Hi everyone!
This post is mainly for those who have applied towards the end of July or in August. I understand their chances of getting through are pretty dim (me included..!) but hopefully this is like a ray of hope for them. So just.. hang in there till you hear from the CIO.
I've been reading through some of the threads pertaining to NOC 1122 on this forum and a couple of things stand out:
1) A majority chunk of people have applied early July 2011
2) Only a handful of them have got their BDs or CCs charged till date
3) Almost all members on the forum are applicants.
Do we have anyone who's a registered member of CIC? That would be helpful.
I felt, there were also a few general issues. For instance -
1) There isn't too much clarity on what exactly is the procedure followed by CIO Nova Scotia once the application has been received. To be specific, at what stage, exactly, is the CIC website updated; is it as soon as they receive the application or is it after the completeness check or is it once they encash your fees? Most of the responses here seem speculations based on what people report their application status to be.
2) People who've sent their applications early July, have they used the new set of forms? Or have they proceeded with the old forms? For people who's applications have reached CIO after 18th July, I guess it would be imperative to have the forms with 2D barcodes.
Is there anyone who has sent their forms to CIO NS after 18th July without the 2D barcode form and have got the fees encashed by CIO? I doubt there would be anyone!
I'd like to give a little background here. My cousin is a registered member of CIC, based in Vancouver, Canada. She's been practising as a lawyer and an immigration consultant.
She handles cases from world over. And as far as I am concerned, I trust her judgement when it comes to how and what the immigration authorities think.
As for my personal case with respect to immigrating to Canada, I've been trying since 2 years now. Last year, I wasn't all that prepared with my documents and stuff, so missed out on being included in the cap by a real long shot.
This year I had everything in order, my entire file was set before 1st July (that's when the new rules were issued, along with some other forms) but my cousin had inside information that few forms were about to be revised. That happened only on the 4th of July, if I'm not mistaken. As a result of this, my cousin suggested that I re-do all the forms and send in the latest forms. I know the website mentions that old forms will be accepted till Nov 18, but as per my cousin, we shouldn't be risking that.
Reason being, if they receive 2 applications, one with old forms and one with new on the same day and if its the final day for the cap to be reached and assuming only 1 application can be considered, the one with the latest forms will get through, hands down!!!
I ended up sending across my application to CIO only on 22nd Aug. Yeah! I know! Pretty late!
And till date, until I read the posts on this forum, I didn't know how big a deal that was coz my cousin seemed very positive about it.
What she mentioned was we need to
religiously follow the count on the website. As long as it doesn't say that the cap has been reached, we can send our applications and there's a full possibility that it will be considered.
To my bad luck, my application reached CIO on 22nd morning and the site was updated by noon that the cap for 1122 has been reached. So, I'm quite on the edge here.
What happens with my application remains to be seen but I'd like to clear a few things that could be of help to future applicants -
I'll begin by quoting a case my cousin told me about. There were 2 applicants, one from the London VO and the other from the New Delhi, India VO.
Both applicants had the exact same qualification, same number of years of work experience, same age and all other criteria seemed fine.
Unfortunately, there was only 1 place left for the cap to be filled, and only 1 of them could make it through.
At such a time, the guy who applied through the London VO was chosen. I'm not sure as to why exactly they picked the person!
Of course, this incident was before the cap system was introduced and applicants were selected on basis of pure merit.
Basically, the point being, some of it still applies, when there are too many applicants. True that the system works on a first come - first serve basis but at times its a judgement call that the officers take.
Applicants with the most "relevant" experience are considered.
Tip: If your job reference letter has the exact wordings of the JD specified by the CIC for NOC 1122, your file is given a higher importance than others who don't have it.
Another thing is to have the latest forms in your application with all supporting documents intact and properly organized, thereby reducing the work for the officer.
If you have a close look at the application package and if you've been tracking all the forms since last year like I did, you would have noticed that a few forms were revised in November 2010, some were revised in Feb, March or Apr 2011, I'm not really sure on the dates. I ended up preparing my application package 3 times during the whole year, thanks to change in forms. But the moot point is, every form has a bar code like thing at the bottom of the page where the date is inscribed. During the completeness stage, CIO checks that all those dates are the latest. If they aren't, they straight reject your form. Most of these forms, when they're revised no official notification is put up on the CIC site, unless its a major one like the 2D barcode form that was changed lately. The download link is updated with the new form, that's it!
This is in addition to other criteira being met (proof of funds, fee clearance, documents needed etc)
One more parameter that's considered is your total score. The higher your score, the better your chances!
As per my cousin, the number updated on the website for applications received, is most likely before the completeness check happens. Not sure though! I'm open to discussing other theories. Problem is - there's no one to confirm it!
As applications keep getting rejected during the completeness check and payment clearance, other applicants stand a good chance to get through.
Ultimately, no one but the CIO can say who will get through and who won't but good indicators would be to
keep tracking everyone who have applied post July 2011 or mid-Aug 2011. You could track whether their BDs or CCs are being encashed. More importantly who gets a rejection letter / email stating reason as cap filled. If we even manage to find one person with such a reason, we can safely assume that everyone who has applied after that will be rejected. Until then.. there is always hope! 8)
Good luck to all....
