Immigrant Visa

I was trying to find out about the status of my PIO card application. It has been a month !
I am getting worried. Their phone line is forever busy (all day !). I sent an email a few days ago and no response yet.

This is frustrating !

Dear all,
Pls mail me at [email protected] giving all your guidance to find solutions to the few questions that Iam posting now,

1.Can we apply PR to Canada from Chennai,India
2.What's the nominal time taken to get the PR?
3.What are the ways to check if the processing is going on efficiently?

SEEKGUIDANCE

Iam Iyer a paramedic who is moving thro wwics coimbatore for canada immigration.As of now the process is going on well and my eclient application status in the cic.gc.ca is also going on well.Its close to 14 months since my processing had started.Also Iam informed that the processing may go to a maximum of 40 to 42 months of which i had already completed 14 months.
          Pls guide me to further enhance my processing so that I can reach the destination faster,
Thanks,
K

i m planning to go to canada through pr of federal or pnp progrrame,i came to know tht if someone has valid job offer it willtake only 6 to 8 months,if anyine knows anything abt it plzz i need ur help desperately

Me and my family are done with Consular Processing @ Mumbai. I appreciate the help provided by www.immihelp.com

The info is very accurate and we had no diificulty getting the CP thru.

Thanks and keep up the good work.

I recently got a fraud letter from the so called WWICS group, offerng me to immigrate to Canada. After having posted a penpal ad! I definitely don't trust them, and I definitely wish that nobody else does.

1.If the question on estimated processing time is for Canadian Immigration, the process is normally 2 years long. It took me 3 years because of the first rejection as explained in my previous post.

2.It is not only the Indian consulates that don't answer phone calls. The Canadian consulates in NY, USA did not answer even one call of mine and I was worried what will happen to my passport, especially because I was in a forign country. But nothing bad happened. I got the passport back after a log wait along with the immigrant visa stamped on it. So just chill. Don't worry. Be happy atleast you are within your country.

3. As far as those guys who say WWICS just took thier money, don't take them on face value. Ask them probing questions. If you can think logically you will find out they are not telling the full story. You see I could have said my case was rejected so WWICS took all my money and just sat quietly or better still spread negative rumors.

I'm extremely pleased with WWICS. Infact I was first rejected at the interview on a very flimsy reason by the visa officer. WWICS fought the case for me at Canada High Court at their cost while I was still in the U.S.A. and got me a second interview.
They had done such a wonderful job, the second interview the officer actually apologised for the first experience, never asked me a single question. My family and I are now permanaent residents of Canada, thanks to WWICS.
In contrast to all the negativity you hear, I will like to tell you that they immediately respond to every call of yours.

Dear fellow friends,

Although I’m only the sponsor of a successful interview in POLAND yesterday, I wanted to share with you some of the feedback that was shared with me by the family.

I have visited this board two to three times a day for the past year to read and learn from others who had journey through this DV process and have past some of their experiences to my wife family about our previous interviews winners.

My wife and I helped applied for her family in Poland. Which they were successfully picked (seconded time entry) a year ago and were just successfully interviewed in WARSAW POLAND, yesterday. EU9xxx.

I want to Thank all the past OCEers with there support group not only to there own knowledge and experience of Australia process but helping others and current active members including Steven, Wikas, Barbara, and others.

Which make this board a valuable place of information to DV winners and hopeful.

I can’t tell you much detail about the interview but will try to summarize what was told to me.

My wife family arrived at Embassy in Warsaw very early (6:00am) the actual appointment was for 8:00am.

The primary went to the front gate and showed appointment letter and was directed to wait on line. I think there was two lines one for immigrate interview and the other for non immigrate interview, which I have learned from this board that you could speed up your wait time on line, if you get the right ticket or get on the correct line depending on your Embassy.

The primary was given a ticket with a number inside room and waited until the number appeared on a screen.

The primary went to the clerk’s window, and was ask by the clerk for the appointment letter and then ask to give the documents to the clerk one by one, in the order she requested. Passports, letter of support, etc.

