live to ski

Thanks for the update and extra info lof and well done on the PR.

7 1/2 months from PNP application and 5 1/2 months from PR application to actually getting PR is really good, and of course a good reason to have a trip to Seattle.

Our PR application went Buffalo on Monday (arrived Tuesday) and I'm hoping that I might convince work that they:
1) Have to give me the paid time off; and
2) Pay for us to go to Buffalo via NY NY of course!

mels123

I'm curious why so many send their applications to Buffalo? We were told to send to London because we have been in Canada less than a year.

We're waiting patiently for PPR now........

live to ski

We had been in Canada less than a year when we applied for both PNP and PR. No idea why we were told Buffalo.

Do you think they just pull them out of a hat?

Who told you that they go to London if you have been here less than a year?

mels123

A friend of mine who arrived a few weeks before me asked someone at PNP. I was told to send to London and she was told Buffalo, apparently if you have not been here a year they can reject your application at Buffalo, but I've never heard of anyone being rejected! She didn't want to take the risk, so had a new certificate printed and sent the PR application to London instead.

We've been pleased with London so far, both got medical requests within 4 weeks.

live to ski

We've been pleased with London so far, both got medical requests within 4 weeks.[/QUOTE]
lof - do you know why your file was transfered to Seattle?

lof

ok, this post contains just my personal opinion / conclusions.
i'm not british and the visa office for my country of citizenship would be paris. at least at the time i first looked into getting pr cic paris had the considerably longer processing times than buffalo (and for pnp longer than london too) for both sw and pnp.
i found that sentence here
for a long time i read it as: "you must have stayed in your current country of residence for at least a year before you can apply to the according visa office"... which is obviously not true. your visa to that country must be issued for a year or longer.

i first came over under an exchange program for young workers. my wp - a middle thing between bunac and normal wp: no lmo required, stay for not more than 18 months, employer bound and with the usual restrictions - was issued for a bit more than a year.
i decided after a pretty short time that vancouver island should be my home for a longer time and that pnp through buffalo would be the best, the fastest and the most convenient (flying to europe just for an - hopefully unlikely - immigration interview??? not, if i can help it ) way to go. but the misunderstanding above and the fact that my employer was afraid of the hassle to sponsor me (at least that's how i took his statements then - he would never admit that ) lead to the extension of my wp and the start of the application process when i was already 15 months in canada. and sending the federal application to buffalo made more than sense.

mels, i haven't heard about federal rejections of pnps yet - no matter where and under which circumstances they applied. and i know about quite a few of them. i met most of them through forums like this but i know some of them personally. and as long you comply with the above rule that your canadian visa is valid for more than a year i don't see the problem about applying to buffalo.
for a long long time buffalo had and still has some of the shortest processing times for sw and pnps * - mainly because most applications processed there are from people already in canada or in the us, again the adaptability point of view. in addition buffalo has four other cic offices in the states at hand to help with the visa work load: detroit, new york, los angeles and seattle. it's their discretion to transfer files though.

live-to-ski, i don't know the exact reason(s) why they transferred my file to seattle. but the bcpnps not transferred from buffalo to seattle seem to be pretty rare cases. i guess seattle is kind of the specialist for us? and they are fast and efficient. (most of the delays in my case were because i was in europe in may when my med request arrived - and the loooooong mailing times... every cic lettre i got took at least a week to get here. mail from europe is regularly faster )

wish you both a very short wait for your ppr. good luck!





* in mean time london seams to be faster for pnps than buffalo - i guess because the later - officially - doesn't fast track pnps. that buffalo's pnps are still way faster than sw has to do with the smaller amount of work involved because the only relevant thing for them is medical or criminal admissibility.

mels123

Wow Lof, thanks for that useful information, you certainly know your stuff

Do you think summer is officially over this week? The temperatures have dropped quite a bit this week! Soon be the ski season again

lof

thanks mels. as i said, it's just my personal opinion. there is always the possibility that i'm wrong because its only partly my personal experience. and only because this worked out for me doesn't mean that it is the best way for everybody .

and after reading my above text again i want to clarify that it is not possible to send the pr-application to one of the four sub-offices in the states. applications from canada or the us have to be sent to buffalo.



weather... i don't know about the differences between mid vancouver island and maple ridge but i found the mornings last week chillier than this week. i still wear the shorts for work, can't be that bad yet...

live to ski

Monday was a very noticeable change in Vancouver.

live to ski

This is a bit of work in progress, so please feel free to alter the below to meet your situation....

1) Provincial office where applied: BC
2) Date when application was POSTED: Monday 9th July 2007
3) Date when they received the application: Tuesday 10th July 2007
4) Any correspondence or calls received by your employer in between, if yes then the nature of the enquiry and after how many days/weeks did you get an enquiry from them? OH was called by BC PNP when he submitted his application a day after mine as he was already on their system as common-law on mine (we're just covering all bases by both applying). We thought it VERY helpful of them to check this
5) Date when decision made or received? 15th August 2007
6) Employee is inside or outside Canada when the Application was submitted? Inside Canada
7) If inside Canada, what currently doing? Working for employer on one-year BUNAC visa.
8) How long after initial application or PNP decision / when was PR granted? Will let you know
9) Where was WP application sent, eg, Vegreville or PoE? Vegreville, 10th Sept 2007
10) How long for WP? still waiting but now on implied status as BUNAC visa has expired
11) PR applicaiton submitted? 17th Sept 2007 to Buffalo. Minus UK Police checks as BC PNP advised that these can follow, but best to get inline
12) aor CIC?
13) Med requests?
14) Meds taken?
15) Landed?
16) anything else?

mels123

Hi Live to Ski

Can you let me know how you stay covered with MSP if your work permit has expired? Did you have to send copies of the application for the new work permit to MSP?

We are waiting for PPR but we'll have to apply for work permit extension while we wait, and don't want to be without MSP cover.

You should still get your medical requests even without the police checks, my friend did.

Good luck!

lof

mels, i have no idea how it works out with msp and the implied status (it's something i haven't been through myself). i guess i would take the copies of the extension application to the nearest bc service centre and ask them what to do.
but i'm 100% sure that they need a copy of your new wp to extend your health care coverage for longer than the (hopefully) few days of implied status. (that's something i did )

not sure (and sorry, too much in a hurry to search for it)... are you on bunac too? did you already apply for your extension?

(just for your information - i've seen a bcpnp on trackitt who got ppr in about a month after meds from london. don't want to give you false hope but i have my fingers crossed that you get ppr very soon...)

mels123

Thanks Lof

I'll try giving MSP a call to see what they say.

We're not on a Bunac, hubby has a work permit tied to his employer and I have an open permit. We're trying to leave applying for an extension as long as we can.

We heard from CIC this week asking for more info about our medicals, this was sent this week, so maybe only a few more weeks to wait.

RedDragon

Hi,

Can anyone give me an idea of when I should expect to get some sort of initial acknowledgement and file number from BC PNP? They received the application on 5th Sept.

Thanks.

mels123

I think we heard something about 2-3 weeks after we posted ours. Your employer will also receive a file no.

HTH