My experience of the whole process

[CADparity]

Great post. Thank you for sharing.

 

[AshesNdust]

that's why I suggested the short interview. would be very easy to do:
5 mins dictation
10 mins conversing
5 mins reading from a random book chosen by the examiner.

If you dont ace all those, then you are told to take the full IELTS

Great original post and I completely agree with your stance on the langauge exams. While I completely understand Canada requiring them, I do think it's a waste of native speakers and test centers time. It's also a shame that a native speaker is taking a slot that someone else could use. I'm even fine with paying the fee, it was the 4 hours of testing that I found annoying.
I also agree with you about the forum. There are a lot of helpful people and posts, but quite a few that just cause stress and fear. I stopped reading the rejection thread a while ago because it was making me completely paranoid. If I'm lucky enough to get approved, I plan on making a post saying exactly what I uploaded to hopefully help people out, like what you did. By the way, thank you for doing that!

 

[shirebikes]

Hi Lotus

I agree with many of your sentiments - i had to file 29 different times i had left the UK in the last 10 years, along with 17 different addresses, its lucky i had email confirmation of flights, and i had all my previous addresses due to vetting in a former job.

biggest gripes however are:
1) police certificates - 3 months is a ridiculous limit - the previous 6 month one was better, over the course of the last 2 years i have had to get 4 of them, due to different applications (i first assembled an application for FSW 2013 just before my noc got capped).

2) Being kept in the dark - some sort of estimated processing date when your file was scheduled to be looked at would be hugely beneficial, and not too difficult to setup.

3) IELTS - I've been a British national since birth, and have qualifications in the UK up to Masters level, its frustrating having to pay to prove your ability to speak your mother tongue. In addition the fact they assess handwriting in the written segment is also frustrating - my writing is somewhat spidery, but then i havent written something for someone elses eyes by hand in the last 10 years (i'm also an engineer so messy writing is usually expected). The IELTS test is the equivalent to GCSE English, could that not be accepted.

4) The whole process - I've spent 3 years inside Canada on various working visas, it would be vastly simpler to me to present docs and have an interview than a 6 month process (or 2 years in my case due to various balls ups on my part, and caps being reached).

anyhow, i'm landing on Thursday, so hopefully all will be well.

 

[reddevil7281]

Good read! Thanks for that.

English requirement is a bit funny indeed. I am not a British national but I took my GCSE O'Level English and then O/A Level English and then went to the UK to study. 2 British certificates with an A grade and studying in London for BA (hons), in English obviously, isn't enough proof that I understand and can communicate in English

Wish you all the best!

 

[munjal]

Good post and congratulations for getting PR !

Thanks for spreading positive vibes and sharing good experience among the forum..!

 

[lotusEsp]

Just to close this off - today my Permanent Residency card arrived in the mail



That's it, the whole thing is complete...... until it expires in 2020