Visas & Advice Detail
Waiting for your Canadian visa
Paul Beasley looks at how British emigrants have filled the long days between applying for a visa and receiving it and what tips they have for surviving emigration limbo
Last year we ran two articles on surviving the soul-searching, nail-biting, hair-tearing wait to hear news of your visa application's progress from the Canadian High Commission (CHC) in London. When we ran the stories, waiting times for Skilled Worker visas were approximately two years – that's a very long time, we thought. Well, it's not as long as four years, is it!
In April, the CHC told us that while 30 per cent of Skilled Worker applicants will be waiting two years for their visa, and 20 per cent two-and-a-half years, the remaining 50 per cent could be waiting for four years or more. In essence, then, at least half of Skilled Worker applicants have had the frustration of waiting in emigration limbo doubled. This means twice as long stuck in the mental and emotional bind of being certain that they want to emigrate but not certain that they can.
Falling victim to 'wait rage' is a heightened risk for those who were previously informed that their wait would be two years, hence planned their emigration on this timescale, but had those plans blown sky high by the arrival of a brown envelope containing the bombshell that the wait is now much longer. It's at this point that emigration can lead to desperation, and thoughts of sending a brown envelope back in the direction of the Canadian Embassy stuffed with banknotes cross one's mind. Not that the bribery will help matters, but at least you'll feel that you're doing something, anything, to get things moving. What makes the situation worse is that if many applicants had known from the outset that the wait would be months longer, many would have definitely grabbed the genuine opportunity to emigrate more quickly by exploring options such as Provincial Nominee Programmes (PNP) and Arranged Employment Offers.
Indeed, this could have been the case with the Millars, who wrote to us recently to vent their spleen: "We have just returned from a two-week holiday/fact finding trip to our new chosen country (if ever we get there), and have just received one of those delay letters," they wrote, explaining their dilemma as follows: "We have applied under the Skilled Worker class but with all the delays wondered whether we should switch to a PNP, so we made an appointment with the New Brunswick Nomination Programme prior to our trip and completed the preliminary forms. "We advised the immigration officer that we were near the end of our initial application and she said that she would contact London office prior to us completing all the new forms. True to her word three days after our meeting she called us, and advised we should complete all the new forms and now apply under the PNP programme as our file had not been opened! We were horrified. Twenty-two months of waiting and nothing. We are no further forward then when we initially applied."
However, immigration consultant Stuart Bennett points out that applicants "shouldn't read too much into the fact that their application has not yet been 'opened' as that simply means the officer has not assessed the application as yet – which is normal". This, though, does leave the Millars – and potentially hundreds of other families – with something to ponder, as Helena Millar explains as follows: "We now do not know what it is best to do? Do we wait as we are nearing the end of our application or do we start over under the PNP, and will this cause an even longer delay? How frustrated can you get (No more, we hope)?"
Even from the perspective of an emigration professional, the dilemma provoked by lengthening processing times can be a challenging one. "If the Millars go for the PNP they are looking at about another nine months to complete processing, whereas if they wait they will probably only have the same amount of time before getting a decision anyway," says Bennett. "The only advantage with the PNP is that they will be almost certain to get the visa, providing they pass background and medical checks," he adds.
Now wrestling with this dilemma, the Millars left me with a question: "What can one do whilst one waits, with one's life on temporary hold?" As a helping hand to the Millars and everyone else out who is now stopped by a red light at the immigration crossroads, here's what three emigrants and one would-be emigrant advise.
The psychology of waiting
Yes, you can respond to the wait by tearing your hair out and hitting the bottle, but what that won't achieve is persuading the CHC to put your application on top of the pile. What you will have achieved, though, is baldness and a hangover – and probably less likelihood of passing the medical.
Claire Bolgil, who told Emigrate Canada in July how she and husband Mufit had reacted to the news of a longer wait than originally expected, explains the mental side of the waiting game as follows: "It's a bit like two sides of a coin: On the head side you know that you're in for a long wait and generally speaking you have no control over the process so feel that you should just get on with everyday life and stop day-dreaming! However, on the tail side, this is probably the biggest decision of your life and no matter how hard you try you can't really put it to the back of your mind."
In fact, Claire's advice is that it's best not to switch off completely. "We have found that realistically it's actually best not to let things tick along on their own because you end up missing vital pieces of information. For example, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) policy changes don't happen that frequently but when you consider how long your application is going to take to get processed it's inevitable that something's going to change along the way, so we keep checking the websites to keep up with the latest news." However, official news is of course something you have absolutely no control over, so it's best to concentrate on what you can control – chiefly, your preparation for emigration.
Of course, you are preparing for a move that might never happen, should something unforeseen lead to your application being rejected, but chances are that if you've prepared the application with due diligence and honestly believe it should be accepted, it will (but don't uncross those fingers).
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