CIC Buffalo Received My Application Again

The Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) Buffalo Office received my application today (again). The USPS tracking confirmed that and here is the exact message:

Label/Receipt Number: EB76 3243 ... ..
Status: Delivered

Your item was delivered at 10:42 AM on April 23, 2009 in BUFFALO, NY 14203 to CANADIAN CONSULATE . The item was signed for by M. O.

I hope and pray that my application will not be returned this time.

Resent the Application to CIC Buffalo

I resent the application to CIC Buffalo this afternoon after correcting two mistakes. Paid $17.50 and I have been told that the package will get there tomorrow before 12PM. We had forgotten to write 'present' in two places on my wife's form (IMM 0008 Schedule 1, #11 Personal History and #15 Addresses). The first one was under the 'Personal History' (#11) where we are supposed to list all the activities since turning 18 years old without leaving any gaps. For the most recent activity, we needed to write the start date and the end date. As the most recent activity being current or on going, there is obviously no end date for it. So, the end date should be 'present' or 'to date'. But it seems like the CIC people prefer 'present' as the instruction they have sent me asked for 'present' to be written. The second one was under the 'Addresses' section. We put the start date for our current place/address, but not the end date, which should have been 'present' as we are still living there. The form does not let you type texts (just numbers), so I left those blanks hoping to write 'present' later, but totally forgot about those. We checked the forms several times, but we looked at the information like DOB, passport number, signature and date next to the signature. Hope this time my application will be accepted and I do not need lose any more time, money and sleep. Thanks.

Happy Earth Day to all of you and please enjoy the earth day photo above. This time, I did not add Alberta related photo.

CIC Buffalo Returned My Application Package

My worst fear came true this evening. My application package has been returned by the CIC Buffalo people. The reason was, we forgot to write "PRESENT" in two places on my wife's forms (current address and personal history). I could not believe that I overlooked those when I had written 'Present' on my forms. I wasted 2 weeks of time and $17.50 for postage.

I think I will be sending the application back again tomorrow. One problem is that my home country police certificate expired yesterday (was issued Jan 20, 2009). I hope they would not make me request a new police certificate or return my application again because of that. I guess life is all about making mistakes and learning from them.

The Application Has Finally Reached to Buffalo

This afternoon, I received an message in my e-mail box letting me know that my application package has been delivered to the CIC Buffalo Office. Here is the exact message:

"Your item was delivered at 11:00 AM on April 8, 2009 in BUFFALO, NY 14203 to CANADIAN CONSULATE . The item was signed for by R MACIEJEWSKI."

By the way, the package was supposed to be there yesterday (April 7th) before 12PM, but that did not happen. I was informed by the USPS website and the lady at the local post office that if I pay $17.50, the package will get to its destination the next day before 12PM. I guess the lady and the USPS website lied to me. I called 1-800 number and complained about it and the lady on the phone told me that she has no idea on why it took an extra day for my package to be delivered, but she said, if I go to the local post office and complained and fill out a form, they will refund the money and let me know what happened.

Anyway, the package is already there and that's the most important thing. So, I am not going to waste my time and their time at the post office. One thing I learned from this experience is that don't wait until the last minute (if there is a deadline) hoping that the package will get there the day they said it will get there. Now, all I want is the CIC Buffalo to not send my package back and send me the AOR and medical request in next two months. Everybody, wish me luck. Thanks.

Finally, Mailed the Package to CIC Buffalo

I mailed our application package to the CIC Buffalo this afternoon at 1:04PM MST. They will receive it tomorrow before 12NOON. It cost me $17.50 for that, which comes with a tracking number and signature confirmation. It feels great to be able to send the application package after almost 2 months from the date I received the nomination (Feb 10, 2009). Now, I hope and pray that they will not send my package back to me for something that I forgot to do or something very minor that they could ask me to send instead of them sending the whole package back. As far as I know I have included everything they have asked for.

