21 years of past history!? Really!? Please help.

[East]

I am from the UK married to a Canadian. We are applying outland for PR.

They want all my history from the age of 18. That's 21 years! Really!?

I have had a lot of jobs, been to college 4 times and have travelled extensively.

I have very few records of exact dates.

How exact do I have to be with dates?

Will just the year do? Year and month?

I can't do the exact date! It'll take me years to recover all that info" 

[heatherusa]

I am from the UK married to a Canadian. We are applying outland for PR.

They want all my history from the age of 18. That's 21 years! Really!?

I have had a lot of jobs, been to college 4 times and have travelled extensively.

I have very few records of exact dates.

How exact do I have to be with dates?

Will just the year do? Year and month?

I can't do the exact date! It'll take me years to recover all that info" 

We had to do 21 years of employment history for my husband (applying from the US.).  There wasnt a hope in HELL of remembering exact dates.  Using the tax returns from the last 12 years I was able to see who we had put down as employers and then we estimated the month of start or finish.  For the years prior he went by memory and we estimated the months.

We were approved last week and he is on  his way to Buffalo right now to get his visa... of course I do not know how deeply they look in to things at the London office.

But if you can go by tax returns you should be able to get some of the information.

[elkan]

Likewise, my partner has had over 43 jobs, and has moved about the same number of times. It took him a couple of weeks, but eventually got all of his jobs (he also guessed dates as best he could) and then put the addresses down as well. Some addresses he couldn't find, so he had to guess the location on the street. The best address was Antarctica for 11 month periods, for 3 years.

[toby]

The best address was Antarctica for 11 month periods, for 3 years.

I'll bet the VO asked for street numbers in Antarctica!!

[Pharoh]

Likewise, my partner has had over 43 jobs, and has moved about the same number of times. It took him a couple of weeks, but eventually got all of his jobs (he also guessed dates as best he could) and then put the addresses down as well. Some addresses he couldn't find, so he had to guess the location on the street. The best address was Antarctica for 11 month periods, for 3 years.

WOW, 43 jobs?  That's crazy!  Did your partner do some kind of consulting or something?  I've had about 5 jobs so far, but 3 were contract work with various employers.

What did he do in Antarctica?  Is he some kind of scientist?  I've heard that's pretty much the only profession to be found there...

[scylla]

Yes - it sucks. Do the best you can. As others have suggested, look through old tax returns - also old resumes and cvs. We indicated year and month. (Make sure you don't leave gaps.)

My husband had to re-create 31 years of history. He's IT consultant and has worked for a very large number of different companies. So needless to say, this was a nightmare. On top of that, he's lived in a number of different countries. Both his work history and past address lists where separate spreadsheets (i.e. we certainly couldn't fit them in the spaces provided on the form).

My husband worked in Kuwait for a year and a half in the mid eighties and simply could not remember or find his address. We ended up listing this one as just "Kuwait City" and that was accepted. I believe we had full addresses for the rest.

[East]

Thank you everyone for your help. I better get on with it then.

[elkan]

WOW, 43 jobs?  That's crazy!  Did your partner do some kind of consulting or something?  I've had about 5 jobs so far, but 3 were contract work with various employers.

What did he do in Antarctica?  Is he some kind of scientist?  I've heard that's pretty much the only profession to be found there...

After graduating college, he worked IT with many different jobs, and moved around until he found a city he liked (Denver). The 43 also includes jobs while in University (summer, school, part time, etc...)

In Antarctica, it started off as doing software testing for the government program down there from Denver, and then eventually he got contract work doing logistics for the research station.

[mmhughes]

Hello East. Your post made me laugh because my British hubby's ear balls nearly popped out of his head when he realised this! We spent many days with a bottle of red wine going through jobs, addresses and dates and making sense of them. All of course are approximate. My husband had to go back 18 years which was super hard. Had many jobs, many addresses, traveled to many countries, etc. However, when things got a bit blurry (and not due to the wine) he called his Mum who weirdly enough knew the most bizarre little details of past addresses. It was nice reminiscing and made this tedious chore into a fun exercise. And as a side note, most of his old employees such as when he was in the early twenties are either dead, retired or are no longer in business. I think immigration is just trying to paint a picture of the potential PR.

[canada_777]

u better provide with the most detail info