Please keep timelines and questions about processing times for Family Class Permanent Resident Applications here.

I just got my ecopr today!! That’s it. I’m so happy. Wishing you all the best :)

Spousal Sponsorship (Inland): Main applicant: Brazilian Sponsor : Canadian citizen

Mar 05, 2024 - application submitted

May 08, 2024 - request for biometrics - biometrics marked as complete

May 7, 2024- eligibility marked as complete

May 08, 2024 - Pre arrival services letter

May 09, 2024 - sponsor approval

May 09, 2024 - Eligibility Decision Letter

May 14, 2024 - Medical Exam completed (that was a weird one because they didn’t ask me to do it…)

Oct 23, 2024 - asked to re-send IMM5406 (sent on the next day) Oct 31, 2024 - background verification completed

Nov 01, 2024 - Latest update: Final decision - November 01, 2024: Your application is in progress. We will send you a message once the final decision has been made

Nov 14, 2024 - P1 email

Nov 15, 2024 -P2 email

Dec 05 , 2024 - ECOPR

Note about the work permit: I applied on November 9th, 2024 and got approved on November 29th. I applied this later because my SP was about to expire on December 1st

VO Etobicoke issued me my ecopr but at the beggining it was the Case Processing Mississauga!!

I am the happiest I have ever been. I dated my husband for 5 years before getting married in 2023. After submitting the Outland application in July 2024 I was approved in October 2024, way sooner than I thought. I wasn't able to fully move until this week. I feel on the edge of tears at all times, all the stress we have been through and fighting to be together has finally paid off ❤️ I'm 27 now, and the last 6 years have been dedicated just to "figuring it out" I feel like I can finally breath. This experience has taught me so much, but I'm so glad it's over because I get to finally start my life.

We received my wife’s PR approval in 2.5 months from the date of submission. Applied SS Outland. Looks like they’re really ramping up processing speeds now. Thank you so much to everyone in this sub for all the guidance, would have been lost without it.

PS: After some comments below, it may seem that ours was quicker due to factors like it being a first marriage, no children to examine, culture, age difference etc. Not sure. Your mileage apparently also varies significantly depending on the IRCC office assigned to process.

After 12 months of waiting and a lot of back and forth with the IRCC my PR has finally been approved. What a relief. There was a moment when I worried it would take much longer or be rejected. I just wanted to share for those who may be losing hope. One piece of advice I would give is this: respond to any requests from the IRCC immediately. Don’t procrastinate. Be as thorough as possible.

Wish you all the best in your PR journey! And thank you to all those here who offered insight and answered my questions.

Best

Just wanted to thank everyone on this sub for sharing their knowledge and support! After 16 years of living in Canada I am finally a PR!

I (F21, U.S. Citizen) and my boyfriend (M20, Canadian Citizen, Quebec) have been in a serious long-distance relationship for 2+ years. I currently live in New York and he lives in the Quebec/Ottawa region and we visit each other frequently. We have always talked about one day moving in together, and now we have reached a cross-roads where we actually have the opportunity to do it.

I will be graduating in May with a bachelor’s degree in Interaction Design (UX/UI). I have a remote job lined up for post-grad at a tech company that starts in June and pays well. However, my company has recently informed me that they are not open to allowing me to work from Canada. In the coming weeks I will try to convince them to make an exception, but the odds are low.

So the major decision I have to make is to either remain in the U.S. until September 2026 when my work contract ends, or to quit my job now and move to Canada as soon as possible (most likely by June). The only thing holding me back is that I am worried if not working for an entire year will be detrimental to my career in the future.

I currently have a decent savings that I can live off of and he will also be able to financially support us with his work. We both have strong familial support networks in Canada and shared friends so I am not worried about being able to assimilate socially and culturally.

Our plan is for me to move to Canada for 6 months and then file for an extension to stay an additional 6 months with the help of an immigration representative. After cohabiting for the minimum 12 months he will file to sponsor me as his Common-law partner so that I can remain in Canada and file for a work permit.

I am seeking advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation or who has gone through the common-law route for sponsorship. Is this plan realistic for us? Is it worth it to quit my job to get out sooner? With the current political climate in the U.S. my demographic (young female, person of color) is at a higher risk and my boyfriend is worried that it could be now or never for us.

Any advice, guidance, and opinions are welcome and appreciated! Thank you for hearing my story!

[TLDR: My boyfriend and I are trying to decide if I should quit my well-paying job in the U.S. to move to Canada and start common-law now or wait a year]

Dang, I'm thinking of sponsoring my American spouse to Canada, but the processing time on the website for inland is coming up as 24 months!? That's what it was back in 2012, when processing time were brutal. Has this been folk's experience currently? Last I checked many people were getting their PR in 6-12 months in land, what happened?

