pumaE1

Hello - just embarking on the process, I'm English (Swedish Mother!) married a Canadian girl in Sept 05 in Haddington, she has Scottish grandparents (emmigrated), so she lived in Edinburgh for 4 years, we met in London (where we now live) & keen to make the move to Canada.

Any initial tips? Have been gathering info too...had medicals, police checks initiated...

E1

Scotschick

Hi Puma

Make sure you give as much information as possible and be totally honest about everything. Try and give them everything they ask for and if you don't have some information give them an explanation why.

I tried to deal with it in chunks eg gather all work experience info together etc before moving on to another section of the checklist and found it helpful to leave the application aside for a while and then go back to it and of course double and triple check it. The night before posting, hubby and I both sat and read through it and signed each piece of paper individually after we had read it to make sure there were no errors. I am still anxiously awaiting my AOR and then I can breathe a small sigh of relief and get on with my life for the next 3+ years.

Hope this helps. Good luck with your application.

smitp11

E1,

If you are married to a Canadian then you can take the Spousal route...

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/sponsor/familymembers.html

HTH.

Biiiiink

Too late, but my only tip would be get the medical done as the very, very last thing before submitting. Your visa, when issued, will only be valid for a year from the date of the medicals and so with spousal cases, it can work out to be quite tight.

Mr B got his medical done in the March to "kick start" him into the process of gathering evidence and documents. He sat on his backside until the August of the same year and didn't submit until then...so he lost 4 or 5mths "validity". With postal screw-ups added in, it meant he only had 6 or 7wks to land in Canada when he got his visa. It worked out okay for us, we had the time and money to go over to Canada for a weekend and use the visa, but if we hadn't, it could have been a different story.

But anyway, you're probably a lot more organised and motivated than he was - just get everything in asap to keep your landing window as wide as possible

Best of luck!

adele

Welcome to our merry band of people waiting...
We're all the same boat, so we can share the stormy seas ahead together!
Just get on with living your life for now with the prospect of Canada lying ahead in the future

Adele x

Scotschick

Thanks Adele

Nice to hear from everyone in similar position.

Here's hoping we all have good luck in the future.

Can't wait for all those trips over in the next few years to check things out

Have a great Hogmanay/New Year

Scotschick

peterroulston

Hi Scotschick
we submitted our application on the 12th december after a weekend of checking the forms a trillion time, hope your application goes smoothly and give us shout when you get your AOR.

happy hogmanay

Peter Roulston.

pumaE1

Thanks Scotschick - will def sign each page, if nothing else it'll mean we'll have to read & agree each page is complete.

Good luck with the wait for your AOR (I'm guessing that this is a type of pre-approval, subject to final processing)...

Happy new year (we were at hogmany a couple of years ago when Lindsey lived in Edinburgh, what a laugh!! )

E1

pumaE1

Thanks, that's good to know.

As it happens, I had my meds done this month, but we hope to get the entire application off in the next week, so hopefully the processing will not take much longer than 6 months, giving us 6 months to get over...? Does that sound realistic?

E1

pumaE1

Thanks - I've taken this route, had my meds & just waiting on the police checks. Didn't realise that the visa would only be open from when the meds were taken, so might curtail some travelling we planned bt leaving the UK & landing in Canada...

E1

Hipster Contrarian

Sorry, me again, back with another fick question: do you have to sign every page of every form?

pumaE1

No worries - as per Scotchicks post yesterday at 8:13pm, they signed each page to make sure both her & her husband were happy with the info on each page.

Think this is more 'belt & braces' than an essential requirement...

E1

curlykate

I submitted my application at the very end of August 2005 - got my AOR two weeks later. I have no idea how long it is going to take, but am keen to get back to Toronto to be with my boyfriend and friends. Long distance relationships are no fun.

Any estimates for when I might get back there permanently? Is it any faster if you have more points (I have 75), or if you have a lawyer? Or am I looking at 36 months?

Have other people had problems with jobs? I don't know what to put on job applications, as I don't know how long I'm going to be here!

Is there a general delay at the moment? Reading the forums it seems to suggest there is.

And should I have submitted medical clearances with my application?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm sure many of you understand how hard the uncertainty of the process is to deal with.

Good luck to everyone.

Butch Cassidy

In my experience (and from chatting to folks in the same 'boat') Its no quicker with a lawyer or by having more points (we have 75 too)

Sorry I cant raise your hopes.

curlykate

To be honest, I didn't really think it would be, I was just clutching at straws.

How long since your AOR?