved, you must be working in Canada on your PGWP in a NOC A, B or 0 job. You need to provide an employment letter and three pay slips proving you are working in a job that meets these requirements.

Thanks for your reply, at the time of submitting application I was on vacation from work but got stuck in Panama. I was not present in Canada but kept working in my NOC A job. I am still working remotely for the same canadian agency just not present in Canada.

Since we thought the pandemic would lift off in a month, I would have returned to Canada to be present during the application submission. But life had different plans... and then my visa expired, waited for 5 months to receive approval and a stamp. Now that I have gotten it, and our consultant had told us we can apply for EE, we are still hoping to get WP to travel back home as we are still paying rent for our canadian apartment.

Idk, if technically his SOWP application was or is still legit (do they count at the moment of submission or for all the processing time as well?), but at that time (1 year ago) I had provided employment letter and my pay slips.

 

[scylla]

Thanks for your reply, at the time of submitting application I was on vacation from work but got stuck in Panama. I was not present in Canada but kept working in my NOC A job. I am still working remotely for the same canadian agency just not present in Canada.

Since we thought the pandemic would lift off in a month, I would have returned to Canada to be present during the application submission. But life had different plans... and then my visa expired, waited for 5 months to receive approval and a stamp. Now that I have gotten it, and our consultant had told us we can apply for EE, we are still hoping to get WP to travel back home as we are still paying rent for our canadian apartment.

Idk, if technically his SOWP application was or is still legit (do they count at the moment of submission or for all the processing time as well?), but at that time (1 year ago) I had provided employment letter and my pay slips.

OK - thanks for the additional details. That makes a lot more sense. It sounds like you submitted all of the right information. Was this through a consultant? Any chance your consultant missed an email with an update or a request for more information? Have you tried sending a case specific inquiry to ask about the status of the SOWP.

You certainly qualify to submit an Express Entry profile for FSW if you have at least one year of continuous skilled work experience. There have been no draws so far this year for FSW - however I would recommend submitting your profile all the same. Unfortunately you don't qualify under CEC since work experience gained outside of Canada cannot be counted as Canadian work experience even if you were working for a Canadian employer.

 

[Daria13]

OK - thanks for the additional details. That makes a lot more sense. It sounds like you submitted all of the right information. Was this through a consultant? Any chance your consultant missed an email with an update or a request for more information? Have you tried sending a case specific inquiry to ask about the status of the SOWP.

You certainly qualify to submit an Express Entry profile for FSW if you have at least one year of continuous skilled work experience. There have been no draws so far this year for FSW - however I would recommend submitting your profile all the same. Unfortunately you don't qualify under CEC since work experience gained outside of Canada cannot be counted as Canadian work experience even if you were working for a Canadian employer.

We have submitted all the applications by ourselves without a consultant, we only talked to one to know our possibilities about EE and how to speed up SOWP. In december we sent an email asking for an update on his application but got a generic reply about Covid. So now we have scheduled a medical exam to send via webform so we don't need to wait for them to request it. In terms of biometrics, you cannot do them in Panama without request from the office.

At the same time we are qualified for FSW in EE with a score of 456 and hoping to get a nomination for my job which is one of the 5 listed under Tech Draw in Ontario. Alternatively, if "No Specific Program" happens soon, we would have extra 20points for my spousal Ielts test.

I know the best scenarioo to get PR is 6 months from now, which is why we are so keen to get a response from SOWP. Especially when it has been over 1 year.