Divvym1

Lol Word!! Yea, Mississauga apps are flying which is awesome but ottawa is slow now unfortunately that's where mine is.

I honestly don't know what I would do without the spreadsheet. It's like a piece of mind and wee security blanket haa

Divvym1

How can you work anyway on a visitors visa? How long is your visa for 6 months presuming your from the uk lol

Bemsee

I am with you on that. The BE site and spreadsheet are the only things keeping me sane !

garethr1989

I am currently waiting on our marriage certificate before I submit my application. How do we specify that we wish to have it processed in Mississauga? Do we have to write a separate letter? I do not see it anywhere on the forms and it was my understanding this was removed from the forms a few years ago

Princesstigger

I can't work on a visitor visa, you are right. I have been trying to get a job so I could get a work permit supported by a LMIA but no one wants foreign workers, the process is too hard. Lots of great offers, but they back off once they investigate the hoops they have to jump through. Oh well.

andrewbrit

You cannot specify a certain visa office. As I stated in the post of mine you quoted, CIC decides where to send your application for stage 2 processing. If you are a U.K. citizen then it is will probably be London, Mississauga or Ottawa.

Divvym1

Ahh Ok, yea that must be extremely difficult. This new job if I get past final interview I may inquire about LMIA but honestly probably more hassle than its worth. Good luck

Princesstigger

You too!

garethr1989

OK yeah I thought that was the case. I think I may have misread your earlier post that gave me the impression that, although CIC would ultimately decide, that it would be worth sending something to ask if it could be processed in Mississauga

Jim Humphries

The "rhyme or reason" statement is a little annoying since the system is very well worked out but must respond to many more demands than resources provided by financial authorities can possibly meet. Annually the immigration minister announces the intended level of immigration for the coming year and that level sets the resources. Many many more applications are received in many categories beside spousal sponsorship so the offices are overworked. The transfer of applications from Islamabad to London and the creation of a processing centre in Mississauga and Ottawa are management's attempts to ease those pressures. The fact remains that some 80% of spousal applications are processed to completion within well less that a year.

SchnookoLoly

You applied in September. Your application has gone to London. The average processing time for London is about 7-8 months, according to 2014 applications that have been approved. That means you should expect something through in April or thereabouts. You may be faster, you may be slower. There's nothing you can do to "speed up" the process at this point.

You are in the same boat as Richard above. You applied two weeks prior, and your application has gone to Ottawa, which is averaging about 6 months. I'd say March-April is realistic based on averages, but yours may be faster, or it may be slower. Whether or not the guys interviewing you for the job are willing to wait is something you'll have to ask them.

You applied in July, your application went to London. Another 1-2 months is probably a realistic expectation. At least you are able to wait in Canada with your family. Others, particularly those from non-visa exempt countries, are rarely granted visitor visas if they have an application in process, so they have to wait out the whole process separately. As Jim said in his post which I have quoted below, spousal applications are processed within one year, and at that time you are granted PR with no real restrictions. So while the waiting may be frustrating, complaining about it isn't that helpful. There are those who have applied under other streams who wait YEARS to get PR. Plus you have the option of staying in the UK to work if you must have an income.

I don't mean to sound negative, but Canada isn't going to process applications within weeks just willy-nilly, and in comparison to a lot of other countries, Canada's process for granting non-Canadian spouses PR is pretty straight forward and easy. I know that the UK and certainly the US make it significantly tougher to get your other half right to work.

Sorry again if this sounds negative, and I don't mean it to you personally, I'm just grumpy of consistently reading about people who whine about having to wait 7-8 months for *FULL PR* to come through, when others are waiting significantly longer. (Want to sponsor your parents for PR? That takes ten years! That's right, TEN!)

As others have said, you don't specify an office. CIC will decide where to send your application. Previously, applications were going directly to London. Then when London started processing applications from Islamabad, CIC started redirecting applications to Mississauga or Ottawa to ease the workload. You cannot specify which office you want to process your application, CIC will decide using whatever their magic formula is, which none of us know.

+1. Well put.

SchnookoLoly

Again it wasn't directed at you... occasionally I just get grumpy after reading a load of posts about the same thing and it can get quite frustrating. The fact that Canada even recognizes common-law is also something to be thankful for - most places, including the UK, don't have such a category.

Glad you find the community helpful, it is of course always helpful to have people in the same boat.

Again, wasn't directed at you personally, was just venting after reading so many posts along the same lines!

Hopefully you don't have much more of a wait ahead of you!

Princesstigger

Thank you, and a huge thanks to you and everyone else who maintains this forum, it truly is a lifeline

You have a full time job moderating on here, I couldn't do it!

SchnookoLoly

Haha I don't moderate at all, I just use it as a wonderful procrastination tool while at work!

It's become a bit of a hobby for me since Husband and I applied back in 2012... the forum was super helpful, so for awhile afterwards it was more a question of just 'paying it forward', but then I found I actually rather enjoyed it!

Divvym1

Amen!