Hi all,
All the very best to everyone on this forum who is trying to apply through the express entry or have already applied and are on different stages. Below is my experience with the entire process. We are a family of three and I am the primary applicant. Penning this to help the community in anyway possible.
Timeline:
Feb 2nd, 2019 - Initial brain storming and understanding possibility with a couple of consultancies
Feb 9th, 2019 - initiated process with a consultancy
Feb 21st, 2019 - WES profiles created
Feb 23-Feb, 2019 - transcripts requested from Universities
April 18th, 2019 - additional documents faxed to WES as requested
April 3rd to 23rd, 2019 - IELTS exams with results
May 13th, 2019 - WES report obtained (for self - Degrees from VTU (Karnataka) and NTU (UK)
May 17th - EOI profile created
June 24th, 2019 - Wife's WES report obtained (Bangalore University and PTU). Same day profile updated.
June 26th, 2019 - ITA received
July 29th 2019 - ITA submitted
Aug 22nd, 2019 - Biometrics request
Aug 27th, 2019 - Biometrics completed
Feb 27th, 2020 - PPR
March 18th, 2020 - Stamped passport with CoPR received
March 25th - D Day - Canada closes borders
June 5th - Vande Bharat Mission Phase 3 flight tickets launched on AirIndia website - tickets booked
June 23rd - Landed in Toronto!
Now, for the complete story.. Fair warning - long story.
We started discussing life outside India in Jan 2019. Started as a joke in the family, led us to a couple of consultancies to see if we would even be eligible. One made me wait and would not talk to me before I paid for "testing the profile". The other one was warm, genuine and gave the options and was not pushy. Ultimately selected the consultancy to go ahead with - For those who are looking to know who - we went with Abhinav consulting - Rithika runs an amazing branch in Bangalore. Little did we know the amount of work that would go into applying for a PR. We started by collecting all the documents - education/work experience/places we stayed in the last 10 years in digital formats and shared it with a process executive (Chetan, great guy). It took us a couple of weeks just to get these documents together.
First step was to apply for WES since that would take the longest time and it sure did. VTU was pretty easy to work with - everything was online and easy. NTU was even better, one email and they sent it to WES for free and did it the same day. Bangalore University is still old school. We had to go to the university and apply for the transcripts. They asked us to come back after a couple of weeks to collect them and send it to WES. They do not have the process of sending it to WES directly. We went back after a couple of weeks, collected the papers and went to different counters to sign off. Took the transcripts to the postoffice on the ground floor and sent it off to WES. They have done this many times and they will know when you say WES. PTU was easy as well. It was completely online. We had opted for IELTS training assistance as well to make sure we dont have to redo the tests multiple times and it paid off. Both my wife and I scored a 8 each. After what I thought was an eternal wait, we received the ECA from WES. We did not waste time and submitted the EOI profile. To our luck we received the ITA soon after. We were very close (we got it by 1 point). We were lucky is an understatement. I turned a year older the following week and would have lost 5 points straight.
It took us almost two months to submit a ton of documents that are needed for the ITA. We finally submitted the ITA profile by end of July. This included the medicals and PCC. We received the Biometric request after a month which we diligently submitted. Once this was done, we learnt the true meaning of being patient. The Canada.ca website says average time to process is 6 months. It took us 7 months after the ITA to get the PPR. It was a very painful wait. Specially when the people who applied on similar timelines received it in 4 to 6 months. The process after PPR was surprisingly fast but the timing could not have been worse. Thanks to COVID 19, Canada closed its borders and we were unable to fly in. We patiently waited to see if the COVID 19 situation would get any better. It wasnt. We took a call to take the risk and fly to Canada. I started following AirIndia and EAM on Twitter to get updates on any flights. Like announced, the third phase of the flights were on issued on 5th June 2020. The Airindia website just would not load. We tried for over 90 minutes with no luck. I downloaded the app and surprisingly was able to book the tickets very smoothly.
The flights booked were from Delhi to Toronto. We were flying from Bengaluru. Our Toronto flight was on 23rd. We booked the Indigo flight out to Delhi. The flight was scheduled for 3pm from Bengaluru and land in Delhi at 6pm on the 22nd. 18th June, they cancel the flight with COVID 19 given as the reason. It was our luck, we booked the Air Vistara from Bengaluru. Started at 9am on Monday from home, reached the Bengaluru airport. The process was simple - get the Arogyasetu app, fill the questionnaire, get in, get the boarding pass and hand over the luggage. Very smooth process and Air vistara guys were super helpful. Landed in Delhi at noon. Most of the shops were closed and there were no trolleys to take the luggage. We had 3 luggages and 3 hand bags. We managed to find a seat in one of the lounges. We entered the louge at 1pm and came out at 9pm (yeah, you read it right). No recliner seats were available, they were all occupied. We sat on a small table. The Airindia flight was advertised at 1 pm but the timing changed to 2.30am. We left the lounge at 9pm thinking it is okay to go a bit early. We were not alone! The process is kind of weird. We had to exit the airport and go to the next floor, stand in the queue outside the airport again to get in! The queue was massive. It was super humid. After a long wait, we got in, filled out the mandatory COVID 19 forms, checked in the baggage and collected the boarding passes. The immigration line was super long too. It took us 90 minutes to clear immigration. We finally came to the gates at 1245am. Starbucks was our only savior.
