On July 15 I have received PPR and sent my package on the same date. Canada Post was nice enough to boost my XpressPost to Priority because the package was received after their cut-off time on July 15. The package safely arrives and signed by Mr. Borgeat on July 17.
On July 20 my ECAS status has updated to a Decision has been made as shown in the screenshot below:
On July 21 there is an update to my MyCIC account stating that the application is closed and approved:
Below is a run down of my timeline:
January 15, 2015: EE Profile Submitted
January 31, 2015: ITA
February 6, 2015: Upfront Medical Completed
February 17, 2015: Physician Uploaded Medical Results
February 18, 2015: Application Submitted
May 4, 2015: Request for additional documents
July 4, 2015: Uploaded additional documents
July 15, 2015: PPR
A bit more information:
EE Profile Score: 1036
NOC: 1024
Medical Exam Category: Worker
Additional Documents Requested: Schedule A & Police Certificate from Hong Kong
The hiccups:
Due to the fact that I have been in Canada since 1997 and traveling around, it took CIC a majorly long time (from February 18 to May 4) to go through my personal history and to deem the application as completed. I am still uncertain why they required such a long time to ensure my application was completed, but I truly believe that getting my MP involved and submitted various case specific inquiries helped flagged my application to ensure it is still being processed according to the suggested time frame; otherwise, it may have taken longer.
On the other hand, getting a police certificate from Hong Kong was not the easiest task. The Hong Kong Police Force would not forward the police certificate to me, instead, they will mail the certificate directly to a consulate by registered mail. However, CIC will not accept police certificate by mail for Express Entry applications and did not provide an address for the police force to mail the certificate to. I have mentioned this issue on this forum before and got mocked for not reading the instructions properly while those mockers did not even bother to read the entire thing before jumping to conclusion. Thus, I am not going to disclose how I ended up getting my certificate. Those who mocked me can go through the same hell and pain if they ever needed to get one from a country that doesn't provide you with the certificate.
The deadline for me to submit the additional documents was July 4 and I waited until then to upload my documents because I needed to ensure that the police certificate had arrived in Canada. After that, it literally took CIC 11 days to approve my application.
Lesson from my experience:
If your application hasn't have any movement since you have submitted it, it is probably because CIC needed some extra time to scrutinize every piece of information you have provided before your application is deemed complete and eligible. If you are really concerned then try to get your MP involved. The MP office has a direct line to CIC and it gets answered fairly quickly. At the same time, do submit a case specific inquiry. It took me 2 emails to get my inquiries forwarded for special attention. Once additional document is requested you are pretty much half way through the process. If you have provided everything they asked for, you should receive a PPR in about 2 weeks after the additional documents have been received.
Last but not least, thank you for those who have supported me in the past and good luck to the rest of you.
