Proof of funds question

[wickerman]

Submitted the latest statement for each of my credit cards, nothing more. Stated in a letter of explanation words to the effect of "As requested, I enclose my latest Credit Card statements showing my outstanding debts. No money was borrowed from these credit cards to facilitate immigration and I have no further undisclosed debts".

Good luck with your application, at least you know now that this isn't an issue!

Hi thourb, just wanted to let you know that I did exactly that - submitted my 6 month credit card statement and wrote a LOE. Now I have the COPR and looking to move this August/September! Hope your move went well!

 

[Ava.em]

Hi all.

I am the primary applicant, but my husband has a credit card debt. Should we mention this in the application, or not, considering the debt is not in my name?

 

[thourb]

Hi all.

I am the primary applicant, but my husband has a credit card debt. Should we mention this in the application, or not, considering the debt is not in my name?

No need to disclose this, they are only interested in POF for the PA.

 

[thourb]

Hi thourb, just wanted to let you know that I did exactly that - submitted my 6 month credit card statement and wrote a LOE. Now I have the COPR and looking to move this August/September! Hope your move went well!

That's great news, congratulations! We've not yet moved, though still have COPR in hand. We're doing a soft landing tomorrow at Toronto before finally moving in November. Good luck with your move!

 

[Nixnic19]

If your current credit card debt is more than your bank balance (which for a single person means > $12,300) then you really ought to consider the effect that will have on you when you actually land in Canada. Moving abroad isn't cheap and the minimums required by IRCC are very conservative - you're likely to need a lot more than the minimum and that's without having to worry about debts back home!

I should point out that I am merely guessing at what IRCC's stance would likely be in this scenario - as I said there is no concrete policy in place, which results in uncertainty for applicants such as ourselves. If (and only if) my assumption is correct and they do deal with situations like ours pragmatically, then it seems reasonable to assume that you will need to survive for 6 months including your debt repayments. I estimate this based on the fact that POF requirements are based on 50% of the LICO - which is the minimum amount of money that the Canadian Government says that a family needs to last for a year.

I may be totally incorrect and they may well calculate debts - liabilities and thus calculate your funds as being insufficient, but as there is no clear policy on exactly what constitutes "unencumbered funds" I'm giving you my best educated guess on it based on the reading that I've done. As I've also said there are people on these forums (including those with vast experience far beyond mine) that say you do not need to show credit card debts if you didn't use credit cards to build up your POF. If you apply that logic, I can't see any occasion where you would declare credit card debts and not be rejected out of hand for borrowing money though. Some who have stated that they didn't show their credit card debts etc in their applications were accepted and now have PR - so the choice is yours. The bottom line is though - the instructions are extremely clear and there is no ambiguity on whether you should or shouldn't disclose credit card debts in the instructions. I am of the opinion that I'd rather play safe and declare debts and not risk a ban for misrepresentation - which you may very well end up with if you don't disclose debts and IRCC find out about them. For me, it would only delay my application for 4-6 months - much better than waiting for 5 years!

I have sufficient money as my POF in my main bank where i keep my money but i still have credit card balance from other bank. Will this affect my application?