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Thread for Acrra Ghana applicants

ola22

Star Member
Feb 20, 2018
169
82
I cleaned it up a little and added a paragraph. See if you guys are happier with this:

The processing times between visa offices for spousal visas varies considerably. This seems to be especially true of the Accra Visa Office which appears to lag considerably behind other visa offices, especially those in developed countries. We believe that additional resources should be assigned to offices such as the Accra Visa Office to ensure that applications are processed efficiently regardless of their location. Processing times for applications should be consistent.

Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights guarantees equal rights. Yet those of us relying on offices such as the Accra Visa Office do not feel that our applications are being treated equally especially when we consistently witness other visa offices processing applications much faster.

Not only are our applications taking considerably longer to process, the political climate in many of the countries served by the Accra Visa Office prevents many of us from being with our spouses during the processing time. Visa offices with the faster processing times are also those where the applicants have more freedom to move between countries during the processing time.

Applicants from developed countries are usually freer to enter Canada before an application is submitted, and may are able to stay in Canada while their applications are being processed, or are free to visit with their spouses during the processing of their applications. But many of the countries that are served by the Accra Visa Office also have travel warning advisories. That is, our government is warning us not to travel to these particular countries, these countries where those we love are living.

Not only is the processing time longer for us and our ability to spend time with our spouses limited, but we also have limited information on the progress of our application during the processing period. Messages in the online applications aren’t kept up-to-date, or are inconsistent. We have noticed also that applications aren’t always processed in the same order that they were submitted.

Newcomers to Canada are expected to abide by the values of Canada, which we believe to be demonstrating fairness, respect, equality and equity. Our expectation is that our government demonstrates the same values when delivering services.

While we do acknowledge and appreciate that considerable work has been achieved to reduce overall processing times of spousal visas, and while we understand that some processes are out of the control of the Canadian government, resources should be in place to ensure fairness, respect, equality and equity when processing of applications. We need to not only reduce the processing times, but also reduce the gap in processing times between visa offices to ensure fair treatment of all current and future Canadians.
PERFECT!
 
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ola22

Star Member
Feb 20, 2018
169
82
I am sending mine now as I don't think we need to wait until Monday.

My subject line is:
Inconsistent Processing Times: Accra Visa Office (UCI xxxxxxxx)
Ok i support. someone suggest earlier that we let you guys that have waiting longer to send first then newer ones like me. Who is volunteering to go after @RoamingSpirit
 

RoamingSpirit

Hero Member
May 5, 2017
447
348
I also sent the following to the Huffington Post - they have done blog pieces on stories like this in the past so thought it was worth a try:

Good evening,

I am currently going through the process to sponsor my husband and family to come to Canada. The visa office that our application is being processed through is the Accra office.

A number of applicants utilize a discussion board where we support each other by sharing timelines and being each other's general support lines.

Many of us have commented that the Accra Visa Office processes applications much slower than other offices. We think this is unfair and does not support the Canadian value of equality.

While this story isn't a big "scoop", there is such a negative impact on the lives of those being processed through offices like these. The sadness most of us feel disrupts our lives, leads us to being less motivated in the workplace, can lead to medical issues, is costly and we feel that we can't plan for a future that is so uncertain.

We wrote the following letter to the Honourable Ahmed Hussen to outline our concerns.

" Letter inserted here"

I have read great blog pieces out of our paper in the past. I think there is an opportunity to continue to tell the story of those of us affected by the inconsistent and extremely long processing times.
 
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RoamingSpirit

Hero Member
May 5, 2017
447
348
We've had a few people needing to order a clearance from the US in the past. Good news:

For the US police certificate, the FBI released a new electronic system a couple of weeks ago that is presently only taking 3-5 business days once you mail in your prints (as opposed to the 14-16 weeks it previously took when done completely by mail). If you get on that right away, you should be able to get your certificate in time.
https://www.edo.cjis.gov/
 

Blackstar67

Star Member
Dec 15, 2017
50
21
Hello forumers when i received my procedural fairness letter back in December the officer also sent me an email copy of the letter via his direct email address instead of the generic email they have at the embassy website. Is it very professional to message the officer directly because the reply i always get when i message them is the application is still in line for review. thanks
 

RoamingSpirit

Hero Member
May 5, 2017
447
348
Hello forumers when i received my procedural fairness letter back in December the officer also sent me an email copy of the letter via his direct email address instead of the generic email they have at the embassy website. Is it very professional to message the officer directly because the reply i always get when i message them is the application is still in line for review. thanks
Just act dumb and reply via their personal email. It's not your fault they gave out their personal account details.
 

Jayotuks

Star Member
Jul 30, 2017
88
69
OOh beautiful, i love what i am seeing this morning! thank you very much for this @RoamingSpirit, you did great, I suggest we all use a uniform subject all in BLOCK letters. As for me i am sending mine today, no need to wait till monday. So that by early Monday morning, they will see mails flying in from every angle. Please someone should help with the ministers mail.
 

McAkyne

Full Member
May 19, 2017
31
33
Nigeria
Visa Office......
Accra
I suggest that once everyone or at least quite a majority of us have agreed on the tex from @RoamingSpirit , we should all copy it and pass on to our individual sponsors to send to the minister and their MP. So for example lets say @RoamingSpirit sends on monday then @me2605 on tuesday and so on. Please remember to ask sponsors to add their UCI no as the subject and then names at the foot of the letter. Yo can find out who your MP is and their contact info at the following link members . And email for the minister is as follows:
Ministerial.Enquiries.Division@cic.gc.ca

Minister@cic.gc.ca

Ahmed.hussen@parl.gc.ca
Sorry guys I have been very busy but I’m back now, this is a great idea, I’m 100% in support of this.

I have read through the whole conversation from where I stopped yesterday.

Let’s go guys