This is a great thread and its nice to see some real life stories with fairly short waiting times. There are a lot of scary stories out there, on the net, about years of waiting time. We are just going through the process of trying to get a tourist visa for my girl to come to Canada for a few weeks. I was shocked by what the Canadian Consulate office in Shanghai wanted to see from me. I'd read about providing your life story for trying to sponsor someone to immigrate, but this is just for a tourist visa. We should know in a couple of weeks if she gets it, keep your fingers crossed.