₦airaland Forum

Thank you AzariahYaa, Stephanie09 and DadR

Thanks a lot @Betap and @Utonne

stonecoldcafe:
Congrats bro, this was a very very good read
I rejoice with you
I too remember my happiness as i journeyed to VFS on that glorious day
I pray as many that desire such get to experience same

Congrats again

Thank you bro. God bless and favour us all.

princeofcanada:
Amen.

Why do i just love you? Go and make it biggg in Canada. May God continue to order your steps.

One love bro. Thank you and amen to your prayers.

kingspaco:
Congratulations to you.
May Canada favour you

Thanks bro

ladymarshall:
Congrats again. So you were teasing us before abi

Thank you very much for your detailed script especially during the wait post-AOR.

I score you 9.7/10

Go and succeed in Canada

9.7/10? Wawuuuu!!!

Thank you and amen!!!

Ramj:
Oyibiribiri kan e ooooo

CongratuPPR


Je m'appelle PPR

Thanks my future neighbour in the NWT

ladymarshall:
Congratulations!!! When I first saw this, I was like , but when I saw your monika, I knew you would return for full gist

It was a teaser. I was expecting you or Ralph to quickly come and score me -100/10

beabeasquare:
Congratulations, may you prosper in Cannyland. Amin o, Ire a kari gbogbo wa

Thank you so much.

reavealhidden:
Congratulations!!!

Thank you!

Ifeoma77:
Big congratulations!!!!
Shekere coming right up

Yaaaaasssss!!!

Thanks sis.

joo2018:
@Goz, @Goz, @Goz, the pizza man.

Congratulations. May you be favored in your new home.

@ the bolded: Bros, you're shouting na.

Thanks still

Topsmamen:
Congrats again man.

Well written. For a man of few words, that's........

Ladymarshall helped me o jare

Long PPR Gist Alert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Timeline

Decision to travel: Second half of 2017 (but still was not 100% decided)

Final decision to travel: May 2018

IELTS: April 21, 2018

WES: August 24, 2018

ITA: October 15, 2018

AOR: November 10, 2018

MEP/BIL: December 11, 2018

Biometrics: December 12, 2018

ADR: February 27, 2019 (submitted same day)

Ghost Update: April 16, 2019 (Additional documents moved from “We are reviewing…” to “Not Applicable”)

PPR: 2:07am of April 17, 2019 (dated April 16, 2019)

Main Gist
I have always been the “whether Nigeria likes it or not I must prosper here” kind of person. I had never seen myself living outside the country. My own plan was just to make money and go for vacations. That was how I sat here with a postgraduate degree, working like an elephant and eating like an ant. Chai, I suffered in Lagos, what!!!
Sometime in 2014, a friend who lives in Canada started talking to me about moving over. She painted a great picture so I checked out the occupation list and mine was not there so with that excuse I was able to make her stop disturbing my life.
In May 2017, a dear friend and sister called to tell me she was making the move to Canada with her young family. She told me things I already knew, about how tough things are and how the future looks bleak here. She asked me to join her on the journey so we can leave together as she was getting set for IELTS then but I was not so convinced. Not long after, a close friend started talking about moving too, in fact at that time he had started his PEBC evaluation. That was when I started thinking about it passively and then all of a sudden it seemed like everyone I knew was either in the process or knew people in the process of leaving to Canada. Towards the end of 2017 I decided to give it a shot but because of the NASUU strike I could not get my transcripts so I waited. Early 2018, I decided to do IELTS first since I had been seeing people take it over and over. I made a silent bargain with God that I would sit for it just once and if I flunked it then my destiny was not to go to Canada. I also decided I would not start ECA until I saw the IELTS result to know whether my destiny was in Canada or not.

IELTS: Registered a month ahead because the cost for next available dates after April 21 would be 75k and I was on a very tight budget so I jumped on the 68k date. I practiced with the Barron practice book and some videos I got off youtube. I kept getting 35 and above in the listening practices I took. I practiced for reading using the Barron practice book also. For speaking, I did not practice as I was told it would just be a conversation I just needed to speak with confidence. For writing, I only practiced the night before I wrote the exam. I am quite imaginative so I knew I could always come up with stuff to write down. Results came out 5th May, LRSW: 9, 9, 7, 7.5.

