POF Procedural Fairness Letter

[davinder2385]

Hello Everyone,

I need one help. I have received yesterday Procedural Fairness Letter from CIC pertaining to POF

As part of POF document i had submitted a letter stating the actual funds (about INR 16,75,000 from HDFC Bank) of my Savings Account Plus 6 Months Bank statement

The case officer is concerned about a set of transactions - Which were credited to my account (listed below)
and have asked for explanation on the Source of funds via these transactions.
100,000 INR on December 1st 2018

75,000 INR on December 11th 2018

67,000 INR on December 11th 2018

4,50,000 INR on December 12th 2018

2,00,000 INR on December 12th 2018

1,50,450 INR on December 13th 2018

I have explanation of all of these transaction (These funds are from my own accounts from different banks and primary reason was to consolidate all money in single account. I have obtained necessary proofs)

However i don't know how to explain the below one: (It is significant amount)
4,50,000 INR on December 12th 2018

This is money from loan which i had taken from HDFC before ITA (i was not expecting ITA)
The loan was taken on 12th Dec and ITA was 19th December. Having said that the POF letter which i had mentioned cumulative amount including 4,50,000.
I also missed giving an LOE to IRCC not to consider 4,50,000 at time of AOR
What i had thought at time of submitting AOR is that immigration officer will consider (16,75,000 - 4,50,000)
12,25,000 and this is above threshold required for family of 2.

The question which is bothering is- How do i explain this transaction?
Also, i have repaid this 4,50,000 and also have an NOC letter issued from Bank on 1st April 2019 but that is 4 months after AOR

I think it was a silly mistake from my end (missing LOE) and i am applying on my own.

I understood from online sources that procedural fairness is just a step before rejection and am finding myself in troubled waters. Can anybody help?

What should i do in this case to explain 4,50,000 - Basically requesting officer not to consider this transaction

 

[Jordan_10]

Did you declare you have a loan in your proof of funds/bank letter?

 

[Joseph12]

following this. I also have transactions from my fathers account to my account. I haven't provided a gift deed, ill be asked for something similar. Not sure what to do now. provide gift deed after 5 months, makes sense? or should i just wait for them to ask.

ps. i submitted bank statements before hand. (stupid of me)

 

[skape7]

Hello Everyone,

I need one help. I have received yesterday Procedural Fairness Letter from CIC pertaining to POF

As part of POF document i had submitted a letter stating the actual funds (about INR 16,75,000 from HDFC Bank) of my Savings Account Plus 6 Months Bank statement

The case officer is concerned about a set of transactions - Which were credited to my account (listed below)
and have asked for explanation on the Source of funds via these transactions.
100,000 INR on December 1st 2018

75,000 INR on December 11th 2018

67,000 INR on December 11th 2018

4,50,000 INR on December 12th 2018

2,00,000 INR on December 12th 2018

1,50,450 INR on December 13th 2018

I have explanation of all of these transaction (These funds are from my own accounts from different banks and primary reason was to consolidate all money in single account. I have obtained necessary proofs)

However i don't know how to explain the below one: (It is significant amount)
4,50,000 INR on December 12th 2018

This is money from loan which i had taken from HDFC before ITA (i was not expecting ITA)
The loan was taken on 12th Dec and ITA was 19th December. Having said that the POF letter which i had mentioned cumulative amount including 4,50,000.
I also missed giving an LOE to IRCC not to consider 4,50,000 at time of AOR
What i had thought at time of submitting AOR is that immigration officer will consider (16,75,000 - 4,50,000)
12,25,000 and this is above threshold required for family of 2.

The question which is bothering is- How do i explain this transaction?
Also, i have repaid this 4,50,000 and also have an NOC letter issued from Bank on 1st April 2019 but that is 4 months after AOR

I think it was a silly mistake from my end (missing LOE) and i am applying on my own.

I understood from online sources that procedural fairness is just a step before rejection and am finding myself in troubled waters. Can anybody help?

What should i do in this case to explain 4,50,000 - Basically requesting officer not to consider this transaction

The Letter of Explanation serves a single purpose - that of clarifying anything about your case that needs an explanation or is likely to be misunderstood.

Rs.4,50,000 is approximately 25% of your available bank balance which was deposited in your account in a single transaction. Also, 62% of your total funds were deposited in a duration of less than 2 weeks. Why would you think that this would not be a concern for the VO? You could have avoided this situation simply by providing an explanation in your LOE along with your APR...

