London office docs - originals v notarized v plain photocopies

[Cappuccino]

Hi, my apologies if this is something of an over-discussed topic! We are in the final stages of getting full application documents together, and our visa office will be London. There seems to be some major ambiguity on which items should be originals, which should be notarized copies and which only need to be plain photocopies (un-notarized). Seems to vary from visa office to visa office.

Can anyone with successful application to the London office confirm whether the following is true of their requirements, which is our current interpretation:

Original documents:
1) Police certificates
2) IELTS test results
3) Employer reference letter (past+present) with business cards
4) Degree certificates
5) Degree transcripts in sealed University envelopes
6) Birth + marriage certificates
7) Proof of funds (we are using 3 original estate agents quotations + original mortgage statement)
8) Forms (of course!)

Notarized copies:
1) Contracts of employment (past+present)
2) Post-degree professional certificates (such as my Microsoft computing qualifications)

Non-notarized copies (just plain photocopy)
1) Passport photo/information page (just this 1 page for UK)
2) Other educational certificates post-secondary


If anyone who recently submitted to London could confirm if this looks right?

Best wishes and thanks!
Wayne.

 

[whatsup]

Wayne,

The only originals that you must submit to the London office is:

Original Police clearances for all members of your application (above 18 years of age for all countries lived in for more than 6 months)
Original IELTS result of Prinipal applicant
Original and latest reference letters from past and present employers for principal applicant and spouse with business card of the person signing the reference letter
Transcripts of degrees / diplomas in university sealed envelopes for principal applicant and spouse
Proof of funds (Bank statements / Bank letters)

All remaining supporting documents should be notarised copies.

There are no plain photocopies that you can attach. All photocopied documents need to be notarised.

All this is mentioned in the London visa office checklist and the instruction guide in the CIC website

Also, to let you know, a new checklist has been loaded onto the website for London office requirements. Please go to the official website www.cic.gc.ca and download the new london office visa checklist. It includes a new form called "Your Travels". This form should also be filled in.

All the best !

 

[whatsup]

Wayne

Just realised that if forgot to mention that additional originals are needed for Pakistan applicants. London office is taking care of Pakistan applications as of April 2010 and their checklist shows a separate section tha Pakistan applicants need to follow.

All the best !

 

[jakram]

Wayne

Just realised that if forgot to mention that additional originals are needed for Pakistan applicants. London office is taking care of Pakistan applications as of April 2010 and their checklist shows a separate section tha Pakistan applicants need to follow.

All the best !

Hi,

Everyting is ok, except original Transcript and Degree, as CHC Islamabad was accepting notarized copies of original degrees, so we have sent the notarized copies to CHC ISL, but as applications have been moved to CHC London, will they gonna accept this or will ask for Original.

Any idea?

Thx!

 

[Cappuccino]

OK here is what we will have and are sending:

1) Original police certificates

2) Original university bachelor's degree certificates, original transcript of bachelor's degree certificates in sealed envelope - for both principal application (my wife) and spouse (me). My wife has a PhD and the University no longer produces transcripts for these. However we are supplying the original transcript my wife got when she graduated (not in sealed envelope) with a letter from the University (in sealed envelope) which provides more information than is on the transcript anyway. We are hoping this will suffice.

3) 3 original estate agent valuations with business card + original mortgage statement as proof of funds

4) Original IELTS results (my wife takes her test next Thursday, planning to mail application as soon as we have results)

5) Original employment reference letters. For both of our current employers these will have business cards attached. For previous employers we have been unable to get business cards, but contact details of the person giving the reference have been supplied on the letter.

6) Notarized copies of employment contracts for past and present employers for both of us (so 4 contracts in total).

7) Notarized transcript of my professional Microsoft software developer certifications (can be verified online so the notarizer will do this)

8) Passports - photo/information page only - I guess we can get the photocopies notarized although the London specific checklist does NOT ask for notarized copies. Better safe than sorry maybe?

9) Original birth certificates for each of us + our original marriage certificate.

10) My wife's pre-University certificates of education. Do these really need to be notarized? Once again the London-specific checklist does not ask for these to be notarized.

11) All original forms, of course.

N.B. I have a missing educational pre-University certificate, going to have to just submit a paragraph explaining since it was 15 years ago and the college has no records going back that far so cannot get a duplicate copy. Since I am not the principal applicant and am provided full University and professional education documents I am hoping this will not be a problem.


So I think the only decision is whether to get my wife's pre-University educational certificates + our passport photocopies notarized. It is a signficant cost increase for extra documents so don't want to spend money getting unnecessary documents notarized.

Thanks for any feedback,
Wayne.

 

[whatsup]

Wayne,

I have copied and pasted the first paragraph from the London visa office checklist, here it is:

Gather documents as listed. Check () each item on the checklist and attach the checklist to your documents (a paper clip will do). Place all documents in a sealed envelope. Do not send originals unless otherwise stated. Send notarized photocopies of all documents except the police certificates, which must be originals. If your documents are not in English or French, send a notarized (certified) translation with a copy of the originals

As you can see it clearly says send notarized photocopies of all documents, which would mean any photocopy that you send must be notarized.

Secondly as you go through the checklist, you will see that originals are only needed for the items that I mentioned in my initial reply to you.

 

[Cappuccino]

Hi thanks for this. Yes I think you are right. It is rather confusing because various elements of the checklist say neither copies, nor originals. They just say "birth certificate" etc.

But the opening paragraph which I had misread seems to indicate that the default = a notarized copy. Reading through the list I think we now must send the following originals:

1) Police certificates
2) University transcripts
3) Reference letters + business cards
4) IELTS results
5) Our proof of funds (this is 3 estate agent valuations and mortgage statement)

And the following needs to be notarized copies:

1) Degree certificates x 2
2) Birth certificates x 2
3) Marriage certificate
4) Wife's pre-University educational certificates
5) Passport pages (I think for UK we need only copy the photo page with all the info on).

Hmm that's an extra 7 or 8 documents to notarize, going to be expensive!

Thanks,
Wayne.