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US outland applicants' thread :)

surleplateau

Star Member
Sep 13, 2013
189
14
Category........
Visa Office......
Ottawa
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
29-12-2014
Doc's Request.
CSQ rqst'd 23-03-2015
Nomination.....
CSQ rcv'd 05-05-2015
AOR Received.
27-02-2015 err?
File Transfer...
09-03-2015
Med's Request
upfront
Med's Done....
09-09-2014
Interview........
waived; IP Sep 2015
Passport Req..
waived
VISA ISSUED...
COPR 22-10-2015
LANDED..........
09-01-2016 YAY!!!
BeShoo said:
We will be going to the border Saturday night (tonight) for the "landing" procedure.

I'll be writing a summary soon of why our application took so long. It was mostly our fault.
Congratulations! I hope that the landing goes well.

And I'd like to hear more about what hiccups your application had along the way.
 

oconnoec

Star Member
Aug 29, 2014
59
1
Category........
Visa Office......
Ottawa
NOC Code......
Medical
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
August 13, 2014
Med's Request
upfront
Med's Done....
July 16, 2014
Interview........
none
Passport Req..
none
VISA ISSUED...
April 13, 2014
LANDED..........
Already in canada on temp work visa... hopefully PR landing soon!
Anyone immigrating to Winnipeg?
 

rockgurl1965

Star Member
May 9, 2014
97
1
eureka ca
Category........
Visa Office......
ottawa
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
02-06-2015
Doc's Request.
24-11-2015
Nomination.....
SA 06-08-2015
AOR Received.
29-07-2015
IELTS Request
working on sponsored spouse file 8-18-2015
File Transfer...
06-08-2015
Med's Done....
15-05-2015 UPFRONT
VISA ISSUED...
decision made 12/12/2015 copr 12-21-15
A quick question, best case scenario on time frame , i am sending in application in late may, what has the time line been to final approval without any hiccups. . appreciate any help.
 

OhCanadiana

VIP Member
Feb 27, 2010
3,086
217
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
rockgurl1965 said:
A quick question, best case scenario on time frame , i am sending in application in late may, what has the time line been to final approval without any hiccups. . appreciate any help.
Hope for 6 months, but count a year being fully reasonable (for a straightforward case).

CIC publishes figures for 80% of applications to be completed at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-fc.asp
 

surleplateau

Star Member
Sep 13, 2013
189
14
Category........
Visa Office......
Ottawa
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
29-12-2014
Doc's Request.
CSQ rqst'd 23-03-2015
Nomination.....
CSQ rcv'd 05-05-2015
AOR Received.
27-02-2015 err?
File Transfer...
09-03-2015
Med's Request
upfront
Med's Done....
09-09-2014
Interview........
waived; IP Sep 2015
Passport Req..
waived
VISA ISSUED...
COPR 22-10-2015
LANDED..........
09-01-2016 YAY!!!
OhCanadiana said:
Welcome to the thread for US family class applicants

Now that Buffalo, the prior regional program centre for the US (which also processed ~50% of the applications) is closing and transferring functions to New York I thought it would make sense to start a new thread and use the opportunity to kick-us off with a list of posts that address FAQs –

Spreadsheet of Buffalo applicants (managed by GOGOGO)
OhCanadiana, I have some meta-thoughts about this thread:

1. I noticed that the spreadsheet in your first post to this thread is the old Buffalo one from 2012... I'd like to see a more current spreadsheet, but I'm not sure who has a link to the most current one.

2. This is more curiosity than a suggestion: at what point do we start a brand-new thread for US applicants? I feel like a lot has changed since 2012. There are a lot of references to Buffalo, but I'm doubtful that anyone applying in 2015+ is going to want to read through 100+ pages from so long ago?

3. "Now that Buffalo . . . is closing and transferring functions to New York . . ." may as well add that now US Outland apps are going to Ottawa?
 

rhcohen2014

VIP Member
Apr 6, 2014
4,935
185
Category........
Visa Office......
Ottawa
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
March 17, 2014
Doc's Request.
April 11, 2014
AOR Received.
May 8, 2014
File Transfer...
May 9, 2014
Med's Request
upfront
Med's Done....
Nov 15, 2013
Interview........
waived
Passport Req..
July 15, 2014
VISA ISSUED...
July 25, 2014/ received August 1, 2014
LANDED..........
August 29, 2014
surleplateau said:
OhCanadiana, I have some meta-thoughts about this thread:

1. I noticed that the spreadsheet in your first post to this thread is the old Buffalo one from 2012... I'd like to see a more current spreadsheet, but I'm not sure who has a link to the most current one.

2. This is more curiosity than a suggestion: at what point do we start a brand-new thread for US applicants? I feel like a lot has changed since 2012. There are a lot of references to Buffalo, but I'm doubtful that anyone applying in 2015+ is going to want to read through 100+ pages from so long ago?

