₦airaland Forum

HardeyBabs, Peace505, Babeakosua, StKizito2, ShininLite, Ramj, bunmioluwa, Zinggi, Richness1104, funshobabs, Ella99, CoCoLav, Uchihasasuke19, fmsimple, wasseynewest, Engr2000, COPR, chicyclass - thank you guys, may God bless our hustles!

Also congrats smslive2, on your PPR success, you answered my very first question on this thread, we are coming behind you God bless you man!

I detailed it here: https://www.nairaland.com/4843199/canadian-express-entry-federal-skilled/136#73513974

CoCoLav:
@nomad26, please share with us why your ices took 4 months.

I think people need to be aware that ICES is not really as wonderful as we say on this thread. ICES also reserves the right to carry out verification on their own, just that this is not made known to applicants in the manner WES does. Their evaluation process is also shrouded in mystery. Documents were received by ICES on November 7 and to date, the ECA has not been completed. I called them yesterday and was told evaluations take 10-12 weeks after they receive your documents and it is at that stage they would let you know if your documents are acceptable or not. I wouldn't be surprised if the processing time increases due to the manner in which we have been encouraging people to go with ICES. Their volume of work may have increased without necessarily increasing the number of evaluators. Please let's make an informed decision.

Not sure o. If your writing is upgraded to 7, will this give you enough points to get ITA, considering that you have 6.5 in Reading? I'll suggest you check with the crs tool just to have an idea by how much your scores would improve, to help you decide for EOR or not.

funshobabs:
Hmm congrats. Your story is actually giving me a second thought. Here is my score. L8.5, S7.5 R6.5 and W6.0. Remark came through my mind because I think I did well in my writing, although I didn't finish my reading because I started slowly but somehow I have been having a second thought about my result. So it is possible to have an upgrade from 6.0 to 7?

Thanks! I didn't write in Nigeria, I wrote in UK. I was told by the test centre that it would take 2-4weeks. I guess it was faster for me since BC remark is done in UK. I received a new trf by post and also an email was sent to me yesterday evening about the refund.

Richness1104:
nomad26 congratulations to you. Please was the remark done in Lagos or Abuja? How did you know that the remark has been concluded? Mine is 4weeks now

nomad26:
IELTS o, why are you doing me like this? I just checked my result
L-9
R-9
S-7.5
W-6.5
This exam can frustrate somebody sha, will be going for EOR asap.
Congrats to all who got their desired scores!

My people, I am so happy right now that you would think I won the lottery lol My EOR results (from BC) came back successful! Writing was upgraded from 6.5 to 7 and speaking from 7.5 to 8.5. In fact, I didn't want to remark speaking, it was COPR that suggested that I do it just to increase the chances of getting my money back. Thanks man!

Also, to be honest I wasn't very confident about my writing because I didn't have time to review my essays at the end. All I was sure of was that I wrote over the word limit in both essays and in Task 2 (my task was to argue both sides and give my opinion), I wrote 4 paragraphs and used made-up examples in explaining both sides. I used IELTSADVANTAGE as a guide to structure my essay.

So my people, if you're looking for 0.5 or 1 point upgrade, EOR is worth a shot, go for it! Mine took 2.5 weeks in total. Thanks to COPR, fmsimple and everyone for your encouragement, God bless you guys plenty

The icing on this new year 'cake' was that my ECA also FINALLY arrived this morning from ICES, after 4 long months of frustration.
CRS now standing at 459, I am off to the pool o, next stop ITA!

It depends...where do you reside? Call the centre and find out. In my location, it's possible to use either passport or residence card.

Eraytee:
Goodday to everyone and compliments of the season to you all, please I need clarification as regards ielts identification doc.

There is only January 19th 2019 date available for the month of January 2019 in my country of resident, I was unable to apply for this date because it got filled up early, i was so surprised when i saw it, now the problem i have now is that d next available date where I reside is February 9th 2019. My passport will expire 2days before the exam (February 7th). Have applied for new passport since October 2018, but the passport team that came for renewal will be coming January/February (not sure).

Is it possible to register with national ID card? Has anyone done this before? Aiming my 4th attempt, biko make una help a brother. God bless you all.

If you're sending over £250, there's a £30 cashback through topcashback...might turn out to be cheaper for you.

kaad:
Thank you all. I will check Rhemito for their rate.
Azimo seems popular but they offer the lowest exchange rate when compared to transferwise and paysend.
I wish I can get my pounds to the abokis in zone 4 Abuja.

I booked for IELTS (not UKVI version though) less than a month before the exam date. Why don't you go to the BC site and check available dates closest to you?
https://ieltsukvisas.britishcouncil.org/

Nomsy2:
Yes I know I'm going for IELTS UKVI...
I've taken IELTS in 2013 and I remembered then we were told to book at least a month ahead of the test date.. I only wanted to know if it's still same

I didn't mention that it was free, which is why I included the official link for him to get more info. I proposed Turkey because he said he had left it too late to apply for visa. Turkish visa can be obtained easily online, no need to submit application to a physical embassy.

