Supporting Documents

[tsdanza]

Hi Everyone,

After reading the guides (the sponsor's guide, and the immigrant's guide) it seems they both ask for supporting documents.

From what I've read in the forums it seems that a lot of people seem to consolidate all of their supporting documents into one package. Is this the best way, or should there be a copy for the sponsorship review and another for the application review?

 

[melbell_28]

In my understanding, the sponsorship review and the application review must be done for the same package (as in one set of documents) so you only need one set of supporting documents need it be pitures, emails, letters or whatever else is required based on what you are applying for.

how it works is that they office in canada will review all the docs and then send that same package to the relevant country for a decision to be made. generally i think they stamp or mark all the documents indicating that the sponsor has been approved and at that point your docs are given a KIT number for tracking purposes. This KIT number is kinda like your file number.

hope this helps!

 

[tsdanza]

Definitely,

Can anyone else confirm?

And if this is the case, is there a 'best-practice' for addressing the fact that the sponsor's guide and the immigrant's guide say to attach additional evidence at the end of those pages. IE, what's the best way to direct the CIC officer? A note saying see Appendix of Supporting documents? Any ideas on this would be much appreciated.

 

[melbell_28]

Honestly we just attached a letter indicating all the supporting documents that were included. Our package included a letter from the employer, phone bills, pics and emails along with proof of marriage and relationship etc. That was it. We kept it very straight forward and simple and didnt complicate things at all because why do so if you dont need too..

 

[tsdanza]

That sounds pretty much like what we have. Plane tickets, wedding photos & cert, bank wires, skype bills/records, emails, letters from friends family, etc.

If you don't mind clarifying though, did you just include a note saying that the supporting documents were attached following the forms?

 

[QCSunshine]

For our application, I made a table of contents and listed what was included in our application and where to find it. The categories of supporting material were a part of this table of contents (ex. written communication, photos, etc.).

 

[dishy_max]

For our application, I made a table of contents and listed what was included in our application and where to find it. The categories of supporting material where a part of this table of contents (ex. written communication, photos, etc.).

We did the same thing....first set of tabs was immigrants forms and any docs relating to them. Second set was sponsors forms and any docs relating to them. After that we had a bunch of tabs with our supporting docs; emails, travel tickets, photos etc.

 

[sparkle]

When I was preparing my file, I called CIC and asked them what is the best way and had the same question as yours of whether I should have two copies of supporting documents. But they told me to have just one set and it should be good enough as everything stays together all the time.
The way I arranged my file was that I had Sponsor forms, and then the principal applicant's forms followed by vital documents like photos, passport photocopy etc as per the document checklist. We had tabs like everyone and I just put a cover page before every set of supporting documents with each cover page stating who is the sponsor and who is the principal applicant, and then what the following documents contain, for eg, photographs, emails, honeymoon proof etc. In your file, or forms, wherever you want to refer to a supporting documents, you can definitely use the appendix way, but I thought that would be too much work !! Instead, I always write, Refer photograph attached, or Plane tickets attached etc. They can always check in your supporting documents folder and check the tabs to find what they are looking for.
I hope this helps !!

 

[canadianwoman]

You only need one copy of each supporting document, since both applications stay together. Even with only one copy, some applications are hundreds of pages long, so two copies would make the whole thing too bulky and complicated.
I think the best way is to put all the supporting evidence together in some reasonable order. Put a table of contents and number the pages. Then in your answers you can refer to specific pages.

 

[melbell_28]

As per the other responses tdanza, it was again the same thing. Cover letter and we included the list of docs (table of contents) in that letter. It was an additional package and I organized it in the same order stated in my cover letter. Didn't do tabs because our package was really not that big! we had about 10 photos, emails and phone bills primarily along with our facebook walls which has the "wall-to-wall" function with date stamps so it has all the msgs that we had written to each other. Also some of our Skype convos and msn + gtalk convos were included. The biggest thing I found is that everything was organized according to date. Eg - Emails - all one bunch starting with the oldest email at the front. my list/table of contents given below:

1) Phone Bills
2) Emails
3) Chat Logs - Skype
- MSN
- GTalk
4) Facebook - Messages
- Wall-To-Wall
5)Wedding Pictures

I also had a seperate set of documents which included birth cetificates, wedding certificates and a letter with a similar format.

Good Luck!