Applicant from PhD program after 5 Nov, 2011 connect here to get status

[TyrusX]

I agree that two people cannot represent the sample but I strongly believe that the rejections were systematic. I hear from here and there that many people in this category got rejected (including myself). If a PhD student/graduate (whose main training and specialty is to do research/gather documents/write high quality papers/prepare thesis etc) in Canadian institutes cannot prepare an application that is approvable then WHO CAN? If we, after many years studying/living/working in Canadian systems lack the ability to prepare an application according to the guides and fail to go through the immigration filter, then how come that many who have never seen Canadian soil can make through this system?

Ok. So I will give my opinion on this. Which is not an opinion a lot of you will like. I believe that thinking that PHD STUDENTS are more well prepared to prepare an application than anyone else is a terrible misunderstanding of how they actually work. You are not better than anyone because you are a PhD student. In fact there is a strong sense of entitlement between many that applied which make them oblivious to how complicated a good application for immigration is. This is added to the fact that a lot of PhD student never had a real job, which makes their application much weaker that those of other categories. I had friends that didn't even care to list any work experience and were sure they would get approved! And they were NOT. Those of us that were well succeeded in applying from the beginning didn't have this mindset of I'm so good because I am a Phd Student, they should just give it to me. We perused the documentation and made our best from the conditions and constrains given. Self-victimization is not they way to go; CIC is most probably not rejecting people due to a hidden agenda.

 

[Anna2013]

Ok. So I will give my opinion on this. Which is not an opinion a lot of you will like. I believe that thinking that PHD STUDENTS are more well prepared to prepare an application than anyone else is a terrible misunderstanding of how they actually work. You are not better than anyone because you are a PhD student. In fact there is a strong sense of entitlement between many that applied which make them oblivious to how complicated a good application for immigration is. This is added to the fact that a lot of PhD student never had a real job, which makes their application much weaker that those of other categories. I had friends that didn't even care to list any work experience and were sure they would get approved! And they were NOT. Those of us that were well succeeded in applying from the beginning didn't have this mindset of I'm so good because I am a Phd Student, they should just give it to me. We perused the documentation and made our best from the conditions and constrains given. Self-victimization is not they way to go; CIC is most probably not rejecting people due to a hidden agenda.

I do not like that "people whose application got through think that they were better prepared and the rest of us were a bunch of careless and clumsy ones".

 

[aidina]

I do not like that "people whose application got through think that they were better prepared and the rest of us were a bunch of careless and clumsy ones".

Agreed. Not everyone who was rejected thought as a PhD student he is special. We know for sure that many people got rejected because their reference letter did not include the word "assist" clearly and explicitly.

 

[ASG]

Ok. So I will give my opinion on this. Which is not an opinion a lot of you will like. I believe that thinking that PHD STUDENTS are more well prepared to prepare an application than anyone else is a terrible misunderstanding of how they actually work. You are not better than anyone because you are a PhD student. In fact there is a strong sense of entitlement between many that applied which make them oblivious to how complicated a good application for immigration is. This is added to the fact that a lot of PhD student never had a real job, which makes their application much weaker that those of other categories. I had friends that didn't even care to list any work experience and were sure they would get approved! And they were NOT. Those of us that were well succeeded in applying from the beginning didn't have this mindset of I'm so good because I am a Phd Student, they should just give it to me. We perused the documentation and made our best from the conditions and constrains given. Self-victimization is not they way to go; CIC is most probably not rejecting people due to a hidden agenda.

A quote of the comment I put under the web article, and please, Tyrus, give your 2 cents on that one:

Letters of employment come from institutions: to not get rejected based on these letters, an applicant would have to write the letter himself/herself and have it signed by the institution. This is a BIG problem. No institution whatsoever would know what CIC expects as far as letters go.
It is crazy to think that when your employer writes a letter of support for you for the immigration services, in which he/she does describe the main duties, hours worked, etc...that CIC may reject such a letter on the sole base of WORDING.

