processing times for London.

Canada Immigration Forum (discussion group)


 
       
Subject: processing times for London.
  i´m very new to the site and probably asking the same question everyone asks, does anyone know roughly the current processing times times for London. i applied from N.Ireland about ten months ago. should i be expecting any progress in the next six months or even next year? i´ve applied as skilled worker for myself and my wife to be. (in 3 months)
i also saw that someone had a job offer in their application as a skilled worker. i though this was not allowed. am i wrong here or is this under the newest legislation that you don´t have an offer of employment when you apply?
any advice would be much appreciated

[21-01-2008,12:07]
[***.120.90.59]
goodpikey
(in reply to: processing times for London.)
Goodpikey,

Welcome to the forum and to the London processing timeframe frustration. According to the CIC site (http://cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/international/02a-skilled-fed.asp), historical processing time for Federal Skilled Worker category is 31 to 38 months. I applied in December 2005 and haven’t yet heard anything (except for AOR).

Unless you have a HRDC confirmed job offer or switching to Provincial Nomination Program, you are looking at the processing time at the farther end of the timeframe (i.e. 38 months). Of course, these are historical, so in the future timeframe may get longer (or shorter).

If you are in a hurry, you probably want to look at getting a confirmed job in Canada or switch to PNP (http://cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/provincial/index.asp). But keep in mind that most PNP programs would require you to have a job there as well. With a possible exception of Quebec, where you need to be able to speak French.

What skills do you have? Some skills are in high demand in Canada (especially British Columbia and Alberta), so getting a job and work permit and PR maybe easier.

Lastly, I would recommend that you check (http://www.trackitt.com/canada-immigration-trackers/federal-skilled-workers/) and perhaps put your own timeline there as well. This is a database where prospective immigrants can enter their own timelines, so you would have a good idea where you are in the queue.

Best wishes.

Ray

[21-01-2008,16:40]
[**.137.29.83]
Ray
(in reply to: processing times for London.)
many thanks ray.

i´m unclear about a few things though.

´If you are in a hurry, you probably want to look at getting a confirmed job in Canada or switch to PNP´

i didn´t think you were alowed a confirmed job offer when applying under the skilled worker class. am i wrong? what is a HRDC confirmed job offer?
if i get a job offer how do i add this to my application?

´What skills do you have? Some skills are in high demand in Canada (especially British Columbia and Alberta), so getting a job and work permit and PR maybe easier.´

i am a manager of a mobile phone shop, so i guess that is classed as retail manager which does not qualify for provincial nominee status.

it is BC i am hoping to immigrate to. i spent a year working in vancouver almost two years ago.

[22-01-2008,07:40]
[***.120.90.59]
goodpikey
(in reply to: processing times for London.)
Hi Goodpikey,

Answers to your questions are as follows:

?i didn?t think you were alowed a confirmed job offer when applying under the skilled worker class. am i wrong??

Yes, you are allowed a job offer when applying under Skilled Worker Class. Applicants with a job offer will be taken out of the (very long) queue and given priority (at least in London, don?t know about other areas).

I am assuming you have gone through the CIC website and done the self assessment test (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/assess/Education.asp). Factor 5 (Arranged Employment) will earn you 10 points. Item 4 in Factor 5 is:

4. You do not intend to work in Canada before being issued a permanent resident visa, you do not hold a temporary work permit, and

1. the employer has made an offer to employ you on an indeterminate basis once the permanent resident visa is issued; and
2. your permanent job offer has received a positive labour market opinion from HRSDC. You cannot apply to HRSDC for a labour market opinion yourself. Your potential employer must apply for you.
3. you meet the Canadian licensing or regulatory requirements for the job.

So as you can see, yes you can apply for a job while you have a PR application in process. Getting a job gives you two choices, (a) apply for Work Permit, while your PR application is still in process and move to Canada immediately, (b) ask for your PR application to be expedited, which would take about 6 months to be processed (much quicker than PR without a job offer)


?what is a HRDC confirmed job offer??

As quoted above from the CIC site:

?Your permanent job offer has received a positive labour market opinion from HRSDC. You cannot apply to HRSDC for a labour market opinion yourself. Your potential employer must apply for you.?

As stated, you cannot apply for HRDC (http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/) market opinion. Your employer would need to do that. However, many job categories (and companies) are already pre-approved and so wont take too long. Categories and/or companies that are not pre approved may take lot longer.

?if i get a job offer how do i add this to my application??
That I don?t know. You would want to email London and ask.


?i am a manager of a mobile phone shop, so i guess that is classed as retail manager which does not qualify for provincial nominee status.?

