Hi everyone,
My girlfriend, originally from Lebanon, has been studying in Montreal for a year and a half. She is expected to graduate on May 2019.
Her old passport having an expiry date of February 2019, the government issued her a study permit and visa, both valid until this same date (makes sense so far).
After renewing her passport back in June 2018 (this one's expiry date is now in 2023, so we're good here..), she first applied for an extension of her study permit. Among the documents to attach with the application, she attached a copy of her new passport (expiry date 2023) and a copy of her school's acceptance letter (valid until May 2019). It took until mid-October 2018 for it to get approved (that's pretty long but at least it was approved!).
Now to the issue we're facing; the new Study Permit she has received has an expiry date of March 2019 (which is only 30 days later than her old one, but still too early for her to finish her studies!), which means she still cannot finish her studies. We strongly believe this is an error (I think the official dug up her old passport and mistakenly set an expiry date according to that?).
This is a big deal since she needs to show her new Study Permit to her school in mid-January, which is kind of soon considering she also needs to extend her temporary visa afterwards too.
So we tried many things to try and get this fixed. We first sent an inquiry via the government's website web forms; 6 days later they replied to us with some non-sense they just copy-pasted from the website and didn't even answer our question (it was obvious the person did not read it at all).
Afterwards, we tried going to the Immigration Office in Montreal to seek help, but they refused to help us, since we had no appointment fixed with them (we can't even schedule an appointment...).
After, we tried calling the customer service via phone number like everyone suggested, but the system keeps hanging up on us every time because all the lines are constantly busy.
Finally, we have filled and mailed the "Request an amend on a document containing an error" form to Ottawa's Operation Support Centre like instructed on the website, but this document is usually to fix an error the user has made himself, and not to fix an error the immigration official has made, so we're kind of worried this option doesn't lead us anywhere either.
We're pretty stressed out since everything has been going so well so far, and she may have to give it all up and be sent back to her country because of some mistake. What should we do? Re-applying for another extension(another 150$..) takes another 56 business days, so I don't think this is a viable option anymore.
Help anyone?
Thanks!
My girlfriend, originally from Lebanon, has been studying in Montreal for a year and a half. She is expected to graduate on May 2019.
Her old passport having an expiry date of February 2019, the government issued her a study permit and visa, both valid until this same date (makes sense so far).
After renewing her passport back in June 2018 (this one's expiry date is now in 2023, so we're good here..), she first applied for an extension of her study permit. Among the documents to attach with the application, she attached a copy of her new passport (expiry date 2023) and a copy of her school's acceptance letter (valid until May 2019). It took until mid-October 2018 for it to get approved (that's pretty long but at least it was approved!).
Now to the issue we're facing; the new Study Permit she has received has an expiry date of March 2019 (which is only 30 days later than her old one, but still too early for her to finish her studies!), which means she still cannot finish her studies. We strongly believe this is an error (I think the official dug up her old passport and mistakenly set an expiry date according to that?).
This is a big deal since she needs to show her new Study Permit to her school in mid-January, which is kind of soon considering she also needs to extend her temporary visa afterwards too.
So we tried many things to try and get this fixed. We first sent an inquiry via the government's website web forms; 6 days later they replied to us with some non-sense they just copy-pasted from the website and didn't even answer our question (it was obvious the person did not read it at all).
Afterwards, we tried going to the Immigration Office in Montreal to seek help, but they refused to help us, since we had no appointment fixed with them (we can't even schedule an appointment...).
After, we tried calling the customer service via phone number like everyone suggested, but the system keeps hanging up on us every time because all the lines are constantly busy.
Finally, we have filled and mailed the "Request an amend on a document containing an error" form to Ottawa's Operation Support Centre like instructed on the website, but this document is usually to fix an error the user has made himself, and not to fix an error the immigration official has made, so we're kind of worried this option doesn't lead us anywhere either.
We're pretty stressed out since everything has been going so well so far, and she may have to give it all up and be sent back to her country because of some mistake. What should we do? Re-applying for another extension(another 150$..) takes another 56 business days, so I don't think this is a viable option anymore.
Help anyone?
Thanks!
