Hello All,
Sharing the step by step process I did to receive our PR for me and my wife.
A background about us - I'm on H1b in US and my wife is on H4 and we are citizen of India applying from US.
Receiving ITA -
We started working on our documents since Oct 2017.
I applied first to see what the approx score i was getting and how much we need to work on to get the cut-off points.
- I sent my education documents to WES for Evaluation in Oct, 2017 and received the evaluation score by 1st week of December.
- We both gave our TOEFL exam in mid of Dec 2017 and received the result by 1st week of January.
- Tried to apply again, and saw that we were still short of few points.
- We then applied to get education documents of my wife evaluated. It took us some time to receive documents from India as her college policy changed. Once we did, we sent it immediately to WES.
- We received my wife's education evaluation by end of April 2018 and we applied for express entry by mid of May, 2018.
- We received the ITA by end of May 2018 to submit documents within 90 days.
After receiving ITA -
- After receiving the ITA, we were given 3 months to apply (by end of Aug). I believe this has now changed to 30 days. At this time we were not required to give bio-metrics - Canada policy has since changed.
- Our first objective was to get our medical done. It was easy to get the medical appointment and we were able to get it completed by mid of July.
- Next step was to get the fingerprinting done and the bank certificates.
- Our bank never prepared any kind of such documents. So I prepared a template and gave it to my manager as to what we were looking. She was kind enough to prepare exactly the same.
- Bank certificate ==> we didn't submitted the monthly bank statement on our profile in IRCC tool. We submitted the bank letter stating how much US dollars we had at the end of each month for last six months along with the conversion to canadian dollars (did not mentioned averages of each month).
- Photo upload ==> We scanned our passport photo for the required size and submitted in JPEG format.
- During this process, my age changed, so some points fell and also I changed my job and address after receiving the ITA. So i just updated the profile with the new address and job description. Not required to send an email to IRCC for any changes at this stage even for your birthday. (If your age changes after submission, it won't effect your score as the policy is to take the age when the file was submitted)
- Once all documents were uploaded, i added additional document explaining all other documents which i thought needed additional clarifications just to be on the safe side.
- Finalized the process and submitted and paid the amount. Total points were still coming above our cut off score so we were still eligible. Submitted everything by mid of Aug, 2018.
After Submitting Application -
Now the wait times start
- The application was processing as we were able to see the status changing.
- We were not requested to submit any additional documents.
- Generally all applications are processed within 6 months. Our application processing time was coming to an end by end of Feb 2019.
- Couple of days before the end of 6 months, we received an information letter in our profile.
- At this stage, our application status still didn't said that it is approved. Our background check status was was still saying under progress and decision on our file was still in progress.
- Information Letter ==> This letter mentioned that our application is almost at the stage of getting completed, so we should prepare our passports, passport photo and Sign Annex A and send it to the address within 30 days.
- We were not sure as to wait for our application to be processed and approved and then send our documents or should we send it now.
- I posted this question on this site and someone mentioned that we should send it immediately as this is the last step to get the application approved.
- We were still hesitant to send as our application was not approved but we sent these above documents to Canada - Ottawa address mentioned in the information letter. (If you don't live in US, you can send an email to them requesting to submit these documents at your home Canada embassy. They might make those changes and send you an updated information letter with new address to submit your documents. if you are in one country and your dependent is in another country, you can request by sending an email to them and they will make adequate changes on where to submit your documents).
After sending passports -
- We sent our passports, photos, Signed Annex A along with a prepaid return envelope using UPS.
- When creating a prepaid return label, you will be asked to enter phone number and email address from where the shipment is coming from. You will have to use your own email and phone number in this case as IRCC have mentioned not to use their email or phone number on return label.
- We were tracking these documents so we were informed that the document was received by them.
- Our application status changed to approved after 6 days of delivery of passports to them. (Please note that no updates on your profile will be provided for whether your passports were received by them or not).
- We were able to track our passport when they sent as we used our email on the return label. So the UPS kept informing when we would be receiving our passport.
- We received our passports back with Canada stamp and COPR documents for both of us after 6 days of change in profile status.
Landing process -
- I haven't done the landing process yet. once i do that, i will try to update this thread. Let me know if you have any questions.
Sorry for lengthy description and grammatical errors. Hope this was helpful.