The flight was uneventful. They had kept two bags of food. We did not taste most of it. The sandwich was stale and put us off. We travelled with our 5 year old. We were thinking we may be the only ones with a kid. We were so wrong. There were many couples with kids flying out. The flight was full. The airhost and the hostesses were not very interested and were rude to a couple of passengers at times. The flight started at 3.30am from India and landed at 845am in Toronto (was scheduled to land at 630am).
I had my connecting flight to Vancouver booked at 1230pm same day. The immigration was super fast in Toronto. The first officer asks for the passport and purpose of visit (landing). Approves and asks us to go the next counter. The next counter is where the CoPR gets stamped. The only question we were asked is "have you been rejected to enter Canada previously?". No other questions asked. The officer was very sweet. She even asked my wife to be seated with the kid while i signed off on the papers. I carried a little over 10 grand and was asked to go through customs. I filled out the form and went to get my boarding pass for my next flight. The entire process including waiting on the queue took less than 90 minutes.
We had booked AirCanada flight from Toronto to Vancouver. The folks at the counter were aged and were skeptical. They took over an hour to ensure India and people traveling from India are not on the red list before they issued the boarding passes. Cleared security and literally ran to the flights. The flight seats had social distancing in place and the air hosts and hostesses were super nice to us. They even had a friendly banter with my 5 year old. Landed in Vanouver at 3pm, took an airport taxi. The cabbie was Punjabi born and raised in Vancouver. He was super helpful. Gave us tips on where to order groceries from and offered help if we needed any even after dropping us. He even helped us get a sim card while coming from the airport. He went to the store and got the SIM in my name. I just had to pay him for the SIM. We checked in our Airbnb and are still recovering from our jet lag.
Overall, it took us almost a year and half to reach Canada from the initial starting process. Went through a lot of nay sayers, lot of road blocks but finally made it.
Good luck to all the members of this forum and thanks a ton to this forum for all the assitance and support. This forum has been a pillar of support through the testing times.
All the very best to everyone on this forum who is trying to apply through the express entry or have already applied and are on different stages. Below is my experience with the entire process. We are a family of three and I am the primary applicant. Penning this to help the community in anyway possible.
Timeline:
Feb 2nd, 2019 - Initial brain storming and understanding possibility with a couple of consultancies
Feb 9th, 2019 - initiated process with a consultancy
Feb 21st, 2019 - WES profiles created
Feb 23-Feb, 2019 - transcripts requested from Universities
April 18th, 2019 - additional documents faxed to WES as requested
April 3rd to 23rd, 2019 - IELTS exams with results
May 13th, 2019 - WES report obtained (for self - Degrees from VTU (Karnataka) and NTU (UK)
May 17th - EOI profile created
June 24th, 2019 - Wife's WES report obtained (Bangalore University and PTU). Same day profile updated.
June 26th, 2019 - ITA received
July 29th 2019 - ITA submitted
Aug 22nd, 2019 - Biometrics request
Aug 27th, 2019 - Biometrics completed
Feb 27th, 2020 - PPR
March 18th, 2020 - Stamped passport with CoPR received
March 25th - D Day - Canada closes borders
June 5th - Vande Bharat Mission Phase 3 flight tickets launched on AirIndia website - tickets booked
June 23rd - Landed in Toronto!
Now, for the complete story.. Fair warning - long story.
We started discussing life outside India in Jan 2019. Started as a joke in the family, led us to a couple of consultancies to see if we would even be eligible. One made me wait and would not talk to me before I paid for "testing the profile". The other one was warm, genuine and gave the options and was not pushy. Ultimately selected the consultancy to go ahead with - For those who are looking to know who - we went with Abhinav consulting - Rithika runs an amazing branch in Bangalore. Little did we know the amount of work that would go into applying for a PR. We started by collecting all the documents - education/work experience/places we stayed in the last 10 years in digital formats and shared it with a process executive (Chetan, great guy). It took us a couple of weeks just to get these documents together.
