This is an excerpt from Wayne's blog @ http://get2canada.wordpress dot com
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How to deal with an unfair NER; A Negative Eligibility Review
Introduction
When CIC announced the changes to the immigration process back on June 26th, nobody was sure what it meant for the actual people involved. We assumed it would work almost the same way, and based our expectations on what we had read elsewhere.
Then the surprises came, Credit Cards and Bank Drafts were cashed almost right away, previously everyone thought that meant they were eligible for processing, when in fact under the new system it appears that the money is taken only after a brief glance of your application. Then we had CIC telling anyone who called up that they would have wait a staggering 33 weeks to get an AOR, or to even hear anything for that matter.
Everyone was beginning to feel rather disenfranchised, when suddenly, quite possibly the biggest shock of all arrived. Several forum members over at CanadaVisa got a letter from CIO telling them they had passed what seemed like a very thorough eligibility test. This quickly became known as the PER, short for “Positive Eligibility Review”. Not only had CIO seemingly scrapped the AOR, but they were doing a lot of the work the Visa Offices used to do. As time went on it became apparent that they were calculating points and assessing the authenticity of letters, and with this came the the PER‘s ugly cousin, the NER. The NER was a letter I was unfortunate enough to receive.
The thing about the NER was that it was, in my case, completely unjustified:
Although you have indicated that you have Arranged Employment, there is insufficient evidence on file that your employment offer is supported by a Human Resources Development Canada (HRSDC)/Service Canada confirmation letter.
Naturally I was rather furious. I had provided a Temporary Work Permit and a letter from my employer confirming that upon getting Permanent Residence I would be given a permanent position. Nevertheless, they continued on with their negative assessment, seemingly bouncing me down to a FSW Category 1 case:
As well, you have indicated that you have work experience in an occupation with the following NOC code: 2174 – INTERACTIVE MEDIA DEVELOPER. This NOC code does not correspond to any of the NOC codes specified in the Instructions.
Since you did not provide evidence that you have work experience in the listed occupations, you do not meet the requirements of the Ministerial Instructions and your application is not eligible for processing.
Angry with this failure to properly assess my application I figured out my options for contacting them. It seemed like there were only two ways:
Sending an email to FSW-Sydney-Search-Enquiry@cic.gc.ca
Calling the CIC Call Centre on 1-888-242‑2100
It quickly became apparent after sending the message that the first was a waste of time, with the auto response informing me I would have to wait 20 days before hearing anything! So I moved onto option 2.
The lady who I spoke to was very nice and tried her best to be helpful. I explained to her what happened and she opened up my file. After we had gone through everything she essentially told me that yes, CIO had made a mistake, but unfortunately, they can’t do anything about it.
This, to use a north american expression, makes the call centre about as useful as a solar-powered flashlight. They simply have no authority to do anything about failed applications. Their advice was that I must simply wait for everything to come back, and post it off again with a note.
I was not going to accept that.
The Solution
The solution I recommend to anyone like myself, who has received an unfair NER are following steps, based on an idea that popped into my head after putting the phone down on CIC. In the original NER email is a fax number for address changes “only”. Could this be the secret way to send CIO some top priority information?
Address changes should be faxed to (902) 270-3561. PLEASE NOTE THIS FAX IS ONLY FOR ADDRESS CHANGES.
Put together a clear and concise one-page fax, in the following format:
THIS FAX IS FOR THE ATTENTION OF “<insert person who sent your NER here>” SERVICE DELIVERY AGENT – OR ANY CIO PROCESSING EMPLOYEE WHO CAN ASSIST WITH THIS SPECIAL CASE.
My application has been refused because of a CIO error. This has been confirmed over the phone to CIC on <date and time here>
Full name: <your full name>
DOB: <your DOB>
Email: <your email>
Phone: <your phone #>
File Number / Client Number: <file and client numbers here>
The issue is a rejection email I got from CIO on <date here> which states the following points:
<insert quote of first point from CIO NER email here>
<argument against the point here>
<insert quote of second point from CIO NER email here>
<argument against the point here>
<etc.>
In the application I provided the following:
<list documents relevant to this issue>
<summary here>
The Result
After sending the fax, I got a response from them the following day. It was the original email with this one line added to the top:
Please disregard letter dated 08/DEC/2010. You will be notified shortly with an updated decision. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
As you can see, this method produces good results and got CIO to take another look! On the following Monday I received the updated decision: waiting for me in my email inbox was my PER.
An important point worth noting that I believe the fax line is a one-way street, that is, CIO will never admit to getting a fax, or reply to a fax, because they do not want people using it the way I describe. It should only ever be used in absolute emergencies, and in cases where it is clear they have made a mistake
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