Sharing the step by step process I did to receive our PR for me and my wife.
A background about us - I'm on H1b in US and my wife is on H4 and we are citizen of India applying from US.
Receiving ITA -
We started working on our documents since Oct 2017.
I applied first to see what the approx score i was getting and how much we need to work on to get the cut-off points.
- I sent my education documents to WES for Evaluation in Oct, 2017 and received the evaluation score by 1st week of December.
- We both gave our TOEFL exam in mid of Dec 2017 and received the result by 1st week of January.
- Tried to apply again, and saw that we were still short of few points.
- We then applied to get education documents of my wife evaluated. It took us some time to receive documents from India as her college policy changed. Once we did, we sent it immediately to WES.
- We received my wife's education evaluation by end of April 2018 and we applied for express entry by mid of May, 2018.
- We received the ITA by end of May 2018 to submit documents within 90 days.
After receiving ITA -
- After receiving the ITA, we were given 3 months to apply (by end of Aug). I believe this has now changed to 30 days. At this time we were not required to give bio-metrics - Canada policy has since changed.
- Our first objective was to get our medical done. It was easy to get the medical appointment and we were able to get it completed by mid of July.
- Next step was to get the fingerprinting done and the bank certificates.
- Our bank never prepared any kind of such documents. So I prepared a template and gave it to my manager as to what we were looking. She was kind enough to prepare exactly the same.
- Bank certificate ==> we didn't submitted the monthly bank statement on our profile in IRCC tool. We submitted the bank letter stating how much US dollars we had at the end of each month for last six months along with the conversion to canadian dollars (did not mentioned averages of each month).
- Photo upload ==> We scanned our passport photo for the required size and submitted in JPEG format.
- During this process, my age changed, so some points fell and also I changed my job and address after receiving the ITA. So i just updated the profile with the new address and job description. Not required to send an email to IRCC for any changes at this stage even for your birthday. (If your age changes after submission, it won't effect your score as the policy is to take the age when the file was submitted)
- Once all documents were uploaded, i added additional document explaining all other documents which i thought needed additional clarifications just to be on the safe side.
- Finalized the process and submitted and paid the amount. Total points were still coming above our cut off score so we were still eligible. Submitted everything by mid of Aug, 2018.
After Submitting Application -
Now the wait times start
- The application was processing as we were able to see the status changing.
- We were not requested to submit any additional documents.
- Generally all applications are processed within 6 months. Our application processing time was coming to an end by end of Feb 2019.
- Couple of days before the end of 6 months, we received an information letter in our profile.
- At this stage, our application status still didn't said that it is approved. Our background check status was was still saying under progress and decision on our file was still in progress.
- Information Letter ==> This letter mentioned that our application is almost at the stage of getting completed, so we should prepare our passports, passport photo and Sign Annex A and send it to the address within 30 days.
- We were not sure as to wait for our application to be processed and approved and then send our documents or should we send it now.
- I posted this question on this site and someone mentioned that we should send it immediately as this is the last step to get the application approved.
- We were still hesitant to send as our application was not approved but we sent these above documents to Canada - Ottawa address mentioned in the information letter. (If you don't live in US, you can send an email to them requesting to submit these documents at your home Canada embassy. They might make those changes and send you an updated information letter with new address to submit your documents. if you are in one country and your dependent is in another country, you can request by sending an email to them and they will make adequate changes on where to submit your documents).
After sending passports -
- We sent our passports, photos, Signed Annex A along with a prepaid return envelope using UPS.
- When creating a prepaid return label, you will be asked to enter phone number and email address from where the shipment is coming from. You will have to use your own email and phone number in this case as IRCC have mentioned not to use their email or phone number on return label.
- We were tracking these documents so we were informed that the document was received by them.
- Our application status changed to approved after 6 days of delivery of passports to them. (Please note that no updates on your profile will be provided for whether your passports were received by them or not).
- We were able to track our passport when they sent as we used our email on the return label. So the UPS kept informing when we would be receiving our passport.
- We received our passports back with Canada stamp and COPR documents for both of us after 6 days of change in profile status.
Landing process -
- I haven't done the landing process yet. once i do that, i will try to update this thread. Let me know if you have any questions.
Sorry for lengthy description and grammatical errors. Hope this was helpful.