3. "Now that Buffalo . . . is closing and transferring functions to New York . . ." may as well add that now US Outland apps are going to Ottawa?
the ottawa spreadsheet is the blue link in my signature. it is open editing. feel free to add your information, remembering to be respectful of the information already there.

personally, i don't see any purpose in making a new us applicant thread. all the information is there, and if people really want to go through many pages to read information provided, they can choose to click on pages more recent for the most up to date information. to me, it's best to keep everything in one location and not confuse matters.
 

rugrat907

Hero Member
Feb 3, 2015
424
28
California
Category........
Visa Office......
Ottawa
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
24-03-2015
AOR Received.
25-04-2015
Med's Request
Upfront
Med's Done....
21-11-2014, remeds on 04-12-2015
VISA ISSUED...
COPR issued 21-12-2015
rhcohen2014 said:
the ottawa spreadsheet is the blue link in my signature. it is open editing. feel free to add your information, remembering to be respectful of the information already there.

personally, i don't see any purpose in making a new us applicant thread. all the information is there, and if people really want to go through many pages to read information provided, they can choose to click on pages more recent for the most up to date information. to me, it's best to keep everything in one location and not confuse matters.
I agree. I found a lot of useful info in this thread and a new one would lead to a bunch of questions that have already been answered. I follow the CPC-Ottawa thread to see what kind of movement there is at that office, plus the individual months leading up to when I applied to see how things are moving. I get a fair number of notices for new replies to threads, but it's the best way to keep up on the activity of the visa office where my app will end up, and how fast (or slow) things are moving for people who applied before me.
 

jamsham12

Hero Member
Jan 6, 2015
590
17
124
Category........
Visa Office......
Ottawa
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
01/19/2015
AOR Received.
03/16/2015
File Transfer...
04/21/2015
Passport Req..
In Process: 08/06/2015 DM: 10/31/2015
VISA ISSUED...
11/16/2015
LANDED..........
12/30/2015
anyone movement in Ottawa, are august applicants getting DM or COPR's yet??
 

LT1013

Star Member
Jun 29, 2014
96
5
Category........
Visa Office......
Ottawa
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
05-03-2015
AOR Received.
17-04-2015
File Transfer...
22-04-2015
Med's Done....
06-02-2015
VISA ISSUED...
13-11-2015
LANDED..........
27-11-2015
jamsham12 said:
anyone movement in Ottawa, are august applicants getting DM or COPR's yet??
Quite a few people got IP this week so we should see some DMs in the next few weeks or so.
 

msbigshot

Hero Member
Jul 4, 2011
240
0
Category........
Visa Office......
Ottawa
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
25-08-2014
Doc's Request.
11-03-2015
AOR Received.
29-10-2014
File Transfer...
24-11-2014
Med's Done....
25-04-2014
Interview........
WAIVED
Passport Req..
WAIVED
VISA ISSUED...
02-07-2015
LANDED..........
29-07-29
jamsham12 said:
anyone movement in Ottawa, are august applicants getting DM or COPR's yet??
I received an email from Ottawa requesting our marriage cert (as it was lost in transaction) the second to last week of March. I sent it out and it was received April 8th. I don't have any in process or DM or COPR yet, but I'm an august app and my time mark is at the 8 month mark. Seems Ottawa is slowly moving again though..
 

ascouple

Full Member
Jul 2, 2014
49
0
Category........
Visa Office......
Ottawa
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
21-08-2014
AOR Received.
02-10-2014
Med's Done....
17-07-2014
VISA ISSUED...
COPR 04-29-2015
LANDED..........
03-05-2015
Someone deleted our row in the Ottawa spreadsheet....
CIC ignoring our address change request...
ECAS still stuck on Application Received...

Sigh..
 

OhCanadiana

VIP Member
Feb 27, 2010
3,086
217
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
surleplateau said:
OhCanadiana, I have some meta-thoughts about this thread:
Thanks :) Thoughts below...

surleplateau said:
1. I noticed that the spreadsheet in your first post to this thread is the old Buffalo one from 2012... I'd like to see a more current spreadsheet, but I'm not sure who has a link to the most current one.
I see rhcohen2014 shared it to already :)

surleplateau said:
2. This is more curiosity than a suggestion: at what point do we start a brand-new thread for US applicants? I feel like a lot has changed since 2012. There are a lot of references to Buffalo, but I'm doubtful that anyone applying in 2015+ is going to want to read through 100+ pages from so long ago?
I can talk about this thread specifically. This thread was started when Buffalo was (suddenly) closing and the conversation in the Buffalo thread was somewhat fragmented and could easily guide folks who were just starting applications in the (suddenly) incorrect direction. The Buffalo thread at that point became largely focused on where the applications of the people in process there would head (in the end, very few of the people who had applications in process in Buffalo that stayed there. It was a very trying time for everyone as the Buffalo staff was essentially cut overnight with only a skeleton crew remaining and thus very little info was emerging (even interviews already scheduled were cancelled with no further information provided to those applicants). I suggested starting a new thread (in the Buffalo thread) and people were excited about the idea so here we are.

