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

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My eCAS status was also updated 04 Nov,even I finished medical on 20th Nov but they have not updated my status, I checked with my doctor he said my medical results have been sent to CIC already.

I know the absence of that single line in your ECAS is stressful but that is not very important, They definitely received your medical but they are very lazy to update it. I have done my medical 22 October but my ECAS had been not updated until few days ago, finally I decided to send them an email. just 2 days after my email they updated the ECAS with Medical Received.

 

[vivi]

Hi vivi, do you recall what the officer exactly told you? Did he/she mean 19 business days or 19 plain days? I am also waiting for the card but I landed 2 weeks later than you. Hope you will get it very soon before Christmas break.

Yes. He said 18 calendar days. Now in the CIC website it shows 21 calendar days. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-card.asp

 

[Viva2014]

I just sent in my application yesterday. No way to choose a VO. Any idea how we guys would know which office is working on our application ?

In generic form, there was a section for choosing the visa office responsible for your case. Most of the applicants in Canada choose CPC-Ottawa.

 

[vivi]

Hey vivi, I called them this morning about not receiving PR card. They told me that they have already processed my card (so called "accepted") but have not yet produced (do not know what is that). They will mail card by mid next week, 90% chance at my home address and 10% at CIC local office and suggested to give them a call on Wednesday. FYI: I called them at 1-888-242-2100. If you are calling them make yourself free for 45 minutes

Thank you PhdStream. I will call them tomorrow morning. BTW, I have to travel to US on December 25th

 

[pepe84]

That section was removed few weeks ago and was left as a blank field. If I were you, I would have hand-written CPC-Ottawa (VO requested) and included a cover letter to explain my hand-writing, but no worries it seems that Sydney will now have to work double in order to find out what Visa Office is the most appropriate to send your application. I hope your study permit is currently valid for more than one year, otherwise there is a chance they send it to the Canadian Embassy in your home country

In generic form, there was a section for choosing the visa office responsible for your case. Most of the applicants in Canada choose CPC-Ottawa.

 

[PhdStream]

Thank you PhdStream. I will call them tomorrow morning. BTW, I have to travel to US on December 25th

If you are travelling by car then you do not need PR card. You need PR card only if you are taking commercial vehicle (air, boat, train or bus).

Furthermore, when I land the immigration officer told me (I am not sure and need further research) that PR card is only for travel staff (like airplanes or train staff) to guarantee that you can legally enter Canada. In the Canadian boarder your landing papers is enough. so he suggested me three options to travel without PR card

1. As I have US visa, land in USA and then take a car to enter Canada (in this case US immigration staffs may refuse you to enter the USA)

2. Use your valid study permit and TRV (for me it is still valid till 2015 Nov) to board the plane and at the Canadian boarder use Landing papers (CoPR) to enter Canada.

3. Apply for PR travel document in the Country where you are visiting.

But its always safe to travel with PR card.

 

[Viva2014]

That section was removed few weeks ago and was left as a blank field. If I were you, I would have hand-written CPC-Ottawa (VO requested) and included a cover letter to explain my hand-writing, but no worries it seems that Sydney will now have to work double in order to find out what Visa Office is the most appropriate to send your application. I hope your study permit is currently valid for more than one year, otherwise there is a chance they send it to the Canadian Embassy in your home country

Oh, that's interesting. I didn't know that.

 

[RA_toronto]

Are you sure about #2? I was told by CIC call centre that my study permit and visitor visa won't be valid after landing. It made sense to me because one cannot be a landed immigrant and a visitor/student at the same time. I would definitely double check that.

If you are travelling by car then you do not need PR card. You need PR card only if you are taking commercial vehicle (air, boat, train or bus).

Furthermore, when I land the immigration officer told me (I am not sure and need further research) that PR card is only for travel staff (like airplanes or train staff) to guarantee that you can legally enter Canada. In the Canadian boarder your landing papers is enough. so he suggested me three options to travel without PR card

1. As I have US visa, land in USA and then take a car to enter Canada (in this case US immigration staffs may refuse you to enter the USA)

2. Use your valid study permit and TRV (for me it is still valid till 2015 Nov) to board the plane and at the Canadian boarder use Landing papers (CoPR) to enter Canada.

3. Apply for PR travel document in the Country where you are visiting.

But its always safe to travel with PR card.

 

[RA_toronto]

Yes, that's crazy! You are a research assistant so you're assisting him! Anyways, I think a letter from the department is fine but you should add "As a research assistant, he assists Prof ... in ..." and add detailed description of both RA and TA duties which match with NOC descriptions (but not copy/paste!). In the past, some people got rejected and most people on the forum believed that it was because the word assist was missing. I have a friend got PR without including that word but you never know... If you wanna be on the safe side, try to convince department or supervisor to include that word. Try to explain them that when your tuition decreases to the domestic level, they would benefit from that more than you do. So, they should cooperate.