Anyways, the only thing you could do now is to come clean about the fact that this was a personal loan disbursed by a bank for some personal expenses, and was transacted before you received an ITA. Provide evidence that you repaid the loan now and reiterate that there are no further liabilities associated with your account. Be very clear about the background of the loan and explain it in a detailed manner. If possible, use legal help to frame your response to the PFL.
I must admit that it does not look good for you as it would appear that you tried to deceive IRCC by bulking up your account balance - even if your honest intention was not to do so.
The reason why I would consider legal help is because of the likely consequences. If IRCC is not convinced with your response, your application may not just be rejected, but you risk being slapped with a misrepresentation case (and a 5 year ban).
So be super careful with your response. Good luck.

 

[davinder2385]

Did you declare you have a loan in your proof of funds/bank letter?

Hello

No, that was a miss from my side. I did not explicitly mention in LOE that i have a loan.
However while filling the application i had said that i will be bringing $CAD 20,000 which was excluding the loan amount.

 

[Joseph12]

What options do you have now? I missed adding gift deed for the bank account statements that i have submitted. I'm expecting a PFL too. So I am in a similar situation. Can I personal message you?

Hello

No, that was a miss from my side. I did not explicitly mention in LOE that i have a loan.
However while filling the application i had said that i will be bringing $CAD 20,000 which was excluding the loan amount.

 

[L_K_84]

This got me worried here. I have Eligibility: Review Required for POF from my gcms notes. At first I thought it's a conversion issue, but after reading this, I came to think that it maybe for another reason, since in my POF I presented 2 accounts: my husbands and mine (we provided a legal authorization for me to access his account). My bank account has around 40% of the funds in USD which is fine, and my husbands account is a deposit account in local currency and contains 60% of the funds.

Now the issue is that we transferred the amount to my husband's deposit account in 3 transfers all during 1 week time (sometime in June 2018). The 1st transfer was made from another account of my husband, the 2nd was a cash deposit, and the 3rd was a cash deposit (the last 2 deposits is the money my husband got from his employer in cash due to salary arrears). The reason we did this is to keep all the money in one deposit account and present it as POF, as well as gain interest on the money, since it has to remain untouched until we arrive in Canada.

I didn't attach any LOE regarding this issue with my application.

So now what, will I get a Procedural Fairness Letter for this? Anyone had a similar situation please?

@legalfalcon @skape7 @Immigration_guru

 

[spirit.varun]

As part of POF document i had submitted a letter stating the actual funds (about INR 16,75,000 from HDFC Bank) of my Savings Account Plus 6 Months Bank statement

However i don't know how to explain the below one: (It is significant amount)
4,50,000 INR on December 12th 2018

It seems that your intent was to use this in total amount as you mentioned the total amount (which includes the loan amount) in your POF very clearly, otherwise you would have presented a lower amount (which would be subtracting the personal loan)

What i had thought at time of submitting AOR is that immigration officer will consider (16,75,000 - 4,50,000)
12,25,000 and this is above threshold required for family of 2.

You should have presented a lower amount (subtracting the loan amount), not sure why would you assume anything other as you clearly outlined a amount that included your loan.

Put yourself in officer's shoes.

 

[legalfalcon]

This got me worried here. I have Eligibility: Review Required for POF from my gcms notes. At first I thought it's a conversion issue, but after reading this, I came to think that it maybe for another reason, since in my POF I presented 2 accounts: my husbands and mine (we provided a legal authorization for me to access his account). My bank account has around 40% of the funds in USD which is fine, and my husbands account is a deposit account in local currency and contains 60% of the funds.

Now the issue is that we transferred the amount to my husband's deposit account in 3 transfers all during 1 week time (sometime in June 2018). The 1st transfer was made from another account of my husband, the 2nd was a cash deposit, and the 3rd was a cash deposit (the last 2 deposits is the money my husband got from his employer in cash due to salary arrears). The reason we did this is to keep all the money in one deposit account and present it as POF, as well as gain interest on the money, since it has to remain untouched until we arrive in Canada.

I didn't attach any LOE regarding this issue with my application.

So now what, will I get a Procedural Fairness Letter for this? Anyone had a similar situation please?

