March 2024 Inland Spousal Sponsorship

[AngelBear]

Just now BG Check finally moved from in progress --> completed , applied on March 13,2024. Hope all goes well. No email was sent, may be the notification email will be sent later

You will not receive an email about final decision or COPR details showing up on the tracker. Just a visual thing. If everything is complete and you have FD and COPR details, next email will be portal 1. Congrats! I'm still waiting for P1 myself.

 

[j_2024]

Congrats! I'm still waiting for P1 myself.

Fingers crossed you hear something very soon!

I've seen some people in Jan/Feb threads get the P2 and eCOPR within 3-4 weeks of their P1. I'm hopeful for a similar timeline since it would be really nice if I didn't have to apply and pay for a SOWP just to maintain the status of my current work permit (expires December) at this stage of the process.

 

[richardrocks]

Has anyone traveled across the US border during this process? We haven’t left Canada since applying but we are getting antsy to drive to family during Christmas. If my husband is in between P1 and actually getting the eCOPR PDF, would a printout of the COPR details from the tracker suffice? Husband is American and I’m dual. Thanks!

 

[AngelBear]

Fingers crossed you hear something very soon!

I've seen some people in Jan/Feb threads get the P2 and eCOPR within 3-4 weeks of their P1. I'm hopeful for a similar timeline since it would be really nice if I didn't have to apply and pay for a SOWP just to maintain the status of my current work permit (expires December) at this stage of the process.

Thanks, seen you had received P1 today, and was thinking having the same dates with FD and COPR details, and being same province, maybe we would be mirrored, but did not receive mine today.

I had hopes of everything being done by mid November (P1, P2, ECOPR) for my birthday, but looks to be a far fetched dream now. Guess I could get lucky, but don't have my hopes up. Just have to keep pushing on. Hopefully I'll have P1 before the week ends.

 

[AngelBear]

Has anyone traveled across the US border during this process? We haven’t left Canada since applying but we are getting antsy to drive to family during Christmas. If my husband is in between P1 and actually getting the eCOPR PDF, would a printout of the COPR details from the tracker suffice? Husband is American and I’m dual. Thanks!

I have not traveled since June 2023. I do not believe the COPR details would be much help. As for land travel, you would at least need the ECOPR. I know they say ECOPR is not usable for trav4el, but have heard land travel is fine with it, just no air travel. What you might do is, find a phone number for the border crossing where you would be leaving and re-entering, and ask to speak to a manager or senior officer, explain your situation and ask them. Be sure to find out who you spoke with, note the day and time of your phone call. This way IF they say it would be fine, and you would proceed and something comes up saying you can't cross with that, then you can say I spoke with so and so on this date at this time and was told....... Just a bit of protection.

Wish I had something better for you, but hopefully this will help.

 

[j_2024]

Has anyone traveled across the US border during this process? We haven’t left Canada since applying but we are getting antsy to drive to family during Christmas. If my husband is in between P1 and actually getting the eCOPR PDF, would a printout of the COPR details from the tracker suffice? Husband is American and I’m dual. Thanks!

You can't action the P2 (which is to confirm you're in the country) while out of country. So if you're still waiting for that part, then you need to inform IRCC about it by replying to the P1 and they'll pause the process until you're back. Traveling out and back in would be on your existing permit.

If you have your eCOPR and haven't received the PR card yet, you can travel by land border if it's a private vehicle. If you want to travel by a commercial vehicle, you need to apply for a 'Permanent Resident Travel Document' otherwise the carrier probably won't let you board:
https://ircc.canada.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=064&top=10

At this point we are all so close to being PR but until we have that eCOPR PDF issued, we're not. So having a printout of the COPR details wouldn't help.

 

[richardrocks]

I have not traveled since June 2023. I do not believe the COPR details would be much help. As for land travel, you would at least need the ECOPR. I know they say ECOPR is not usable for trav4el, but have heard land travel is fine with it, just no air travel. What you might do is, find a phone number for the border crossing where you would be leaving and re-entering, and ask to speak to a manager or senior officer, explain your situation and ask them. Be sure to find out who you spoke with, note the day and time of your phone call. This way IF they say it would be fine, and you would proceed and something comes up saying you can't cross with that, then you can say I spoke with so and so on this date at this time and was told....... Just a bit of protection.

Wish I had something better for you, but hopefully this will help.

Thanks! I’ll do that and report back what I hear.

 

[j_2024]

Thanks! I’ll do that and report back what I hear.

My other post doesn't seem to have posted (odd, maybe too many links). The info on the P1 email says you can't confirm your PR when you are out of the country - so if you leave or have travel plans after receiving the P1 email but before you are confirmed, you need to notify IRCC (replying to the email address that your P1 is sent from). They'll pause the process until you return (and you'll be leaving/entering on your existing permits).