If "help" cannot be used, that we HAVE TO USE "assist", PhD or no PhD, I think that this is completely unfair, uncalled, for etc...These words can be used as synonyms. We should NOT have to try to read CIC people's minds to provide a letter that works.
I think that saying "his role was to prepare lectures" is the same as saying "he drafted lectures".

No school, business, etc...would be able to provide a letter satisfying to CIC considering the way they've been looking at these.
I really think that the large majority of people who apply, considering the amount of money they put into this, how time consuming an application is, etc...pay a lot of attention to how to build the application package.
I feel like CIC is pretty much saying "we opened that stream, but we don't really want you after all, so let's try to find the one word that we can base our assessemnt on to reject you".

I know that it's getting better and that some people are getting their PR, but based on all the rejections and the reasons we've seen under this stream, I honestly think that there is a problem, and that it does not come from the applicants.

 

[pg123]

Ok. So I will give my opinion on this. Which is not an opinion a lot of you will like. I believe that thinking that PHD STUDENTS are more well prepared to prepare an application than anyone else is a terrible misunderstanding of how they actually work. You are not better than anyone because you are a PhD student. In fact there is a strong sense of entitlement between many that applied which make them oblivious to how complicated a good application for immigration is. This is added to the fact that a lot of PhD student never had a real job, which makes their application much weaker that those of other categories. I had friends that didn't even care to list any work experience and were sure they would get approved! And they were NOT. Those of us that were well succeeded in applying from the beginning didn't have this mindset of I'm so good because I am a Phd Student, they should just give it to me. We perused the documentation and made our best from the conditions and constrains given. Self-victimization is not they way to go; CIC is most probably not rejecting people due to a hidden agenda.

I don't think that PhD students are bad at condensing the application and supporting documents. First of all, Canada's source of revenue is its natural resources. Obviously, they need more engineers, managers (marketing also) and trade workers. To keep the population healthy, it needs some doctors, medicos and nurses etc... Canada wants to relay on these resources but not interested to accommodate science and technology. This is what makes PhDs misfit to the current canadian society. I totally believe that TA and RA are also jobs and these duties demand considerable amount of skills. I know many "real" job holder do nothing better than TAs and RAs. It is CIC, which is making this complicated. They know how to make money.

 

[PhdStream]

Hello Guys,

Have any of you applied with job duties of 40 hrs/week as an RA. I applied via CEC with RA (40 hrs/week) and got rejected. I am planning to apply through PhD stream and in a doubt if I should submit the RAship again or not, as I have more than 2 years of experience as an IT engineer.

Does RAship (during my current phd studies for 3+ years) makes my application weak, what do you guys think. My supervisor can provide me letter with all the info required.

P.S: I dont receive research assistantship but get money as "Graduate Research Studentship"

Anyone??

 

[Anna2013]

I don't think that PhD students are bad at condensing the application and supporting documents. First of all, Canada's source of revenue is its natural resources. Obviously, they need more engineers and trade workers. To keep the population healthy, it needs some doctors, medicos and nurses etc... Canada wants to relay on these resources but not interested to accommodate science and technology. This is what makes PhDs misfit to the current canadian society. I totally believe that TA and RA are also jobs and these duties demand considerable amount of skills. I know many "real" job holder do nothing better than TAs and RAs. It is CIC, which is making this complicated. They know how to make money.

I agree that Canada doesn't have the room to accommodate these many PhD holders. Saying this, I think we must ask them why they opened this stream in the first place?!

I agree. I did not claim RA myself because I had more than 4 years of work experience back home and here combined (part-time though but they were enough) and my department probably does not consider RA as job. But I do not underestimate RA/TA holders because you really do need knowledge and skills to perform those.

 

[pg123]

Anyone??

For the past four months I am doing 40hrs RA. I know few people applied with 40 hrs RA. The only problem arises here is, 40hr means full time job (according to CIC). They would not be ready to consider this because we are full time students. But, there are few people, able to convince CIC by saying that they do work in the weekends also. If you would like to do the same, then ask your boss to mention in the reference letter that you are hard working and you finish part of your duties during weekend also.

Good luck.