Well, aren?t you in luck?:) Take a look at the Occupation under pressure list for both British Columbia and Alberta and you will find Retail as one of the categories. If you get a job in that area, chances are you will get HRDC opinion very quickly (within 5 days, if I remember correctly, thou the employer would need to meet certain criteria for that to happen).

List of occupation under pressure in British Columbia is at:
http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/workplaceskills/foreign_workers/oup/bcouplist.shtml

You may want to look through the list and see what applies, but the following most probably do apply to you:

NOC Code Description
6211 Retail Trade Supervisors
0651 Other Services Managers
1453 Customer Service, Information And Related Clerks
6421 Retail Salespersons And Sales Clerks

To check the full description, go to:

http://www23.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/2001/e/generic/welcome.shtml

And enter the NOC code (on the left side under ?Quick Search?. It will give you the full description of that job category.

List of occupation under pressure in Alberta can be found at (and there are categories that would apply to you there as well):

http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/workplaceskills/foreign_workers/oup/abouplist.shtml


If you like to know what your employer has to do to apply for HRDC opinion for you, go to (this page also has list of occupation under pressure for other provinces as well):

http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/workplaceskills/foreign_workers/occunderpres.shtml

And to:

http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/workplaceskills/foreign_workers/supperimm.shtml

Hope this helps.

Ray

[22-01-2008,17:18]
[**.137.29.83]
Ray
(in reply to: processing times for London.)
thanks again ray, but i´ve a few more questions.
firstly how do you know all this info?

next
´So as you can see, yes you can apply for a job while you have a PR application in process. Getting a job gives you two choices, (a) apply for Work Permit, while your PR application is still in process and move to Canada immediately, (b) ask for your PR application to be expedited, which would take about 6 months to be processed (much quicker than PR without a job offer)´

if i was to get a job offer, and apply for a work permit, how long woud it take for the work permit to be issued? would this permit only be valid for that specific job until my PR status came through?
what would the options be for my girlfriend/wife? would she have to apply also?
to get the application expedited? would this mean it´s processed in canada? would this really be processed so quickly?

´You may want to look through the list and see what applies, but the following most probably do apply to you:

NOC Code Description
6211 Retail Trade Supervisors
0651 Other Services Managers
1453 Customer Service, Information And Related Clerks
6421 Retail Salespersons And Sales Clerks ´

my job would definately fall into one of those categories. more specifically 6211. although manager is higher than supervisor but manager is not on actual list of occupations under pressure in British Columbia. would this be a problem?

how would i proceed down this path? do i just look for an employer who is struggling to find a canadian to fill the job and ask him to put it all in motion or is there anything i can do?

finally, can i get my employer to apply for a HRDC decision when the job would be slightly different to my previous experience?




[23-01-2008,12:16]
[***.120.90.59]
goodpikey
(in reply to: processing times for London.)
“firstly how do you know all this info?”

I am an applicant myself (stuck in the London queue for a while). So spending time researching ways of getting to Canada. That’s what happened when you combine plenty of time on hand with an Internet connection and frustration with the length of the process.

There is plenty of information on the web, although, I would recommend that you only stick to information from official sources. While there is good information, there is also plenty of bad information and advice. If someone tells you something, always recheck that information from an official source (however, sometimes, official sources may not have confirmation on that). As you may have noticed, all my links are from government sources.

I would recommend that you do the research yourself. At the very least read through the CIC site and BC site (or provincial site of the province you are interested in).

While I am happy to help where I can, I think many of your questions can be answered by doing a bit of research on the CIC site.

As for your questions regarding how long the Work Permit may take. I would again refer you to CIC site (http://cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/international/15-temp-workers.asp) for the historical (Oct 2006 to Sept 2007) data. London processing time for work permit is somewhere between 2 days and 28 days. So at least within a month,

However, the above timeline is when you apply for a visa. Before that can happen you would need HRDC letter confirming their approval. From what I understand (someone correct me, if I am wrong), for jobs under pressure, that can be done within a week from when the employer applies for it. However, before the employer applies for HRDC letter, they would need to show proof that they tried to recruit in Canada first. I would imagine 2 to 3 months process from the time employer starts looking to recruit in Canada to you getting a Work Permit visa from London.

“what would the options be for my girlfriend/wife?”

You have a wife and a girlfriend???? WOW, aren’t you the lucky one. I actually don’t know the answer to your question, as I have neither one of them. If you end up leaving one of them behind when you move to Canada, mind giving me her number?

