Santa came in 12 days early on email 
CAUTION: (Very) Long post alert.
After a wait of 150 days, I finally received the much-awaited mail on my email. Didn’t receive any ghost update before. Although, we got the news that it has been approved during the last week of October, we received the email today. Perhaps, it was sitting on someone’s desk ;-) The email came for a landing interview in Jan 2020.
1st application
ITA - Jan ’19
AOR - Mar ’19
Score - 457
Rejected - May ’19 - R10 completeness check
Rejected because uploaded my medical instead of wife’s medical in her place holder and vice versa. This was a blessing in disguise. I found out after going through the forum and groups about my mistakes I made in my application. These mistakes could have led to misrepresentation or rejection.
In May there was one draw with a high score and thereafter the scores never dropped. Waited for a few more draws but decided that my spouse should appear for CELPIP to increase our score. She appeared for CELPIP in June and voila scores increased.
2nd application
Score - 526
ITA - July ’19
AOR - July 17, ’19
MEP - Aug 16, ’19
RPRF - Oct 10, ’19 - In additional documents request
Criminality - passed, eligibility - recommended pass - 25th Oct. Got to know about this by calling CIC.
29th Oct, ‘19 - additional document status changed — NA. I guess passed everything here once the status changed to NA
Nov 1st - Called CIC, and they informed that I passed everything & the application has been approved and should wait for the email for the interview.
Since then called CIC once every 15 days and always got the same response.
Dec 2nd - Received GCMS notes in 20 days. The notes also showed the application was approved.
No ghost updates and I don’t believe in ghosts although I live near a cremation ground
DETAILS of my APPLICATION
CEC applicant
VO - Edmonton & secondary office Winnipeg
NOC - 2121 and 4011
CELPIP - 11, 9, 9, 8 (L, R, W, S)
Canadian Work experience - 1 year and 10 months, claimed only for 1 year. You might wonder why I waited extra 10 months, the answer is I was lazy to give the language exam . I added my 3 months pay stub and my 2 years of T4 slip, which was unnecessary. I added it because I run 2 non-profit activities & also a board member of some organisations, for which I don’t make any money. Therefore, to support this I included my T4 slips.
ECA - April 2018 by WES, got my results in 15 days. Guess WES was fast in ’18. Only verified my PhD degree. But included my PhD, masters, bachelors, CELPIP and ECA report while uploading documents post ITA.
Foreign work experience - 1 year. Worked part time (20 hours/week) for 2 years and 10 months as Research associate during PhD. Submitted offer letter, reference letter, letter from HR mentioning my work hours.
Extensive travel history with frequent visits to US, European countries, Australia, New Zealand and a few Asian countries. Visited once as a tourist to Canada for a conference in 2017 before moving to work here. Didn’t include any visa cards or visas from Europe. Just included passport stamps from 2009 to 2019. Also, included all the travels to India in the past 10 years.
PCC - Got all my PCC done in January when I received the 1st ITA. None of my PCC had an expiry date, and I never travelled back to those countries from where I received my PCC including India, therefore, never got new PCC’s. I just mentioned this in the LOE and it worked.
RPRF - Didn’t pay RPRF upfront as I knew they would ask for it when I reach a certain stage. But that’s not always the case, sometimes they ask for RPRF right after MEP. So, you never know if this would benefit you or not.
LOE - This was my most valuable weapon and it should be your’s too ;-). I wrote my LOE on my University letter head (this is unnecessary). Added 15 points, explained about my 1st PR rejection, explained about my spouse TRV cancellation, changing job roles for me & my spouse, POF for CEC applicant, and also explained that my spouse has a master’s degree (attached to her education), but didn’t do an ECA for the same.
ATIP/GCMS notes - Ordered on Nov 4th and received it on December 2nd, which showed that the application was approved on October 30th, as mentioned by the CIC agents.
Spouse’s profile
Spouse CELPIP - 11, 12, 8, 9 (L, R, W, S)
Spouse NOC - 6221
Spouse Canadian work experience - 1 year & 6 months, but claimed for 1 year.
Spouse ECA - Not Applicable. Mentioned this in LOE that we didn’t do an ECA for her educational credentials. Included all her education in the application.
Spouse foreign work experience - 3 years but no points and we mentioned it in personal history.
Travel history - Not a very extensive travel history
WEBFORMS & MISC
- Raised three webforms, 1st to include a trip to Denmark which I forgot to add as it didn’t have a stamp on my passport and the second was to correct dates for my stay in Germany and Sweden. The last webform was to update CIC with my new address. They didn’t respond to that for almost a month. I had to call CIC and update them with the new address. Still, they didn’t update the address for my spouse, which is ridiculous.
- I applied for a WP at the same time as my PR application (17th July), which got approved on 4th November. Therefore, I can say that dual intent is allowed.
