This is me sharing my story how I got my study permit for Fall 2016. I have been around these forums reading some of your posts. Now that I have got my study permit thought I would share with you all. Hope this helps the rest of you. This is a long post but hope its worth your read.
I am an Indian citizen. My parents reside in Qatar. In 2010 I graduated High School with decent grades and moved to Australia to study Business Management. Completed all the Australian visa formalities then and got my visa in a few weeks. After I moved to Australia, I really didnt like the course, the school, the environment, my grades were horrible. I did a year and dropped out and moved back to Qatar. (Australia is a great place and the universities there are amazing, nothing to blame there. I should have gotten my head straight but I was young and immature...thats a story for another day). Took a year off and got myself together and I felt I was ready to get back to study. I got an offer at the University of Nottingham in England to study Chemical Engineering right from scratch. I applied for the UK student visa and I thought I would never get it because of my record in Australia the border agency would never believe me to be a serious student. But I did, I was so excited. I studied hard the next 4 years, got the best grades, got internship experience in Europe and Qatar and finally graduated.
I applied for masters at the University of British Columbia for masters in Chemical Engineering and got accepted. Next applied for the study permit on March 27th. I applied with a conditional offer because I still hadnt completed the final year at Nottingham at the time. I applied online in the UK (tell you more about this). I did not give any IELTS because my previous education was in English speaking countries. Medical was waived for me because all the countries I resided in long term are not on CIC's designated list (UK, Australia, Qatar). I dont know why but I wasnt asked for biometrics either. Submitted all my transcripts that I had upto then from Nottingham along with what I would call the best SOP I have ever written in my life. Everything I wrote in the SOP was clearly reflected with the top grades in my transcripts and my future prosepects with regards to my previous education and work experiences. By this time I had quite an extensive travel history with regular travels during holidays between Qatar and India, Qatar and Australia, Qatar and UK and Europe during my internship. Also a 25 day holiday that I took during one of the summers travelling to 8 countries across Europe and then returning back to UK before resuming classes at Nottingham. So I filled ll this out on the IMM forms under travel history section. Under the scanned passport copy section I scanned the first, last page and all pages that had stamps and visas and combined into 1 single pdf. For finances I submitted my dad's employment letter, bank statements showing CDN$150k, and letter from my parents stating they would be financially sponsoring my masters at UBC (this is wasn't notarized or anything, just typed and signed). My parents had bought some property in India on my name which is worth about CDN$400K and I uploaded the ownership documents for these too. Uploaded all this online.
After applying I was under the impression that my application was being processed at the CIC London office where the processing time was 1 week. I waited for about 3 weeks and didnt hear back anything so I filled out the webform on CIC's website and again no reply. So I emailed the High Commission in London and they replied back saying they couldn't help me as my application had been sent to abu dhabi (I guess this was because all the bank statements et cetera were from Qatari banks and it would be easier for the Abu Dhabi office to verify these rather than the London office). This really got me anxious as the processing time in Abu Dhabi at that time was 16 Weeks. Phew!. So I finished off my exams and flew to Qatar and then to India. I got a few 'application has been updated' messages during this time. On July 17th when I was in Mumbai I got the passport submission request. You can submit your passport at any VFS in any country, I called and asked this. I was not returning back to Qatar or UK for another 3 weeks so I submitted my passport along with the CIC letter at the VFS in Mumbai. 2 days later I got my passport back with the visa stamp and got the application has been approved messages on the CIC account. Although I submitted my online application in the UK and submitted the passport in Mumbai, the Canadian visa stamp on my passport says 'issued at Abu Dhabi'
Few lessons to Learn
1) When applying for study permit you need to show clear study progression. I did bachelors in Chemical Eng in UK and I applied for Masters in Chem Eng in Canada. Clear study progression. Most of you already have bachelors and masters and then apply for diploma and what not, this isnt progression in studies this is stepping down and therefore most of you get your applications rejected.
2) Canada is known for the high quality education offered at its world class universities. So try applying at universities and stay away from these good for nothing colleges. Universities might cost more for International students but it will be worth it. I applied at UBC which is one of the top universities in Canada and the World so this also probably helped me in my application. When the VO's see that the student has been accepted to one of the top universities then they know this particular student must have worked hard to get to this point. These factors work in your favor.
3) In my SOP (sorry I wont be sharing this) I clearly spoke about the my course in Nottingham, technical skills I gained through internship and put all this together with respect to my future course in the same field at UBC. I read a SOP from on of the members here (Farko) and it was horrible. Farko if you are reading this then please revise your SOP.
Put yourself in a strong position Besides UBC I had also applied for masters at some other good universities in England and Australia and had few other offers. I also wrote about this in my SOP that I have offers from some other world class universities for masters in Chem Eng but I chose UBC because......blah blah and compared the course at UBC with the course offeres at those other universities with examples like course content et cetera. This put me in a strong position as the VO can see that even if they deny me visa, then thats not the end for me as I have some other excellent options as well.
If I have to give you one advise then it will be that you need to know how to sell yourself. No one is perfect but you should know how to show your strengths and show how you overcame your weaknesses.
