Hello Everyone,
I would like to share my experience here for my parent's visa application process which I did. So many people were asking me about my application and what documents I have put in to get quick approval. I am sharing my document list and approach here for everyone's reference. Hope that it will help anyone who is trying to apply for their parents. In my case, I applied on behalf of my parents from Canada as a representative. My parents are living in India.
MY TIMELINE:
Application Submitted For Parents: 30-Jan-2022
Biometric Request Received: 31-Jan-2022
Biometric Scheduled (Ahmedabad, India, VFS Global): 04-Feb-2022
Biometric Validity Letter Received: 06-Feb-2022
Passport Request: 06-Feb-2022 (Within 4 Hours)
Below I am sharing documents that I put for my parent's visitor visa.
Step 1: Profile Creation with the new portal
I would recommend everyone to check the below video for step by step process on how you can create your parent's profile with CiC's new Visitor visa portal. I followed the same video and created a profile for my parents.
New Portal Profile Creation:
Note: You have to select the below option if you are applying from Canada on behalf of your parents.
"To visit my grandparent, grandchild, sibling, half-sibling, step-sibling or
non-dependent child who is a Canadian citizen, person registered under Canada's Indian Act or permanent resident of Canada"
Step 2: Document Gathering for you and your parents
Creating your parent's profile is very straightforward with the new CIC portal. You just need to follow the steps and at the end of the process, you will see a list of documents required to upload. For me, the Document upload list was like below. I am sharing what document I have uploaded for each section.
Note: Father and Mother both have to upload their documents separately. You can upload common documents again for both profiles. (Ex, Marriage Certificate, Finacial Support Doc etc)
Based on the information provided mine be for each parent below was the document upload list I had to upload.
Mandatory Documents
1) National Identity Document
- I uploaded the Aadhar Card document in this section along with my father's Notarized affidavit for his name. My father has two names Ashokbhai and Ashokkumar in some documents so he created one affidavit with half of the lawyer mentioning he is the same person with both names. The affidavit should be on a certified 50 INR stamp. This affidavit will go in this section along with Aadhar Card. For my mother, I only put an Aadhar card in her profile.
2) Passport/Travel Document (To show Tie with my Parents and their travel history)
- Scan copy of passport first and the last page of passport along with all other countries Visa Stamps if any for entry and exit.
3) Proof Of Funds: Single file in exact order max 2MB (In My Case I mentioned that I am going to bear all costs for my parents for their visit to Canada so no POF for parents)
- Invitation Letter (I prepared Invitation Letter and got it notarized by a Canadian lawyer with a red seal, I will post my invitation letter format in the next post for everyone's reference)
- My PR Card
- My Company ID Card
- My passport front and back page
- My Paystub for the last 3 months
- My Bank statement for the last 4 months (Around 10000 CAD balance maintained)
- My T4 Tax Documents for the last 2 years
4) Use of Representative Form (Signed from both parents and from me)
- This is a very important form if you are applying on behalf of your parents. Fill all information in form, Download form, Sign and send it to your parents for their sign and get scan copy to upload in this section.
5) Marriage Certificate:
- This is a very important document. In my case, my parents had no marriage certificate as marriage was done in 1984 but now you can hire some lawyer in the city where marriage was done and they will file an application to generate a new marriage certificate from a particular municipality. Some people also put notarized affidavit with marriage photograph that is also accepted but I will highly recommend taking some time and get marriage certificate done to upload in this section. It will speed up the process.
Optional Documents
6) Consent Personal Information:
- This is an optional document but I filled it out and uploaded it. This is just for GCMS purposes maybe if you needed for the future.
7) Employment Letter(Current)
- I haven't submitted anything for this.
8) Aditional Documents: Single file in exact order max 2MB - Here you can upload anything which can support your application, I used this section to upload documents that represent strong ties at home for my parents and vaccination proof for them.
- My Father's LOE to demonstrate a summary of his proof of funds as backup funds for a trip. He also mentioned in LOE that my mother is financially dependent on him. He created one table where he added Saving accounts, Mutual funds and Stock investments along with INR to CAD conversion. We showed around 12000 CAD balance in the Saving account. Stocks and Mutual funds were mentioned as additional funds and investments in the home country.
- Saving Account's Bank Statement, try to maintain 7-8 lacks (11000 CAD) for the last 6 months in a single account and show that statement.
- Mutual funds and Stock investment statements.
- CA Valuation Report: This is a very important document to represent your parent's strong ties in your home country. I got it done from CA. They will include all information in the report regarding saving accounts, mutual funds, stocks, etc and for property government-approved valuer will include a property valuation report which will list all the properties in the report with current valuation. Most of the CA will have tie-ups with Valuaer you can get it done for around 3000 INR for the combined report. Make sure your CA puts an FRN stamp on the report so in case the Visa officer wants to verify online they can do that with this unique number. This document will confirm strong ties in your home country for your parents and it will increase the chance for visa approval.
- ITR Return forms for Both for the last 2 years.
- Pension Payment order or Details of Pationoner and Pension Document. I put this document as my father is retired and he is receiving pension each month so it will make sense to demonstrate that is not financially dependent on me. If your father is still working you can put his job-related documents like salary slip, Employment letter, ETC.
- Vaccination Proof: My parents are fully vaccinated and they have a certificate of vaccine with a QR code provided by the Government of India.I put that also to demonstrate that they both are fully vaccinated.
I uploaded all the above documents separately for Father and Mother. If we mentioned in the Invitation letter that Son is going to take care of parent's expenses during the trip then parent's POF will be considered as backup funds. Another very tricky part is to create a combined and 2 MB size PDF I am providing some online software tool links which you can use to create a 2MB PDF.
Merge PDF: Below tools I have used. It's free to use online.
https://smallpdf.com/merge-pdf
https://www.ilovepdf.com/merge_pdf
Compress PDF without losing quality:
https://avepdf.com/hyper-compress-pdf
https://www.sejda.com/compress-pdf
Again, I am just sharing my scenario everyone has different situations. Try to provide only important information to the visa offer so he can review and approve your file in one go. No need to upload extra documents to confuse the visa officers.
I wish all the best to everyone for their quick visa approval for parents. I am also adding my invitation letter format in the second post below for anyone's reference.
Best Regards
Priyank
