36 Years Old, 12 Years work Experience - Study Permit Approved for Graduate Certificate after MBA.

[Br33zer]

Hello peeps - I have been using this forum ever since I decided to move to Canada permanently. This is a great forum for any immigration help. I have been living in Canada as PR for 4 years now.

I came back to this forum recently for my sister who along with her husband is also planning to move to Canada, but I’m appalled by some negativity floating around the forum. People even recommending prospective applicants to apply for higher level courses like Masters or PhD to get a positive result. Sure, going for Masters or PhD will add a great value but that does not mean going for other programs like Graduate Certificates would get you a negative result. Of course, both will be useless if you cannot show career progression.

Just to give you guys a background, my sister and her husband decided to move to Canada permanently but couldn’t get ITA because their CRS is pretty less. So I advised them to come as a student and by this route my sister would be able to gain a Canadian school certification along with decent networking that should enable her to settle down smoothly. Her profile is below:

Age: 36
Education: B.A. in General (62%) in 2006, M.B.A. in Finance (61%) in 2008.
Work Experience: Worked for Bank of America for 3 years then took a break for a year learning IT skills. Joined the same institute as teaching faculty for 2 years. Then joined a IT company and has been working there since. About 12 years of work experience.
IELTS General: 7.5
Course Applied in Canada: Graduate Certificate in Business Analysis.

I asked her to select a school in GTA where she can study something related to her field of work. She was able to find a Graduate Certificate program which was related to her field of work and I asked her to apply. Before applying I advised her to get the recommendation letters from her past professors and work supervisors. She attached the same while applying for the school. She received a Firm Offer after a month. I then asked her to get the medical done so that she can straight away apply for Study Permit. Below are the documents along with mandatory ones, I advised her to submit with study permit application:

1. SDS application package.
2. $10,000 GIC
3. First year school fee.
4. Recommendation letters from past professors.
5. Work experience letters.
6. Last 3 months paystubs.
7. SOP: I advised her to write her heart out about why she wanted to do this course in Canada and how that would help her in the field of work without Googling anything online. She came up with a 2 page SOP and I just asked her to include it as is.

We applied on June 23, 2021 and below is the timeline:

Applied: June 23, 2021
AOR: June 23, 2021
BCL: June 24, 2021
BVL: July 26, 2021
OPR: July 26, 2021

She could not get biometrics appointment soon because of backlogs in India. Below is the screenshot of her GCKey updates:

I would advise anyone who thinks they cannot get a positive result, please give it a try by hiding nothing and being genuine in everything you say including SOP.

 

[wonderbly]

Which country did your sister apply from?

 

[Br33zer]

She applied from India.

 

[Minsc's Boo]

Thanks for sharing! I'm 35 year-old with a 12-year study gap. It's really a reassuring example for me.

 

[Aesopzai]

Thanks for sharing! I'm 35 year-old with a 12-year study gap. It's really a reassuring example for me.

Me too..almost same profile
Age 38
BBA 4 Years
14 years experience or study gap u can say
Applied for MBA
Waiting

 

[jmjrose]

Me too..almost same profile
Age 38
BBA 4 Years
14 years experience or study gap u can say
Applied for MBA
Waiting

Hi... To which college u applied?

 

[canuck78]

Hello peeps - I have been using this forum ever since I decided to move to Canada permanently. This is a great forum for any immigration help. I have been living in Canada as PR for 4 years now.

I came back to this forum recently for my sister who along with her husband is also planning to move to Canada, but I’m appalled by some negativity floating around the forum. People even recommending prospective applicants to apply for higher level courses like Masters or PhD to get a positive result. Sure, going for Masters or PhD will add a great value but that does not mean going for other programs like Graduate Certificates would get you a negative result. Of course, both will be useless if you cannot show career progression.

Just to give you guys a background, my sister and her husband decided to move to Canada permanently but couldn’t get ITA because their CRS is pretty less. So I advised them to come as a student and by this route my sister would be able to gain a Canadian school certification along with decent networking that should enable her to settle down smoothly. Her profile is below:

Age: 36
Education: B.A. in General (62%) in 2006, M.B.A. in Finance (61%) in 2008.
Work Experience: Worked for Bank of America for 3 years then took a break for a year learning IT skills. Joined the same institute as teaching faculty for 2 years. Then joined a IT company and has been working there since. About 12 years of work experience.
IELTS General: 7.5
Course Applied in Canada: Graduate Certificate in Business Analysis.

I asked her to select a school in GTA where she can study something related to her field of work. She was able to find a Graduate Certificate program which was related to her field of work and I asked her to apply. Before applying I advised her to get the recommendation letters from her past professors and work supervisors. She attached the same while applying for the school. She received a Firm Offer after a month. I then asked her to get the medical done so that she can straight away apply for Study Permit. Below are the documents along with mandatory ones, I advised her to submit with study permit application:

1. SDS application package.
2. $10,000 GIC
3. First year school fee.
4. Recommendation letters from past professors.
5. Work experience letters.
6. Last 3 months paystubs.
7. SOP: I advised her to write her heart out about why she wanted to do this course in Canada and how that would help her in the field of work without Googling anything online. She came up with a 2 page SOP and I just asked her to include it as is.