Best of luck and may God be with you all. Persevere55 out. MIC DROP!
I am an Indian citizen. My parents reside in Qatar. In 2010 I graduated High School with decent grades and moved to Australia to study Business Management. Completed all the Australian visa formalities then and got my visa in a few weeks. After I moved to Australia, I really didnt like the course, the school, the environment, my grades were horrible. I did a year and dropped out and moved back to Qatar. (Australia is a great place and the universities there are amazing, nothing to blame there. I should have gotten my head straight but I was young and immature...thats a story for another day). Took a year off and got myself together and I felt I was ready to get back to study. I got an offer at the University of Nottingham in England to study Chemical Engineering right from scratch. I applied for the UK student visa and I thought I would never get it because of my record in Australia the border agency would never believe me to be a serious student. But I did, I was so excited. I studied hard the next 4 years, got the best grades, got internship experience in Europe and Qatar and finally graduated.
I applied for masters at the University of British Columbia for masters in Chemical Engineering and got accepted. Next applied for the study permit on March 27th. I applied with a conditional offer because I still hadnt completed the final year at Nottingham at the time. I applied online in the UK (tell you more about this). I did not give any IELTS because my previous education was in English speaking countries. Medical was waived for me because all the countries I resided in long term are not on CIC's designated list (UK, Australia, Qatar). I dont know why but I wasnt asked for biometrics either. Submitted all my transcripts that I had upto then from Nottingham along with what I would call the best SOP I have ever written in my life. Everything I wrote in the SOP was clearly reflected with the top grades in my transcripts and my future prosepects with regards to my previous education and work experiences. By this time I had quite an extensive travel history with regular travels during holidays between Qatar and India, Qatar and Australia, Qatar and UK and Europe during my internship. Also a 25 day holiday that I took during one of the summers travelling to 8 countries across Europe and then returning back to UK before resuming classes at Nottingham. So I filled ll this out on the IMM forms under travel history section. Under the scanned passport copy section I scanned the first, last page and all pages that had stamps and visas and combined into 1 single pdf. For finances I submitted my dad's employment letter, bank statements showing CDN$150k, and letter from my parents stating they would be financially sponsoring my masters at UBC (this is wasn't notarized or anything, just typed and signed). My parents had bought some property in India on my name which is worth about CDN$400K and I uploaded the ownership documents for these too. Uploaded all this online.
After applying I was under the impression that my application was being processed at the CIC London office where the processing time was 1 week. I waited for about 3 weeks and didnt hear back anything so I filled out the webform on CIC's website and again no reply. So I emailed the High Commission in London and they replied back saying they couldn't help me as my application had been sent to abu dhabi (I guess this was because all the bank statements et cetera were from Qatari banks and it would be easier for the Abu Dhabi office to verify these rather than the London office). This really got me anxious as the processing time in Abu Dhabi at that time was 16 Weeks. Phew!. So I finished off my exams and flew to Qatar and then to India. I got a few 'application has been updated' messages during this time. On July 17th when I was in Mumbai I got the passport submission request. You can submit your passport at any VFS in any country, I called and asked this. I was not returning back to Qatar or UK for another 3 weeks so I submitted my passport along with the CIC letter at the VFS in Mumbai. 2 days later I got my passport back with the visa stamp and got the application has been approved messages on the CIC account. Although I submitted my online application in the UK and submitted the passport in Mumbai, the Canadian visa stamp on my passport says 'issued at Abu Dhabi'
Few lessons to Learn
1) When applying for study permit you need to show clear study progression. I did bachelors in Chemical Eng in UK and I applied for Masters in Chem Eng in Canada. Clear study progression. Most of you already have bachelors and masters and then apply for diploma and what not, this isnt progression in studies this is stepping down and therefore most of you get your applications rejected.
2) Canada is known for the high quality education offered at its world class universities. So try applying at universities and stay away from these good for nothing colleges. Universities might cost more for International students but it will be worth it. I applied at UBC which is one of the top universities in Canada and the World so this also probably helped me in my application. When the VO's see that the student has been accepted to one of the top universities then they know this particular student must have worked hard to get to this point. These factors work in your favor.
3) In my SOP (sorry I wont be sharing this) I clearly spoke about the my course in Nottingham, technical skills I gained through internship and put all this together with respect to my future course in the same field at UBC. I read a SOP from on of the members here (Farko) and it was horrible. Farko if you are reading this then please revise your SOP.
Put yourself in a strong position Besides UBC I had also applied for masters at some other good universities in England and Australia and had few other offers. I also wrote about this in my SOP that I have offers from some other world class universities for masters in Chem Eng but I chose UBC because......blah blah and compared the course at UBC with the course offeres at those other universities with examples like course content et cetera. This put me in a strong position as the VO can see that even if they deny me visa, then thats not the end for me as I have some other excellent options as well.
If I have to give you one advise then it will be that you need to know how to sell yourself. No one is perfect but you should know how to show your strengths and show how you overcame your weaknesses.
Best of luck and may God be with you all. Persevere55 out. MIC DROP!
