Migrating from Philippines to Canada via Family Class - Spousal Sponsorship

More than 200 days here in Canada and slowly experiencing the colder weather; I could not believe that our more than four years of waiting to be literally together as a couple and as a family just fly by and in December we will be celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary!

I had been perusing the Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada website when we got engaged last 2014. A month after we got married, I started to get familiar with the forms and required documents.  That year 2015, the forms were quite ambiguous and I could not still put a fine thread to sew my thoughts on them.  However, in 2016 when Canada had a new prime minister, Justin Trudeau, the forms and requirements changed.

First, Sponsoring Applicant (the one who is in Canada) only had to provide his/her financial documents to prove financial undertaking. Second, the relationship document requirements become very comprehensible. As an outland applicant (Principal Applicant) living outside Canada, I only had to provide 10 pages of proof of communications as well as 20 photos establishing the development of the relationship. Meanwhile, I had to capture our old conversations and scan our letters to each other as well as the letters of those who know about our relationship and print them.

To understand further the application process, I will illustrate the flow that we had been through. This is also the general pattern of the cases that I have gathered on my research and social media pages that cater to this kind of endeavor.

1. Acknowledgment of Receipt - This arrives as an email or in some cases through post stating that they have received your application. Usually, the Sponsoring Applicant (SA) gets this one. Upon receipt, it signals that the application package has passed the primary intake stage - preliminary documents are complete and forms are filled out properly. Our waiting time was about 35 days before we received our receipt. It was our second attempt since our application was returned after 53 days the first time. This time you can also link your application with the Gckey or eCas. All you need to key in are the details of the Principal Applicant/PA (the person being sponsored to come to Canada) for Gckey or in eCas you can key in the details of the SA or the PA. Just follow the instructions as they are quite straightforward.

2. Medical Request - It arrived as a notice in Gckey about two weeks after receiving the acknowledgment of receipt.  In some cases, if the application is not linked with the Gckey, the PA receives it just the same in the email.  You are given 30 days to comply and have your medicals done at any IRCC accredited panel of physicians.  In the Philippines, the accredited ones are IOM, St. Lukes, and NHSI. You can find the respective payment schedule on their websites. Once done with the medicals, Gckey will update and indicate the status of whether one passed or need to undergo treatment. We did our medicals last June 8 and the status updated after two days. 

3. Sponsor Approval - This signals that the SA is eligible to sponsor the PA considering the criminal and financial statuses.  The SA will be responsible for the PA for two years. An email to the SA and a status update in eCas will reflect. Sponsorship Approval received on June 2, 2018.

4. Transfer to Local Visa Office email - An email stating that the application package has been transferred in our case to Manila was received last June 9, 2018.  Other application packages sometimes will be transferred to visa offices wherein the PA is usually situated.  Some will be transferred to London, Hong Kong, etc. Processing times also vary depending on the volume or sometimes complexity of the case.

5. Local Visa Office Processing - A status update in eCas will reflect as "....processing..." indicating that they have started to review the application locally. Ours updated last June 13, 2018.

6. Request for Additional Document - This happens when the Visa Office needs a newer or corrected document. In our case, I (PA) need to furnish them with an NBI clearance that has my maiden name and not the married name. Good thing, getting an NBI clearance has never been a hassle. It only took me a few minutes (I got mine in Baguio City). Then using the mobile scanner, I uploaded the document through GCkey after two days upon receipt of the request letter. I received the request letter on September 13, submitted on September 16, and got a status update that it has been uploaded successfully after 24 hours.

7.  Background Check in Progress/Process - Status update in GCkey will reflect that a background check is on the process. This process takes days, weeks, or even months. In our case, it took about a week after I complied with the additional document request. It was September 20 when I got a status update.

8. Pre-Arrival Invitation - This is an invitation for newcomers to Canada.  It's a one and a half-day seminar to give participants an idea at the same time setting expectations and helping new immigrants settle.  In my case, I attended in Cebu City at a hotel and it was an interesting experience.  The Pre-Arrival is not compulsory though and I think it's only Canada that is providing such seminar of the like other than the regular PDOS that the Philippine government is giving and making it mandatory. Our Pre-Arrival invitation was received through our GCkey the day after our passport request.

9.  Passport Request - Finally the much awaited! Received ours on September 27, 2018.  This is an email informing the PA of his/her eligibility to come to Canada as a permanent resident. You have 30 days to comply as you need to send your passport and other document needed by the Visa Application Center, which is VFS Philippines. They function as the middleman because the Visa Office will only stamp the passport with a Canadian visa if everything is complete and VFS takes care of it.  One has to be very wary because the photo needs to be correct following the photo specifications. Ours was returned because we submitted a different spec. But it was very quick since I sent the package prior to the cut-off time and it was also returned back before the cut-off time. You can send your passport through the courier or submit it to VFS personally.  Of course, the walk-in submission is faster than the courier submission as it took ours 10 days to come back with the visa.

All in all our process was from April 13, 2018 to September 27, 2018, few days shy of six months but a much shorter wait time than the processing time stated in the website slated at 12 months.  There were some cases that only lasted for about four months! Waiting time for sure is dreadful yet one just has to believe in the process coupled with lots of prayers. Then unexpectedly, your time will come and it will surely be worth the wait.