Changes onthe Citizenship / Permanent Resident Front

We were all *so* hopeful that things would speed up once Bill C14 passed in Parliament. Well, that hasn't happened. It has been a mess, since it all began. Every day I watch our Yahoo group to see comments from those that have gone before us, to see what is going on in their situation.

We knew that our family did not have a referral, so we figured we were safe to sit on the fence, until something became clear. A few things have become clear over the last 7 weeks.

First, we now know that to go the Citizenship route (versus the Permanant Resident Visa route) we have to apply for Part I of the paperwork. This takes about 2 weeks. This can be done while waiting for a referral and does not impact the wait time.

So at the moment we know that you can apply for Part I at any time. But then you have to wait for your Court Date to proceed with Part II. From the Referral Date (the time you see pictures of your child for the first time and then actually accept the referral) to Court Date could range from 2-3 months. It is not til then that they can begin Part II.

At this time, there are some important papers sent on - I believe it is Passport and some other documents for the child. These have to be gathered before Part II can begin. For one family that has already eaten up another three weeks!

And then we are hearing rumours from the CIC themselves, that Part II is taking 8-12 weeks.

Okay, so let's do a simple summary and the math: 2-3 months for a Court Date (and most are taking 3 months); 3 + weeks to gather documents for Part II to begin; 2-3 months for Part II (or so we hear; it could be more or less). That adds up to about 6 1/2 months from Referral to Travel!!

That does not look like Bill C14 shortened *anything*. Not only that, it is very unpredictable as no families have actually brought their children home yet, on this new CIC route! So until this happens they are all guinea pigs.

Now as to the Permanent Resident Visa route (PRV) we knew that it was 2-3 months for Court Date; 4-5 months (thereabouts) for Medical; 4 weeks (approx) for Visa. Then Travel. So a total of up to 9 months for this route.

At this point it sounds like the Citzenship route would be the best to take - even though it is unknown.

But then we got some new and exciting news. News that made all our thinking go back in the Think Tank.

Some very dedicated families approached our agency about why we can't begin the Medical at Referral, rather than waiting 2-3 months til after Court Date to start. This has been brought up before and nothing has come of it.

Thankfully - praising, praising, praising - we got wonderful news last week!!!!!!

Our agency has approached the High Commission and gotten information that tells them that they can indeed, begin the Medical at Referral. What does this mean to us??

It means that once we get a Referral of a child, they will then *immediately* begin the Medical, simultaneously, while waiting for a Court Date. So our timeline if we go through PRV now looks like this:

Referral comes in:

Medical (4-5 months) & Court Date (2-3 months) (done at the same time) - max total time for both: 5 months

Visa - 1 month

Grand total with new approach - 6 months maximum!!!!! Doing the Medical, while waiting for the Court Date, (instead of after the court date) can (probably) shave off 2-3 months!!!!! This is HUGE!!!

On top of this, there is other information. We had been advised by our agency (who like everyone else, does *not* know the answers. Who could? Only the CIC and they don't even know yet!!) to begin both processes - CIC and PRV. Then when Citizenship got your paperwork through Part I, we would receive a letter letting us know and we would then have 30 days to decide to continue with CIC or let them know we were going PRV.

We all took this to mean - nothing. Simply that if both files were open then when it came time (a few weeks into the process) we would have more information from other families making it through and then we could choose the most expedient route. Many of the Yahoo families seemed to think the same way.

Ray and I had believed that we did not have to make a decision (as to which of the two paths to take) until we had a referral. It all made sense why there was no rush. We were going to begin our process after the referral and we were thinking we would probably go through both routes and then make the choice when we had to. Kind of buying time and hoping to see from other families which way to go. Who knows, our referral might be months away and children might be home by then and then the decision would be made for us.

But THEN yesterday morning we began getting emails from our Yahoo group stating that this was not the case. Apparently another agency is telling its people that if they are going through the PRV route, then they need to apply BEFORE they get a referral!!!!!!

This means that if we get a referral tomorrow, we are behind by a month!! Our child would sit in an orphanage for another month needlessly!!

So now we had to make a decision and fast!

Well, it had become pretty clear to us that we were going to go the PRV route. We had so desperately hoped and prayed that Bill C14 was going to change things for us, but it doesn't look like it is so. Perhaps for families that will come along a year from now. Those ones will have this years families to look back at and gain knowledge from. But for us, we have decided to take the well travelled route, especially now that we have eliminated about 12 weeks of the Medical wait!!

So hopefully next week, we will begin our paperwork for our Permanent Resident Visa. And then hopefully soon after that we will get a referral for our children! It is so nice to have that decision settled!!!