Hello everyone,
Given the limited information available on Nigerians applying for PR, this post shares my experience. Hopefully it will help someone. I have tried to detail each step, apologies for the lengthy post. Due to character restriction this post would be in 3 parts.
To set the context with which I was applying. I was a 34 year old male in a family of 4 and applied as the primary applicant for my family via the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) category. We are Nigerian citizens living in Lagos.
Verify Eligibility:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/ctc-vac/getting-started.asp see if it is worth embarking on this journey. This is for reference only and no immigration decision is made based on your answers.
Preparation to enter the EE pool:
Before entering the EE pool, you must get two things in place, Education Credential Assessment and International English Language Test System.
ECA: Used World Education Services (WES) (see
http://www.wes.org/ca) for our evaluations because it seemed to be the quickest and cheapest. We sent copies of our degree certificates to WES (DHL), for the sake of speed and traceability. We also applied for our universities to send academic transcripts directly to WES (WES supplies a form that you give to the faculty office with the relevant information). WES indicated 20 working days to degree evaluation. It took about this time before I got an email saying my verification was on hold pending a verification response from my Nigerian University on my degree. Typically, that took almost 4 months!!
I have a BSc from a Nigerian university and MSc from a UK university. My wife has a BA from a Nigerian university and MSc from a UK university. These were evaluated at an equivalent level by WES.
Courier to WES –N14000. Package containing two labelled envelopes with certificates for each of us.
Transcript request and courier to WES - around N16100 (my Nigerian University), other schools were free.
Degree conversion cost - 200 CAD each
Delivery fee - 7 CAD each (I chose standard delivery to a US address. Courier delivery is 85 CAD if time is an issue)
Language test:
My wife and I did the IELTS English test. Book at:
https://ielts.britishcouncil.org/Default.aspx or visit the British Council Office. A PR application requires the "General Training" version. We did the tests in Lagos at the earliest dates available based on our work schedules. Results take 13 days to be released, we picked them up at the British Council Office in Ikoyi.
Test dates – 03Dec16 (myself) and 21Jan17 (wife), got our results 13 days later respectively.
Test costs – N52000 (myself, booked before Oct’16) and N68000 (wife, new price from Oct’16)
Entering the Express Entry pool:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/e-services/mycic.asp. You need to create an express entry profile and then a job bank profile before you are accepted into the EE pool. I would stress at this point that you are straight forward and truthful. Do not state anything you cannot verify with proof. It may likely come back to bite you later on.
We entered the pool with a CRS score of 453 on 03Feb17. We were initially disappointed because the 25Jan17 pool was 453 and we had missed it. Thankfully, the next draw CRS on 08Feb17 was 447.
Invitation to Apply (ITA): I received my invitation to apply on 08Feb17. After you receive an ITA, once you log in to your Express Entry profile, you will have two buttons: *Continue Application OR *Decline Invitation
Note: You will have 90 days from ITA to submit your PR application electronically with all supporting documents. If you feel that you will not be able to provide all the documents in 90 days, you can decline the ITA any time before the expiry of 90 days and you will be back in the pool. In the case you decline your ITA, then you will be eligible to be invited again provided you meet the next CRS cut-off score.
Once you click Continue Application, you will be taken to pages similar to your Express Entry forms that you filled. This is where the real work starts! This page would have all the information carried forward from your Express Entry profile and you also need to fill up Address History, Personal History and Travel History for each family member listed in the application.
DOCUMENT CHECKLIST
In order to submit the application, a medical and a police clearance certificate must be done. One also has to get proof of funds, proof of work experience, proof of education, digital photograph, and scans of passport data page, visas and custom stamps.
Post completion of each section, the system would generate a personal document checklist based on the information submitted by you in the previous pages. My document checklist for a family of four (FSW) without any Canadian relatives looked like this:
Primary Applicant
Marriage License/Certificate; Police Certificates (Multiple); Employment Records; Offer of Employment; Proof of Means of Financial Support; Education Diplomas/Degrees and WES evaluation; Proof of Medical Exam; Digital Photo; Letter of Employment; Passports/Travel Documents (Multiple); Letter of Explanation (optional)
Spouse
Police Certificates (Multiple); Employment Records; Legal change of Name documents; Proof of Medical Exam; Digital Photo; Passports/Travel Documents (Multiple)
Child (ren)
Passports/Travel Documents (Multiple); Birth Registration/Certificate; Proof of Medical Exam; Digital Photo
Note: You should meet the requirements specified for each supporting document to be submitted. Better to exceed requirements where possible to avoid refusal or delay. Do not assume partial information would be figured out, explain like you want a 7 year old to understand so there are no misconceptions. Some documents especially POF may have as many as 50 pages altogether for one file. Fortunately, you can use a minimum of 100dpi (dots per inch) resolution when scanning to be able to merge more pages. There are lots of free pdf merging websites like PDF Merge. File size limit is 4MB. The digital photo however must be at least 600 pixels per inch.