- My work experience in Germany didn’t have the complete dates as my PI gave me a letter on July 17 and I left the position on September 17. I tried to get a new letter, but he didn’t respond. To support this, I added my offer letter, a letter from HR mentioning when I left, pay stubs of the last 2 months. However, CIC considered my experience until September 2017. This might be because I submitted the letter from HR which states the exact dates of my work.
- I mentioned about all my voluntary work in the LOE, but it could have also been added to the personal history. So, if you are a part of any voluntary work, do mention it. The idea is not to hide anything as CIC makes a web based search with the names (found it through GCMS notes). Also make sure, all the dates you mention in your EE profile aligns with your social media profiles. I had a month here and there which was not aligning with my social media, so I rectified my social media dates.
- Please don’t ask for CELPIP material as I have nothing. I purchased the CELPIP material from their website and practiced it for about 15 days and appeared for the exam. The exam is simple and is computer based. I found it easier than ILETS (appeared for IELTS academic back in 2011) as there are no point deduction for spelling mistake and as it is a computer based, if you make a spelling mistake it gets highlighted ;-) (Cheat trick). Speaking is tricky as it is computer based and in the same exam hall. All the test takers spoke simultaneously so you need to focus or else you might get distracted and lose points.
- Fill in all the details correctly. Do your due diligence before sending your application especially with the NOC codes. Make sure your reference letter has all the details, if not add other documents to help support it.
- We all need to come out of our comfort zone. The answers are right in front of us, the only thing we need to do is a search for them. Canadian PR is the easiest & straight forward process.
- My suggestion is not to wait for the scores to drop. If you haven’t maxed out all the option, then do it. Appear for IELTS/CELPIP. In my case, my wife didn’t appear for CELPIP and before May 457 was a good score to get an ITA. But things changed post May ’19. Now the scores are too high, so use all the options you have like CLB 10, learning French.
Thank you everyone, especially Kubeir Kamal, Nikolett Kalotainé Szundi, Sarvanana from Ask Kubeir group, the Canadian PR/Experience entry forum group and @jes_ON, @scylla, @canuck78, @legalfalcon, and @21Goose on Canadavisa forum.
Now, the 2 years wait begin to reach the Canadian citizenship.
- Also, don’t join a million PR groups, my personal advice. Everyone will give different opinions & some might misguide you leading to misrepresentation or rejection. In my view, the answers I got on the above mentioned 3 groups were almost similar & our application went smoothly, except for idling on someone’s desk for about a month.
You can reach out to me here for questions you have but please don’t message me with your questions.
CAUTION: (Very) Long post alert.
After a wait of 150 days, I finally received the much-awaited mail on my email. Didn’t receive any ghost update before. Although, we got the news that it has been approved during the last week of October, we received the email today. Perhaps, it was sitting on someone’s desk ;-) The email came for a landing interview in Jan 2020.
1st application
ITA - Jan ’19
AOR - Mar ’19
Score - 457
Rejected - May ’19 - R10 completeness check
Rejected because uploaded my medical instead of wife’s medical in her place holder and vice versa. This was a blessing in disguise. I found out after going through the forum and groups about my mistakes I made in my application. These mistakes could have led to misrepresentation or rejection.
In May there was one draw with a high score and thereafter the scores never dropped. Waited for a few more draws but decided that my spouse should appear for CELPIP to increase our score. She appeared for CELPIP in June and voila scores increased.
2nd application
Score - 526
ITA - July ’19
AOR - July 17, ’19
MEP - Aug 16, ’19
RPRF - Oct 10, ’19 - In additional documents request
Criminality - passed, eligibility - recommended pass - 25th Oct. Got to know about this by calling CIC.
29th Oct, ‘19 - additional document status changed — NA. I guess passed everything here once the status changed to NA
Nov 1st - Called CIC, and they informed that I passed everything & the application has been approved and should wait for the email for the interview.
Since then called CIC once every 15 days and always got the same response.
Dec 2nd - Received GCMS notes in 20 days. The notes also showed the application was approved.
No ghost updates and I don’t believe in ghosts although I live near a cremation ground
DETAILS of my APPLICATION
CEC applicant
VO - Edmonton & secondary office Winnipeg
NOC - 2121 and 4011
CELPIP - 11, 9, 9, 8 (L, R, W, S)
Canadian Work experience - 1 year and 10 months, claimed only for 1 year. You might wonder why I waited extra 10 months, the answer is I was lazy to give the language exam . I added my 3 months pay stub and my 2 years of T4 slip, which was unnecessary. I added it because I run 2 non-profit activities & also a board member of some organisations, for which I don’t make any money. Therefore, to support this I included my T4 slips.
ECA - April 2018 by WES, got my results in 15 days. Guess WES was fast in ’18. Only verified my PhD degree. But included my PhD, masters, bachelors, CELPIP and ECA report while uploading documents post ITA.
