Canada immigration | Canada permanent residence visa services

Fatima-Zahra is a regular contributor in allexperts.com. Following, is a sample of questions answered about Canada immigration. Please note that all answers are intended to be of a general nature and do not constitute legal advice. Please click on the "Got Immigration Question?" should you have a question for our consultant.

Question : Federal skilled worker: I sent in my application for the federal skilled worker visa from July 2007 at the Canadian High Commission in Jamaica. In Feb 2009 the relevant documents were requested by the Embassy and all were submitted in May 2009. To date I have not had any response from them. My questions are 1. I have no family in Canada, can this adversely affect my application though I got the pass mark of 67.

Answer : Giving birth in Canada does not confer any rights or privileges to the parents. Your child will automatically acquire Canadian Citizenship for been born in Canada but, for you the parent, if you want to settle in Canada you should explore the available options of immigration and apply under the category that you feel have a chance to qualify under. As an Australian you may stay in Canada for up to six months as a visitor without a visa. To extend you stay as a temporary resident you will have to apply for an extension before the expiry of the six months.

Question : I am a tax assessor by profession, what are my chances of being approved under this profession? Will a decision be made after or before they have received the medical examination results? While my application is pending can I apply to study in Canada and actually leave? Thanks

Answer : Tax assessors are considered under category "A" of skilled occupations in The National Occupation Classification (NOC). For applications submitted prior to February 27, 2008 all applicants with at least one year paid full time or equivalent work experience in a skilled occupation "0" "A" or "B" are considered for processing. A selection decision is made before the medical examination but the admissibility and final decision is only made after the completion of the criminal and health background checks. Yes, the Immigration and Refugee Protection act allows for dual intend; A person with an intention to immigrate to Canada permanently can still apply for a temporary status (visitor, Student, Worker) as long as they can convince the visa officer that they will leave Canada at the expiry of their temporary status should their application for permanent residence get denied.

Question : Can my children apply at the same time? I am a filipino working in dubai. I received an LMO for the position of kitchen helper, Can I bring my kid's age 5 and 8? if possible, Im going to bring now my LMO to apply for work permit in canadian embassy here in dubai, can we apply at the same time in the same application?...please help us! God Bless You!

Answer : Yes, you can include your children in your application for work permit as accompanying family members. However, you should know that when evaluating applications for work permits, visa officers assess the likelihood of the applicants to leave Canada at the expiry of their status. In assessing applicants' intention, officers always look at the applicants ties to their home country or country of residence and the probability of overstaying in Canada. Family is considered a strong tie that usually assures visa officers that an applicant will leave Canada at the end of their work term. You should take this into consideration when applying for a work permit because having a positive LMO does not guaranty obtaining a work permit.

Question : Moving to Canada. I sent my IELTS result and all of my documents on 14th of September 2009 and I would like to know the time it's supposed to take to review my documents before I got my approval and do my medical testing. Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer : If you are from the United Arab Emirates, I believe you would have sent your application forms and supporting documents to the visa office in London. If it is the case, from my experience with that office, the average time it takes to complete processing an application under the skilled workers program is 7 months. The count start from the day the visa office receives the full application and supporting documents. The processing time differs from one visa office to another depending on the volume of applications received. However, all visa offices are trying to process applications within the timeframe suggested by the minister when he issued his instructions in November 2008. According to the ministerial instructions, applications should be processed within 12 months.

Question : I got married to a Canadian women and she is 4 months pregnant now , I live in Tunisia , she sent my application to the immigration office in Paris asking for a Permanent residence (sponsorships for spouses) and I heard that is going to take between 6 to 10 months to get the PR, I want to visit my pregnant wife, she needs me beside her and I want to be there when she is having my first child . I applied for a visitor visa before that I got married to her and I got refused so I want to ask what I can do to get a visa to visit her now ,and I still have the same situation now like when I got refused but now I'm married and I want to be there before that she have my baby can you help me please how I can get the visa to visit her?And can I know how long is going to take to get my PR (my medical exam is good ,my criminal check is clear and my wife is able to sponsor me)?? thanks

Answer : You may submit a new application for a visitor visa and explain your situation. You may include your marriage certificate and a doctor`s note with the expected day of delivery. You will also have to prove that you or your host in Canada have enough financial means to cover for your temporary stay in Canada. A letter of invitation from your wife with an undertaking to provide you with room, food and cover for all your other expenses may help.

Yet, the immigration officer has to be convinced that you will leave Canada at the expiry of your temporary visa. The officer has all the discretion to refuse your visa if he or she is not satisfied that your intention is only to visit Canada.

Spousal sponsorship applications are supposed to take an average of 6 months to be finalised. It can take less or more time depending on the visa office you are dealing with.

Question : When sending documents to the CIO, on the document checklist, it is mentioned that ONLY documents listed in this checklist should be sent; however, in some of the forms (i.e. Schedule 3 - Economic Classes), some additional documents are requested that is not listed in the document checklist. (i.e. Section 7 of Schedule 3 requires providing evidence of full-time study). Should we send them or not.

Answer : You are supposed to only send the documents in the check list. Sidney is only responsible for the preliminary screening of the file. If your application is eligible for processing you will be asked to submit a second set of application forms and all supporting documents to your local visa office.

If you are applying under the 38 ministerial occupations list, the only document you need to include with the forms is a copy of the bio page of your passport. If your are applying as an international student or temporary worker, more documents are required. For AEO applications, a job offer letter has to be included with the positive AEO.

Question : I have applied for permanent residence in canada under Federal Skilled Worker category from US. I have sent my application to sydney cic office on 29th december 2009. Till date i have not received the file number whereas people applied along with me got their file number in 2 weeks of time. Please guide in finding my file number.I have sent a registered post letter requesting the same to CIC but i did not receive any information from them.Thanks

Answer : I would like to assure you that it is normal to not have a response yet. The processing time at the Sidney office is about 80 days. This is due to the huge volume of applications that the Sidney Office receives every day. I am not sure how the other people had their applications processed in two weeks. This will be only true for applications that were submitted when the office first opened in December 2008 and until about March 2009.

Sidney do not issue file numbers before actually processing an application and do not send acknowledgement of receipt. You only hear from them when a decision is made. Don't bother trying to get a file number because one may have not yet been created and your file may still be waiting to be opened.