synaesthesia

My partner (common-law) and I are looking to book up front medicals in anticipation of PR invitations starting up again soon as we are confident we will be invited in the first round or two. Both the doctors' website and the IRCC website say you can get an upfront medical unless you are a spouse or family member who is being sponsored.

Can anyone clarify whether this is just referring to people applying under family class or whether it includes people who are secondary applicants on a CEC or FSW express entry application? I am fairly certain it's the former but given the ~$300 per person involved I don't want to get it wrong...

Thanks

synaesthesia

In typical fashion I got a response to an email I had given up getting a response to as I typed out the above message.

In case anyone else is looking for a clear answer to the above question, the answer is if you're not applying through the family class sponsorship route, you can get upfront medicals for everyone on your express entry application.

Mods, I guess you can either delete this or leave it up for others' info. I couldn't see a way to delete it myself so I guess it's up to you!

christmasoompa

Personally, I really wouldn’t get a medical until it’s requested. If you’re waiting for ITA’s to restart then presumably you’ll be applying under the FSW or FST programs? Given the huge increase in processing times for those, your medical will likely expire before you get PR if you do it soon.

synaesthesia

Most likely CEC (invitations for CEC stopped in September) though we are eligible under FSW too. According to the IRCC website the medical is valid for 12 months. The wait times for express entry are supposedly going to be back within the 6 month processing target when they restart invitations - that was after all why they stopped inviting. Anecdotally at least I know a few people who applied just before CEC invitations stopped and were approved within a few months too so I'm not too worried unless you know something I don't!

christmasoompa

Ah, ok. Still 11 months as the current processing time though, and personally I disagree that it will go back to 6 months anytime soon. With Ukraine applicants still being prioritised, and the Covid backlog, and so many more in the pool, I think processing times will get worse before they get better. Remember that the people you know who applied last year did so when FSW/FST apps weren’t being processed, and before the war in Ukraine too.

JMO though, but there’s no real advantage to having an upfront médical other than potentially saving you a couple of weeks down the line. But it’s your call, if you have the funds to pay for them to be done again if they do expire then go for it.

synaesthesia

Given the way they collect data on processing times (i.e. based on the applications being completed now) I don't know how trustworthy the 11 months is. I would expect any CEC candidates still being processed now are people who needed to submit extra info or had more complicated cases given how fast the backlog came down once they stopped the ITAs - especially given that while they weren't inviting FST/FSW, they were inviting record numbers under CEC. Or at least that's what I'm hoping. I think/hope the processing time will drop for a month or two before slowly climbing back up again once the system has more normal cases to go off.

I suppose what I am saying is I am trying to stay optimistic because I don't think anything they are saying is based on much reliable evidence and I think it could go either way... We have personal reasons for wanting to get PR as quick as possible which are too boring and complicated to explain here so if there's a chance we get it done a few weeks quicker then we'll probably take the risk. If we weren't in this situation I would also just accept the extra few weeks wait and not risk the cost of having to do it again.

christmasoompa

I think that may be the case once they stop prioritising Ukraine apps, but who knows when that will be.

Sounds like for you, having the medical done up front would make sense though, so go for it. For most I'd advise against it, but if you really need to save a couple of weeks then it's probably worth the risk. Hopefully you'll be invited under CEC rather FSW, if you meet the criteria so that will be quicker.

What's your CRS score?

synaesthesia

516 (I knew that PhD was good for something…).

With the ~2 year pause in invites for FSW I would expect there will be plenty of people with higher scores than me who have job offers in the FSW pool whereas I’m pretty confident I should get invited in the first if not second round in CEC.

At least that’s what I’m hoping given anecdotally at least FSW seems to take longer to process. A friend here is adamant that if I’m eligible for both I will get invited under CEC regardless but it’s unclear what he’s basing that assumption on.

Plus I really don’t want to go through the whole proving you have the money to move to Canada thing because getting some UK banks to write what IRCC want them to write has proven a real headache when I can’t just walk into a branch (I’m looking at you NatWest). When we first moved here I found Canada’s banking system bizarre and inflexible and now I wish (for IRCC purposes only) NatWest was more like RBC… I also regret having money across 6 accounts (4 in UK).

christmasoompa

Fab.

Even for FSW you should get invited pretty quickly at that points level, 8000 or so in the pool scoring above 500, so you'll be a way above quite a few of them at 516. Will your points score go up further once you've worked a bit longer in Canada?

It does take longer, current processing times are about 2 years (again, with Ukraine, Covid backlog, etc, etc, so should come down again). You'll be invited for whichever you are scoring the best for, if everybody else is scoring higher for CEC then you'll get a FSW invite and vice versa.

Presumably you have a job offer from your current employer? If so, you don't need proof of funds for FSW either. https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration...oof-funds.html

synaesthesia

It will go up slightly in December when my partner hits a year of skilled work in Canada but unfortunately mine won't go up any further in the time we have (more on that later).

Sadly no offer of employment from my current employer as I am in a fixed term job that is tied to a job-specific work permit. The job ends just over two weeks before I would reach a second year of skilled work in Canada, hence why my points aren't going up any further. This is where we get into the complicating factors and some of the reasons why we want it done fast - my job continues in the UK for another year (long story but no way of getting out of it) so regardless of immigration status, come the end of January/beginning of February I have to leave the country. This means I can't apply for jobs here and get a job offer.

christmasoompa

Ah, I see. Just checking that you're aware that you can still apply for PR via CEC even if outside of Canada? So it doesn't matter if you don't have PR (or even if you haven't applied for it) by January, you'll still be eligible when in the UK.

Good luck, hope you get an ITA soon.