Applicant from PhD program after 5 Nov, 2011 connect here to get status

[N_O]

You can claim your RA/TA as a full time work experience. For example, My reference letter claimed 10.5 hrs/week for my TA and 37 hrs/week for my RA. In total, they are a full time work experience.

Do you think that Ottawa's officer will approve that, I am asking because I tried to estimated it, depending on the minimum wage of the TA, my fund should be more than 40K, which is not!

Is the minimum wage of RA is the same as TA?

Thanks again Aidina

 

[ppb12]

I have received the document request today: It seems like they are working on sunday too.

Proof of funds: Please provide evidence of funds which are completely available, transferrable and unencumbered by debt or other obligations. Evidence of account activity for the past six months must also be submitted. This must be received at this office by: 04/08/2013

I did not include PCC during my application but they did not ask for that document now. Do you think it would be wise decision to send PCCs with bank document.

I know I have to write a cover letter. Who has already sent bank document if you could let me know the best way to address the letter. If there is any special thing I need to highlight or indicate.

Thanks in advance for your valuable suggestion and cooperation.

 

[aidina]

Do you think that Ottawa's officer will approve that, I am asking because I tried to estimated it, depending on the minimum wage of the TA, my fund should be more than 40K, which is not!

Is the minimum wage of RA is the same as TA?

Thanks again Aidina

In my university, all TA's sign a contract with the school in which they are assigned to work a specific number of hours per week (10.5 hrs per week), and the payment rate is about 26$ per hour. As an RA, I do not think that we are paid hourly. As we are full time PhD. students, and are supposed to do research full time, we can claim our RA as a full time work experience as my university did that in my reference letter (I never asked them to write any specific number of hours).

 

[aidina]

I have received the document request today: It seems like they are working on sunday too.

Proof of funds: Please provide evidence of funds which are completely available, transferrable and unencumbered by debt or other obligations. Evidence of account activity for the past six months must also be submitted. This must be received at this office by: 04/08/2013

I did not include PCC during my application but they did not ask for that document now. Do you think it would be wise decision to send PCCs with bank document.

I know I have to write a cover letter. Who has already sent bank document if you could let me know the best way to address the letter. If there is any special thing I need to highlight or indicate.

Thanks in advance for your valuable suggestion and cooperation.

Congrat. How weird! Why did not they ask for your PCC? BTW, they have started processing late Feb applicants. I should hear from them soon FINALLY !

 

[asbereth]

In my university, all TA's sign a contract with the school in which they are assigned to work a specific number of hours per week (10.5 hrs per week), and the payment rate is about 26$ per hour. As an RA, I do not think that we are paid hourly. As we are full time PhD. students, and are supposed to do research full time, we can claim our RA as a full time work experience as my university did that in my reference letter (I never asked them to write any specific number of hours).

Most student got funded through non-taxable RA, so there would not be a specific number of hours requirement that they need to work on. But I remember some immigration rep came over to our school, and she mentioned how they may be a bit concerned if the wage turned out to be lower than minimum wage (which is, I think, 10.25 / hour).

However, claiming 10.25 per hour would also be a bit tight, since the average hourly wage for RA is around 20, so it's much lower than average. This was why I always try to advice people to claim as low as they can get away with (usually about 20 to 25 hours per week in total to put the hourly wage around the 15 to 20 dollars per hour range). However, I think there have been cases where the officer would award applicants with 37.5 hours per week anyway for RA/TA, so it's hard to say.

Anyway, aidina, did you already get your document request as well? If I'm not mistaken, you got it around March 8 (I need this info so I can update it on the spreadsheet)? Thanks

I did not include PCC during my application but they did not ask for that document now. Do you think it would be wise decision to send PCCs with bank document.

I know I have to write a cover letter. Who has already sent bank document if you could let me know the best way to address the letter. If there is any special thing I need to highlight or indicate.

