My sister had put up her file(under her husband's name) in june 2001. She recd. the file no. and also a letter advising them of a future interview in couple of months. No news as of today. They have called Chandigarh visa office, wrote letters, etc.. no response. The Online status on the website is kinna frozen....it does not tell you what exactly is going on with their file.
Secondly, they have not recd. any letter to requalify under the new points system or to submit the english proficiency scores.
I tried calling the immi. office here but they have no idea what is going on in India.
What do you suggest??
Is there any remedy...?
You may email me directly at if we need to discuss any legal proceedings. BTW, my sister is in Baroda, Gujarat.

I can share my experience which might be helpful...I had applied in Nov 2001 and recieved visa in July 2003...By march 2002 i recieved confirmation of reciept letter advising the processing times as follows
In case interview is requiered :- 36 months
In case interview is waived :- 9 months

By november 2002, immigration office at Delhi had advised all the applicants to appear for IELTS by Feb 2003 to determine points against english assesment and submit their scores.... so that they can complete assessment of the case by April 2003 and that they would advise the results of assesment after June 2003....some of the applicants recieved letters to that effect late and some didn't recieve at all...

There was also a criteria that if an applicant chooses not to write the IELTS, then his/her Lang. assessment 'd be made under new rules....and under new rules the IELTS was anyway compulsory for language assessment..so it made all the more sense to appear for IELTS at the earliest date...

I also got letter for writing the test late but came to know from Canadian embassy delhi website that they have advised for the test for all the applicants....I appeared for test on my own and in the meantime got letter from embassy also....i submitted results in time....By mid July i got visa....few of my friends who were in similar situation have also got visas...but one important thing was that in all these cases there was no decision regarding interview ...

So in case ur cousin (principal applicant) had appeared for test before Feb 2003, there should not be much of problem if he/she qualifies for interview waiver....In that case it is only a matter of few months that her case is thru......

The thing that is delaying the case is the requirement of interview which may be for some other reasons than english assessment....

there r lot of applicants even with good english and qualifications, who somehow delayed writing the test, but that has only delayed the processing further.....at present thare is lot of backlog....fresh case may take as long as 44 months

Some local lawyers/immigration agents are appealing to embassy on behalf of their clients but they have got another reason to fetch more money from their clients....If more and more people throw light on the processing of their cases then it might make things more clear....embassy officials here are otherwise less responsive and a bit haughty too...may be because of workload or whatever ...one should not expect much of correspondence from them....

A decision to waive interview results in faster processing but in case interview is requiered which may be due to some other reasons also then processing time shoots up....Efforts should be made to get an interview waiver in case processing time needs to be shortened

Mani, thanks a lot for your input and enlightening me with the situation in India. Appreciated. My younger sister who came here 3 yrs back had gotten the visas in less than 9 months.

I wish I could do something for them sitting here.

Massoodbhai, pls let me know your views??

Do you think it is high time we should appeal??

Please respond and if need be, I'll call your office.

You cannot appeal. You can only keep writing to them requesting the status of the file. Pre-2002 cases have been vicitms of the transition and all the appeals on the fairness of the retroactivity etc. Applicants can only write to embassy and hope they egt a reply.

If it's any comfort, your sister is not alone! We have been retained by hundreds of people to follow-up and make sure their cases do NOT GET FORGOTTEN OR LOST!!!

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Massood Joomratty, LLB(Hons), LLM

http://www.passportcanada.com" target="_blank">Your Canadian Immigration Lawyer

http://www.joomratty.com" rel="nofollow">LINK
+1-604-590-0607

Hi Mani,
My sister & her husband apply in sept 2001 . In your similar situation they give IELTS test as told by candian embedssay. get theier medical papers in may 2003. They give medical & other documents wanted such as latest police certificate Plus landing fee. Till now no response have come to them. Except from usual receit of money. They did not give passport along with the documents. Though it was not clear whether passport was suppose to give or not. As that was not clear in their application.
Did u give ur passport along with the documents plus landing fee or canadian embessy sepratly ask for it. We are from chandigarh

REgards
infocan

-----------------------------------------------------------------
infocan

Gave my medicals on 15 July and submitted passports immediately after it. I got my visa on 3rd week of September.

Now in person enquiries are closed at CHC, New Delhi. When I went last(before September 15), they were telling people that if you submit passport now, you will get visa only in Jan 2004.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Give free food http://www.thehungersite.com ||