This is not a reason for PoF.

Just having RR is not a reason that you will get PFL or there is an issue, see:

Understanding “Review Required”

A lot of applicants see “review required” in their GCMS notes for eligibility. There are many theories floating around with regard to what “review required” means and if it is alarming.

Before I venture into explaining the significance, it is important to understand that each application goes through the following stages as per the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the regulations (Canadian Immigration Law):

R10 – Completeness Check
Criminality
Medicals
A11.2 – eligibility
Security

Out of the above, the most important stage is eligibility. This is also the most time-consuming stage because your documents have to be verified, evaluated and assessed to ascertain that you meet the eligibility criteria for the program you have applied (FSW / CEC / FTW). To stream line this process and make it easier for an immigration officer (decision making authority), all applications are first evaluated by case analysts or program assistants. They review the documents and summarize it in the GCMS. If they have any concerns with any document or want the immigration officer to carefully look into a specific document, they will flag it as “review required.” It is the content of the note that is important here. If the review required is for a specific document, while the summary of the note says that an applicant has met the eligibility, or “ready to finalize” it simply means that while the applicant has met the eligibility criteria, but the specific document needs a careful examination form the officer before promoting (eligibility pass) by the officer.

However, if there are concerns, there will be a review required for the eligibility, and there will be no text to the effect “ready to finalize” or pass. The note will specifically state job duties do not match, or the employment cannot be verified, or the number of years of work experience claimed cannot be verified. This is where an application can land in muddy waters. But the final decision rests on the immigration officer. He may override the decision of the analyst / assistant or go with the analysis of the analyst / assistant.

Even in cases where the analyst / assistant is of the opinion that the applicant has met the eligibility, and there is no “review required,” the officer can replace it with his own opinion. Though rare, but it does happen. This is why the eligibility is only passed when an officer conclusively marks the eligibility as passed.

Finally, there is “review required” for PoF. This is the most common in many applications. This is because, the financial and banking practices of each country are different. Eg. Fixed deposits are know as Certificate of Deposit (CD) in the US. Similarly, treasury bonds, mutual funds, stocks, and many other investment vehicles are there. If your PoF anything other than a bank deposit, it is more likely that it will be marked as “review required.” Also, IRCC does not go by day to day fluctuations in FOREX. Instead, the Canadian federal government issued a quarterly conversion rate for all FOREX vis-a-via CAD. If your PoF is in a foreign currency, then you may have “review required” for the officer to make a determination.

Just because you have “review required” does not mean that you hit the panic mode. Instead, read the context in which it is there. If there is a concern regarding a document, you can send a replacement document via CSE. The most common reasons for RR are:

1. Work reference letter without job duties
2. Work reference letters missing all the details requested by IRCC
3. If you submitted a letter from a colleague because you were unable to get one from your employer, but did not have a LoE on file, this too will lead to RR.
4. Not sufficient work experience in the primary NOC.
5. Inability to verify your employment as your employer details are missing.

There are just some of the scenarios.

 

[Joseph12]

@legalfalcon,

I have a concern here addressing POF, my father deposited 100% of the funds from his business account. I haven't submitted a gift deed or anything AOR Jan 2019, nor I have been issued any PFL's as such (however expecting PFLs)

- to address PFL,
1. I will show a gift deed from my dad, gift deed from my dad's business account
2. business balance sheet, tax account supporting evidence stating that even though they have gifted the 100% of the amount as a gift deed, the business isn't getting affected written by a CA
3. I haven't used that account after Jan at all, and my dad hasn't taken out any money from it either to prove that it indeed is a gift and isn't a loan

Can you please address some of the concerns. and advise if any additional documentation that should be added to this list? I was also thinking of withdrawing my application but since its 5 n a half months into AOR, I think its worth a shot.

 

[L_K_84]

This is not a reason for PoF.

Just having RR is not a reason that you will get PFL or there is an issue, see:

Understanding “Review Required”

A lot of applicants see “review required” in their GCMS notes for eligibility. There are many theories floating around with regard to what “review required” means and if it is alarming.