Lexusgs430:
Xmas Turkey or Turkey the country? If it's the latter, a domestic tier 2, no go enter free......

Consider Turkey, you can apply for e-visa online https://www.evisa.gov.tr/en/

SIRTee15:
Anyone know which European country will accept valid tier 2 visa on my nigerian passport as entry requirements at the border... .
I'm thinking of some sort of vacation this xmas/New year but left it too late to start applying for visa n stuffs....
Preferably Mediterranean countries....

In my CoS, Y was ticked for maintenance and my employer also provided a signed letter for my husband's application.
What was the reason stated for your application refusal?

Naiobi:
@justwise thank you.
We had informed his employers that we wanted maintenance ticked for all 3 of us, however, when the CoS was received (over a month after), it seemed to only cover for him. Although, in the note section of the document, it said maintenance was ticked (for the migrant, which was questionable) and in the section where they were meant to actually tick affirmative, it was N. This didn't look good.

So we raised this with them and they said the note part would suffice, that if it was for the principal applicant alone, it would have said "migrant only".

Sadly, we had not prepared funds for 90days for all 3 of us as we had been assured before that the CoS would cover. We were also running out of time because he had to resume his job (because they had already moved it forward a couple of times before).

Like I said, it was all avoidable as we would have simply not trusted them 100% and set out own maintenance funds aside.

I hope someone learns from this.

As far as I know, if you've been on tier 2 general for 5 years, you can apply for ILR (indefinite leave to remain). See this link for details https://www.gov.uk/settle-in-the-uk/y/you-have-a-work-visa/tier-2-general-visa

subcbouy:
I want you to advice if it is possible to nationalize after spending five years on tier 2 visa.

Yes, you're right it is for 90 days, I made a mistake. I have edited the post.

sutelk:
Thanks for sharing your experience, really reassuring.
But I noticed you mentioned 28 days for proof of funds, are you sure about this? Cos what I see on the guidance notes is £630 for 90 days. Has it changed?

Yes, I requested for a letter from my employer (A-rated sponsor). The letter stated that they will provide the maintenance fund required for my spouse as per the immigration rules for one month. This is why we didn't need to show proof of £630 in my account.

The cover letter was written by me, just to introduce myself and my partner. I stated my job and my UK visa status, how long I've been with my partner, when we got married and that we wanted to live together in the UK. It was basically an introduction letter.

beyondbasicsng:
@nomad26 thanks for this. Just a few questions please. What is the Original cover letter please? (Content)

Now, about the original maintenance letter, did you request this directly from your employer? Reason I'm asking is because I had thought the only way to show maintenance was to use bank statements showing funds have been maintenaned in the account for 90 days.

This is incorrect, your spouse does not need IELTS or NARIC for a tier 2 dependant visa. The main requirement are proof of funds maintained for 90 days, proof that your relationship is genuine, tb test and pay nhs fee. Download this document and digest it.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-dependants-of-uk-visa-applicants-tiers-1-2-4-5

My partner applied some months ago and we didn't submit any proof of English. Here is a link to the documents submitted for my partner's application. https://www.nairaland.com/2655931/general-uk-visa-enquiries-part/477#69102226

Also, post your questions on this thread instead, it specifically addresses visa queries https://www.nairaland.com/2655931/general-uk-visa-enquiries-part

sutelk:
And my budget just increased. it is well, will get to work on it.
Thanks.

This is a real Christmas miracle o! Congrats to all who received ITA today and also the PPR recipients. I just love hearing good news on this forum

IELTS o, why are you doing me like this? I just checked my result
L-9
R-9
S-7.5
W-6.5
This exam can frustrate somebody sha, will be going for EOR asap.
Congrats to all who got their desired scores!

If you're in Abuja, you can get WAEC scratchcard at this address:
Team business center, Shop 002 Ground floor, His glory Plaza, behind access bank, Adetokunbo ademola Crescent, wuse2, not far from amigo supermarket.

cc: connectgt

A friend of mine got waec scratchcard yesterday from a business centre. I'll find out the address from her and post here, might be helpful for you.

connectgt:
That means you were able to get the unscratched card. I even checked 3 cyber cafes, before going to WAEC office, same thing.
Alright, I will keep searching na.
Thanks

Hahahaha, good luck with everything o!

CowbellY:
Thank you very much.

