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

[Henry.Nguyen]

Hi Arian_arian,

By reading your letter, I have a feeling that this letter can be applied to any PhD student regardless of fields and majors. I think CIC officers really want to see the real scholarly activities that you engaged, not just a list of duties. Therefore, your duties should be mentioned in details such as what kind/topic of lit reviews you have done for your Prof., what experiments you assisted your prof? You did TA in what classes/courses, and what really did you do for the TAship. Reading such a detailed letter should be more convincing. Because it would tell them who you are, what kind of major you have and what kind of work experience you really gained.

Best,

My letter:

This letter is to confirm that Mr. XXX is a full-time graduate student enrolled in Ph.D. program in the Department of XXX at the University of XXX. He has started his program winter 2011 under my supervision and has been employed as a research assistant and as a teaching assistant during semesters.

 

[arian_arian]

Hi Arian_arian,

By reading your letter, I have a feeling that this letter can be applied to any PhD student regardless of fields and majors. I think CIC officers really want to see the real scholarly activities that you engaged, not just a list of duties. Therefore, your duties should be mentioned in details such as what kind/topic of lit reviews you have done for your Prof., what experiments you assisted your prof? You did TA in what classes/courses, and what really did you do for the TAship. Reading such a detailed letter should be more convincing. Because it would tell them who you are, what kind of major you have and what kind of work experience you really gained.

Best,

You are right. as you said that letter would be "more convincing". But based on the rules you don't have to include those things.

 

[chenying3612]

Hi All,

I have a question about the ECA. Should I do the assessment for both master degree and bachelor degree, or just the master degree?

Thanks in advance!

 

[arian_arian]

Hi All,

I have a question about the ECA. Should I do the assessment for both master degree and bachelor degree, or just the master degree?

Thanks in advance!

I think you need to do it for both.

 

[chenying3612]

I think you need to do it for both.

Really? I thought Master assessment should be enough. So expensive...

 

[arian_arian]

Really? I thought Master assessment should be enough. So expensive...

You only pay once. I recently paid 200 ish for both.

 

[meyakanor]

Really? I thought Master assessment should be enough. So expensive...

If your Master's degree got evaluated as an equivalent of a Canadian Master's degree, then it would be enough to claim education points for Master's degree.

You will be awarded up to 25 points for your highest completed Canadian educational credential or for your highest equivalency to a completed Canadian educational credential. You may also be eligible to receive points for certain combinations to two Canadian (or equivalent) educational credentials.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/guides/EG7TOC.asp

However, in the unlikely event that your Master's degree is only deemed equivalent to a bachelor's, then you may want to evaluate your Bachelor's as well, because a combination of two Bachelor's degrees would grant you more educational points than just having one Bachelor's.

 

[Jun zheng]

Hi，guys
just wondering whether you include your tuition fees as a part of your Annual Salaray？
and how many hours can we claim as a Research Assistant on campus when we registered as a full time student？is that depending on the hourly rate？For example, we got 2000 dollars a month, if we claim 40 hours a week, that means the hourly rate is 12.5 dollars. Is that too low for a RA？Thanks

 

[chakri264]

Hi，guys
just wondering whether you include your tuition fees as a part of your Annual Salaray？
and how many hours can we claim as a Research Assistant on campus when we registered as a full time student？is that depending on the hourly rate？For example, we got 2000 dollars a month, if we claim 40 hours a week, that means the hourly rate is 12.5 dollars. Is that too low for a RA？Thanks

In my case a portion of tuition is part of my income since the grad school deposits a portion of the tuition in my student account and my boss adds the rest. So in my reference letter he mentioned whatever the sum that comes from his grants to my pocket.

Since you are a full time PhD candidate I don't think you can claim 40 hours towards your RA. You have to work at least 15 hours towards your own research project and the rest time is for RA. So you can claim at the maximum of 25 hours per week for RA. In terms of CIC, RA is something that you work for a project other than your own research project. Hope this helps. If my interpretation is wrong please correct me.

 

[chenying3612]

If your Master's degree got evaluated as an equivalent of a Canadian Master's degree, then it would be enough to claim education points for Master's degree.

However, in the unlikely event that your Master's degree is only deemed equivalent to a bachelor's, then you may want to evaluate your Bachelor's as well, because a combination of two Bachelor's degrees would grant you more educational points than just having one Bachelor's.

Thank you so much.

 

[climate_modeller]

Hi Arian_arian,

By reading your letter, I have a feeling that this letter can be applied to any PhD student regardless of fields and majors. I think CIC officers really want to see the real scholarly activities that you engaged, not just a list of duties. Therefore, your duties should be mentioned in details such as what kind/topic of lit reviews you have done for your Prof., what experiments you assisted your prof? You did TA in what classes/courses, and what really did you do for the TAship. Reading such a detailed letter should be more convincing. Because it would tell them who you are, what kind of major you have and what kind of work experience you really gained.

Best,

I agree that details are better, after all, the applicant needs to 'convince' the officer. If it was simply heuristic, then a computer could do it. I really think the requirements are framed as a 'minimum' because the checklist invites one to 'support' one's claim with additional materials/documents.

So, if you are simply going for the minimum, then you are taking your chances with adverse human interpretation.

 

[chenying3612]

In my case a portion of tuition is part of my income since the grad school deposits a portion of the tuition in my student account and my boss adds the rest. So in my reference letter he mentioned whatever the sum that comes from his grants to my pocket.

Since you are a full time PhD candidate I don't think you can claim 40 hours towards your RA. You have to work at least 15 hours towards your own research project and the rest time is for RA. So you can claim at the maximum of 25 hours per week for RA. In terms of CIC, RA is something that you work for a project other than your own research project. Hope this helps. If my interpretation is wrong please correct me.

Hi chakri264, at my university, everyone's RA is 40 hours. Say that if I just submit my supervisor's reference letter (my supervisor is ok with that), could I just claim 25 hours?

 

[tandysony]

Congrats, your new journey as a PR now begins~

After 442 days waiting, we got the visa today, thanks all in this forum for invaluable discussion.

I wish all of you are the best for the immigration application

After my PhD. defense on Aug, I will move to Halifax city, working as a data scientist at a IT company. I am looking for guys who are heading to this city or are studying there.

Please feel free to contact me!

 

[tandysony]

Congrats~

Got my passport request!!!!

 

[mike5182]

I received passport request two days ago, but my online status is still in process, is it normal?

Thanks