First of all, I think it is a good idea to have this thread, since it is very difficult to get info about other people that went through Rome and it is even more difficult to get appropriate assistance/info from the VO in Rome (it seems they're really short of personnel)....
So this is about me and my application:
Nationality: Italy
Family Program: Spouses & Partners
Canadian Visa Office: Mississauga, Canada
Medicals Done: 27 Dec 2010
Application Filed: 21 Jan 2011
Sponsorship Approved: 17 Feb 2011
File Transferred to Rome: 24 Feb 2011
AOR Received Date: 18 May 2011
Passport Requested: 28 Jul 2011
Approval Date/VISA Issued: 18 Aug 2011
Application Status: approved
Passport Received Date: 23 Aug 2011
Total Processing Time: 209 days
As you can see Rome is not one of the fastest VO, so you must be very careful to stick to what they ask in the application guides, or any delay will shorten the time between Visa issuance and Visa expiry (4 months in my case).
One issue took me a while to figure out: on the guide they ask that for every certificate that is not in English or French, you will need to submit both the certificate and the original copy of the translation prepared by an accredited translator. This is what I did:
- Italian birth and marriage certificates: got them done at the Comune on a multilingual form, so you don't need to translate; (check this link for instance http://www.comune.torino.it/servizionline/schede/userTorinoE.php?context=torinoE&submitAction=homeIndice&id=978&idRoot=134&refLanguage=it but they must do it everywhere)
- Police certificates: I found a friend (cannot be a relative) that translated the two certificates into English and signed a statutory declaration (with a copy of his document attached) where he states that the translation is true and accurate and he is responsible for it. So no need to pay a professional translator or a lawyer/notary or any "marca da bollo". This only applies to documents written in Italian (my experience), I don't know if you can do it with documents in other languages (Greek, Albanian, Arab, etc).
I'm married since 6 yrs to my sponsor and we have a kid together so we only sent some pics to prove our relationship was genuine (no bills, bank drafts, phone cards, etc.) and we didn't have to fill the Sponsorship Evaluation (IMM 5481) or the Financial Evaluation forms.
I hope my experience will help other people to submit their applications without too many headaches (that I had) and to stay calm during the long (about 7 mo.) evaluation process.
Best wishes!
