victorfoxtrot

The Buffalo wings were worth the trip! Delicious! I was quite nervous about crossing into the US - more so than I was coming back into Canada to be honest.

sky_summers

Victorfoxtrot... I crossed yesterday As easy as pie eh?! No questions asked - just take a seat and then called up to sign the COPR. Not what I expected at all. The 7 month wait is now over and done with... Phew!

sky_summers

I now feel qualified should anybody have any queries about COPR or landing Landed yesterday after receiving COPR on Wednesday and it was pretty straightforward. Popped into the Canadian border office before heading across the bridge at Niagara and they explained that as I needed to be coming from another country we should head across to the US side and ask to be refused entry for landing purposes. So... We drove across and did just that. The US side held our passports and send us up to the 2nd floor. 10 minutes later - 2 offficials came out and escorted us to our car and handed us a letter saying "refused entry for landing purposes" We headed back across and handed in COPR and letter. 2 mins later I was called up to sign the COPR for myself and my daughter and that was that! As easy as pie - no problems. We then headed to another desk to have our goods to follow list stamped. Have to say - the Canadian officials were extremely pleasant - and fast. US side a little more stern however we encountered no problems at all. Celebrated by spending the night in a lovely hotel overlooking the falls. Perfect way to end the agonising 7 month wait!

123me

Congrats Victorfoxtrot. You were in my neck of the woods this weekend.

sky_summers

Hi Ivesy, fab news Hopefully all goes pretty smoothly. Why did you have to send a copy of the passports? Fortunately we didn't have to do that. I just received the paperwork on Wednesday. We crossed over at Niagara Falls but just went to the US side and asked to be refused for landing purposes and made our way back straight away. There was no costs involved at all other that the $3 toll fee Obviously you are quite far from Niagara falls though! It does say on the COPR info however that you can call a number and arrange a suitable time to land at an immigration office near you. I imagine this may be an option for you

victorfoxtrot

Yeah good luck with that! I thought I would at least try and find out how long it would take to get an appointment, so called the number. It's the generic CIC main phone line, so you spend about 5 minutes listening to a load of gumpf that is irrelevant to you, then they give you 4 maybe 5 options - none of which are 'Arrange an appointment to land as PR within Canada', so I pressed the number I thought best applied to me - something vague like 'immigration & citizenship' and got another list of irrelevant options. So I went back to the original menu and pressed another option I thought might work, and again got through to another menu of options not even close to what I needed. After 25 minutes of going back and forth, trying different options and being nowhere closer to speaking to a human, I booked our hotel for Buffalo and informed my boyfriend we were going on Saturday.

It really would be helpful if on the accompanying paperwork, CIC were to tell you which options to choose to get to the desired place.

123me

That is great news, and yes, I am sure you are happy that the wait is finally over.

sky_summers

That's what I hate about those call centres... I always try the 0 button first as sometimes that puts you straight through to an actual person. Even the London office was terrible - as soon as you hit the "press 2 for English" the line went dead, so unless you could speak fluent french you got nowhere..! Oh well, at least we don't have to worry about any of that anymore. Did they tell you 6 weeks for your PR card?

conjonway

On that CIC line: Press the 0 button three times and you'll get transferred to an agent

conjonway

Anybody know what the timeline is from Sponsor's "Decision Made" to the application being received by the visa office in London i.e. the "in process" status for the Sponsored?

sky_summers

We were sponsor approved on the 9th September. Ecas said our file was "received in London" on the 9th September also, however ecas didn't change to "in process" until the 9th November. Wouldn't read into things too much though as some people have decisions made before any ecas updates!

victorfoxtrot

We never got an 'in process'. Sponsor decision made was 4 Nov and PR Decision Made was 20 Jan. No updates in between. Looking at the timelines on the Pinklady spreadsheet though it does appear that things are really speeding up. Mine was almost 5 months from receipt at CPC-M to the COPR arriving (not counting the cock-up), but things seem to be getting closer to the 4 month mark.

Ivesy

Hi Sky_summers
we didn't actually need to send our passports, but we had already sent them to our consultant before we knew this...Typical really, we were just trying to save time.
it all sounds a bit daunting this landing, we were thinking about going down to Montana and staying over night in greatfalls, when we get our CORP papers we will check if we can do our landing at a office near us..that would be graet as long as there isnt a long waiting list....they sound pretty mean over in the US.
I bet you can't believe its all over, our time line is the same as yours 7months
well done i can't wait to get it all done.

sky_summers

Yeah that is typical! I was about to send our passports to my sister in London when I read on this that they were no longer requesting passports. I reckon we both took around the 7 month mark because of the kids as it appears those with no dependants or other issues get COPR sooner. If it's easier for you, landing nearby would definately save you a trip across the border (remember the triple 0 to skip all the nonsense ) Otherwise you might enjoy the break. A wee overnight jaunt to celebrate COPR might just be what you need

123me

I think you are right about the dependents making applications take longer. In our case it is that and of course my husband enclosing the photo copy of the FBl check rather then the original. Everthing is sent now to London to hopefully processing will continue quickly.