Congratulations TEECANN. May your new home favour you and yours.

TEECANN:
I WOKE UP TO THE GOLDEN MAIL TODAY (20th NOVEMBER, 2018)!!! GOD BE PRAISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSED!!!!

NOTE: THIS IS MORE THAN A LONG POST- IT IS AN E-HANDOUT FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE
If you are not a friend of “PAGE 1”, don’t bother, just side-step it and waka pass- Just kidding
Kindly don't quote the full post as we want to reduce the speed at which Part 6 is throttling!

IMMIGRATION JOURNEY HIGHLIGHT

PHASE 1- IELTS (BC)- LRSW- 7.5, 8, 7.5, 7 (Sept. 30, 2017)- It ended in praise!

PHASE 2- WES ECA- Master’s degree equivalency (Nov 2017)- It ended in praise!

PHASE 3- IELTS (BC)- LRSW- 8, 8.5, 7, 7 (May 4, 2018)- It ended in praise!

PHASE 4- IELTS (IDP)- LRSW- 8, 8, 7, 6.5 (May 25, 2018)- It ended in praise! (Though I never used the result)

PHASE 5- ITA (FSW)- CRS 441 (May 23, 2018) (Draw cutoff was 440)- It ended in praise!

PHASE 6- AOR- (July 25, 2018) It ended in praise!

PHASE 7- IP 1/MEDICALS PASSED (August 15, 2018) It ended in praise!

PHASE 8- IP 2 (Oct 3, 2018) It ended in praise!

PHASE 9- PPR (Nov 20, 2018) It ended in praise!

VISA OFFICE: CPC-OTTAWA

ADR: NONE

FAMILY SIZE - 5



I want to first of all THANK GOD, for this journey thus far as He has given me and my family many praise endings on this journey!!

It all started late 2016 during my annual leave. The leave afforded me the time to think deeply about my life and future and that of my young family in this country and I concluded I have to move if for nothing but for the sake of my kids.

I started out with the Canadian Study route (whilst I thought [at the time] that the Express Entry route was a long thing and difficult to achieve) God bless friends that I spoke with who encouraged me to give Federal Skilled Workers Class [FWS] a try.
(In retrospect, to imagine that the 3 schools that I applied to rejected my applications...Don't even let me talk about what I have spent hustling that route....God would have been looking at me and be like "yinmu" at me)

I and wifey wrote our first IELTS with almost similar scores...but we couldn’t use the score to climb into the 440s CRS range)- I got bad advice that I shouldn't waste money re-writing IELTS, that I should just pack into a PNP and coast to nomination for an eventual sure ITA- I did and till tomorrow, I didn’t know what made me take that advice (Don’t even let me talk of how much I have spent [and obviously wasted] on this PNP hustle talk less of bad advice that I recieved to cut some corners that would have marred my Canadian dreams ultimately by now). Thank God I didn’t heed the advice and faced re-taking my IELTS.

In Oct, 2017, I submitted an application to SINP. As at Dec 2017, I hadn’t received provincial nomination, little did I know that I was setting myself up for frustration and delay...unending test of patience for months...(You guys here on FSW can never understand what folks on the PNP route go through just to get the same ITA that we celebrate here on a regular) Here, many are even yet to understand the acronym- MEP- and before you say Jack Robi...., its PPR for them!
Frustration and lack of movement on my PNP application made me resit the IELTS and God did it enough for us to climb to 441!! (I can never forget friends here who advised against procuring an EOR for that IELTS as I had proposed to do so as to have a higher CRS than 441, they said that the score will drop and that I should wait it out…days after their advises, it did drop and I clinched an ITA on May 23, 2018)
I promptly withdrew my SINP application and bid the provincial program farewell for good. They acknowledged my intention to withdraw with a formal letter of withdrawal.

Yet again, another hiccup; My first EE profile of October 20th, 2017 became ineligible on the April 30, 2018, I missed ITA of May 9, 2018 though I had enough CRS points but because of the tie breaking rule pegged at Dec 2017, I couldn't clinch one then (as my new profile of May 1, 2018 didn't qualify- it was painful)

We did medicals in Qlife and it went smoothly. No issues. We passed medicals 3 weeks post-AOR.

We uploaded Schedule A form as part of our e-APR documents. CIC didn’t ask for it but because myself and wifey had some UK tourist visa refusals between us, we thought to note it in a Schedule A instead of being distracted with an ADR that may come later.


THINGS TO NOTE FROM OUR GCMS NOTE:

1. POF: I submitted GTbank letter in CIC format capturing my current and savings accounts balances and the fixed deposit that I have with the bank.
I also submitted the Fixed Deposit Investment letter from GTbank and letter from Stanbic IBTC pensions with my Pensions Statement of Account with a LOE stating that I have 25% available to me 4 months post resignation.