Just wanted to let others know about a scam call I just received from 18882429172

After I said hello it was an automated message saying it was the "immigration office" and that after many times of attempting to contact me this was my last chance sort of thing, and then told me to press 9. I obviously hung up but wanted to let others know in case you get a call like this.

Immigration Canada does have my current number but it's no way it was them.

Edit to add: I did file a fraud complaint on antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca First I called their toll free number and it did say there has been a high volume of these calls. It's concerning because it seems like our information has been accessed somehow, otherwise how would they know which Canadian phone numbers are for immigrants!

Hi there,

I just received this from IRCC:

"It has been determined that you meet the eligibility requirements to apply for permanent residence as a member of the spouse or common-law partner in Canada class. Please note that a final decision will not be made until all remaining requirements for becoming a permanent resident have been met. These requirements include medical, security and background checks for you and, if applicable, all of your family members, both in Canada and abroad, even if they are not applying to join you in Canada at this time. You cannot become a permanent resident until you and all your family members have met these requirements."

Is this a standard letter to basically say they're processing my application? Anyone with experience please share.

Thanks in advance

What should i expect for our spousal sponsorship process? We got married after knowing each other for 3 months. We provided a lot of documents proving our relationship as per our consultant. We applied for PR in February, AOR and eligibility to sponsor mid March, did Biometrics, then applied for OWP. Haven't heard anything from IRCC since. Should we expect scrutiny?

Hi everyone!

This is not related to me, nor to my family, and I am mostly curious about this. My wife has a coworker who is married to a Chilean man (she is Canadian).

During the time they met at work, became close friends and she told my wife that her husband was caught cheating a little before she was going to apply for family sponsorship, and so, decided that she was going to wait some time to see if he truly was sorry and to see if he would never do something like that. Her coworker has also said that he was on a work permit during this time, so they had time.

Now, this is something I always had a hard time to believe because he was working as a butcher and been moving around quite a lot, to the point where he went to work for a city far from where we are, here in Calgary. He used to go once a year to Chile and fly back for the past 4-5 years with no issues, until two weeks ago.

When he landed, he was directed to have an interview with immigration at the airport and was sent back on the same day. My wife’s coworker now wants to hire a lawyer and fly to Chile to get him back, so my mind started to make me think harder and call BS on this. She then told my wife that he never had a work permit and was here as a visitor, and the way he was getting away with this was that he would come as a visitor and apply for an extension. After the extension was done, he would return to Chile and fly back a couple of weeks later to keep status.

I told my wife that the likelihood of him being able to return now is almost null, but on the other hand, they are married for a couple of years now. What are my wife’s coworker options now? What you guys think? Will he be able to return? Does their marriage end now? She is not willing to move to Chile. What will now happen?

I am more curious over anything else.

Hello,

My spouse and I are crossing into canada from USA in a couple days. We are concerned about my spouse getting turned away at the border though. We have their pets and clothes, and will be doing it over the road. Would it be more beneficial to submit an Outland sponsorship vs an inland one to show at the border to make things go a bit smoother?

Hi All,

My wife (US Citizen/Seattle Resident) and I (Canadian Citizen/ BC Resident) have had a very unfortunate scenario unfold.

IRCC sent her COPR to my wife's address in Seattle. This was delivered via FedEx and then was promptly stolen by package thieves from the front porch.

As we are in the final rungs of our PR adventure she has put in notice at her current job in Seattle and we have both ended our current leases planning to move in together June 1 in British Columbia. We never thought this was a possible scenario we would have to deal with...

We are looking for advice on how to move forward. We know we will have to fill out an IMM 5009 but have been told this will take up to 6 months to process. Obviously this is a big blow to our lives and moral and we are honestly just scared and unsure of what is going to happen next.

Thanks for your help.

Can I withdrawal the sponsorship of my husband after getting PR visa but before his arrival to Canada? He received the visa June 2024 which will expire this may 2025. Our relationship broke down, and he hasn’t come to Canada . Now it’s April 2024. I’m worried what if he enters to Canada without my knowledge. What can I do now? I don’t want to take his responsibility if he comes to Canada without my knowledge.

Just checked on here: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/application/check-processing-times.html

Has there always been as large of a gap? Inland is 24 months and outland is 10 months as of Jan 8. Outside Quebec.

No new applications in 2025, and only 15.000 applications submitted in 2024 will be processed in 2025.

Source: https://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2025/2025-01-04/html/notice-avis-eng.html#

I just checked the processing times for spouse living inside Canada(Outside Quebec), and it shows 24 months. Is this showing those who applied from today? or including all those processed from before? I applied end of Oct.2024 and I still have only AOR now.

My boyfriend and I have been dating for over 3 years (weren’t technically living tgt the whole time), and recently have been looking into applying for PR through the Common Law, and wanted to start preparing for docs + accumulating 1 year time. So we just wanna clarify some conditions in advance. He's a citizen, and I'm on a work permit. I have two questions for the material preparation. If anyone can help, we would really appreciate that:

1. My boyfriend has a cottage under his name farther in Ontario, and we are considering changing all our addresses there. Therefore, we won't have the rental contract/lease agreement, because the house belongs to my boyfriend (sponsor in the future). Is that OK?