Hi ppb12, congrats that they finally started to process your application. Do you feel that you need to explain yourself? Do you currently (at the date of the request) have more than the required threshold? And did you have any large deposits to any of the bank accounts you will show within the last 6 months? Regarding PCC, it probably wouldn't hurt to send them a new copy, provided that you can easily get a new one without much hassle when (and if) they actually request it.

 

[N_O]

In my university, all TA's sign a contract with the school in which they are assigned to work a specific number of hours per week (10.5 hrs per week), and the payment rate is about 26$ per hour. As an RA, I do not think that we are paid hourly. As we are full time PhD. students, and are supposed to do research full time, we can claim our RA as a full time work experience as my university did that in my reference letter (I never asked them to write any specific number of hours).

Thanks Aidina! I think you'll hear from them within 2 week or 3 at most. Good Luck!

 

[ppb12]

Hi ppb12, congrats that they finally started to process your application. Do you feel that you need to explain yourself? Do you currently (at the date of the request) have more than the required threshold? And did you have any large deposits to any of the bank accounts you will show within the last 6 months?
[/quote]

Thanks Asbereth, I have around $20,000 in my account now. I did a 4000 dollar deposit on mid of January, otherwise all the money has come from mostly salary/university source. Do you think I need to explain that 4000 dollar, though I have more than $14000. I pretty much maintained 14000 with some ups and down. What do you think?

aidina: it is wired, even I did not include any pccs. That is way, I am wondering whether I should include PCC with bank document?

 

[asbereth]

Thanks Asbereth, I have around $20,000 in my account now. I did a 4000 dollar deposit on mid of January, otherwise all the money has come from mostly salary/university source. Do you think I need to explain that 4000 dollar, though I have more than $14000. I pretty much maintained 14000 with some ups and down. What do you think?

I would say you probably wouldn't need to, since even if you subtract the 4,000 from your current balance, it would still be above the required threshold for two people (14,000). Would it be so hard to explain that deposit though? I am actually in a similar situation (though it's a bit different since in your case, even if you subtract 4,000 from your current balance, it would still be above the required threshold so you technically do not need that deposit to meet the required threshold).

aidina: it is wired, even I did not include any pccs. That is way, I am wondering whether I should include PCC with bank document?

I'm assuming you have your PCC ready? If you haven't, it's probably a good idea to try get it the soonest you can.

 

[ppb12]

I would say you probably wouldn't need to, since even if you subtract the 4,000 from your current balance, it would still be above the required threshold for two people (14,000). Would it be so hard to explain that deposit though?

I'm assuming you have your PCC ready? If you haven't, it's probably a good idea to try get it the soonest you can.

I am also thinking along the line, as I have more than 14000 thousand if they deduct 4000, I am good. Explanation is possible, my friend browed the money and gave me back. But I am thinking it might be best not to give them some thought about the credibility.

I have PCC ready from two countries which was issued 30th June 2012, I think those are still fine as the validity is one year I believe.

 

[N_O]

Most student got funded through non-taxable RA, so there would not be a specific number of hours requirement that they need to work on. But I remember some immigration rep came over to our school, and she mentioned how they may be a bit concerned if the wage turned out to be lower than minimum wage (which is, I think, 10.25 / hour).

However, claiming 10.25 per hour would also be a bit tight, since the average hourly wage for RA is around 20, so it's much lower than average. This was why I always try to advice people to claim as low as they can get away with (usually about 20 to 25 hours per week in total to put the hourly wage around the 15 to 20 dollars per hour range). However, I think there have been cases where the officer would award applicants with 37.5 hours per week anyway for RA/TA, so it's hard to say.

Thanks for the advice! I think I'll claim 20 hours to be in the safe side, and to ask my previous university to include all the duties as a TA in the reference letter. Hopefully this time the letter would be solid as a rock

 

[asbereth]

Thanks for the advice! I think I'll claim 20 hours to be in the safe side, and to ask my previous university to include all the duties as a TA in the reference letter. Hopefully this time the letter would be solid as a rock

As aidina said, though, make sure you did not contradict anything you had before (and this also goes for the number of hours), and also, we've had several rejections due to RA "lead statement" issues, so you may want to pay some attention to that as well. This could be because it's too general.