 

[S_Govind]

Ok. So I will give my opinion on this. Which is not an opinion a lot of you will like. I believe that thinking that PHD STUDENTS are more well prepared to prepare an application than anyone else is a terrible misunderstanding of how they actually work.

I for once agree with TyrusX. Being meticulous and methodological in doing research does not necessarily have to correlate with preparing a squeaky clean immigration application. For example, we had all the necessary documents and tools such as the OP6b and 6c on the CIC website. These clearly detail the selection procedure and the tools called upon by them during the eligibility phase.

So how many of us actually cared to go through this manual prior to sending our applications?. In research terms we did not do a thorough 'literature review' and some of us had to face the consequences. I would not blame CIC even a bit for this.

Just because we have been in Canada for so many years does not mean that CIC has to open the floodgates for us. Immigration is not a right by a privilege.

 

[Houra]

Hey guys, any Nov or Dec 2012 applicants active here? Lots of them are noted "inactive" on the spreadsheet. They should have had medicals or something by now... If you are active please show yourself!

 

[S_Govind]

This is added to the fact that a lot of PhD student never had a real job, which makes their application much weaker that those of other categories.

Absolutely not true !. Myself and many others on here are a case in point. It is tenuous to make this conclusion.

 

[ASG]

Anyone??

I'd say best to avoid it; as a full-time student, you only need to study for 15 hours per week; depending on at what stage you're at in your PhD, you can easily claim 30 hours per week as an RA, and that would likely add up to one year of continuous full-time equivalent employment.

Best of luck!

 

[Anna2013]

I for once agree with TyrusX. Being meticulous and methodological in doing research does not necessarily have to correlate with preparing a squeaky clean immigration application. For example, we had all the necessary documents and tools such as the OP6b and 6c on the CIC website. These clearly detail the selection procedure and the tools called upon by them during the eligibility phase.

So how many of us actually cared to go through this manual prior to sending our applications?. In research terms we did not do a thorough 'literature review' and some of us had to face the consequences. I would not blame CIC even a bit for this.

Just because we have been in Canada for so many years does not mean that CIC has to open the floodgates for us. Immigration is not a right by a privilege.

You are that side of the gate (Canadian) and I am [stuck] this side of the gate. You "think" that this makes you better than me and/or your application stronger than mine, but you do not know me nor the rest of the rejected applicants. One with a fair judgement can very quickly realize that this immigration process is much based on luck rather than competency.

Nobody said that it is our right, but, you expect from a system to be fair and respectful to its clients; particularly a Canadian one.

 

[S_Govind]

You "think" that this makes you better than me and/or your application stronger than mine, but you do not know me nor the rest of the rejected applicants.

If you want to 'read between lines' your welcome to do so. I rest my case..

 

[pg123]

I for once agree with TyrusX. Being meticulous and methodological in doing research does not necessarily have to correlate with preparing a squeaky clean immigration application. For example, we had all the necessary documents and tools such as the OP6b and 6c on the CIC website. These clearly detail the selection procedure and the tools called upon by them during the eligibility phase.

So how many of us actually cared to go through this manual prior to sending our applications?. In research terms we did not do a thorough 'literature review' and some of us had to face the consequences. I would not blame CIC even a bit for this.

Just because we have been in Canada for so many years does not mean that CIC has to open the floodgates for us. Immigration is not a right by a privilege.

Haha, if you think getting PhD means working in the lab and carrying methodologies, yes you are right. My understanding about PhD is not only researching but also developing leadership qualities, communication skills, teaching ability and writing skills, so on so.

Everyone in Canada knows how fare CIC is. I have seen spectrum of cases which illustrates inconstancy of CIC. In many cases applications were accepted by CIO, just to get application fee. I have never been rejected and my application is in process.

Of course getting immigration to Canada is no ones right, no one blames CIC if they don't want to open PhD category. People are posting as if they only can file an application. I would stick to my opinion about CIC, even if I get PR. If RA/TA is not job then they should mention that NOC-4022 experience does not qualify for PR application. One must be very innocent to say that there is nothing wrong with PhD stream.