Time for husband to Canada

[koko*]

My husband arrived in Regina, Saskatchewan on Jan. 9, 2008. Our time line was:

Feb.14, 2007 mailed our applications to Mississauga
Feb.16 applications received
Mar.14 application proccessed and letter sent to me (I was told
applications were sent to Haiti)
Mar.20 received letter saying I was approved as a sponsor
Mar.?? application in Haiti (but I did not know until May 2nd)
Apr.24 they started processing David's application
Jul. 6 received letter from Embassy wanting more documents to
support David's birth certificate.
Jul.18 I emailed the office in Santo Domingo about the requested
documents
Aug.14 emailed again about the documents
Aug.15 reply from Embassy in Haiti, that papers are not satisfactory and
they sent a letter Aug.9th
Aug.23 mailed our son's birth certificate to David
Sep.13 birth certificate arrived in Sosua
Oct.15 confirmation Haiti received birth cert.
Oct.25 web site shows medicals have been received
Dec.13 emailed Haiti requesting any information about our case and they
emailed back the same day that he can be approved as long as I
can assure them he will be in Canada before Jan.16/08 (that is
when his medical expires).
Dec.17 David dropped off passport in Santo Domingo
Dec.31 David picks up passport and visa in Santo Domingo
Jan.9, 2008 David arrives in Calgary on Air Transat flight at 12:35am and we
are home in Regina by 10:15am.

[mart0417]

HI

I am so happy for you, it must be a great relief to finally have him here. That took a long time. Do you mid me asking about his flight. Did he have to go through Toronto? Was it very expensive ? I live in North Battleford, so I was hoping there woudl be a flight to Saskatoon or Edmonton.

[canadianinneedofadvise]

Congratulations ! If you dont' mind me asking, did you have an immigration lawyer doing any paperwork for you ? Do you think if would have made the process quicker if you did ?

[AnnaC]

Originally Posted by canadianinneedofadvise

Congratulations ! If you dont' mind me asking, did you have an immigration lawyer doing any paperwork for you ? Do you think if would have made the process quicker if you did ?

Hi,
most people that post in this forum have done the paperwork themselves. Majority do not use an immigration lawyer and Immigration Canada does not give any special preference to those that do.

Going by those that have posted in the last year it takes around 9 months to a year if all goes well.

Applications are started in Canada and after you've been approved as a sponsor ( spousal) the application will eventually end up in Haiti.

Here is the link to the embassy in Haiti Haiti :: Home :: Canada in Haiti :: Embassy of Canada in Haiti


And here is the link to Immigrating to Canada

Good luck

[Fiesta Mama]

Originally Posted by canadianinneedofadvise

Congratulations ! If you dont' mind me
asking, did you have an immigration lawyer doing any paperwork for you ? Do you think if would have made the process quicker if you did ?

Congrats to the original poster.

As for the above question, save your money. I did the paperwork for my husband (in 2005) and it took just over three months from start to finish with no interview!! Now that was then so don't compare the timeline but back then if I had used a lawyer, I can't imagine it going any faster than that. I know of people who used a lawyer and had problems. The CIC hotline is excellent and will answer any of your questions in order to get the paperwork finished. Also, order a hard copy of the Guide and read it about 20 times before you even start! Although very involved, the paperwork is totally doable. The process is expensive enough without using a lawyer.