I did find a lot of help, there are actual immigration consultants who take the time to offer advice for free to users, and I read a lot of the experiences of others and used them to my advantage. I didn't restrict myself to just the forum thread for applicants going through the embassy in Kingston either, I would read threads for many of the other embassies, especially the US (Buffalo, NY), UK (London, England) and India (New Delhi). I would also read topic-specific threads started by other posters on various issues they encountered.
On the upside to this forum membership, aside from the help with application preparation, I also made a couple good friends in the wives of Jamaican applicants. Their applications were successful in 2009 and early 2011, and I actually met one of the couples in person. These women are close in age to me, we share many of the same views, and I give them the Jamaican wife's experience in exchange for learning about the Canadian wife's experience from them.
There have been some ambivalent experiences though, and these represent a real downside at times, so much so that I often have to reconsider my membership in the forum when the downside weighs heavily on me.
One of these experiences was the acquisition of a stalker. This cyber-troll puts on a face of piety and righteousness to other members of the forum, but attacks like the veriest virago when she considers herself wronged. She set her sights on me, and attacked me via private messages, and I realised to my horror I had given her access to personal information via Facebook. I corrected the situation, but even now the fear hovers in my mind that she might try some type of "poison pen" attack on our application, which are not unheard of at the visa posts. I am sure we can overcome any such attack if she tries it, I kept my messages and can prove I did not initiate anything, but still it can and has complicated and delayed the process for others similarly attacked.
Another ambivalent experience has been watching others who applied after us be approved before us. It is not unusual for Indian, British and American applicants to be approved in 3-4 months, so a number of applicants of these nationalities have already completed the process despite applying after us, while the visa office in Kingston is still apparently dealing with applications from December 2010.
It's hard not to feel discriminated against when you sit and wait for months, perhaps a year or more, and watch others who came after you being approved first, getting on with their lives together while you wait. What makes the wait worst is you get minimal information from the embassy on the processing of your application. They will tell you via their client system that it is received, it is in process, your medical results have been received and a decision has been made, same as happens for these other nationalities, but with Kingston you have NO idea how long each of these stages will last. For the Indians, Brits and Americans, the stages last for days and weeks, not months on end. If you request information on the processing of your application, you receive responses that range from terse to curt to outright rude. There is no standard of service applicable everywhere, yet all spousal immigrants and their sponsors pay the same fees.
Another thing that makes the quick processing of some persons harder to take, is they still feel they have a right to moan about the length of the process. Really? You're surrounded by people separated from their spouses for months at a time, sometimes even as much as a year or more, and yet waiting 3 or 4 months is the end of your endurance? It smacks of a sense of entitlement that is an affront to those like myself who have to endure long separations. What makes it even worse is that many of the visa-exempt couples (those with British, German, Australian and American partners, among others) can actually reside together in Canada while their processing is being completed, so they are not separated AT ALL. So far as I am concerned, that means your right to complain about the process has been rescinded utterly and completely. Sit down and shut up.
On the other hand, there are those whose processing can last for more than a year, sometimes as much as two years, and they also moan about the process. While I am full cognisant of how hard it can be to be separated from your spouse, there are a few points that make it impossible for me to sympathise with these folks for too long:
- If you're from a country or region known for the wholesale approval and engagement of large segments of the population in terrorist activities or fraud, you have to realise you are going to be scrutinised longer and harder than anyone else. Sucks to be you, but whining about it won't make it go faster. As a Jamaican, I fully understand that many Jamaicans before me have committed serious crimes among other infractions of immigration laws, and therefore I am going to be tarred with that brush. While it is an insulting association, it is understandable and I cannot hold it against the Canadian authorities for wanting to make sure their citizens are safe before they admit me to their country.
- Being separated from your spouse does NOT make you special. There are many spouses who are separated for reasons other than immigration, they all have to deal with it, as do we. You don't miss your wife more than I miss my husband, I don't care how long you've been apart or how destined and fated and sacred your marriage is. My marriage is as special and precious to me as is yours to you, I don't care who blessed it, ordained it, convened it, whatever.
- I cannot abide whiners, personally. If there is nothing I can do about a situation, as with this, I accept that fact and I move on to things I can take action on and have control over. Complaining endlessly about this process gains me, what? I made a choice to do this, so did all of you. If you hate it that much, end the process and do something else. Quit whining about it to everyone who will read what you wrote, listen to you talk, whatever.