Case Officer noted all that I submitted including the 25% of pensions balance and converted naira to CAD and recommended POF criterion MET.
NOTE: 25% of my pension total sum was about about 60% of our POF, it was not a POF buffer in our case, it was a large chunk of our POF and it was passed.

2. CHANGE OF WIFE’S SURNAME POST-AOR: We got another passport for wifey though her maiden name passport was still very much beyond 6 months validity but we wanted her CoPR and PR Card to have a uniform surname as the rest of the crew. So after AOR, we applied for a new passport for change of name at Ikoyi, the passport came out after 4 weeks later and I raised a CSE for it. The name change reflected 48 hours later in my profile and the changed surname also reflected in our GCMS note.


I thank God because it was a generally smooth and issues-free application that took a total of 117 days post AOR.

I came here, I saw, I learnt and I made friends…too many friends to start mentioning you one by one, those that I have met one on one, those that I have built affinities with here and even those that don’t know me but are generally men and women of goodwill who always wish me and my family well...I thank you all for your encouragement, support and faith keeping.

Permit to specially recognize MAY 23RD ITA CLINCHERS (whatever time you submitted)…you guys made the wait fun, this is not the time to loose hope, infact everything is still on course and the eagle is getting nearer home with the golden mail; we shall all celebrate your PPRs before Christmas BGG!

** My heart goes out to those who are yet to clinch the ITA especially those on the border line of 435-439, and those awaiting PPRs, you know how we do na- keep the faith up, do all you have to do to improve the CRS legitimately because one thing is certain, iyanu ma sele soon and it will definitely end in praise IJN!


All that end well is that that end in praise!

Congratulations. This is a thing of joy and worth giving thanks to God.

Newmum0615:
Can everyone take a seat please? It’s going to be quite a read.

It’s my turn.

PPR has come to the glory of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.


It has been a lonnnnng but rewarding experience here on this thread and in this EE journey. I have learnt a lot through months of research and waiting. If you had told me anything about relocating from Nigeria before the second week of August 2017, I would have rolled my eyes at you in apparent indifference. I was never one for living abroad. I love visiting on vacations, buying plenty stuff and coming back home. However, one day at the end of the 2nd week of August 2017, I was in the car with my husband, on our way to work and I remember vividly how I stumbled on Testden while browsing through the internet that morning. I decided to read a little and I just became fascinated with the practice texts and solving the questions. A colleague of mine who moved to Australia last year had been harping on about migrating, but I had no such plans. Hubby and I are doing quite well here, and I am also so close to my parents that the thought of staying so far away from them kept me from taking the leap.

Initially, practicing the IELTS questions was just for fun but I had a light bulb moment one day while still recovering from a surgery that almost cost me my life in a Nigerian hospital. A supposedly ‘big’ hospital. Why not take the test and work towards getting outta here? I asked myself. Hubby didn't agree at first. He is a believer now.

So voila! My first connection to anything Canadian was the IELTS test discovery via Testden. During my recuperation period, I decided that I needed a better life not just for myself but also for my kids. I considered Australia, but there is a disconnect between my first degree and work experience so I didn’t stand a chance. Canada was next on my list. I went on to research on the internet; CIC site and Nairaland popped up first among others. I have always engaged Nairaland as my go-to place for 1st hand practical experience on just about anything. It really needs to be rated among the top internet search engines in the world. We are great like that!

So, lemme not bore you with my long story joor.

Here is my timeline:

Decision to immigrate: 2nd week of August 2017.

WES evaluation received: 15th November 2017

IELTS: L8.5 R9 S7.5 W7.5

Hubby: Did very well. Maxed out on scores.

EE profile created: 1st December 2017

ITA: 6th December 2017

AOR: 1st February 2018

NA1: 2nd February 2018

Medicals passed/IP1: 12th February 2018

NA2: 16th February 2018

IP2: 27th February 2018 (the mass movement)

1st GCMS notes (ordered via gcmsbuddy.com): April, 2018 Received in less than 2 weeks

2nd GCMS notes (ordered via gcmsbuddy.com): June, 2018 Received one month later

ADR: 2 days ago. Day 179. Height & Color info + Copies of passport biodata pages (as if I didn’t provide it before)

PPR Mail: 1st August 2018. Received around past noon today. I was actually speaking in faith this morning when I was teasing y'all about having correct news . I just had the feeling.

VO: Almighty London

AOR to PPR: A whooping 181 days!

