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| Subject: Immigration Fee fiasco |
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Hi. I´m wondering if this has happened to anyone else?? If not, I sure hope that no one else has to go thru this.
2 weeks ago, I was in Canada, to marry my husband/sponsor. (I´m American, he is Canadian). All our paperwork was done, except for marriage certificate, so I decided to pay for our immigration fee´s, using the CIC website, while I was there.
Simple enough, right?? NOT!
When you go thru the options online, there is a screen that asks you where your paperwork will be sent. It had several choices you could select. In my case, my husband will send our paperwork to the Missassauga, Ontario office, they will check it out, then they will forward it to the Buffalo, NY office.
I tried to click the option for Buffalo, but it would not allow me to do that. So, i tried the Missassauga office, and that went just fine. On that particular website page, it stated, that if you did NOT send the $$ to the correct location, it would hold up your application process.
Regardless, everything seemed fine and dandy, we printed off a copy of our receipt. However.
I got to wondering if I had indeed made the wrong choice. Since I did this late Friday nite, I could not call the CIC people. I was only in Canada for the weekend, so could not call on Monday.
When I got home to the USA, i tried the CIC again, to see if I was able to choose the Buffalo option from here. Nope.( that is ludicrous to me, to have an option on a governmental website, that does NOT allow you to select it!). I was really worried, that I chose the wrong option, so I wanted to ask someone, a HUMAN BEING, if what we did was in fact correct. I embarked on a 7 day phone fiasco, trying to talk to ANYONE, a real live person. It was a nitemare!
I used to have a LOCAL phone number, that was good in the USA, to call the CIC people. Of course, I couldnt find the darn thing. I contacted numerous embassies, including Washington DC. All of them referred me back to the CIC site OR the stinkin 888 phone number for the CIC people, which does NOT work in the USA(of which i explained that 2000 times). I finally faxed my question to Buffalo(they dont have a phone number nor email, of course) and they told me, that I picked the WRONG option, that if i live in the USA, the money is to go to the USA, not Canada, and that I needed to request a refund. (Sure, and how do I do that when I can not speak to a human being??? )Finally, some nice lady at another emabassy, called CIC for me. They assured her, on 2 different times, that we DID the right thing, the $$ was to go to Missassauga and not Buffalo.
How is it, 2 main offices, tell totally different stories?
I can not begin to tell you, how frantic I was, especially since this was a large amount of money, and that I could not speak to any person.
My husband, had to take time off work, to call CIC(as they are only open from 8-4 Monday-Friday, when most people work, and Heaven knows how long you´ll be on hold), and they told him too, that we sent the fee´s to the right location.
So, we sent in our application, along with the receipt. I am still a tad concerned this will be an issue.
I just hope no one else has to go thru something similar!!
[24-09-2005,18:47]
[**.175.217.253]
jacer |
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(in reply to: Immigration Fee fiasco)
it´s me again...
I really don´t think it will be a problem as they can direct it if they need to. Try contacting the CIC number, if you can´t, ask your husband to.
[24-09-2005,21:10]
[**.26.89.84]
ejspet |
(in reply to: Immigration Fee fiasco)
Jacer, I believe you got worked up over nothing. If you are submitting a spousal application the funds MUST be paid to CPC-M. If you had posted your question her that would have been the end of it, no fuss.
I am sponsoring my husband from the caribbean and I paid for the fees online and sent the receipt to CPC-M, no problem.
Yes, you can call the immigration phone number and you will get five different answers from five different rep and they will all be wrong. When I call I get the agent I
[25-09-2005,19:05]
[**.50.113.134]
Katrina |
immigration fee fiasco (in reply to: Immigration Fee fiasco)
Thank u...
Its just extremely frustrating, to try for one entire week, to speak to a human being and not be able to!! $1300 is an awful lot of money, not to mention the fact that if we submitted $$ to the wrong place(both CIC and Buffalo told us we paid the wrong place) that our process would be held up for who knows how long and how the heck would we even get a refund & how long would that take???
To me, it shouldnt make any difference where the fee´s are paid. And they should NOT have the Buffalo, NY option on the website if one is never allowed to click on it. I just hope the people at CIC and the girl at the embassy who told us that we did send the $$ in to the correct location, knew what the heck they were talking about, because someone(s) is obviously wrong!
The 2 times I called CIC, from within Canada, both the agents knew less than I did about my questions, and had to go look stuff up and ask me where I found that information!!!
Regardless, I guess we´ll find out soon enough who was right, and who was wrong.
[25-09-2005,20:38]
[**.175.217.196]
jacer |
(in reply to: Immigration Fee fiasco)
Jacer, I completely understand where you are coming from. Dealing with immigration canada is a sources of great pain and frustration, if it were easy we would not need a forum to vent and share our common frustration and anger.
Directing the payment to mississauga is correct, not to worry, I paid my fees there.
I too do not understand why they provide the option to choose offices where you can´t pay the fees online.
It´s easier and you get more information, I find, by posting your questions online then calling CIC because the agents really and truly know nothing and have very little information, they can send you a form like a wiz, but if you have questions about the process you are on your own.
Take a deep breathe and trust that the fees payment issue is resolved.
[25-09-2005,21:16]
[**.50.113.134]
Katrina |
fiasco (in reply to: Immigration Fee fiasco)
Thanks so much for your help!!!!!!
Good luck to ya´all!!!
jacer
[25-09-2005,21:28]
[**.175.217.196]
jacer |
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