ECA: Having sorted out IELTS, I quickly paid for my ECA with WES. This was before the WAEC brouhaha. My cousin in NAU helped me process my transcript. That process should not have taken more than a day because I had processed it years before. Guess what? NAU said they did not have records of my former transcript so they needed to type afresh and there was just one lady in exams and records who types transcripts. Long story short, transcript came out, was sent to me in Lagos and I sent via courier to WES along with a copies of my degree certificate. In fact I also helped a friend send his spouse’s certificate along with my documents. I just made sure hers was in a separate envelope with her ECA number boldly written on it then put that and my own well labeled documents into a bigger envelope before sending. Doing that saved us 18k. Was processing transcript form CMUL at the same time and they got to WES some days apart. WES notified me after some time that verification requests had been sent to my schools. NAU surprised me as they verified as soon as they got it without asking for any payment. CMUL however kept saying they had not received the request. I was later to discover that correspondence from WES to CMUL goes to Unilag, Akoka first and sits there till they have a sizable number of mails to move to CMUL before they dispatch. My verification request must have sat there for over two weeks before I finally got a call from CMUL that it had come and I had to pay 3k for the verification. I paid and we got that sorted. WES told me exactly when to expect my final report and on that very day in August 2018, I got the soft copy while the hardcopy came a while later.

ITA: Created my profile after my ECA was ready in August but I was not quite ready to get into the pool because POF was not yet complete. On Sunday 14th October 2018, I do not know exactly what it was but something pushed me to sit with my computer and complete my profile. Next day I was minding my business at work when a friend who had also been in the pool called to say congratulations. I asked him what the occasion was and he said it's ITA. I quickly went online and discovered for myself that a surprise draw held that Monday and I was going to get ITA as my score was well above the cut off. Long story short, I left the job by the end of that month so I took submitting my application more seriously as I was unwilling to look for another job and I also believed my processing would be fast so I can just get out of here fast.

Medicals: A friend told me he walked into the Children’s Practice about two months before I was ready and was able to get his medicals done without an appointment. Na so I carry myself go there. At the gate they told me they no longer attend to applicants for Canada. I immediately called Q-life and they told me that the earliest I could get was sometime in January (this was first week in November). I called IOM, when they finally picked up I was able to go through the process of getting an appointment for 9:30am the next day. I walked into IOM the next day at about 9:15am thinking since I had an appointment for 9:30am all would be smooth. Long story short, I left IOM at about 6:30pm in the evening.

POF: I have money market fund accounts with Cordros Asset Management and FBN Quest. I submitted letters from them along with account statements. The Cordros account was about four months old and there was a bulk deposit (about 70% of the POF) in it about one month prior to printing (I did not explain this). In addition, I got a letter from Stanbic IBTC along with account statement. The purpose of this was to show salary deposits of my most recent job and to also add a little buffer as I had a cash balance in the account of about 300k.

PCC: A friend gave me a contact at Alagbon. I walked in there at some minutes to 4 and by 4:30pm I walked out with my PCC after parting with 5k.

Proof of Employment: I was able to get a reference letter in IRCC format from my former place of work where I put in 3years. It was prepared on the company’s letterhead paper and signed by the general manager and I also attached his call card. This company does not have an online presence so no website or official email addresses. The unique thing about my case was that I was not on a salary rather I was paid commissions for businesses I initiated and completed (aside a weekly stipend for transport). As there were no paystubs, to prove I was getting paid by the company, I got my account statement and highlighted transfers made to my account covering the last 8 months that I was with them. I also added the offer letter from my most recent employer along with paystubs, account statement highlighting pay and contact details for the head of the Nigerian office.