Other details:

POF: I used 3 T-bills certificates, account statement and other sources of funds. Reference letter from bank and letter from hubby giving consent to use his own portion of the funds. Used affidavit and LOE to explain huge inflows from hubby cos they were quite significant (upfront allowance from his employer). I had almost 3 times the amount needed for a family of three, so I had to exclude other sources of funds so that I don’t complicate things with a bulky upload and overwhelm the VO.

Whew! It was a battle getting that file to compress. After a 6-hour battle on submission day, I was finally able to compress it to 3.7mb. Made a mistake on the LOE in calculating total amount, was about to upload the whole file in the POF placeholder when I got a call from hubby that he had observed a mistake from his review. Had to abort mission ( ), correct it, rescan before remerging and uploading.

Employment: Got letter from my previous employer (didn’t use it in the end cos I couldn’t decide on the right NOC for it), added role in personal history. Used the one from my current employer, LOE explaining NOC change, work mails, Tax card, Staff ID card, my call card and that of my line manager. No payslips or SOA. Although I got maximum score for my previous role with current employer, I also declared my one and half year current role, same employer under my work history cos both roles showed on the same reference letter anyway, and so I had to upload the same doc again for this current role (Thanks happytbaby for calling my mind to this one. I might have missed it). Hmm, was so scared throughout the process cos I had used a different job title and NOC before ITA, but apparently, it wasn’t a biggie (thanks to @cochtrane, @einsteino, @happytbaby & @Blackbuddy for allaying my fears on this).

Education: IELTS TRF, ECA report, Degree certificates. ECA process was pretty straightforward, Naija Uni represented well. UK school, of course didn’t disappoint.

Hubby’s Education: No ECA done for either degree.

Medicals: Done at Q-Life a day before I submitted (I no dey plan travel soon, so had to shift it as far away as possible). Very seamless process.

Photos: Studio 24. The hard copies we did have expired in the wake of this delay. We have to retake them.

Legal document for name change: Submitted one & the same person affidavit for hubby.

LOE: Submitted Schedule A, old UK Visa refusal notes for hubby and 1, Travel History form, affidavit for one & the same person for hubby and his birth certificate (for different names on his docs).

CSE: I noticed that I had mistakenly swapped documents in the wrong placeholders. Raised CSE and notified them of the error.

GCMS Notes: 1st & 2nd were fine. No issues.

So, as I drop my pen, abi fingers (), let me acknowledge and thank everyone for the great job we are all doing here. You guys are amaaaaazing! Agents and consultants are seriously learning compared to us.

As I say thank you to each and every one, lemme send a special shout out to people who were and have been consistent in making this thread a success: @40manlappy (you no answer some of my PMs in the early days of my membership here sha, I still dey beef you-smiley), @Kontagious, @happytbaby (God bless you plenty), @Glitteringstar, our able landlady and data analyst, @cochtrane, @einsteino, @Blackbuddy, @mcstan18 (you snuck up on us and became a formidable “elder” smiley), @Hephgirl (I miss you in our midst.), @Elfmannisback (thank you for being our police here), @ysteph, @Ethelia, @luffyhaki, @Tojued, @ArabianRose @TEECANN, @Threemg, @vcole @smslive2 @agates @ jholarharde and many many others I can’t name here. Una too plenty ooooo. Thank you for all the love and support. You guys made the wait easy to bear.

I kept trusting God and believing that my turn will come one day. Months back, I wrote my goods-to-follow list, made a list of all that we were going to sell off. I even decided on the school my son will go to if we were ever able to get a house within the boundary of the school board. I have researched and researched, now it feels like I already live in Canada (except for the cold. ). I appreciate the Planning for Canada session I was privileged to attend. It’s a pity that the opportunity may end soon. It really helped with my planning.

I appreciate you all for all the times you wished that this day would come sooner. Every time I saw a post praying for my PPR, I would pray and ask God to answer the prayer. May God Almighty, the One who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we can ever think, ask or even imagine make our ways prosperous and grant us all fulfilled lives in Canada.

We shall meet in Canada one day. One day soon.

Excuse my dramatic post. I wasn’t going to type all these, but you guys have waited for this day, so I didn’t want to fall hand. It has been one hell of a wait. I was expecting serious excitement the day this PPR would come, but I am not as excited as I thought I would be. It’s even surprising to me. I think I am even a little afraid, but God has got me. We will all flourish in Canada. It's a must!

PS: To all our newbies, please take time out to read and understand this process. When you take offense at people who ask you to read more, it gives the impression that people that did exactly that are foolish. Imagine that no one took out time to study the process, who would you have confidence to ask for guidance? Please read, read and read. It can be overwhelming, I know, but the benefits surmount every stress you might encounter in figuring where and how to start. To access even the most basic of services in our Maple Leaf country, you would need to read and understand your rights and entitlements as a PR, T&Cs of certain services and all. Why not start now and imbibe that behavior?