You'll be invited to the wedding

As far as I know, there is no official requirement on how long after marriage you should wait before applying.
In fact your situation is quite similar to mine as my partner and I only decided to get married so we could live together in UK even though we had been together for years. In our case, we applied two months after our registry wedding at Ikoyi.
The important thing is to have documented evidence of your relationship - photographs, emails, whatsapp messages/calls, etc. We submitted 3 years worth of whatsapp logs (just a few per month) and also pictures going back 5 years. This helped prove that our relationship was genuine.

CowbellY:
Thank you very much for the response! I had indeed seen your post during my research last night. Hugely surprised and awed you still replied here.

There is a little matter though, we're not *legally* married yet, while we have cohabited for a while we both agreed to keep formal marriage conversation off (yeah, sounds strange, imagine Nigerians. Hahaha).

However, due to the need, we've both agreed to do the registry to show prima facie. I would like to ask; how soon after that could we apply for my PBS visa ?.

Thanks

If she's on a Tier 2visa, then you need to apply as her dependant. Here is the official website for reference https://www.gov.uk/tier-2-general/family-members
My partner went through this process last year, for your reference this is what we submitted for the application
https://www.nairaland.com/2655931/general-uk-visa-enquiries-part/477#69102226
The entire process took us 3 months to gather all the required documents, however the visa application itself took just 14 working days.

CowbellY:
Now, I'm utterly confused and seek the advice of the lecturers and profs here; she's on a Tier-2 (General) Migrant visa, I can't recall seeing a Leave to remain or limited leave to remain.

Should we consider the PBS option or the Spousal one. Madam lolas89 and Mr Readynow I believe, both got a positive decision despite having spouses who weren't citizens.

Zeiya, I really enjoyed reading your story o and your family's generosity is simply inspirational. God bless you and Canada will surely favour you and your family

I will screenshot your post and send to some of my friends that have been complaining about how to source POF but haven't written IELTS or completed ECA. The important thing is to start the process and keep trying!

Zeiya:
Men this PPR rain reach my side ooooooooo.

CANADA EXPRESS ENTRY is real and you must be interested and determined to get there. I have told some of my friends and
some gave up after few attempts of IELTS while some are waiting to see the result if my own.

It has ended in praise for me. Yours is loading

Yes o, this is what we have been waiting for! Congrats to everyone who got PPR. We are eagerly awaiting more announcements

Amen o, thanks! [quote author=magnificientzaz post=73514533][/quote]

Thanks Tojued! I had already prepared my estimated timeline for this EE process, I think God is using this to teach me patience lol

Tojued:
Sorry about this experience! Good thing you were following up with ICES bumper to bumper.

My people, let me gist you guys about my ECA journey with ICES so far:

Account created, all documents uploaded and payment made by 7th Sep. Got in touch with a contact at my university (in Nigeria) to send transcripts to ICES via email which ICES confirmed they received on 14th Sep.

Then the wait began...after 5 weeks elapsed, I sent an email to ICES for an update, they said they were still reviewing my application. By week 10 (19th Nov), I was already fed up because I was hoping to enter the pool latest 23rd Nov as my current IELTS (L9R9W7.5S7.5) will expire early Dec. I sent another email to ICES requesting for an update, they replied that they can't verify the email that my transcript was sent from even though it had the school's domain (eg. xxxx@uni.com.ng) so I should have the university send the transcript again through the regular email that they normally use. My people, at this point I was very upset because they could have told me about this issue weeks ago but instead they waited until week 10!!

Anyway, I got in touch with my contact at the school, turned out that the mumu guy sent my transcript from his own university account (he is a lecturer at the university) instead of going through the appropriate channel (Deputy Registrar). All because he wanted to chop money for little stress.

My advice to everyone is if you're going through a contact at your university, please confirm that they are going through the right channel to avoid delay. Because these ICES people will just abandon your application if there's any comma. Please learn from my experience.

I am now in the process of getting my transcripts sent via express courier to ICES. Also, I have now written another IELTS on 1st Dec and hopefully the result turns out favourable

No, not for higher education degree evaluation.

rieme26:
Please does ICES require WAEC?

Please don't be confused, what you thought initially was correct. You DO NOT have to send ECA by post to IRCC. You shouldn't believe everything you read here hook, line and sinker abeg.

meelola007:
All this while, I thought the Evaluation report was supposed to be sent to only me and then I upload when CIC requests for it.

Now I am reading about sending to immigration.

So confused.

Why is it better?

fmsimple:
Better to have both ECAs with the same organisation.

Awww congrats, this is truly encouraging to read I pray everything else goes smoothly for you!

Sexyuhlala:
So to you out there, yes you. Please don’t give up. You’d get there in no time. Cheers.

Yes you can create two profiles, one with you as primary applicant and the other with your spouse as primary applicant. It may benefit you if you're looking at both PNP & FSW routes. But when one person gets ITA, you should get rid of the other profile.

meelola007:
How about one for the spouse and one for yourself.