Hi I am a Canadian and I am sponsoring my Japanese GF under common law staus. I hired a law firm in Monteal to assist (I think we all know who, look up...).
I was pretty much ready to submit myself last October and they had me redo everything on thier forms (that were 2008, while mine were 2010, this was the first set back). They were hired for a different reason but that is another story.
I left for Japan thinking that they would be submitting the paperwork to Mississauga in early March but was very surprised to find that they didnt do so until May (the second set back). I asked about FOSS notes for her (needed for the real reason they were hired) and they had forgot about then completely (another set back)! Of course we all know that March of last year saw the big earthquake in Japan and I convinced her and her mother to come back for a couple weeks just to let things settle in Japan. We then had to deal with Immigration ourselves in Vancouver knowing nothing about her FOSS notes as they were not ordered in a timely manner (we were simply very lucky that she was able to come into Canada).
I recieved an email from the law firm stating on July 15th that my part of the application was approved and it was being sent to the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo for "Finalization". I was also told in that email that it takes aprox. 6 months in Tokyo and in 2 to 4 months time I should expect the AOR. It also states this on the CIC website. So at that point we were assuming that her application should be done by late December. I booked my flight for Jan 10th and we changed her flight (back in July and at our expense) so that we would both come back together in Feb, giving plenty of extra time just in case. Last Friday (the 28th) I got the AOR and was confused as to what it really meant. I sent an email the the firm to ask if it would be just another few months as we thought or if it would be another 6 months from the date of the AOR? They said another 6 months from the AOR date. The problem is that they never told us that and it is not clear as to that way on the CIC site either. I called CIC yesterday and the officer said they have no information as towhat a Visa office outside of Canada is doing so agian there is no clear information.
So to sum it up. We thought it was to be subbmitted in March and made her return flight accordingly with extra time. We had to change the flight (at our expense) because it was not submitted until May thinking that it would be late December and now we have to change it again (at our expense) to a date that we dont evnen know about. The status page says Tokyo recived the application on June 22 and started processing on October 28th. They have now requested her passport (this is a good thing I think from what I have read here) but I am confused by all these different dates and by the fact that everyone, including CIC seems to be saying a different thing about the time line now. We cannot extend her flight past April 20th and will have to purchase a whol new ticket after paying twice to extend the current one and if there is another 6 months yet then it wil be so close that I am not sure about the flight date.
Sorry for the long winded post here but I thought I should properly explain our situation in order to hopefully get a good answer.
Thank you in advance for your reply.
I was pretty much ready to submit myself last October and they had me redo everything on thier forms (that were 2008, while mine were 2010, this was the first set back). They were hired for a different reason but that is another story.
I left for Japan thinking that they would be submitting the paperwork to Mississauga in early March but was very surprised to find that they didnt do so until May (the second set back). I asked about FOSS notes for her (needed for the real reason they were hired) and they had forgot about then completely (another set back)! Of course we all know that March of last year saw the big earthquake in Japan and I convinced her and her mother to come back for a couple weeks just to let things settle in Japan. We then had to deal with Immigration ourselves in Vancouver knowing nothing about her FOSS notes as they were not ordered in a timely manner (we were simply very lucky that she was able to come into Canada).
I recieved an email from the law firm stating on July 15th that my part of the application was approved and it was being sent to the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo for "Finalization". I was also told in that email that it takes aprox. 6 months in Tokyo and in 2 to 4 months time I should expect the AOR. It also states this on the CIC website. So at that point we were assuming that her application should be done by late December. I booked my flight for Jan 10th and we changed her flight (back in July and at our expense) so that we would both come back together in Feb, giving plenty of extra time just in case. Last Friday (the 28th) I got the AOR and was confused as to what it really meant. I sent an email the the firm to ask if it would be just another few months as we thought or if it would be another 6 months from the date of the AOR? They said another 6 months from the AOR date. The problem is that they never told us that and it is not clear as to that way on the CIC site either. I called CIC yesterday and the officer said they have no information as towhat a Visa office outside of Canada is doing so agian there is no clear information.
So to sum it up. We thought it was to be subbmitted in March and made her return flight accordingly with extra time. We had to change the flight (at our expense) because it was not submitted until May thinking that it would be late December and now we have to change it again (at our expense) to a date that we dont evnen know about. The status page says Tokyo recived the application on June 22 and started processing on October 28th. They have now requested her passport (this is a good thing I think from what I have read here) but I am confused by all these different dates and by the fact that everyone, including CIC seems to be saying a different thing about the time line now. We cannot extend her flight past April 20th and will have to purchase a whol new ticket after paying twice to extend the current one and if there is another 6 months yet then it wil be so close that I am not sure about the flight date.
Sorry for the long winded post here but I thought I should properly explain our situation in order to hopefully get a good answer.
Thank you in advance for your reply.
