WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR VISA IS UNDUELY DELAYED

I have noticed multiple complaints on this platform about the inordinate processing period for study permit applications. I empathize and could relate with the anxiousness, agita, distress, and uneasiness that are behind these complaints.

Therefore, to bring relief and enlightenment, I have decided to offer insight on the right decision to take when your application is delayed. I love to say little but in my little, you will find a walloping fragment of sense. Hence, I will keep this write-up to the shortest length.

What do you do when you experience an undue visa delay?

1. Raise a Customer Service Enquiry (CSE) Via the IRCC Webform Medium
The webform is the most efficient and quickest channel of reaching the Canada Immigration Department to process your application. This medium was specially designed to make application tracking easier. Thus, it is the mama that you run to when your application exceeds the current processing duration.

PLEASE CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO RAISE A CUSTOMER SERVICE ENQUIRY:
https://secure.cic.gc.ca/enquiries-renseignements/case-cas-eng.aspx?mission=Nairobi&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

The process is simple and illustrative.

2. Send an Email to the Department Processing Your Application
Before you do this, ensure you have waited for 5 working days. If there is no response, then please go ahead and send them an email. As far as Nigerian applicants are concerned, most applications are processed at the Nairobi Office, so here is an email address that you should employ: nrobi-immigration@international.gc.ca

3. Contact a Member of Parliament (MP)
Once you have completed Step 1 and Step 2 and yet there is no change in your application, then you should create a friendship with patience for an additional 2 weeks. If after that, there is still no update of any kind, then you can write a Member of Parliament (MP) within the jurisdiction of your proposed institution. The office of the MP has unrestrained access to the Home Office, Home Secretary, and Immigration Minister. Such an office is equipped enough to raise an inquiry on your case, and you know what that could do to your application.

I must caution you to be as polite as possible while doing this. Your issue is with the IRCC and not the MP

4. Hire an Immigration Lawyer
Note: before you resort to this option, you must have ordered your GCMS note to ascertain what is causing the delay. If the GCMS note does not help, then instruct your lawyer to submit a Formal Request Letter on your behalf. Trust me, this has always worked. But, if it doesn’t you have the last option.

5. Request an Order of Mandamus from a Federal High Court
This is an option I can only recommend to people whose applications have lasted for more than a year. When you obtain a writ of mandamus, the IRCC officials would have no choice but to prioritize the decision on your application. So far so good, I have not seen any mandamus that wasn’t honored within 60 days. But, as I earlier stated, make it your last resort.

I have spared precious time to compose this for your enlightenment, and I hope it helps someone out there.

Lastly, I will leave you all with Habakuk 2:3

"For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry."

Quote me when you have your PPR because it shall surely come!