Guys, someone posted this on a whatsapp group and I found it quite useful, so here it is (apologies if this has already been posted in the forum, but I've not seen it):
Credit should, of course, go to the author (Roxanne Jessome) but also to Diaa E.S. from Jan 2017 AOR What'sApp group (who posted it and brought it to my attention).
In summary the mains points I found are:
- There is a big difference between a cancelled application (which happens before the RFPR usually due to missing docs) and a refused/rejected application (after RFPR)
- Cancelled you get all your money back where as refused you only get RFPR back
- Cancelled means you probably forgot something, but it doesn't not mean you ONLY forgot what they have mentioned (read the article for more details)
- Refused means you didn't forget anything, but there is something fundamentally wrong with your application that will need to be corrected (or fixed) before you can reapply and be prepared for red flags when you do reapply as you've been refused once already.
Important takeaway is that for those unlucky enough to have a application cancelled do not have to say yes to the stats questions asking about ever been refused a visa form IRCC or anywhere else, but those unfortunate enough to have been refused do!
Express Entry application CANCELLED vs. REFUSED
By Roxanne Jessome, RCIC
roxanne@joincanada.com
I was writing a reply to a post and thought that it might be good to dedicate a whole article to this topic as I see it a lot in my practice.
There's a HUGE difference between a CANCELLATION and a REFUSAL in an Express Entry application. A Cancellation means you didn't provide all the necessary documents required to process your PR application and they cannot proceed. This happens A LOT! If your application is cancelled, it's like it never actually existed. You get all your money back and you can create a new profile and go back into the EE pool. If you're invited again, don't miss the same stuff! The most common reasons I see for cancellations are where applicants don’t provide police clearance certificates from all the countries they have lived in for 6 months or more since the age of 18. Because all of the forms in an EE application (Address History, Personal History, Travel History) ask for the last 10 years of information, many applicants also mistakenly believe that they only need to provide police certificates for countries they have lived in within the past 10 years. WRONG! It’s since the age of 18. Also, in early 2016, CIC changed the police certificate requirement. They used to require these police certificates only if you lived for 6 months in a row in a country. Not anymore! Now they want police certificates for every country you have been in for a cumulative total of 6 months. For example, you are 30 years old and have only “lived” in Ireland and Canada. But every year since the age of 18 you have travelled to the United States to visit your granny for 3 weeks. You never “lived” in the US as these were all holidays. However, when added together, you were in the US for 3 weeks in each of the last 12 years. 3 x 12 = 36 weeks which is more than 6 months. You need a US police certificate. By the way, 6 months = 26 weeks or 182 days. You need to add them up and go back to the age of 18.
Many Irish have also spent time in Australia. The CIC website specifically states that if you lived in the states of Queensland and/or Victoria, you also need to provide Traffic History reports from those states. Also, be sure that you have obtain the correct Australian police certificate. Your Australian police certificate must be the STANDARD DISCLOSURE, not the COMPLETE DISCLOSURE. I’ve seen a few people cancelled because they got the wrong certificate. I’d strongly recommend that every applicant check the CIC webpage for police certificate and read EVERYTHING on the page to make sure they are following the correct procedures for that country.
The second most common reason I see for CANCELLATION of an application is not including a copy of your education diploma or transcripts (one or the other) with your Education Credential Assessment (WES, ICAS, IQAS, etc.). When it comes to proof of Education, you must provide BOTH the ECA report and a copy of your diploma or your transcript that says you got the degree or diploma. You don’t need both the diploma and transcript. Just one will do but if you use the transcript, make sure it also says that you earned a degree or diploma. AND if your diploma is not in English or French (and your transcripts are also not in English or French), get the diploma translated by a certified translator and include the certified translation as well. There are still many Canadian, American, Irish and British colleges and universities that issue diplomas in Latin. Watch out for that.
I also want to add that when an application is cancelled, no further review is done on the application. Basically, the officer STOPS looking at the application as soon as they come to a reason to cancel it. There could be more!! There may even be a reason for refusal. If your application was cancelled as incomplete, when you apply again don’t make the mistake of thinking that now that you provided the missing information everything will be fine. They stopped reviewing the application as soon as they came to the reason for cancellation. The officer did NOT look at anything else.
A REFUSAL is much more serious than a cancellation and means that there was something fundamentally wrong with your application. You either did not PROVE that you meet the program requirements OR you are inadmissible to Canada. An officer has reviewed your application and determined that:
1. You are not eligible in the Class (FSW, CEC, FST) that you were invited to apply in; or
2. You did not meet the minimum points required on the day you were invited to apply; or
3. You are inadmissible to Canada due to criminality, heath reasons, security, misrepresentation, etc.
If your application was refused, you will not get the Application for PR fees back. You will be refunded the Right of PR fees if you paid them upfront. A refusal does not necessarily mean that you cannot apply again but it depends on the reasons for refusal. I’ve seen all kinds of reasons but the majority are for providing inadequate employment verification letters/documents. Any work you’ve claimed as “qualifying work” and/or work that earned you CRS points must have adequate employment verification letters to prove it. This can be quite difficult for many reasons. Perhaps the company you worked for is no longer in business. Or maybe you left on bad terms and the employer is not cooperating. Most often employers think these letters are “reference” letters and refuse to list the duties you performed in the letter. In my practice, we’ve developed ways around all of these issues BUT it is unique to each situation. The bottom line when it comes to skilled work is that if you can’t prove it, then you can’t claim it as qualifying work or work that will earn you points. Keep it out of the Work History section of your profile/application. And if you can get these letters, be sure that all the vital information is contained in them. I was once hired to re-apply for an applicant that had been refused when she applied on her own and the only reason she was refused was because her employment letter was missing one vital piece of information! But she was so stressed and rattled by the refusal, she hired me to re-do the application for her as she just didn’t want to make any other mistakes. She’s a permanent resident now so it all worked out but it makes me really sad when I see refusals like this that could have been easily avoided.
The second most common reason I see for refusals is inadmissibility due to criminality. And I’ve got to be frank about this when I say that if there are issues with criminality in your past, you need to hire experienced legal counsel to help you. Criminality is VERY complex and 99% of applicants cannot handle this themselves. Even immigration consultants and lawyers who are not experienced in criminality should not handle these cases. I had another lovely Irish client who was refused due to criminal inadmissibility. His first application was prepared by an immigration consultant but that consultant had no experience with criminality and didn’t understand what needed to be done. Happily, we successfully obtained PR for this client when the criminal matter was handled correctly. But this client could have been a permanent resident 1 year earlier if their first application had been handled by experienced counsel! And I don’t want to beat up the consultant here either as they had thought they had done everything correctly and they were devastated by the refusal. However, when it comes to inadmissibility issues, you want someone who KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING. That takes years of practical experience. That was a very important lesson for that consultant and I’m sure they’ll never forget it.
One final thing to note is that CIC makes mistakes too!! Last year, I helped several clients get PR refusals overturned and approved because the officer made a mistake in evaluating the application. It doesn’t happen often but it DOES happen!! If you are refused, make sure the reasons for refusal are correct.
I didn’t mean for this post to be so long! However, there are a LOT of pitfalls in Canadian immigration and most of them could be easily avoided. If you want to make sure that you are not making any mistakes in your application, READ AND RESEARCH.But trust me when I tell you that decline an ITA is 1000 times better than being refused! While a cancellation can often be overcome easily, refusals need to be avoided at all costs if possible. Good luck everyone!
