Proactive Waiting

I received the CAIPS notes on our file last week, so at least now we know what the holdup on our file is. The concern the immigration officer had following David's interview in March was concerning his relationship with the mother of his two children. The officer, for some unfounded reason, is needing to be convinced that David and this woman are no longer together. You would think that it would be pretty obvious from the information we submitted with the application originally (and the little fact that he's MARRIED to somebody else), but apparently not. So we've been busy this last week getting notarized documents together to submit against this ridiculous accusation. You wouldn't think we'd have to spell it out, but apparently...

The last entry in the case notes was from the middle of May; the medicals exams David and the kids were required to have at the beginning of this process were analysed and the results entered into the file record. I would assume that's a good sign, meaning that they've decided to move on with the application. However, those medicals are only good for a year, so they expired in June and David will have to redo his before he can receive his visa. Lovely.

The good news from the notes - the immigration officer seems to be convinced of our genuine relationship, which is half the battle with this particular office. I'm breathing a light sigh of relief from this, but still half bracing myself for a refusal on this point, just in case they change their mind and can't find anything else to refuse us for.

David is planning on going to the visa office on Monday to submit the additional documents and ask for permission to redo his medical now instead of waiting until they request it (the exam results get sent to a CIC office in France for... something. I'm not sure what that office does with them, but it takes approximately four months for the results to show up in the system so that the Accra office can access them). Hopefully I'll have some more news to post once he's been to the visa office.

This article was published earlier this week in the Toronto Star; it's good to see some attention drawn to the issues in Immigration, but depressing to see the official numbers for rejections. Our file is being handled by the Accra foreign visa office (46% rejection rate according to Minister Chow).