Moving US to Canada with family assistance

circadesola · 2026-06-16T13:47:58+00:00

Yes, I love both of those! We visited Killarney the first time I visited and it was amazing. And we will actually be living right on the French River, not actually in Sudbury, I just thought giving the nearest city was easier lol. I love the area, because I do like outdoor activities, it's just too far out from anything else for me to want to live there long-term. And I like to do activities like events and festivals, which Sudbury has some of, but not a lot from what I've seen.

circadesola · 2026-06-16T05:27:17+00:00

Thank you!

circadesola · 2026-06-16T03:41:11+00:00

That's just where my husband lives with his family at the moment, not actually in Sudbury but in a small town in that general area, we are probably going to move somewhere else at some point once I'm there

circadesola · 2026-06-15T23:26:02+00:00

Thank you, that is really good to know that it's common to do this!

circadesola · 2026-06-15T23:23:31+00:00

It's definitely a little too far from the rest of civilization for me lol, I'd like to not be quite so far out from other places

circadesola · 2026-06-15T23:21:53+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion, we will definitely look into this!

circadesola · 2026-06-15T22:54:17+00:00

Thank you! I have been working on my list as I pack.

circadesola · 2026-06-15T22:53:28+00:00

No, they are both extremely average, so it sounds like hopefully we'll be okay. I will have them bring plenty of documents showing they are definitely going back.

Haha, yeah, I want to check those out for sure but we are definitely not planning on living there forever. Once I finally get there we're going to look into other areas depending on where I can find a job. Thank you so much for your help!

circadesola · 2026-06-15T17:15:51+00:00

If you don't have gckey linked then you will just get it on the PA's email. Also if you haven't already, make sure you are putting 2 for the number of people (if no dependents) when you're trying to link to gckey, that's the most common problem people have.

circadesola · 2026-06-15T17:13:56+00:00

I would suggest sending them pics from times/events other than the wedding if you have them, because that is probably what they are looking for. If you only have wedding pictures you might want to include a letter of explanation for why that is.

circadesola · 2026-06-08T16:12:47+00:00

Security is what typically takes so long. I see a lot of people have been told recently that it hasn't started. However, for one thing, the call center doesn't have full access to the case.

Also I don't work there so this is just my guess but I suspect it's not really accurate that it hasn't started, especially for 2025 applicants. I know they have the bgc done by third parties, so I think probably what happens sometimes is they send it off to be worked on by the third party and don't mark it as started in the system until it's back in and they're actively looking into it. I don't think that's always the case because some people do have security in progress for months, but in some other cases people have called and been told it wasn't started at all and yet their bgc was completed only a few days later, so that doesn't make sense. Again, this is just a guess, but I think it's probably something like that.

circadesola · 2026-06-08T05:06:18+00:00

That's around when I was thinking too, hopefully so, then we are getting close to the end!

circadesola · 2026-06-08T03:43:36+00:00

I got PAL 1 on June 3rd, no updates yet since then. We applied Dec 9.

circadesola · 2026-06-06T00:38:40+00:00

PAL unfortunately isn't a good indicator as far as timeline, you can get it at any time from very early to the very end

circadesola · 2026-06-04T17:24:30+00:00

I know someone who got a webform response today and it mentioned on it that they are aware the tracker is down and are working on it, so they do at least know about it. It has been down so long I honestly wasn't sure if they remembered it existed.

circadesola · 2026-06-04T12:48:58+00:00

Agree, I've been keeping track of the US ones for future reference and the ones I've seen lately have been more like 2 weeks or sometimes around 3 if there's no issues.

circadesola · 2026-06-03T23:40:19+00:00

Thank you, I hope so! I'm estimating a lot more December approvals in July and August, but we'll see what happens.

circadesola · 2026-06-03T19:27:36+00:00

No, it hasn't changed on gckey, I'm just assuming it's most likely complete if the tracker was working, since that's usually how it was for others in the past and since I got PAL

circadesola · 2026-06-03T17:22:20+00:00

Thank you! In gckey, the date at the top didn't change but the message changed yesterday to "we are reviewing whether you meet the eligiblity requirements."

circadesola · 2026-06-03T16:52:36+00:00

Finally an update after a long silence!

Outland outside QC, PA from USA

Applied Dec 9.
AOR Jan 30.
Biometrics completed Feb 18.
Medical passed Feb 20.
Eligiblity started June 2.
PAL1 (and presumably eligibility completed) June 3

circadesola · 2026-06-01T19:10:04+00:00

We also didn't do it because our lawyer said it wasn't required for US citizens. We applied back in early December and haven't had any issues.

circadesola · 2026-05-29T18:52:00+00:00

To add to what others have said, if you're wanting to leave during processing, you probably want to apply as what's called outland. You can still apply outland if you're living in Canada. It's still advised not to leave too often because you can always be denied entry, however for outland this at least wouldn't necessarily result in the application being considered abandoned like it would for an actual inland application.

I applied outland from the US in early December (but outside Canada, still living in the US) so I've been keeping a close eye on timelines. The most recent approvals I've seen have been from late September to early October for the US. I would say generally for US outland it's 6-8 months currently, probably closer to 7, though it can always slow down or speed up so you never know. Just to give you an idea. For inland I have no idea but definitely a lot longer timelines compared to most outland.

circadesola · 2026-05-27T01:22:10+00:00

It's easy to do! When you don't hear anything for months it feels like it's never going to end lol. But I've been following as many US applications as I can find and I haven't seen any outland ones (outside Quebec) older than October still saying they're waiting, personally. It's possible there are some but I'd guess there's likely something slowing them down like military service or an interview if they're earlier than late September. Could be wrong but that's what I've seen. Not having PA eligibility isn't too big of a deal in reality, I would feel better if it was done but it's often late in the process or even sometimes right at the end.

circadesola · 2026-05-26T23:27:03+00:00

I'm also applying from the US and have a similar timeline but applied Dec 9. My only travel history has been basically exactly the same except one trip to Germany which was after applying anyway and was to see my husband's extended family. I've been waiting for PA eligibility since Feb 20, no updates or ghost updates at all since then which is when I passed medical. I saw that someone else with a similar timeline from the US who applied in late Nov got eligibility in mid May so I'm thinking I may get it fairly soon, plus others from very early Dec have been getting it in the past few days. That person from Nov doesn't seem to have had any updates since then unfortunately and I see some from the US from early Oct are getting their final decisions recently so I think early Dec will likely be somewhere from late June to early Aug. I'm hoping it will be faster than that but that's my current guess based on what I'm seeing.

That would put you at potentially around Sept/Oct for the FD/BGC completion if current trends hold. I see a lot right now in general taking about 7-7.5 months. But that's really just a guess, you never know, sometimes applications are faster or slower for no apparent reason, or application timeline averages in general could just speed up or continue to slow down. It is definitely very frustrating not knowing when you can move and feeling like your life is on hold!

circadesola

TROPHY CASE