“to get the application expedited? would this mean it´s processed in canada? would this really be processed so quickly?”

No, it will still be processed in London (or you can have it moved to Buffalo). But if you have a job offer, yes, London will expedite it, especially if you tell them that you prefer to move to Canada after getting a PR visa. Late last year I met one of the London visa officers at an immigration expo and he confirmed that London has a separate team of officers who only look at applications that are in expedited categories (applicants with job offers and PNP applicants).


I don’t think there will be a problem between Supervisor and Manager. But read the NOC description and see if you fit in.

“how would i proceed down this path? do i just look for an employer who is struggling to find a canadian to fill the job and ask him to put it all in motion or is there anything i can do?”

Yep, pretty much. Look at job sites and send in your resume/CV. However, in my experience getting a job in Canada while sitting in the UK is not that easy. Employers (anywhere in the world) prefer to interview face to face. If you can go to Canada for couple of weeks (with interview dates set before your departure), that would be better. Otherwise, if you know someone in Canada, providing their address/phone number on your resume might be good too. Otherwise, it’s a numbers game. Send as many resumes as you can in the hope one would be desperate enough to take a chance on someone thousands miles away.

Also, look at Alberta. Reading the news it seems that employers are more desperate in Alberta than in BC. Apparently, they are forced to reduce open hours because they cat find employees. How true that is, I don’t know, but the news says so. If that is true, you may find Alberta employer more willing to hire you than in BC.


“finally, can i get my employer to apply for a HRDC decision when the job would be slightly different to my previous experience?”

hhmmm….you would have to ask that employer for that. Cant really answer that one. Keep in mind I am not a lawyer or even an immigration consultant. Just another applicant.

Ray

[23-01-2008,16:49]
[**.137.29.83]
Ray Masa
processing time (in reply to: processing times for London.)
Ciao, I applied to Uk May 2005 and I did my medical test November 19. Now waiting to result. For sure it will take 24 months when you first hear from them. So good luck
[24-01-2008,07:02]
[***.29.114.6]
tariq
(in reply to: processing times for London.)
many thanks for all your help ray.

i have alot of friends in vancouver and the surrounding area as i played rugby there for a year so i´m getting them to do alot of ground work for me now that i see it could take alot longer than anticipated to get back there.

my girlfriend will be my wife in 3 months time! i´m not lucky enough to have both.

what´s your sutuation, do you have a job offer? i could get a job offer alright through the rugby club as they are keen to get me back there sooner rather than later. it´s getting someone to go through the hassle of getting a positive decision from hrdc. it seems so complicated.

i´m considering getting a canadian lawyer involved but i´m not sure if it´s possible now i´ve already started on my own.

well thanks again, i´ll try and get studying all the official sites i can but it oftens seems to go round in circles. it seems often like a chicken and the egg question if you know what i mean.

[24-01-2008,07:07]
[***.120.90.59]
goodpikey
(in reply to: processing times for London.)
Having work experience in Canada is definitely in your favor. And having friends whose address/phone numbers you can use would help tremendously. It may take a while to get your head around it all. In the beginning you may feel like you are going in circles, but one day you will have that nirvana moment where it all fits in. And at that moment CIC will change its requirements and policies and what not, so you may end up starting all over again?:(. As soon as you think you have answers to all the questions, they will go and change all the questions.

No, I haven?t applied for a job in Canada yet (well not in any substantial way, had sent out a few resumes a while back, but didn?t had any bites). I like my job currently and am hesitant to move without a PR. Hence work permit is probably not right for me (at least not until June, when I contract is over). I may start looking for a job in Canada probably about end of March, bit hectic at work right now.

If you get to Canada before then, I may hit you up for helping me get a job there?:).

Good luck and if you get stuck with a question, feel free to post here.

Ray

[24-01-2008,16:47]
[**.137.29.83]
Ray Masa
NOC code (in reply to: processing times for London.)
i was recuriter in india, now i finished my studies got work visa and applying for arrange employment, i got employer ready to give me Hr job, so do i need job same under same NOC code or code could be different,,,?plz reply it soon,,,thnxx
[21-08-2008,22:46]
[**.228.197.90]
rajveer
2006 case transfer from ISLAMABAD to UK (in reply to: processing times for London.)
Hello Ray,

I have got my May 2006 case transferred over to UK center since I moved to Dubai and all UAE case are processed by UK. DO you know how long will my case take to process as I heard that UK center is now processing the 2008 cases now days, is that true? and my case suppose to be on the priority?

[02-09-2009,09:54]
[**.96.229.85]
Sheraz