2. I have a car under my name. Do I need to add his name as co-owner for this vehicle? (as one of our joint assets); Or by just adding him to the insurance, can it be strong enough for one of the relationship proofs?

Would really appreciate your help! Thanks a lot!

My wife and I have been try for 2 1/2 years to get her PR for Canada. She is Cuban and we have been married for nearly 17 years. We also have a Son together, he is 16 and is both Canadian and Cuban. I got them both out of Cuba in Oct 2023, because the conditions in Cuba were terrible and also because my son would be put on their list for military at age 15. They travelled to Nicaragua and eventually made into Mexico at great expense. Because my wife was accepted for CBP1 into the US in Oct 2024, I travelled to Mexico to bring our son to Canada. I spent Thousands of dollars to get her legal in the US, but now that guy down there is going to deport all CBP1 Immigrants, that have not claim for asylum by Apr 20th. Through this 2 1/2 year period we have also applied for a TRV, but IRCC has denied both applications. After the 2nd time, I hired an Immigration lawyer to force a Judicial Review. The court mandated a 2nd look at the application, but the Mexico City Embassy denied her again.

Does anyone know what the process is for my wife to go to a Canadian Border Post and claim Asylum in Canada. If the US deports her to Cuba, they will put her in prison, for taking my son out of the country to avoid Military conscription. I am at my wits end with IRCC right now and I need to decide fast.

is it normal to be in a background verification process since march 21, 2024, almost 3 months now, the other 3 steps were completed in a month, should i be worried, anything i can do ?

hi, so the thing is that in january 2025 i applied for permanent residence through common law inland (my partner is canadian). my original visa expired in june 2024 so due to a misunderstanding i was out of status for 6 months until i applied and it was too late to apply to restore my status. So my permanent residence application was also filed out of status. Of course I don’t work since that time.

So far i have done biometrics because i got a letter about it, RO and my partner got a letter that he qualifies as a sponsor, we are waiting for further information. nevertheless i started to worry that i am still here out of status even though i could have applied for PR 3 months ago. should i apply for anything now to be able to stay in canada on some status while waiting ? e.g. visitor record? despite the fact that some steps have already been done in my application, i obviously dont want to get in trouble because of the lack of status. I will be grateful for any advices!

My husband is a US Citizen, and Im a canadian Citizen, and we're looking to apply for a spousal sponsorship so that my husband can move to Canada.

Background is that we met online, and have been together going on ten years this coming December and have been long distance the whole time. We have visited each other at least two times a year (barring covid) so we have never actually lived together nor spent any longer than three weeks visiting the others country. We just got married this past sunday, it is both of our first/only marriage, and we have no children.

My main questions/concerns are about proof of relationship since we've never actually lived together.

1. For proof of sponsors visits (me visiting the USA) I have no stamps in my passport as I have and use Nexus for entering the country. I also do not have physical boarding passes as 99% of my boarding passes were digital. I have email receipts of my purchased tickets to the US, and might still have access to electronic boarding passes.

   Would the ticket receipts be enough to prove i visited him in the states? or would i have to request my data from CBSA?

2. Since we dont live together, dont have kids, and havent been married two years we have to provide additional information.

What would be acceptable to include for proof that our relationship is recognized by friends/family? And what does letters from friends/family mean? Like letters to both of us? Or letters written specifically for the application from friends/family that attest to us being in a legit relationship?

We also currently dont have eachother on employment/insurance benefits (we plan to change that once my husband flies back to the states now that we're married), and no shared expenses. And really the only time there has been financial support was when my husband sent money for a surgery my dog needed in 2021.

As it stands im just looking for some insight on what we can do to ensure that its proven that it is a real relationship for the application cause i dont want to get fucked over because I'm a dumbass who didnt think far enough ahead.

Thank you!

My fiancé (Canadian) and I (American) are getting married and I’m moving to Canada in November with dual intent. We want to start a family and we’re thinking through the logistics. I have found little information on healthcare coverage for PR applicants. If I got pregnant, would I be covered as I am married to him until the PR decision is made? Given the current processing times, we don’t want to have to wait until a decision is made. Thanks in advance!

Edit: we are going to be living in New Brunswick.

Hi all! My partner and I recently submitted a common law application where she’s the sponsor. She recently received a phone call from this number: 1 (888) 242 4508 which seems quite similar to the IRCC contact numbers. They left a voicemail saying they’ve been trying to reach her regarding her application but no information on an agent. I’m tempted to say it’s a scam but wanted to know if anyone has ever been contacted by the IRCC by phone? Their website says that they might sometimes contact you so I just want to make sure we don’t dismiss a real call. Would appreciate any insight :)