If you've received your eCOPR but don't have your PR card yet, you can only get back in by land and private vehicle. For any other carriers, you have to apply for a document to return. More info here:
https://ircc.canada.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=064&top=10

I'm not exactly sure what happens if you've done the P2 confirmation and then leave before getting your eCOPR issued.

 

[j_2024]

I've just had my P2 email come through! Have declared and submitted the photo.

I had a PR Portal account already (from planning an outland application a few years back) so I don't know if that made it quicker for them to just attach a case to.

Hopefully that's a good sign that it won't drag on long for everyone. Fingers crossed

 

[richardrocks]

My other post doesn't seem to have posted (odd, maybe too many links). The info on the P1 email says you can't confirm your PR when you are out of the country - so if you leave or have travel plans after receiving the P1 email but before you are confirmed, you need to notify IRCC (replying to the email address that your P1 is sent from). They'll pause the process until you return (and you'll be leaving/entering on your existing permits).

If you've received your eCOPR but don't have your PR card yet, you can only get back in by land and private vehicle. For any other carriers, you have to apply for a document to return. More info here:
https://ircc.canada.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=064&top=10

I'm not exactly sure what happens if you've done the P2 confirmation and then leave before getting your eCOPR issued.

Yeah, I think that once we respond to P1 we likely won’t take any chances with travel until eCOPR but I will confirm with border.

My understanding from reading forums and speaking with a border agent when we moved to Canada 7 months ago was that once we initiated the PR sponsorship process, whatever status he has (currently a 2 year TRV document) will be reset every time he crossed the border so we refrained from traveling because the border likely only grants 6 months. Plus some have said excessive travel can look bad from a residency standpoint. The process is a big opaque. Others on student or economic visas have said they traveled as much as they wanted, but I’ve read that this is discouraged with spousal sponsorship. Who knows! We are nearing the end.

 

[richardrocks]

I've just had my P2 email come through! Have declared and submitted the photo.

I had a PR Portal account already (from planning an outland application a few years back) so I don't know if that made it quicker for them to just attach a case to.

Hopefully that's a good sign that it won't drag on long for everyone. Fingers crossed

Don’t most people who applied for spousal PR online have a PR account? We applied on the PR portal which is separate from the tracker and Secure Account. Is that portal the same as the P2 one?

 

[j_2024]

Don’t most people who applied for spousal PR online have a PR account? We applied on the PR portal which is separate from the tracker and Secure Account. Is that portal the same as the P2 one?

That's probably the case. I've just seen lots of people saying you're supposed to wait for them to create but that might be for a different stream. I first created it in 2021 so thought "oops" when I kept seeing people comment that.

It is the same portal.

 

[oulette]

hey everyone,
I applied march 6th, aor march 21st. I have had ghost updates since October 28th every day and today my tracker updated saying background check is in progress under Application History, even though it was already in progress. and gckey updated background check to in progress in may. seeing all the final decisions made me think I could be close too but now I’m worried that they forgot about me and just started the security check. I know from gcms notes in june they finished criminality and info sharing was in progress. did anyone have a similar thing happen to them recently maybe?

 

[GaganPuni]

I've just had my P2 email come through! Have declared and submitted the photo.

I had a PR Portal account already (from planning an outland application a few years back) so I don't know if that made it quicker for them to just attach a case to.

Hopefully that's a good sign that it won't drag on long for everyone. Fingers crossed

May I know when you replied back to the portal 1 email?
Beautiful I replied yesterday within 3 hours of receiving the portal 1

 

[AngelBear]

I've just had my P2 email come through! Have declared and submitted the photo.

I had a PR Portal account already (from planning an outland application a few years back) so I don't know if that made it quicker for them to just attach a case to.

Hopefully that's a good sign that it won't drag on long for everyone. Fingers crossed

Wow you are flying through. No P1 for me, I received an email saying to check my messages in the GCKey. So I do so, and they are asking for Bio fees. I did not originally send bio fees as I had done bio previously and sent to them with my application. They had me do them again, and on the instruction letter they had said:

Note: This letter is also your proof that:
• you have paid the biometric fee; or
• you have claimed an exemption from the biometric fee under section 315.1 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR). If, after reviewing your request, it is determined that you do not qualify for an exemption and are required to pay the biometric fee, you will be contacted by IRCC and your fee payment options will be explained to you.

I didn't do either, so I had called the call center for clarification. Never really got an answer about it, other than well maybe the officer waived it for you, just told to continue. So fast forward to today, They say I need to pay the biometrics fee, that since I had not paid those, they took it from the RPRF, and now want the payment to continue.

I had originally had the bio done before sending the application in, not knowing the full in's and out's of the application process, and thought doing them before might be beneficial to helping the process. Did not have them done at Service Canada though, so might be why they didn't accept them. Who knows, we all do know though, there is no rhyme or reason to the process.

So once I get that paid, I should be good to go. Just waiting for my spouse to return from an appointment.