…Off to continue dancing! See you guys lerra.

Good day guys,

It's been almost a week since I was able to work on my application. Sunday night precisely. I can only log in to my account, view application status, check my profile and report other technical issues. I can't proceed with the application cause I get an error message saying " Online services are currently down" once I click on "Continue Application" icon. At this point I don't know what to do or how to go about it. I have cleared cache, deleted cookies, cleared history, changed browser from Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and safari, I have also changed computers used different networks (Internet data).
Has anyone experienced this before ?

The CIC website is currently down. I can't view my application.

That is a very good idea. Kindly DM me with your contact details. We can form ours today. For other ITA recipients of June 13,2018, let us meet and help each other through this process. We will be glad to have any of the gurus in the house join us for expert advice

Cc : TEECANN, Newmumm, ysteph, glitteringstar, cocthrane

That is a very good idea. Kindly DM me with your contact details. We can form ours today. For other ITA recipients of June 13,2018, let us meet and help each other through this process. We will be glad to have any of the gurus in the house join us for expert advice

Cc : TEECANN, Newmumm, ysteph, glitteringstar, cocthrane

fizzile:
I have been unable to get a right whatsapp group. Someone shared one here which i joined but it is highly made up of indians, about 90%. Maybe we could create one. What do you think?

Hello Fizzile,

Congratulations once more on the receipt of ITA.
Is there a WhatsApp group June 13, 2018 ITA recipients ? I would be glad if I am added. Kindly give me the laid procedure on how to join.

fizzile:
Hey guys, how are you all doing? Having a lil issue once again. While inputting all my activities in the past 10 years into my personal history, i keep getting this error message. I have entered all my activities ranging from when i started university, down to the few months i was unemployed, upto when i had my nysc, then when i was working, and then unemployed a few months before i left for Masters programme and back, but when i save and exit, it still shows in progress. Please what could the problem be? I have been battling with this since yesterday. These activities actually run from 2005 to late 2017.

Congratulations to those who smashed their IELTS. For those studyi6and praying to God for a breakthrough in IELTS, Keep hope alive press on.

How can I be a part of the WhatsApp group for those who clinched ITA on June 13, 2018. If there is any of auch group, kindly work me through the process of being a part.

Thank you guys

Cc: TEECANN, Newmumm, glitteringstar, ysteph etc

Congratulations to all ITA grabbers and also everyone in the waiting queue, your own ITA will come speedily.

I'm interested in joining the WhatsApp group that was formed. How can I join the group?
Cc: TEECANN, @Newmumm et al

This can only be God. Great speed

Ronards:
My God is a good God....... Yes, He is......

Woke up to my golden mail

AOR: May 7th



PPR: June 5th



Coming back to write my epistle......

I can't contain myself.

Awesome speed. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

PPR18:
It's PPR. To the ever faithful God who did not disappoint us even when our application was not perfect, I give HIM praise. To Newmum ur labour of love will not go unrewarded as the Lord liveth. You replied all my mails,went out of ur way to prepare LOE sample for us when adr seemed complicated. I love u.
AOR. April 15
MEP. April 21
IP1. April 21
IP2. May 16
ADR. May 16
ADR Submitted May 19
PPR May 30.
Thanks for the knowledge shared here. Goes back to silent reader.

mokikeoj:
Hello, please any contact

I know someone at the senate. He can help you with Undergraduate transcripts

Hello Everyone. Congratulations to those that crossed IELTS hurdle with BC.
I need some clarifications on the issue of STATUS.
I and my fiancé are getting married this weekend. We intend creating the EXPRESS ENTRY PROFILE before Monday. With our CRS standing at 450 and the current trend from the draws, hopefully we should get an ITA by next week.
But a close friend said the application process will be too sudden ( Wedding is just 5 days before the draws) and cause some suspicion for IRCC.
Elders in the house and everyone in here is invited to advice us.

URGENT.

This is an awesome result. CONGRATULATIONS. BC should upload our results, so we can forge ahead.

Pearlywhitez:
I just want to testify that I've crossed this Ielts hurdle���.

First with BC LRWS 8.5, 9, 6.5, 7.5. I applied for the EOR and decided to sit for another one... 7 weeks and counting still no result... Thankfully, I won't be needing it.

2nd time with MOD IDP LRWS 8, 9, 8, 8...

Glory be to God.

Lastly, I just want to encourage everyone still trying to cross the Ielts hurdle, it is gonna happen. Keep your chin up and keep trying. It'll all end in praise.