If I remember correctly, I had to sign at least 3 places or it could have been 4 places. My wife had to sign 2 places. I have included 16 photos (4 for each person) and a Cashier's Check of US$1190 for 2 adults and 2 kids.

Two things I am a little bit worried about are:

1) The photos do not have solid white backgrounds (one instruction says it has to be white and another instruction says it can be light-colored background, so not sure what they really want).

2) I did not attach the cashier's check and photo envelopes the way they wanted me to(their instruction did not make sense to me and did not seem practical). I did not staple them even though "the helpful hints" clearly said to staple them with the generic form's first and second pages respectively. Instead, I used a paperclip to attach the check and I used two paperclips to attach the photo envelopes. I attached the check on the top of the generic form and the photo envelopes at the bottom of the same page. As soon as they open the envelope, they will see both the check and photos. I also placed "the checklist" on the top of my application covering the check and photos, but it is stapled separately. Now wait for the AOR and medical instructions.

Came home from work this evening and went out to have some good ice cream with the family to celebrate the sending of the application package. We will have a bigger celebration when we get the AOR and medical request and even bigger than that when they request our passports for PR visas.

Everything is READY to be mailed on Monday

Yesterday (Friday), I visited the CIC Buffalo website and downloaded all the CIC forms. Checked the dates when they were updated to see if I can use the old forms that I filled out when I sent my application to the AINP office. The two forms were updated recently, so I decided to use them instead the old ones. I had to update one of those forms for my wife as well. I completely filled them out and printed while I was at work and brought home. This morning, woke up at 7:45AM and took shower and ate breakfast and signed and dated all the forms. For the end dates for some of the things like current address and current job, wrote "Present". I heard that CIC does not like when you left a date field empty. Asked the wife to sign and date her forms. She made a mistake when entering the date when she signed one of her forms. The format of the date was changed and she did not realize that (year was first instead of day). I did not have an extra copy and my printer at home was not working. I needed to go to my work place to pick up my PNP certificate as it was left there and I forgot to bring it with me last night. I decided to print the page where she made mistake again at my work place.

I went to my work place around 10:00AM and picked up the PNP Certificate. I also printed a couple of things when I was there including my wife’s form. I went to the Springville Wal-mart. They have America First Credit Union branch that opens on Saturdays. Asked a teller to create a Cashier's check of $1190 ($465+$645+$130+$130) in the name of Canadian Consulate General. He did that and I asked if there is somebody who could notarize my documents. He said he is a public notary and he will be able to do so. Went in to his office and he looked at my documents and asked me if I have the originals with me. I said no and he said he needs to looks at the originals. Anyway, he also learned that I needed to notarize birth and marriage certificates too and he said he cannot notarize them as they are considered the public documents and I need to get originals of them. Anyway, my luck did not favor this time as the guy who notarized my documents when I needed them to send to the AINP was not there. That time, he did not even look at my originals and notarized all, including birth and marriage certificates. When I was in the Wal-mart, I printed some photos too which I had created using a free software. You can print eight photos (35mm x 45mm) on 4 x 6 photo paper. I also picked up a box of small envelops that I needed to put photos of me and my family members before sending those photos to the CIC Buffalo. I heard that I need to send 4 photos of each person.

Came home and went to Chinese Buffet with the family and on the way back, tried Wells Fargo Bank (where I have accounts too) and this time I had my originals with me. The guy said the samething that he cannot notarize birth and marriage certificates and he also said he cannot even notarize photocopies. He said I need to write a letter and he can notarize the letter, but he cannot stamp anything on my documents. He was worse than the guy I met at the America First earlier. I decided to go to another store branch of America First (located in Macey's Grocery Store) and talked a beautiful and nice lady and she said yes and did not even ask what documents I had or if I have an account with them. She brought her record book, stamps and notarized all the documents. Bless her. Thanks to her that I have everything is ready. All I need to do is arrange them the way the CIC wants them, staple the Cashier's check and photos and they are ready to be mailed on Monday (April 6, 2009).