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Thread for people using the Guatemala Office

jcasanova

Member
Mar 9, 2012
16
0
muchacha said:
Uhh.... at what point were we supposed to send fingerprints??!

EDIT - I'm assuming the fingerprints are for a police clearance because you've lived in Canada? Yikes... I'm about to send our package to Mississauga (tomorrow) and I think paranoia is setting in!
Yes I did lived in Canada before, I was there under a studen Visa. Once you have send the application it will take them a couple of months before they ask for them... In my case I apply back in November and it has been almost a year since... I hope its not much longer... best of luck to you
 

dgoodman

Full Member
Oct 21, 2011
37
0
Category........
Visa Office......
Guatemala
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
01/20/2012
AOR Received.
04/20/2012
File Transfer...
04/10/2012
Med's Request
08/07/2012
Med's Done....
17-12-2011
Passport Req..
08/07/2012
Hi everyone,

My wife just received her PPR :D Hopefully that means yours will be coming soon Mez!

With the e-mail they attached two photocopied documents. One is a list of the documents they need. They are requesting the passport, a prepaid airway bill and also medicals for my wife.

The medicals were done last December though. We sent the receipt for them along with the application. So why are they requesting them? Is this just preparing for the possibility that the application will not be complete by December, in which case we would need to have them renewed? Is there some other explanation for this? Is it possible that the medical examiner failed to send the documents to Guatemala?

The second attachment was regarding the medicals specifically. It was basically the same as in the application guide, explaining where to go, what to bring etc. I'm a little confused as to why they are asking for this, but if we need to re-do the meds, we definitely want to make sure that we do that before sending in the passport.

Thanks for your help!
 

Mez007

Star Member
Mar 15, 2012
71
2
Category........
Visa Office......
Guatemala
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
12-01-2012
AOR Received.
20-02-2012
File Transfer...
20-04-2012
Med's Done....
Dec 2011
Interview........
Waived
Passport Req..
13-08-2012
VISA ISSUED...
24-09-2012
dgoodman said:
Hi everyone,

My wife just received her PPR :D Hopefully that means yours will be coming soon Mez!

With the e-mail they attached two photocopied documents. One is a list of the documents they need. They are requesting the passport, a prepaid airway bill and also medicals for my wife.

The medicals were done last December though. We sent the receipt for them along with the application. So why are they requesting them? Is this just preparing for the possibility that the application will not be complete by December, in which case we would need to have them renewed? Is there some other explanation for this? Is it possible that the medical examiner failed to send the documents to Guatemala?

That's some Great NEWS Man ;D ;D ;D
I hope to have some update as well on my file, I'm Going to Visit my Wife This Month, any news from Guatemala would add lots more to our Vacation.

I'm not Quite sure why they would ask for Medical test again, It could be just a default letter that comes with the passport Request.
I'm not sure what to to answer, you should contact the office (if they answer the phone or email )

Good Luck !!!

The second attachment was regarding the medicals specifically. It was basically the same as in the application guide, explaining where to go, what to bring etc. I'm a little confused as to why they are asking for this, but if we need to re-do the meds, we definitely want to make sure that we do that before sending in the passport.

Thanks for your help!
 

Mez007

Star Member
Mar 15, 2012
71
2
Category........
Visa Office......
Guatemala
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
12-01-2012
AOR Received.
20-02-2012
File Transfer...
20-04-2012
Med's Done....
Dec 2011
Interview........
Waived
Passport Req..
13-08-2012
VISA ISSUED...
24-09-2012
My wife just Got PPR AS WEll, that's the first sign we Got since we got The sponsership Approval ;D ;D ;D.
I guess Guatemala is Moving fater than We think.

The seem to be asking me as well the same documents again Maybe I sent the photocopy During the application

Original or True certify Copy of Marriage Certificate.

Original or True Certify Copy of Birth Certificate

Original Police Certificate.I know

I have sent those documents, but im not sure if the if the translation that's need to be Certify ??

Anyone had experience with that ?
 

dgoodman

Full Member
Oct 21, 2011
37
0
Category........
Visa Office......
Guatemala
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
01/20/2012
AOR Received.
04/20/2012
File Transfer...
04/10/2012
Med's Request
08/07/2012
Med's Done....
17-12-2011
Passport Req..
08/07/2012
Congrats Mez!

It's strange how they ask for stuff that's already been sent. That seems common. It would be nice if they gave some description of why they want it re-sent.

With my wife's medical, we decided to just go ahead and get it done as quickly as possible. Hopefully we'll have that finished tomorrow and sent away to Guatemala on Thursday. It sucks having to pay the extra couple hundred for the medicals, but we don't want to take a chance.

I don't really have an answer for your question, but, unless you get an answer from someone who knows, I'd just get the documents together and re-send them. I'm sure that will be faster than waiting for a reply from Guatemala. I know that it's can be frustrating getting the criminal record check again, but in the end that may be easiest.

Also, based on your second last question, if you didn't certify the translations that could be the problem. I believe that they have to be certified by a notary. We had our translations done in El Salvador by an organization with the UN. I believe that they were able to certify them as well. We found them by calling the Canadian embassy. You could try that.

Good luck!
 

Mez007

Star Member
Mar 15, 2012
71
2
Category........
Visa Office......
Guatemala
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
12-01-2012
AOR Received.
20-02-2012
File Transfer...
20-04-2012
Med's Done....
Dec 2011
Interview........
Waived
Passport Req..
13-08-2012
VISA ISSUED...
24-09-2012
Thanks for your Reply Thegoodman!!!