First step was to apply for WES since that would take the longest time and it sure did. VTU was pretty easy to work with - everything was online and easy. NTU was even better, one email and they sent it to WES for free and did it the same day. Bangalore University is still old school. We had to go to the university and apply for the transcripts. They asked us to come back after a couple of weeks to collect them and send it to WES. They do not have the process of sending it to WES directly. We went back after a couple of weeks, collected the papers and went to different counters to sign off. Took the transcripts to the postoffice on the ground floor and sent it off to WES. They have done this many times and they will know when you say WES. PTU was easy as well. It was completely online. We had opted for IELTS training assistance as well to make sure we dont have to redo the tests multiple times and it paid off. Both my wife and I scored a 8 each. After what I thought was an eternal wait, we received the ECA from WES. We did not waste time and submitted the EOI profile. To our luck we received the ITA soon after. We were very close (we got it by 1 point). We were lucky is an understatement. I turned a year older the following week and would have lost 5 points straight.
It took us almost two months to submit a ton of documents that are needed for the ITA. We finally submitted the ITA profile by end of July. This included the medicals and PCC. We received the Biometric request after a month which we diligently submitted. Once this was done, we learnt the true meaning of being patient. The Canada.ca website says average time to process is 6 months. It took us 7 months after the ITA to get the PPR. It was a very painful wait. Specially when the people who applied on similar timelines received it in 4 to 6 months. The process after PPR was surprisingly fast but the timing could not have been worse. Thanks to COVID 19, Canada closed its borders and we were unable to fly in. We patiently waited to see if the COVID 19 situation would get any better. It wasnt. We took a call to take the risk and fly to Canada. I started following AirIndia and EAM on Twitter to get updates on any flights. Like announced, the third phase of the flights were on issued on 5th June 2020. The Airindia website just would not load. We tried for over 90 minutes with no luck. I downloaded the app and surprisingly was able to book the tickets very smoothly.
The flights booked were from Delhi to Toronto. We were flying from Bengaluru. Our Toronto flight was on 23rd. We booked the Indigo flight out to Delhi. The flight was scheduled for 3pm from Bengaluru and land in Delhi at 6pm on the 22nd. 18th June, they cancel the flight with COVID 19 given as the reason. It was our luck, we booked the Air Vistara from Bengaluru. Started at 9am on Monday from home, reached the Bengaluru airport. The process was simple - get the Arogyasetu app, fill the questionnaire, get in, get the boarding pass and hand over the luggage. Very smooth process and Air vistara guys were super helpful. Landed in Delhi at noon. Most of the shops were closed and there were no trolleys to take the luggage. We had 3 luggages and 3 hand bags. We managed to find a seat in one of the lounges. We entered the louge at 1pm and came out at 9pm (yeah, you read it right). No recliner seats were available, they were all occupied. We sat on a small table. The Airindia flight was advertised at 1 pm but the timing changed to 2.30am. We left the lounge at 9pm thinking it is okay to go a bit early. We were not alone! The process is kind of weird. We had to exit the airport and go to the next floor, stand in the queue outside the airport again to get in! The queue was massive. It was super humid. After a long wait, we got in, filled out the mandatory COVID 19 forms, checked in the baggage and collected the boarding passes. The immigration line was super long too. It took us 90 minutes to clear immigration. We finally came to the gates at 1245am. Starbucks was our only savior.
The flight was uneventful. They had kept two bags of food. We did not taste most of it. The sandwich was stale and put us off. We travelled with our 5 year old. We were thinking we may be the only ones with a kid. We were so wrong. There were many couples with kids flying out. The flight was full. The airhost and the hostesses were not very interested and were rude to a couple of passengers at times. The flight started at 3.30am from India and landed at 845am in Toronto (was scheduled to land at 630am).
I had my connecting flight to Vancouver booked at 1230pm same day. The immigration was super fast in Toronto. The first officer asks for the passport and purpose of visit (landing). Approves and asks us to go the next counter. The next counter is where the CoPR gets stamped. The only question we were asked is "have you been rejected to enter Canada previously?". No other questions asked. The officer was very sweet. She even asked my wife to be seated with the kid while i signed off on the papers. I carried a little over 10 grand and was asked to go through customs. I filled out the form and went to get my boarding pass for my next flight. The entire process including waiting on the queue took less than 90 minutes.
We had booked AirCanada flight from Toronto to Vancouver. The folks at the counter were aged and were skeptical. They took over an hour to ensure India and people traveling from India are not on the red list before they issued the boarding passes. Cleared security and literally ran to the flights. The flight seats had social distancing in place and the air hosts and hostesses were super nice to us. They even had a friendly banter with my 5 year old. Landed in Vanouver at 3pm, took an airport taxi. The cabbie was Punjabi born and raised in Vancouver. He was super helpful. Gave us tips on where to order groceries from and offered help if we needed any even after dropping us. He even helped us get a sim card while coming from the airport. He went to the store and got the SIM in my name. I just had to pay him for the SIM. We checked in our Airbnb and are still recovering from our jet lag.
Overall, it took us almost a year and half to reach Canada from the initial starting process. Went through a lot of nay sayers, lot of road blocks but finally made it.
Good luck to all the members of this forum and thanks a ton to this forum for all the assitance and support. This forum has been a pillar of support through the testing times.
