Do points affect processing times or interview waiver?

[gypsyinabigtown]

Hello everyone. This is my first post to this forum.

I am an Eastern European citizen currently working in a US company in H1-B status. I am considering to immigrate to Canada in Skilled Worker Federal status.

According to the CIC Self-Assessment Tool (at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/skilled/assess/index.html) I have ~90 points so I am confident I would pass the test for a Skilled Worker Federal class applicant.

However, I am very worried about the long processing time: I have heard that applications in Buffalo, NY take about 1-2 years to complete in total. (according to http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department ... d-fed.html).

* Does the amount of points affect this processing time at all, in terms of making it a bit shorter?

* Does the amount of points have an affect as to whether to grant interview waiver?

Thanks to everyone for any answers.

Regards.

[jes2jes]

Gipsy wrote:

However, I am very worried about the long processing time: I have heard that applications in Buffalo, NY take about 1-2 years to complete in total

.

You are lucky to apply through Bufallo since others in Asia and some African countries have to wait for a minimum of 5 years to get to the Initial Assessment. Check which country you come from and if Vienna is your local CIC office for your country of origin then you would be better off applying through there. It takes a maximum of 1 year from that office but note that if you are called for interview, then you would have to fly to Vienna.

* Does the amount of points affect this processing time at all, in terms of making it a bit shorter?

* Does the amount of points have an affect as to whether to grant interview waiver?

The answer to both questions is NO. The only office which allow faster processing is London and this is not due to number of points but rather Arranged Employment Option (AEO). AEO only allows for a faster review of your file in 6 months but processing can delay for a couple of months depending on applicants background and other factors.

Interview waiver is no guarantee. This is also dependent on the individual applicant and if IO has doubts concerning your application then you would be called for an interview. There are no guarantees when it comes to immigration, just make sure you provide all required information and fill all forms clearly to avoid unncessary document request and information and ultimately interview. But there are no guarantees for Interveiw waiver and your points does not give you any privileges.

Hope this helps.

[gypsyinabigtown]

Hi Jes2Jes

Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer. I appreciate it

You are lucky to apply through Bufallo since others in Asia and some African countries have to wait for a minimum of 5 years to get to the Initial Assessment. Check which country you come from and if Vienna is your local CIC office for your country of origin then you would be better off applying through there.

Unfortunately the office for my country of origin would be Ankara, which has about 4-5 year lag time as well, so Buffalo appears to be my best option.

The answer to both questions is NO. The only office which allow faster processing is London and this is not due to number of points but rather Arranged Employment Option (AEO). AEO only allows for a faster review of your file in 6 months but processing can delay for a couple of months depending on applicants background and other factors.

Could you enlighten me a little bit about this arranged employment option? Why does this speed things up in London only?
I thought it applied to applications from any country?

As I understand it works like this:

I am currently working in a U.S. company in U.S. and I would have a permanent full-time job offer for the same position in a Canada office of my company (effectively an intra-company transfer). As I understand, they can still apply for an AEO as long as they can demonstrate

the offer is indeterminate
the offer of employment is genuine,
the employment is not seasonal or part-time
the wages and working conditions would be sufficient to attract and retrain Canadians or Permanent Residents.

then it would count as AEO, meaning that I would get the 10 points for the Arranged Employment section and the 5 points for the Adaptability section.

Would it speed up my application in Buffalo ~6 months also if I were to get this AEO?

Thanks again.

Cheers.

[jes2jes]

Gypsy wrote:

Could you enlighten me a little bit about this arranged employment option? Why does this speed things up in London only?
I thought it applied to applications from any country?

As far as I know, London is the only place that operates this policy but nothing stops you from firing an email to Buffalo for an enquiry on it. I doubt though since I have not seen this anywhere but go for it.
Note that, the 6 months in London is just for review against 24-45 months currently. It does not gurantee completion of application processing in 6 months. Most people with AEO completes the process averagely between 12-24 months.

Would it speed up my application in Buffalo ~6 months also if I were to get this AEO?

NO. If you are a US citizen then you can move to CND under NAFTA arrangements else go for work authorisation and go continue the wait in Canada whilst acclamitizing.

Good luck.

[FinPro]

Just for the records,

Arranged employment = Provincial Nomination Scheme

and it applies to all countries.

For this reason Arranged Employment should be supported by HRDC.

FinPro

[gypsyinabigtown]

Hello everyone

Thanks a lot for all the kind replies.

I think I will try to apply with Arranged Employment option and hope that it speeds up the process a bit. I have done a little research about it myself also and I would like to share it, too:

I found an an encouraging government statement regarding expedition of cases with AEO at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pub/competing.html . I hope this is true.

On http://www.immigration.ca/discussion/to ... C_ID=19329
there is some discussion interesting about the topic as well.

I also found that the http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/epb/lmd/fw/poArrEmp.shtml website is useful to understand the process very clearly for the Federal Skilled Worker applications.

I hope this is useful for everybody.

Thanks again.

Cheers.