(Documents listed on 2nd notification packaged). I STRESSED: LETTER OF SUPPORT IS VERY IMPORTANT IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANY OTHER MEANS OF SELF SUPPORT, HOWEVER, I SUBMITTED ONLY ONE I-134 FORM FOR PRIMARY APPLICANT WINNER AND THE FAMILY. (Primary, Spouse, two children’s) I think it is conceder to be one case. HOWEVER, it isn’t a bad ideal if you have more than one LETTER OF SUPPORT if it’s available to you.

This family have had heard at the Embassy that people have gotten rejected for not having a LETTER OF SUPPORT. Other family had to rescheduled interview because DV applicants didn’t have enough money for the required processing fee 755.00 each person or for! missing documents.

The cashier wasn’t open yet so they had to wait to pay $755.00 (USD) x 4. The Embassy wants the funds in US currency and the primary had to exchanged the Polish currency into US funds, which the Embassy provides this service at the current day exchanged rate. In addition, the primary had to pay for DHL mail service, so the Embassy could mail the passport to the family home, once the visas were granted. ONE DHL MAIL SERVICE PER PERSON.

I don’t remember the cost but it’s $0.00 (USD) x 4.
The waiting to see the consular was about ½ hour after the initial meeting with the window clerk. Once in the a room with the consular, the primary said to me the consular was reviewing the original completed and signed forms DS122, DS 230 sent to the KCC (ONE YEAR AGO) with the pictures still paper clips attached and undisturbed on the forms. The primary said that the consular was pleasant. HERE IS THE SHOCKER.

After five minutes of review of submitted documents, plus police reports submitted earlier in the year (Police report good for one year in Poland and are directly sent to the Embassy by the (Poland’s Police Ministrant) consular.

The consular only ask a few questions about the children vacation travels to the US a year prior which they had applied for travel visa a year ago. THAT’S IT, NO TRICK QUESTIONS, NO WHY DO YOU WANT TO COME TO THE USA?? NO ANYTHING.

I was amazed, She said to them, congratulations everything is in ordered and do you have any questions for me.! They said no and the consular said they would received their passport in a few days.

MY ADVISE FOR ALL WHO IS AT THE BEGINIGING OR NEAR THE END OF THE DV JOURNEY IS TO PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT WHEN FILLING IN THE DS 122 AND 230 FORMS THAT ALL QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ANSWERED WITHOUT LEAVING ANYTHING BLANK (WRITE NOT APPLICABLE IF IT DOESN’T APPLIED TO YOU ON THE DS 230, DS122 FORMS AND SATSIFIED ALL THE REQUIRED INSTRUCTIONS REQUESTED BY THE DV PROGRAMED.

PS. Although, it wasn’t ask of the applicant, BRING A JOB OFFER, IF YOU HAVE IT or can get one please bring it with you. THEY WILL TAKE IT AND IT WILL DEFFINITLY HELP.
And perhaps, you made be in shock as how simple the interview may go. Best regards, Tom

Our DV experiences:

Qualification though birth in Africa for both myself and my wife, but currently living in London – my wife actually won the DV Number AF14xxx – 4th time lucky.

The Interview: We arrived at 7:30am outside the embassy (it was very cold but luckily not raining) – A line of people had already formed outside the embassy of approx. 30 people, but by 7:45am there were nearly 80-100 people queuing, just one line for both non-immigrant and immigrant visas.
At 8am someone came out of the embassy and starting splitting the line up based on appointment times to my surprise most of the people in the line were for 8am appointment.

Embassy staff checked our passports with heir own appointment register to ensure we were genuine, before allowing us through this is a very slow process as only person is doing all the checking.

Next we went through the x-ray (all phones to be switched off, cameras to be handed-in) then a long walk round the building for the visa entrance.
We were inside the building by about 8:30am, once inside the you are given a numbered ticket (there are two types: an immigrant and non-immigrant) our ticket was number 002; most of the others in the line were for non-immigrant visa these numbers started from 100.

The visa area is basically a very large hall with lots of chairs and windowed booths (like in a bank) all along the side where the documents are check and interviews conducted.

