 Today I wanted to make a video about processing times more specifically for spousal sponsorships. I get a lot of inquiries and a lot of clients with respect to spousal sponsorship applications and the most common question is how long is the process going to take? I would say that since last year since the government actually made a commitment to process applications for spousal sponsorship faster in less than a year I actually do find that that is true and that's happening. Although the government sometimes takes policy decisions and sends out instructions that applications will process let's say in 12 months there's always a disclaimer or notice that it may take longer and as lawyers we're often very careful when we advise clients not to tell them the government said 12 months or the website says 12 months it's going to take 12 months but surprisingly and luckily I find that the applications that I have filed in the last year or so are processing quite quickly for almost all of them whether it's inland or overseas obviously inland has often taken much longer and it is I do find that it is taking a little bit longer than what the government has said but for the overseas process I find that it's actually going really well for most applications I would say that a lot of the files that I have submitted have processed in either five months six months or eight months nine months or just about 12 months and this is really good news because people that do submit spousal sponsorship are couples and they're often separated or sometimes the applicant or the sponsor they cannot visit each other so this is a really great commitment from the government and looks like they have put some resources there to make applications process faster now having said that if your application is a little bit more complicated then it might take longer but even then I do find that some of my files that have a little bit of complexity are actually processing quite quickly now even though I'm doing this video things could change things can always change you might be looking at this video when I made the video and this is what's kind of happening in my office at least but you might be watching this video maybe in six months or a year from now and maybe things have completely shifted it's unfortunately immigration is in Canada it's quite unpredictable when it comes to processing times you could be filing your application maybe in a year from now and then it might very well take 14 months or 16 months or 20 months even though the processing time on the website and the government does say that it will take 12 months or less so my recommendation is always to be to expect the unexpected to hope for the best meaning that it will process very fast but always be prepared for the worst which is kind of the long time until an application is finalized hopefully not hopefully it will be going like this because it's better for everyone involved but also my other recommendation is obviously there are ways to submit an application that's going to ensure that it gets processed faster so submitting a complete application not forgetting any forms that's on the document checklist either the document checklist which is the main one but also the specific one for the country specific document checklist making sure that you complete every single line every single box that's on the forms and making sure that there's signatures on the forms might sound very silly but there's a lot of people that forget to sign the forms it's a mistake that I've done in my life in other you know certain applications or something I have to submit something and I I just do it fast and I forget but immigration is not able to process an application if you have not put your signature in the signature box so that's very very important the document checklist is very clear as to what are the mandatory documents so for example you have to have submit you know your marriage certificate if you're married if you don't put your your marriage certificate then either your application is going to be returned or in worst cases it could be refused or for sure it will be delayed because they're going to ask for it and then you have to send it and then it goes in the mail room and then it stays there and then the officer finds it or maybe misplaces it and then you have to send it again so these little things can we can really add up a couple of days couple of weeks and sometimes couple of months so make sure you properly read the document checklist and you make sure that you have everything so you have to kind of review everything many many times if you're doing it by yourself you don't have a lawyer you can do it by yourself but just make sure that everything is there and you kind of cross check everything maybe four or five times you and your spouse together or maybe with a friend or somebody that you can you say I've prepared this can you just kind of take a look do you think you know do you see that everything is there that's going to be very important another thing would be to make sure that you have all of your right contact information because once immigration starts processing your application they're going to correspond with you because after a few weeks after a few months there's other documents that need to be submitted information has to be updated maybe something is missing later on you might want to have to submit police records or medical examination the right of permanent residence fee might be requested if you haven't paid it so they correspond with you usually by email if that's the that's the way that immigration is going to correspond with you let's say if you don't have a lawyer so it's important that the email be correct and also your address be correct because sometimes immigration most of the time lately I find that they correspond by email but sometimes they will send the letter in the mail so if you don't have your right address or if you've moved then you might not get the letter and then it's going to delay everything and then sometimes if you don't get the correspondence and you don't meet the deadline of the the document that they want or the information they want then your application can be delayed or refused especially because immigration always gives most of the time they do give deadlines of 30 days or 90 days or maybe sometimes more sometimes a bit less sometimes it's you have to submit this within seven days and so the time it's very important that you're on top of that or your lawyer is on top of that because you don't want your application to be jeopardized because of that so these are just a couple of things just to tell you that if if you prepare your application this way then the process is going to be smoother and there's better chances that it's not guaranteed that it will be faster than what the posted time is or what the average time is but definitely it will make the process easier and smoother and there are good chances that it'll be just a little bit faster which is going to make you and your partner much happier because you want to get reunited and start your life in Canada thank you for watching