Jimbo2012

I hope someone can help me out! I am in the process of applying for PR from the UK with my Canadian wife as a sponsor. We have sent off the relevant forms with the requested documentation and yet today we have received a letter from CPC asking us to submit a copy of my wife's passport and both sides of her birth certificate.
1) We definitely sent these documents with our original application.
2) My wife's (Ontario) birth certificate does NOT have 2 sides - it is actually a credit card sized document, with one face completely blank!
3) The call centre number is one of those 888 toll-free numbers that is inaccessible from outside Canada. Why, why, why do they do this when they know the applicant is overseas?
Anyway, rant over. I was just hoping someone might be able to shed some light on points 1 & 2, and hopefully have a number I can call from them on from the UK.
Many thanks in anticipation.

Jim Humphries

I checked my Ontario BC and found a map of Canada and a serial number on the back, along with a warning that lamination or alteration voids the certificate. SO check the certificate to see why it is missing the second side content.

Jimbo2012

Oh! I know nothing about Canadian birth certificates, but my wife tells me that is all there is i.e. a card but no paper copy.

thundercat600

it sounds like she just has the "short" birth cetificate if it's just credit card sized and laminated. I think she'll have to apply for a full birth certificate maybe? It's nearly 30 years since I had to apply for mine so not sure where/how etc. hope you get this sorted

sky_summers

Hi Jimbo... We were the same. My husband only had the small laminated copy. Your wife can get a copy of the long birth certificate from the Ministry of Government Services, ON. Costs about $35. I've attached a copy of the form you need to fill in.

http://www.forms.ssb.gov.on.ca/mbs/ssb/forms/ssbforms.nsf/GetAttachDocs/007-11076E~1/$File/11076E.pdf


Oh - and just to avoid getting thrown to the bottom of the pile i'd recommend just copying the passport again. Saves any hassle wih them.

Best of luck with everything.

Jimbo2012

Thanks for this info, Sky. On the letter they sent me, they have asked for: Copy of Canadian passport and/or both sides of your Canadian Birth Certificate.
They have neglected to delete either the 'and' or the 'or' so I'll assume both to be on the safe side!
Re the birth certificate: so it's okay for someone to be around for many years without a double-sided birth certificate until a time comes when they might want to sponsor someone? Brilliant! And I thought Britain was overly bureaucratic. Sounds like a bit of a revenue booster to me
Finally, I assume from extensive Googling that it's impossible to phone these people from the UK?

Jimbo2012

Before we spend yet more money......can any sponsors or applicants out there please confirm that you definitely need the 'long form' Canadian birth certificate in order to proceed with an application and, even if you never got one at birth, you need to apply for one just for the sponsorship process?
Thanks again.

yzf.shaun

The way we read the checklist was you needed to provide a copy of the passport which details citizenship, dob, Full Name etc or the Birth certificate.

We were unsure if to do both sides of the birth certificate but as already stated there is a Map of Ontario and a serial number on the back of the certificate.

In the end we decided to put a copy of both in just to be on the safe side.

victorfoxtrot

I'm going to disagree here! We read the Sponsor Document Checklist 5491 where it says in section 13 to provide a photocopy of EITHER your: PR card or Citizenship card (or certificate without photo if issued before 15 Feb 1977) or canadian birth cert or Canadian passport.

To me it reads that you only need to supply 1 of the 5 items they have asked for in that list. We only sent a copy of my boyfriends passport and this has sufficed. He was approved as sponsor last week.

Having said all that, I still think I would be inclined to put the wheels in motion on the long form birth certificate, and in the mean time, whilst you are waiting to get that through, why not send them a copy of the passport again (ensuring it shows everything they require - number, date of issue, expiry, photo, name, DOB, place of birth etc), and within that note state that you are applying for a long form birth certificate but it will take time - and politely query why it is needed given that IMM5491 only requires one of 5 documents.

I'm afraid that I do not have a telephone number for CPC Missisauga. Have you tried posting on the Timeline for Outland Sponsors via London UK? It gets a lot of traffic and someone on there may have a number jotted down.

Jimbo2012

I have revisited this form (document checklist) and I think you are right. It does explicitly say 'OR' after each item. The odd thing is that we sent a copy of my wife's passport in the application. Perhaps it got misplaced. It's still very frustrating that you can't simply phone and check. I've done a search of this forum but can't find a number that works. Are they even contactable by email? Thanks for your feedback, by the way

victorfoxtrot

Sorry I don't know any email address or phone number. I would respond by snail mail to the address provided, with another copy of your wifes passport, and a letter attached stating that you understood it to be an either/or situation as clearly outlined on the checklist. I would also ask them to contact you by email/phone if they DO still require the birth certificate and what exactly they need - i.e. is it the long form. Hopefully that will suffice. Good luck.