Before I venture into explaining the significance, it is important to understand that each application goes through the following stages as per the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the regulations (Canadian Immigration Law):

R10 – Completeness Check
Criminality
Medicals
A11.2 – eligibility
Security

Out of the above, the most important stage is eligibility. This is also the most time-consuming stage because your documents have to be verified, evaluated and assessed to ascertain that you meet the eligibility criteria for the program you have applied (FSW / CEC / FTW). To stream line this process and make it easier for an immigration officer (decision making authority), all applications are first evaluated by case analysts or program assistants. They review the documents and summarize it in the GCMS. If they have any concerns with any document or want the immigration officer to carefully look into a specific document, they will flag it as “review required.” It is the content of the note that is important here. If the review required is for a specific document, while the summary of the note says that an applicant has met the eligibility, or “ready to finalize” it simply means that while the applicant has met the eligibility criteria, but the specific document needs a careful examination form the officer before promoting (eligibility pass) by the officer.

However, if there are concerns, there will be a review required for the eligibility, and there will be no text to the effect “ready to finalize” or pass. The note will specifically state job duties do not match, or the employment cannot be verified, or the number of years of work experience claimed cannot be verified. This is where an application can land in muddy waters. But the final decision rests on the immigration officer. He may override the decision of the analyst / assistant or go with the analysis of the analyst / assistant.

Even in cases where the analyst / assistant is of the opinion that the applicant has met the eligibility, and there is no “review required,” the officer can replace it with his own opinion. Though rare, but it does happen. This is why the eligibility is only passed when an officer conclusively marks the eligibility as passed.

Finally, there is “review required” for PoF. This is the most common in many applications. This is because, the financial and banking practices of each country are different. Eg. Fixed deposits are know as Certificate of Deposit (CD) in the US. Similarly, treasury bonds, mutual funds, stocks, and many other investment vehicles are there. If your PoF anything other than a bank deposit, it is more likely that it will be marked as “review required.” Also, IRCC does not go by day to day fluctuations in FOREX. Instead, the Canadian federal government issued a quarterly conversion rate for all FOREX vis-a-via CAD. If your PoF is in a foreign currency, then you may have “review required” for the officer to make a determination.

Just because you have “review required” does not mean that you hit the panic mode. Instead, read the context in which it is there. If there is a concern regarding a document, you can send a replacement document via CSE. The most common reasons for RR are:

1. Work reference letter without job duties
2. Work reference letters missing all the details requested by IRCC
3. If you submitted a letter from a colleague because you were unable to get one from your employer, but did not have a LoE on file, this too will lead to RR.
4. Not sufficient work experience in the primary NOC.
5. Inability to verify your employment as your employer details are missing.

There are just some of the scenarios.

Yes I understand that not every RR case means big trouble.

My concern here is the fact that we deposited 60% of the funds into the account within 1 week time. Won't they start questioning whether this money was borrowed just to present as POF (which is not the case). However since they were deposited as cash, its hard to explain the source of the money. That is my concern. Your insights please.

 

[L_K_84]

@legalfalcon,

I have a concern here addressing POF, my father deposited 100% of the funds from his business account. I haven't submitted a gift deed or anything AOR Jan 2019, nor I have been issued any PFL's as such (however expecting PFLs)

- to address PFL,
1. I will show a gift deed from my dad, gift deed from my dad's business account
2. business balance sheet, tax account supporting evidence stating that even though they have gifted the 100% of the amount as a gift deed, the business isn't getting affected written by a CA
3. I haven't used that account after Jan at all, and my dad hasn't taken out any money from it either to prove that it indeed is a gift and isn't a loan

Can you please address some of the concerns. and advise if any additional documentation that should be added to this list? I was also thinking of withdrawing my application but since its 5 n a half months into AOR, I think its worth a shot.

Hi there, have you done anything regarding your issue with POF?

 

[L_K_84]

Hello

No, that was a miss from my side. I did not explicitly mention in LOE that i have a loan.
However while filling the application i had said that i will be bringing $CAD 20,000 which was excluding the loan amount.

Please update us, what happened regarding your issue?

 

[Joseph12]

I haven't. I'm expecting a PFL for not declaring gift deeds. Not submitting any form proactively till then. Not sure if being proactive will trigger to other consequences.

Hi there, have you done anything regarding your issue with POF?

 

[L_K_84]

I haven't. I'm expecting a PFL for not declaring gift deeds. Not submitting any form proactively till then. Not sure if being proactive will trigger to other consequences.

Hope it won't lead to a PFL..good luck, and keep us posted