I am having a real trouble getting the employment letter from my supervisor. He doesn't agree that I do all of the duties mentioned in the NOC 4012. He also claims that I was not assisting him, he was assisting me to get my PhD! Crazy, right?
So, he agrees to write "I am a research assistant", but not "I was assisting him"!

As I mentioned earlier, the letter that I got from our department also has an issue: I have been alternating between TA and RA, and in the semesters that I TAed, I have not received any RA payment. So, if CIC considers my TA and RA jobs separately, I don't have a one year continuous experience, while I have been a PhD student for about 5 years.

What do you think about getting a letter from the department stating that:

Mr X has been employed by our department since t1 to t2 ...
RA for an average of 15.5 hours per week and is paid an average of 8600 CAD per year.
TA for an average of 5.6 hours per week and is paid an average of 10800 CAD per year.

Without any details about the hours per semester and include my duties for TA and RA separately.
What do you think?

 

[meyakanor]

Are you sure about #2? I was told by CIC call centre that my study permit and visitor visa won't be valid after landing. It made sense to me because one cannot be a landed immigrant and a visitor/student at the same time. I would definitely double check that.

Number 2, if you can get past the airline, would allow you to enter Canada. As a PR, you have the right to enter the country. While at port of entry, they will probably grill you (since anyone not in possession of PR card is presumed not to have that status), once it is established that you are a PR, they must let you enter. You can even technically swim across the ocean, and get to the port of entry without any document, and they will still have to let you in (if they can establish by some means that you are a PR).

 

[PhdStream]

Are you sure about #2? I was told by CIC call centre that my study permit and visitor visa won't be valid after landing. It made sense to me because one cannot be a landed immigrant and a visitor/student at the same time. I would definitely double check that.

# 2 does not suggest using study permit and TRV to enter Canada. Those are just to board the commercial vehicles and once you are in Canadian border you can use Landing document (CoPR), not permit or TRV, to enter Canada.

Again those 3 options are provided by the immigration officer who served me during my landing at Sarnia Blue Water Bridge. I have not done any research nor I have any idea regarding in this regards

Number 2, if you can get past the airline, would allow you to enter Canada. As a PR, you have the right to enter the country. While at port of entry, they will probably grill you (since anyone not in possession of PR card is presumed not to have that status), once it is established that you are a PR, they must let you enter. You can even technically swim across the ocean, and get to the port of entry without any document, and they will still have to let you in (if they can establish by some means that you are a PR).

 

[galaxytab]

Hi folks,

Anyone knows if it is possible to apply for two different PR classes simultaneously?
Specifically, I wonder if I apply for the PhD stream, I would be able to apply for express entry class starting from 2015 or not?

 

[pyzdfr]

Hi folks,

Anyone knows if it is possible to apply for two different PR classes simultaneously?
Specifically, I wonder if I apply for the PhD stream, I would be able to apply for express entry class starting from 2015 or not?

I'm pretty sure that you can apply through two different classes concurrently, e.g. PNP and FSW. However, I'm not sure of phd stream is different from express entry or just a sub-category. In current system, phd stream is a specific category of FSW and therefore, you can apply through both. Next year, FSW will be a part of express entry which makes me doubt if you can use both.

 

[Adamant]

So, what do you suggest? Making it 35 h/w or so if better than 39h?

I think you should put the hours according to your total hours confirmed from ur department office or by the HR based on your RA contracts. What I have done, i got all the contracts, made a table to break the hours in each semesters in each year and then counted the total hours (divided by the no. of weeks to get the average). I have included all my RA contract copies (along with the spread sheet of hours) with my work experience letter to clarify the hours more specific. I know its crazy but I did what I could best.

 

[Adamant]

Hi Adamant, can you plz share some details why did they reject you first time? What part of your experience letter they didn't find detailed enough? I have never heard that someone got application rejected with a fault in the letter but got charged with CC. This seems odd. Can someone senior plz comment if this is an unusual practice or what?

Thnx!

Hi-- My application was refused due to not providing the work experience information explicityly. I had some experience from my home country beside my RA/TA but that letter did not clarifies my job responsibilities in a way NOC job description mentioned in the CIC web site. Moreover, my RA experience was also not considered due to the phenomenal word "assists". Anyway, i could appeal but felt it would be more time consuming than the re-applicaiton. Hopefully, this time it will work out.