In that context, this thread (US outland) was started as a community for people who were still in step 1 and didn't know where their applications would go. We decided to start it with some FAQs to help new applicants and to centralize a lot of the posts we repeatedly shared with folks to answer their questions. Since that time, things have remained stable for US applicants applying outland through Ottawa so the information in the FAQs still remains largely applicable. There's been one addition to vehicle importation (you need to register the car for census purposes in the US) which we mention as people say they're going to start the process and, as you mention, we now know that the applications all ended up headed up CPP-Ottawa.


surleplateau said:
3. "Now that Buffalo . . . is closing and transferring functions to New York . . ." may as well add that now US Outland apps are going to Ottawa?
Unfortunately, no edits are allowed past ~24 hours on the forum so we couldn't add this bit in to the FAQs when it became known. As a result, you'll also see there's more than one version of the FAQs upfront (as we agreed on which additional topics should be added) and they aren't updateable but the hope is that people who start at the beginning will see that quickly. The people who are active have also changed over time but the information itself still seems largely relevant as rhcohen and rugrat mentioned.

rugrat907 said:
I agree. I found a lot of useful info in this thread and a new one would lead to a bunch of questions that have already been answered. I follow the CPC-Ottawa thread to see what kind of movement there is at that office, plus the individual months leading up to when I applied to see how things are moving. I get a fair number of notices for new replies to threads, but it's the best way to keep up on the activity of the visa office where my app will end up, and how fast (or slow) things are moving for people who applied before me.
Looking at CPP-Ottawa thread can be helpful as people seem to post timelines more there for some reason. However, whenever you look at the CPP-Ottawa thread, it's important to keep in mind that there's really multiple CPP-Ottawa's (i.e., multiple visa offices in CPP-Ottawa).

For example, IIRC, when the current CPP-Ottawa thread was started in late 2012 (there had been several CPP-Ottawa thread before then) it was focused on kicking off cases that had successfully been appealed and deemed to be low security risk, overflow for certain visa offices (e.g., Islamabad) to try to reduce backlogs, applications for visa offices that had closed due to emergencies (war and civil unrest situations), and running specific pilot programs. US outland applications were also handled in “CPP-Ottawa” (both new ones and the ones sent over from Buffalo). Our theory at the time was that it was an entirely new area with newly trained staff (at least the locally hired staff) because there was a long silence-filled hiatus before the US Outland “CPP-Ottawa” kicked-off processing.

As a result of this variety, people with “CPP-Ottawa” as a visa office can have very varying timelines. For example, when they handled a selection of family-class Islamabad cases, the timing was comparable to that of the Islamabad office (years) vs. Buffalo (months).

Hope that helps ;D
 

rockgurl1965

Star Member
May 9, 2014
97
1
eureka ca
Category........
Visa Office......
ottawa
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
02-06-2015
Doc's Request.
24-11-2015
Nomination.....
SA 06-08-2015
AOR Received.
29-07-2015
IELTS Request
working on sponsored spouse file 8-18-2015
File Transfer...
06-08-2015
Med's Done....
15-05-2015 UPFRONT
VISA ISSUED...
decision made 12/12/2015 copr 12-21-15
I have a question concerning form IMM 5481 sponsorship evaluation, specifically the option-c requirement, my wife who just moved back to Canada in August 2014, and went to work in late October has only negligible income for Canada in 2014, she worked in the us , is the Option-c necessary. Can I just send them wage information from the US and whatever she made in Canada, with an explanation of why no Option-c??
 

OhCanadiana

VIP Member
Feb 27, 2010
3,086
217
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
rockgurl1965 said:
I have a question concerning form IMM 5481 sponsorship evaluation, specifically the option-c requirement, my wife who just moved back to Canada in August 2014, and went to work in late October has only negligible income for Canada in 2014, she worked in the us , is the Option-c necessary. Can I just send them wage information from the US and whatever she made in Canada, with an explanation of why no Option-c??

If she didn't file Canadian taxes, submit an explanation (e.g., that she lived abroad and was a non-resident) but don't worry about it.

The aim is to ensure you have a means to support yourselves when you move to Canada (and won't rely on welfare). Yes, submit US wage information. Consider complementing it with info on (a portion) of your savings (bank account?) and/or information on your plan to settle back in to Canada (e.g., staying with family) so that a stranger can deduce you have a 'solid plan.'
 

surleplateau

Star Member
Sep 13, 2013
189
14
Category........
Visa Office......
Ottawa
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
29-12-2014
Doc's Request.
CSQ rqst'd 23-03-2015
Nomination.....
CSQ rcv'd 05-05-2015
AOR Received.
27-02-2015 err?
File Transfer...
09-03-2015
Med's Request
upfront
Med's Done....
09-09-2014
Interview........
waived; IP Sep 2015
Passport Req..
waived
VISA ISSUED...
COPR 22-10-2015
LANDED..........
09-01-2016 YAY!!!
Thanks for the thorough reply, OhCanadiana.

I'm still harboring a mild opinion that a new US Outlands thread would be nice to have every few years... just my $0.02.

I have finally added myself to the CPP-Ottawa spreadsheet from rhcohen's signature link. Hope I did it right. I added my CSQ app recv'd date in the column for "Document request" -- not sure if correct place. And I used this Date-to-Date calculator, excluding the end date.

Didn't include my "error AOR - Inland" dated 27 Feb 2015, since it might be confusing.