Foreign work experience - 1 year. Worked part time (20 hours/week) for 2 years and 10 months as Research associate during PhD. Submitted offer letter, reference letter, letter from HR mentioning my work hours.
Extensive travel history with frequent visits to US, European countries, Australia, New Zealand and a few Asian countries. Visited once as a tourist to Canada for a conference in 2017 before moving to work here. Didn’t include any visa cards or visas from Europe. Just included passport stamps from 2009 to 2019. Also, included all the travels to India in the past 10 years.
PCC - Got all my PCC done in January when I received the 1st ITA. None of my PCC had an expiry date, and I never travelled back to those countries from where I received my PCC including India, therefore, never got new PCC’s. I just mentioned this in the LOE and it worked.
RPRF - Didn’t pay RPRF upfront as I knew they would ask for it when I reach a certain stage. But that’s not always the case, sometimes they ask for RPRF right after MEP. So, you never know if this would benefit you or not.
LOE - This was my most valuable weapon and it should be your’s too ;-). I wrote my LOE on my University letter head (this is unnecessary). Added 15 points, explained about my 1st PR rejection, explained about my spouse TRV cancellation, changing job roles for me & my spouse, POF for CEC applicant, and also explained that my spouse has a master’s degree (attached to her education), but didn’t do an ECA for the same.
ATIP/GCMS notes - Ordered on Nov 4th and received it on December 2nd, which showed that the application was approved on October 30th, as mentioned by the CIC agents.
Spouse’s profile
Spouse CELPIP - 11, 12, 8, 9 (L, R, W, S)
Spouse NOC - 6221
Spouse Canadian work experience - 1 year & 6 months, but claimed for 1 year.
Spouse ECA - Not Applicable. Mentioned this in LOE that we didn’t do an ECA for her educational credentials. Included all her education in the application.
Spouse foreign work experience - 3 years but no points and we mentioned it in personal history.
Travel history - Not a very extensive travel history
WEBFORMS & MISC
- Raised three webforms, 1st to include a trip to Denmark which I forgot to add as it didn’t have a stamp on my passport and the second was to correct dates for my stay in Germany and Sweden. The last webform was to update CIC with my new address. They didn’t respond to that for almost a month. I had to call CIC and update them with the new address. Still, they didn’t update the address for my spouse, which is ridiculous.
- I applied for a WP at the same time as my PR application (17th July), which got approved on 4th November. Therefore, I can say that dual intent is allowed.
- My work experience in Germany didn’t have the complete dates as my PI gave me a letter on July 17 and I left the position on September 17. I tried to get a new letter, but he didn’t respond. To support this, I added my offer letter, a letter from HR mentioning when I left, pay stubs of the last 2 months. However, CIC considered my experience until September 2017. This might be because I submitted the letter from HR which states the exact dates of my work.
- I mentioned about all my voluntary work in the LOE, but it could have also been added to the personal history. So, if you are a part of any voluntary work, do mention it. The idea is not to hide anything as CIC makes a web based search with the names (found it through GCMS notes). Also make sure, all the dates you mention in your EE profile aligns with your social media profiles. I had a month here and there which was not aligning with my social media, so I rectified my social media dates.
- Please don’t ask for CELPIP material as I have nothing. I purchased the CELPIP material from their website and practiced it for about 15 days and appeared for the exam. The exam is simple and is computer based. I found it easier than ILETS (appeared for IELTS academic back in 2011) as there are no point deduction for spelling mistake and as it is a computer based, if you make a spelling mistake it gets highlighted ;-) (Cheat trick). Speaking is tricky as it is computer based and in the same exam hall. All the test takers spoke simultaneously so you need to focus or else you might get distracted and lose points.
- Fill in all the details correctly. Do your due diligence before sending your application especially with the NOC codes. Make sure your reference letter has all the details, if not add other documents to help support it.
- We all need to come out of our comfort zone. The answers are right in front of us, the only thing we need to do is a search for them. Canadian PR is the easiest & straight forward process.
- My suggestion is not to wait for the scores to drop. If you haven’t maxed out all the option, then do it. Appear for IELTS/CELPIP. In my case, my wife didn’t appear for CELPIP and before May 457 was a good score to get an ITA. But things changed post May ’19. Now the scores are too high, so use all the options you have like CLB 10, learning French.
Thank you everyone, especially Kubeir Kamal, Nikolett Kalotainé Szundi, Sarvanana from Ask Kubeir group, the Canadian PR/Experience entry forum group and @jes_ON, @scylla, @canuck78, @legalfalcon, and @21Goose on Canadavisa forum.
Now, the 2 years wait begin to reach the Canadian citizenship.
- Also, don’t join a million PR groups, my personal advice. Everyone will give different opinions & some might misguide you leading to misrepresentation or rejection. In my view, the answers I got on the above mentioned 3 groups were almost similar & our application went smoothly, except for idling on someone’s desk for about a month.
You can reach out to me here for questions you have but please don’t message me with your questions.