Here is a Canadian side of immigration/sponsorship

[mimiiw 0]

I often read the many frustrating,lonely and agonizing posts here of everyone having to deal with the United States immigration process for their loved ones to immigrate from NA/ME over. I thought what I have been going thru these long months might be of some interest too -In Canada, we do not have :Fiance: sponsorsip as you do in the USA -We have to actually have married in order to apply for our loved ones to immigrate over here. Once approved they are given the "PERMANENT RESIDENT STATUS: and have the rights as a Canadian to pretty well do everything except for voting and having Canadian citizenship. As soon as we apply for the equivalent of a Social Security number, they have the right to work right away which is good -none of this Green Card aggrevation to go thru-from what I have also read about here on the forum.

These past couple of months have been really nerve wracking with the waiting -i have emailed the embassy in Paris where immigration for Algeria is handled .

Here is my latest grovelling letter i emailed to the embassy -it seems to have gotten results -but they have taken the joy out of what we have been waiting for so long!! I advised them on 2 previos occasions that the medicals were going to expire soon -now they will have to be redone all over again -my husband is so discouraged and frustrated by all of this -as I am too!!

Dear Sir:

The expiry date of the Medicals that were required for my husband is very quickly approaching now and my husband is getting concerned regarding this.

File number = Bxxxxxxxxx

He went for his interview on March 11/2007 as per your request to the Algiers bureau.

It is not so easy for him to allow the medicals to cancel;

have to try to book time off work;

try to get ahold of the Canadian doctors to redo the medicals if they do expire ;

make arrangements to travel from his home town to the capital; get into see the doctor to have the forms redone; (an average 4hour Fourgon/bus ride each direction!)

go back home;

have to return back to the doctor's office in Algiers to pick up the medical forms;

and then somehow, someway securly resubmit them to you

-at substantial costs to him I might add for each of these steps.

We have now been separated over a year since I travelled to Algeria for the 3rd time to marry my husband; and in about 3weeks, the medical forms are due to expire. CIC received our sponsorship application form on May 22,2006 in the Mississaugua office.

Any update would be greatly appreciated from your office in Paris please. Since I cannot reach you by telephone ever; please be so good as to try to see if there is closure for us before my husband's medical forms will expire. He has not received anything at all from either you or the office in Algiers since the interview on March 11.

----And here they actually replied to me!!! I can scarcely believe what I saw yesterday!!!

Dear Madam,

This refers to you recent message.

We are ready to issue the visa however the time frame appears too short for him to get the passeport to us and then back to him within the next three weeks.

If he knows someone that could come to Paris with his passeport please inform us. We have already reissued the medical forms however if he can be in Canada before April 26th h would not have to redo the exam.

For future correspondence, please indicate the file number mentioned above which begins with the letter B and include any initials which may follow it.

Yours truly,

Immigration Section

Canadian Embassy

Paris

[mybackpages 0]

Interesting! I'm glad he will not have the same adjustment of status issues once he in Canada, but they are sure making him jump through hoops to get there!

Now does Canada have a consulate in Algeria? I thought you said in a previous post that they do, but all things through that consulate must also go through Paris?

Is that April 26th date for arrival in Canada going ot work for you guys?

good luck!

[mimiiw 0]

Yes there is a Canadian embassy in Algeria in the capital -but they are not the ones who handle the Immigration process for them to come to Canada. The Paris bureau in France is the one who handles all immigration for North Africa apparently.

When they are ready to conduct an interview they get in touch with the other office in Algeria and they are the ones who conduct the official interview; after that they send the results back up to the main immigration office in Paris.

Its a complicated pass the buck process, in most cases, in my opinion! But what can we do, nothing.

The medicals are going to expire officially on April 26. I had actually asked my husband if he could be ready by then but he cant -it will probably take him between one to two months to finish up with everything he has to do.

2ndly, although they answered my email the way they did -saying they are ready to issue the visa for him -we have to wait until he gets the OFFICIAL LETTER FROM THE PARIS EMBASSY requesting him to send them up his passport -and who knows how long that will take? Im certain they havent even gotten around to typing this letter out or mailing it -maybe next week if we are lucky -then we have to wait for it to arrive to him from France -im sure that it would be pretty close to or after the expiration date of those medicals -so everything is not in our favor for a quick reunion unfortunately.

And on and on and on ....

[mybackpages 0]

Yes there is a Canadian embassy in Algeria in the capital -but they are not the ones who handle the Immigration process for them to come to Canada. The Paris bureau in France is the one who handles all immigration for North Africa apparently.

When they are ready to conduct an interview they get in touch with the other office in Algeria and they are the ones who conduct the official interview; after that they send the results back up to the main immigration office in Paris.

Its a complicated pass the buck process, in most cases, in my opinion! But what can we do, nothing.

The medicals are going to expire officially on April 26. I had actually asked my husband if he could be ready by then but he cant -it will probably take him between one to two months to finish up with everything he has to do.

2ndly, although they answered my email the way they did -saying they are ready to issue the visa for him -we have to wait until he gets the OFFICIAL LETTER FROM THE PARIS EMBASSY requesting him to send them up his passport -and who knows how long that will take? Im certain they havent even gotten around to typing this letter out or mailing it -maybe next week if we are lucky -then we have to wait for it to arrive to him from France -im sure that it would be pretty close to or after the expiration date of those medicals -so everything is not in our favor for a quick reunion unfortunately.

And on and on and on ....

Well you are welcome to spend your wait time here with us!

[Henia 11]

Thanks for sharing that! We just drove passed the Canadian embassy last night! LOL