We applied on June 23, 2021 and below is the timeline:

Applied: June 23, 2021
AOR: June 23, 2021
BCL: June 24, 2021
BVL: July 26, 2021
OPR: July 26, 2021

She could not get biometrics appointment soon because of backlogs in India. Below is the screenshot of her GCKey updates:

I would advise anyone who thinks they cannot get a positive result, please give it a try by hiding nothing and being genuine in everything you say including SOP.

IRCC is inconsistent. This normally should have been denied given her MBA but sometimes they approve people without following their own requirements. The course would not benefit her career wise. Due to the large backlogs in India they may approving more people and spending less time reviewing applications so speed up processing.

 

[Br33zer]

IRCC is inconsistent. This normally should have been denied given her MBA but sometimes they approve people without following their own requirements. The course would not benefit her career wise. Due to the large backlogs in India they may approving more people and spending less time reviewing applications so speed up processing.

Precisely my point of negativity floating around the forum. You don't even know her current work domain and how this course (which she never studied previously) is connected to her domain. But I'm not as lucky as you to be privy of IRCC operations. Good luck!

 

[wonderbly]

Precisely my point of negativity floating around the forum. You don't even know her current work domain and how this course (which she never studied previously) is connected to her domain. But I'm not as lucky as you to be privy of IRCC operations. Good luck!

I do not think it's necessarily baseless negativity floating around. I've been reading this forum for a few years before signing up last year. Very people with the same profile (educational background, nationality etc) as your sister gets approved. When only 2 of 10 people in such category get approval, it's clear that chances are not great, hence the constant warnings about not going for a qualification lower than what you already have.

 

[Aesopzai]

Hi... To which college u applied?

UNB..Public university

 

[canuck78]

Precisely my point of negativity floating around the forum. You don't even know her current work domain and how this course (which she never studied previously) is connected to her domain. But I'm not as lucky as you to be privy of IRCC operations. Good luck!

Just looked at another posting with older applicants. There seems to have been a recent directive to accept people with tech backgrounds for study permits. Don’t think anyone at IRCC believes they are genuine students. Canada is trying to attract more tech workers so I guess is one of their new tactics. Although they may not qualify for economic immigration due to their age this is still a way for them to end up working in Canada. Had she been working in another field the outcomes would likely be different. It makes no sense for most people in their late 30s to early 40 tomove to another country, leave their current job and income and move to another country to take a course if it is not a PhD or maybe a good masters degree. In that age bracket most take a part-time course while working full-time because they have responsibilities like mortgages,families, etc.

 

[jagmeetsinghji1]

Just looked at another posting with older applicants. There seems to have been a recent directive to accept people with tech backgrounds for study permits. Don’t think anyone at IRCC believes they are genuine students. Canada is trying to attract more tech workers so I guess is one of their new tactics. Although they may not qualify for economic immigration due to their age this is still a way for them to end up working in Canada. Had she been working in another field the outcomes would likely be different. It makes no sense for most people in their late 30s to early 40 tomove to another country, leave their current job and income and move to another country to take a course if it is not a PhD or maybe a good masters degree. In that age bracket most take a part-time course while working full-time because they have responsibilities like mortgages,families, etc.

Completely agrre

Just looked at another posting with older applicants. There seems to have been a recent directive to accept people with tech backgrounds for study permits. Don’t think anyone at IRCC believes they are genuine students. Canada is trying to attract more tech workers so I guess is one of their new tactics. Although they may not qualify for economic immigration due to their age this is still a way for them to end up working in Canada. Had she been working in another field the outcomes would likely be different. It makes no sense for most people in their late 30s to early 40 tomove to another country, leave their current job and income and move to another country to take a course if it is not a PhD or maybe a good masters degree. In that age bracket most take a part-time course while working full-time because they have responsibilities like mortgages,families, etc.

Completely agree with you brother. Even I have seen two such cases..no 1 a college teacher did mtech in 2008 after that taught in a same college for 8 years and than ,after marriage, he started his own small firm of making plastic utensils..ran it for three years and after that someone asked him to try for Canada PR but less points became the problem so he applied for pg diploma supply chain management and got approval aged 36-37 approximately..
Second case ..my classmate who did general b.a with economics and m.a political science followed by two year business analyst job in small firm got approval for pg diploma business management Lambton college,Age 27.

 

[itsmecan]

I really hope I get this VO next time to review my file. No offence but her profile was quite weak from the chosen course and future prospect point of view. This would have been a straight up rejection even for a layman considering she has ready has done an MBA and choosing to do a certificate course , etc.

Nevertheless, she got approved and that's all that matters. All the best to her.

 

[Br33zer]

Folks, like I said I before I am not lucky enough to be friends with IRCC Agents and neither do I have morning coffee with them to know the "Directives", "Tactics" or "Operations" of IRCC. Nevertheless, good luck all!

 

[winlife]

Folks, like I said I before I am not lucky enough to be friends with IRCC Agents and neither do I have morning coffee with them to know the "Directives", "Tactics" or "Operations" of IRCC. Nevertheless, good luck all!

Thanks for sharing, very interesting. As others have said, I think her IT skill was her strong point. Due to pandemic, IT skill is in demand everywhere. So IRCC doesn't see her as "someone who will not return to home country". Her experience letter also proved that she has good IT skills (so can easily find job in India or elsewhere). Did the work experience letter/recommendation letter also explain how her new course will help her?
I wish I had seen your post sooner, I would have attached similar documents. My case is complex too, now I am worried what the result will be.