There are TV screens reading out which ticket numbers need to go to which numbered windows (1 – 25).

Within 10 mins were called over to window 1. A really nice guy asked us for our appointment letter (the KCC one). This is where we had our first slight hiccup, the 2nd NL letter also contains the out of date medical information which I removed and replaced it with the new one sent from London Embassy. He wanted the original medical instructions back.

After some panic searching of my document folders I realised that I didn’t bring them with me. After this he went away for about 10mins, at this point we were really getting worried, when he returned he just smiled and said “that it was OK but I should have kept the originals intact” – so make sure you don’t separate any bits of paper from your 2nd NL letter even the instructions pages.

He then went through the checklist enclosed with the 2nd NL and asked for the documentation in that order with copies for each. Note; He asked for two copies of the marriage certificate (I only had one, but he went and copied it, and informed me that normally they charge if they need to make copies but he was letting me off this time) so take extra photo copies just in case.

The other issue I had was my wife’s names are not exactly the same on her birth certificate, marriage and passport (it’s a culture/tradition thing), however the guy jut made a joke about it and seems to be aware of the reasons for the differences in our culture, so no problems there. He asked for police certificates, I handed over 3 certificates (myself, my wife and son) but he returned my sons certificate informing me that y Son didn’t need a police certificate as he wasn’t 16 at the time of 1st NL letter.

After this he asked for I-134 (financial support evidence), I didn’t have this but was using my own assets, so handed over my valuations, mortgage deed and letters from banks, etc. He then asked my 16yr old son to sign a piece of paper which effectively read “If he marries between the issue of DV visa and our POE, his wife would not be eligible for a DV visa” – not that he is going to get married at the tender age of 16. He also returned our X-rays to us.

He then gave us a slip of paper and asked us to pay the $3020 (for the four of us) and take a seat again; he also gave us a SMS courier form to fill-in. I paid the $3020 via credit card and received a receipt, within another 5mins was called up to booth 13 (for the actual interview) which is around the corner.

There was an American lady at window 13, who was going through all our documents. She took our fingerprints except my daughters who is 12 so she is exempt (in fact we found out that she didn’t have to attend the interview at all). Afterwards she look at my wife’s school records must admit this was our weakness as even I didn’t understand her school certificates and knew if anything is going to catch us out it would be proving she completed her schooling.

She spent quite a bit of time looking at the bit of paper showing her school certificates in the end she pull out a large binder and started flipping through it – at this stage we were really getting worried.

She then went off to see someone (I guess her supervisor or manager) I could see them at a distance looking at my wifes certificates and referring to various books eventually there were about a group of four of them discussing it and lots of shaking of heads.

When she returned she continue to go through the other documents then she asked my wife how long she has been a Travel agent (that’s her job) she replied nearly 20yrs this brought a smile to her face and seems to have relaxed her (she didn’t ask for any proof of this). She handover over all the originals and told us “OK that’s it, just hand the courier form to the SMS counter”
In total shock we asked, “what we got the Visas ?”, she relied “Yes” – you should get them in seven days.

As we walked away to pay the courier fee, I realised that unlike some stories I have read we were not asked to raise our hands and take an oath or sign any bits of paper, we weren’t asked to do any of this.

We were out of the embassy by 9:30am (took just an hour) though it felt a lot longer. At 5:30pm (same day) I received an SMS text message from the courier telling me that they have picked up our visas and will deliver it by 8am next day.

Received our passports and visa by 7:30am next day.

Summary:
So lessons to observe are: - Arrive early we were outside the embassy at approx. 7:30am - Kept the 2nd Letter intact - Ensure all the names match up otherwise its down to the consular to accept it or not. - Make multiple copies of every thing just in case. - Don’t try and hide anything from them – they will find you out. - The guy who collects and checks the documents is in-fact interviewing you as well, it just done very covertly. - During the interview stage – the consular does seem to try hard, to help you get the DV visas where they may be minor issues or border line cases. On the whole the US embassy in London is incredibly efficient and the staff very friendly.