I bought GIC from CIBC in May 2023, but my study permit application was rejected from IRCC in August 2023 and I decided not to try again. So I asked CIBC for refund.
But I never thought requesting the refund could be so complicated. When I wire transferred the money to CIBC, they did not ask anything else and accepted the money happily and issued me the GIC certificate, but when I asked for refund, they asked me to submit an ASIF form, request letter and rejection letter. The bank demands "The ASIF has to be signed by you and your bank, a lawyer or notary, or A Government organization (crown corporation) any one as indicated on the form".
But I find it very difficult to meet these demands, as in my country (China), a notary is not allowed to sign the ASIF form according to Chinese law, a state-owned bank has no such business and no employees will do things beyond their scope of responsibility. A lawyer charges a large amount of money to sign the form, and I am not sure if the signature of an unknown lawyer will be accepted by CIBC.
Anyway, I did fill in the ASIF form and signed in front of a notary, and the notary issued a notarial certificate of my signature, instead of signing on the form. And when I submitted this document along with a handwritten request letter and the rejection letter, CIBC rejected my request citing vague reason as "In order to reinitiate a refund, please submit your request online with a letter identifying the reason for your request."
I contacted CIBC ISBO <mailbox.isbo@cibc.com> many times, their responses were contradictory and every time it appeared to be a different employee that replied me. Some customer service employees say both Chinese and English ASIF forms are acceptable, but when I submitted the notarized Chinese version, others demanded I provide ASIF form in English. And some say a request letter or rejection letter should be submitted, and others say both request letter and rejection letter have to be submitted. And nobody explicitly tells me if the request letter should also be notarized.
Now after several months, my refund request has not been approved. I paid a lot of time and some money for the process but still got no positive outcome. Sometimes I doubt CIBC deliberately sets obstacles in the way and its purpose could to delay sending back the money and even the money of GIC buyers.
Does anyone have the same experience? How did you get the refund in the end?
But I never thought requesting the refund could be so complicated. When I wire transferred the money to CIBC, they did not ask anything else and accepted the money happily and issued me the GIC certificate, but when I asked for refund, they asked me to submit an ASIF form, request letter and rejection letter. The bank demands "The ASIF has to be signed by you and your bank, a lawyer or notary, or A Government organization (crown corporation) any one as indicated on the form".
But I find it very difficult to meet these demands, as in my country (China), a notary is not allowed to sign the ASIF form according to Chinese law, a state-owned bank has no such business and no employees will do things beyond their scope of responsibility. A lawyer charges a large amount of money to sign the form, and I am not sure if the signature of an unknown lawyer will be accepted by CIBC.
Anyway, I did fill in the ASIF form and signed in front of a notary, and the notary issued a notarial certificate of my signature, instead of signing on the form. And when I submitted this document along with a handwritten request letter and the rejection letter, CIBC rejected my request citing vague reason as "In order to reinitiate a refund, please submit your request online with a letter identifying the reason for your request."
I contacted CIBC ISBO <mailbox.isbo@cibc.com> many times, their responses were contradictory and every time it appeared to be a different employee that replied me. Some customer service employees say both Chinese and English ASIF forms are acceptable, but when I submitted the notarized Chinese version, others demanded I provide ASIF form in English. And some say a request letter or rejection letter should be submitted, and others say both request letter and rejection letter have to be submitted. And nobody explicitly tells me if the request letter should also be notarized.
Now after several months, my refund request has not been approved. I paid a lot of time and some money for the process but still got no positive outcome. Sometimes I doubt CIBC deliberately sets obstacles in the way and its purpose could to delay sending back the money and even the money of GIC buyers.
Does anyone have the same experience? How did you get the refund in the end?
