Notes on determining the Canadian Mission to which you should send your application (from an information bulletin from L.E.G.I.T. (Vancouver), dated April 10, 2003.

Generally, you should submit your application to the Canadian Mission in your country of permanent residence or to the Canadian Mission that has been established to process applications for your country, should a Canadian Mission not be in your country.

In the case of a principal applicant, who wishes to bring in his spouse, commonlaw or conjugal partner, the principal applicant must be living legally in the country where the application is made and have a visa that is valid for one year. For example, a common-law couple living in the USA where one partner a US citizen and the other from India is living illegally in the US, then the American is the qualified principle applicant and the application can be made in the US. If the Indian partner is the qualified principle applicant, the application must be made in India and the applicant must be ready to go to India for an interview. In these cases, Family Class applications cannot be used. H&C Requests, Skilled Worker, etc Class applications will have to be followed. See the CIC website for further details.

If you are in Canada as a student, visitor or on a work permit, you can apply using an In-Canada Application from within Canada only if you have been in Canada for at least 6 months and have received a 6 month Visa extension (ie: have received permission to be in Canada for a continuous period of 12 full months or more). Should the application process drag on past your 12 month permission period, you must apply again before your extension Visa expires. In-Canada Applications are sent to Vegreville.

Hint - when you request a Visa Extension, send your request forms by fax or mail (registered, etc) only a couple of days before your present Visa is to expire. It is not necessary to do this 30 days in advance per the CIC guides. Do NOT put a extension expiration date on your application. The Department will put a date of 6 months past the expected expiry date, or if they are late in processing, 6 months from the date they finally get around issuing the Visa extension, which will be beneficial to you.

Notes on determining the Canadian Mission to which you should, or can, send your application (from an information bulletin from L.E.G.I.T. (Vancouver), dated April 10, 2003.

Contact positions, names; See Canadian Representatives Abroad
These contact titles and names can be useful if you experience application trouble and are looking for senior level intervention (if you are lucky enough to get their attention).