Biometrics: I had always seen on this forum that Biometrics does not take over an hour. On the day I went for mine, village people struck. Network was down at VFS and it took me 5hours to get mine done

The Wait: Let me just say that in my entire life, I have not wanted anything more than I wanted to get this Canadian PR. The suffer I suffered in this Lagos was just too much so every time I felt like getting discouraged, I remembered the goal of all this and stayed in line. After AOR, I checked my profile daily (I was on IP2 from AOR). Somehow I kept hoping my application would be one of those superfast ones. Well with time I was checking once a week and then once in two weeks. Early January I raised a CSE to find out my visa office. Got a generic reply from Agent Mathew without an answer to my enquiry. I was active on the November AOR group and it was excitement and anticipation galore when we had a couple of PPRs in January but being a single applicant I just accepted that the families were mostly going to go first so I decided I would only start panicking if I do not get PPR by May 10 (day I clock 6months).
Raised another CSE 2 weeks after the first to enquire again about visa office, eligibility and background checks. This time I got a reply to say my application was being processed in Ottawa and that eligibility was on.
Passport was to expire July 2019 so on the 25th of January I rushed to Abeokuta and renewed. Decided not to update via CSE but to wait till whenever they ask so I can know for sure that my file is being handled.
On the day Tojued shared her PPR story (Feb 27), I remember reading in it that she had typed it since November 2018. Now, even though I had always wanted to type my story ahead, there was zero ginger since I was not seeing any movement in my account but after reading that part of her story I made a mental note to start typing that day. Got back that evening, checked my account for the first time in a while and there was nothing. I put on my laptop to start typing and I had barely finished the first line when I looked at my phone and noticed there was a mail from ‘do not reply’ wow!!! It was an ADR for new passport. I quickly scanned with my phone and uploaded via the new placeholder. Checked my account the next day February 28 and the message still read “we need additional documents….” I left the matter and faced other things. At noon on the 1st of March, I decided to check again and I saw that the message had changed to “we are reviewing the additional document….”
On the 20th of March I called CIC. The call lasted 32minutes but I got to know that I had recommended pass for eligibility and that background checks were on. The agent told me everything looks good and that my application should be wrapped up before I hit the 6 month date. Exactly two weeks after the first call (3rd April), I called CIC again. The agent noted that nothing much had changed since my last call. She repeated to me that eligibility was recommended passed, criminality passed and that other background checks had not started. She assured me that that everything was looking good and that she sees no reason why my application would not be completed before the 6 month mark.
On the 16th of April, I checked my account and noticed it had been updated. Additional Documents was now reading "Not Applicable", I smiled and knew deep down the visa officer had finally looked through my file for a final review. That was when I put finishing touches to this story and started making mental plans to go to VFS the next day (today). Turned off my phone and tried to sleep off at past 1am but could not. Turned on my phone at exactly 2:01am and 6 minutes later I saw the beautiful mail drop (actually dropped twice sef).

Passport Transmission: Even though it took me almost three hours to go from Surulere to Lekki this morning (no thanks to the trucks on Western Avenue/Eko bridge), I simply followed the steps joo2018 laid out yesterday and I was out of VFS in an hour.

Conclusion: No two applications are the same. Make your application as detailed as you can bearing in mind the peculiarity of your case. Knowing what I know now, I would package my application differently if I were to do it over as there were a number of things I felt I did not really do right. However, rather than have sleepless nights and raise unnecessary CSEs, I handed it all to God and he came through for me.

Benediction: My prayer for everyone reading this is that no matter what stage you are in on this journey, the eternal one would do for you what he has done for me at the perfect time. God bless us all. Ire akari o. We shall all meet in our new home, Canada.

Debsify:
Congrats

Thank you!

Topsmamen:
Nice! Congrats, man of few words.

Thank you senior man.

iaatmguy:
for the sake of others, be a man of plenty words. it would be appreciated

Ifeoma77:
Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We await the full gist

No scantily clad shekere shakers to even motivate me

Adunnee:
Congratulations!! When should we come for the detailed gist?

Venue? Time?

What if I'm a man of few words?

Got Prêt pour Visa email from the Ottawa Visa Office at 2:07 am today.

Single Applicant. November 10, 2018 AOR.