If you say that your RA duties are "conducting laboratory experiments, literature reviews, data analysis, and publishing in peer-reviewed journals", then the officer may not (or may, they're not too consistent about this) accept these descriptions. Add some explanations about your research as well, while, at the same time, still having your descriptions matching substantially the descriptions for NOC 4012. Good luck and keep us updated

I am also thinking along the line, as I have more than 14000 thousand if they deduct 4000, I am good. Explanation is possible, my friend browed the money and gave me back. But I am thinking it might be best not to give them some thought about the credibility.

I have PCC ready from two countries which was issued 30th June 2012, I think those are still fine as the validity is one year I believe.

I think you're fine, even without explanation. And I don't think they will reject without letting you give explanation of the deposits (since the 4,000 is completely irrelevant in deciding whether or not you meet the threshold), but I think you're fine. About your PCC, since it's from June 2012, then you should send it along with the proof of funds as well, while at the same time, prepare to get new ones (if it's not too much trouble). They may ask you to submit again after June, so it's better to be prepared to avoid much delay later on.

You can never predict what they may do, and it's better to prepare as much as possible if it can be done without much hassle. Case in point, they recently asked me again for FBI certificate, even though I submitted a brand new FBI certificate along with initial application, and it was them to begin with who opened my file after more than a year, only to find it already expired Likewise, I've never lived in my country since the age of 18 for more than 6 months, but they still requested PCC from over there (which greatly bothers my family since they had to make the request without me being there).

 

[N_O]

As aidina said, though, make sure you did not contradict anything you had before (and this also goes for the number of hours), and also, we've had several rejections due to RA "lead statement" issues, so you may want to pay some attention to that as well. This could be because it's too general.

If you say that your RA duties are "conducting laboratory experiments, literature reviews, data analysis, and publishing in peer-reviewed journals", then the officer may not (or may, they're not too consistent about this) accept these descriptions. Add some explanations about your research as well, while, at the same time, still having your descriptions matching substantially the descriptions for NOC 4012. Good luck and keep us updated

Thanks Asbereth! I'll try my best not to contradict what I provided before, I didn't even provide them with the RA/TA from Canada in the refused application, as I thought more than enough experience from my country, 4 years as a full time TA and 9 months as a full time Assistant Lecturer, unfortunately they just counted the 9 months but not the 4 years, they said that the reference letter substantiates just one duty for the TA with 4 years.
Right now I have to get another letter which states all the duties, in addition to the RA/TA from Cananda.
So do you think there will be any contradiction, as I did not send the RA/TA before?

Thanks again!

 

[websphereguy]

I have received the document request today: It seems like they are working on sunday too.

Proof of funds: Please provide evidence of funds which are completely available, transferrable and unencumbered by debt or other obligations. Evidence of account activity for the past six months must also be submitted. This must be received at this office by: 04/08/2013

I did not include PCC during my application but they did not ask for that document now. Do you think it would be wise decision to send PCCs with bank document.

I know I have to write a cover letter. Who has already sent bank document if you could let me know the best way to address the letter. If there is any special thing I need to highlight or indicate.

Thanks in advance for your valuable suggestion and cooperation.

Since the due date was written as 04/08/2013, most likely they drafted the mail on the 03/08/2013, last friday and put the email to auto send off on Sunday. No one in Canada, more so a government servant would work on a Sunday

 

[TyrusX]

Since the due date was written as 04/08/2013, most likely they drafted the mail on the 03/08/2013, last friday and put the email to auto send off on Sunday. No one in Canada, more so a government servant would work on a Sunday.

Nops. CPP - Ottawa has been on call 24/7 it has been many months. Kenney has talked about e-mails be sent at 3AM a few times.

 

[ppb12]

Nops. CPP - Ottawa has been on call 24/7 it has been many months. Kenney has talked about e-mails be sent at 3AM a few times.

Hi TirusX and Asbereth, Did you send canadian PCC also. Is it required or suggested?

Whether any other person has sent canadian PCC or any other asked for ever?