I just spoke with my wife on the phone and we Decided that will a new Police certificate and Birth Certificate to be safe.
We had hem Translate as Well by our self Last time. Therefore I'm not sure if the Because the Documents are Expired or the translation is not certify. So just to be safe will get them done again by a certify translator


Can you provide the Referral where we can get the Document Translate in Certify ?

Tx
 

dgoodman

Full Member
Oct 21, 2011
37
0
Category........
Visa Office......
Guatemala
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
01/20/2012
AOR Received.
04/20/2012
File Transfer...
04/10/2012
Med's Request
08/07/2012
Med's Done....
17-12-2011
Passport Req..
08/07/2012
If you had translated them yourselves, that will be the problem. The translations need to be certified.

I will ask my wife where it was that we had our documents translated. In the meantime, you could try calling the Embassy in Guatemala. We found out about the UN organization for translations by calling the embassy in El Salvador.

Good luck.

BTW, my last name actually is Goodman :)
 

ferd2000hn

Full Member
Feb 10, 2009
30
2
To Mez007:

Usually the Foreign Affairs offices of the Government (or its equivalent) have translators, and since you are translating Government issued documents, it would be more appropriate (but not required!) to have a Government official translation as well.

Good Luck!
 

dgoodman

Full Member
Oct 21, 2011
37
0
Category........
Visa Office......
Guatemala
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
01/20/2012
AOR Received.
04/20/2012
File Transfer...
04/10/2012
Med's Request
08/07/2012
Med's Done....
17-12-2011
Passport Req..
08/07/2012
Hey Mez,

Here is a link for IOM Guatemala. This is the organization that we used for translation/certification. It doesn't say anything about being a UN organization on the website that I can see, but I think it is.

http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/guatemala
 

Mez007

Star Member
Mar 15, 2012
71
2
Category........
Visa Office......
Guatemala
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
12-01-2012
AOR Received.
20-02-2012
File Transfer...
20-04-2012
Med's Done....
Dec 2011
Interview........
Waived
Passport Req..
13-08-2012
VISA ISSUED...
24-09-2012
Thank you for all the Replies!!!

I guess I will get those documents Translate. How do you get an air bill Envelop ? I'm assuming is a prepaid envelop from DHL
 

darcycook

Member
Jun 2, 2012
10
0
Guatemala city is now 26 Months for spousal sponsorship

As the canada embassy has just updated its timelines (august 20th)

The highest wait time out of any country in the world on the list.

Why is it so high? Can anyone in the Guatemala office reply?
 

Mez007

Star Member
Mar 15, 2012
71
2
Category........
Visa Office......
Guatemala
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
12-01-2012
AOR Received.
20-02-2012
File Transfer...
20-04-2012
Med's Done....
Dec 2011
Interview........
Waived
Passport Req..
13-08-2012
VISA ISSUED...
24-09-2012
Well I just got passport Request couple days ago, 8 months into the process.
CAn you share your timeline ?
 

Farfelu

Star Member
Dec 9, 2011
142
8
Category........
Visa Office......
Mexico
NOC Code......
2171
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
01-JUN-2012
Doc's Request.
01-AUG-2012
AOR Received.
17-JUL-2012
File Transfer...
12-OCT-2012
Med's Request
01-AUG-2012
Med's Done....
30-AUG-2012
Interview........
WAIVED
Passport Req..
26-MAR-2013
VISA ISSUED...
11-APR-2013
darcycook said:
Guatemala city is now 26 Months for spousal sponsorship

As the canada embassy has just updated its timelines (august 20th)

The highest wait time out of any country in the world on the list.

Why is it so high? Can anyone in the Guatemala office reply?
I wouldn't read too much into those processing times. They are not predictive, they're merely statistic, meant to illustrate what has happened in the past, in this case, how long it took for 80% of cases to be processed "between July 1, 2011, and June 30, 2012".

Remember each case is different, so yours could take shorter (or longer!) than mine or someone else's. It's always an unpredictable affair, you basically just need to be patient and wait, hoping that your case is straightforward enough to get processed in less time than the average.

Cheers.
 

Farfelu

Star Member
Dec 9, 2011
142
8
Category........
Visa Office......
Mexico
NOC Code......
2171
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
01-JUN-2012
Doc's Request.
01-AUG-2012
AOR Received.
17-JUL-2012
File Transfer...
12-OCT-2012
Med's Request
01-AUG-2012
Med's Done....
30-AUG-2012
Interview........
WAIVED
Passport Req..
26-MAR-2013
VISA ISSUED...
11-APR-2013
Reading through the CIC website i came across information indicating that the Mexico City Visa Office is now the one responsible to process applications for Family sponsorship for most Central American countries. Has anyone heard about this change? When did it become effective? Would our files get transferred to Mexico then?

I'd appreciate anybody's comments or info on this.
 

Mez007

Star Member
Mar 15, 2012
71
2
Category........
Visa Office......
Guatemala
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
12-01-2012
AOR Received.
20-02-2012
File Transfer...
20-04-2012
Med's Done....
Dec 2011
Interview........
Waived
Passport Req..
13-08-2012
VISA ISSUED...
24-09-2012
Farfelu said:
Reading through the CIC website i came across information indicating that the Mexico City Visa Office is now the one responsible to process applications for Family sponsorship for most Central American countries. Has anyone heard about this change? When did it become effective? Would our files get transferred to Mexico then?

I'd appreciate anybody's comments or info on this.

Wow I just notice That As well, It seems like Guatemala is only taking Care of Visas only not Permanent Residence.
My Wife Passport was sent to Guatemala couple weeks Ago and I hope it doesn't delay the processing Time ..