All praises be to the most high.

ladymarshall:
added two and two together from your previous links. Waiting for the reveal in your PPR script

Prophet(ess)

princeofcanada:
Unilag doesn't demand for verification fee. I'll only advise you get in touch with the records office as soon as WES confirm they've sent your school an email.

Those Idiaraba people now demanded 3k from me for it

AmeComplique:
PPR MAIL DON DROP OOOOO

Mail dropped inside Idumota thank God my friend was with me

Accra VO is working


Congratulations!

Guys, Accra VO is raining PPRs right now. Check ya emails

wasseynewest:
Hallooo my people. Now i think my APPLICATION is having this same issue with Vivi o!

Wifey called IRCC agent this afternoon, the lady told us that our file has been approved since March 7th and PPR mail already sent.

But we didn't get any mail(not even in my spam & the likes). The lady had to put us on hold for like 3 mins again to confirm very well, she came back affirming her earlier information to us and even requested for my mail id again for confirmation.

Las Las, she said she will contact the officer in charge to send us another PPR mail. Na Prayer we dey since o while we have tried to send some mails as advised here earlier. Thanks famz
AOR was Dec.27th.

Congratulations senior man

pejuhazel:
Please o; our POF is fixed in two accounts. Mine and my husband's; the one in my account has matured and has been rolled over. The one in my husband's account has also matured but we are thinking of transferring it to my account to fix as well because my bank gives higher interest.
Now my issue is hope it won't affect our application negatively cos I plan to raise a CSE to submit the new certificate. Our VO is Accra and we are 3 months post AOR. cc @Ifeoma77 @joo2018 @Topsmamen
Thanks

Since it's Accra please do what you have to. You can also add evidence of the transfer from your husband to you. I'd even add an LOE explaining the bolded.

Topsmamen:
Yes, she can claim points for 3 years as her total work experience exceeds 3 years. She only needs to get reference letter in one of the jobs where her work experience is at least 1 year.

Thanks for clarifying this

Always thought when combining NOCs one must have worked at least a year in each one.

dorothy0324:
Hello All, I’m a bit confused with this NOC calculation. I have a 1 year experience (NYSC) as an assistant finance officer in a well known logistics company in Lagos, a 1 year 5 months experience in a bank as credit risk officer, currently, I work as a mgt. trainee in another bank (8months). The question is can I claim to have 3 years experience?

You can't claim three years but two. You have one year from NYSC and one year and 5months from the assistant finance position. Your current job which is under one year won't count.

Edit: Reading stuff online and it seems it might be possible for you to claim points for 3years (that's including your current job).
Biko joo2018 and Ifeoma77 abeg make una chook mouth.

Doctorfitz:
My self and some colleagues are trying to take the ICES route but this one someone said they didn't evaluate doctor of optometry degree well.

NAwa.

Pls house if any one has something concrete on this issue pls ur inputs would be appreciated.....

cc:ifeoma77

Some pages back, someone said WES evaluated O.D. as a professional degree. You might want to enquire from WES before taking the leap though.

Funky123:
Pls a friend outside NL asked me a question that is bigger than my knowledge on this journey....She was planning to start this journey with her fiance,but the guy friends in Canada said it's hard to get a good job when one didn't have at least 1 certificate from Canada school and regarding their POF they can't raise for the both of them,Now they both agree to put their wedding plans on hold and let the guy alone go for now....The question now is that is it possible for someone who got a PR visa to come back to Nigeria after 2-3 years to marry the lady legally and go together....

Your friend is going to let her man move alone to Canada and then come back to marry her after 2-3yrs because of POF difference of a little over 800k? Wawu!

msmodi:
Good evening, can anyone please share any other number to call IRCC on? I have been trying on the +16139444000 and I have not been able to speak to any agent. Please help.

Call them tomorrow at 11:57pm Nigerian time. You'll definitely get through.

johnnybravo1990:
I pray say I nor fit sleep o. I am at peace. I nor even panic at all. I think I will only raise that CSE(I don’t even know the process of raising it) if there is no change on my profile in 2 months time.

I didn't even add ECA neither did I raise a CSE and the processing of my application is going on fine last I checked