₦airaland Forum

Okoriekwe:
Yes, University of British Columbia (UBC) waives application fee for Nigerians.

Qudkom:
It's worrying that 5 applicants I know got rejected based on the same reasons. Even the ones with funds and travel history.

●travel history
●Personal funds and asset
● Purpose of Visit

Something isn't right about this. To think they all got their biometric validity correspondence the same day is also confusing.

Or can someone explain how a mature applicant that recently travelled to usa with his family got refused for the reasons I stated above travel history included

Or how another that traveled to Canada earlier this year on vacation got refused on travel history! !!! And the other two reasons I stated. This is a Man with a fledging career travels for fun and they even ticked personal asset and finance.

olaola17:
Very true, please kindly help, the same applied to me this morning i was refused because that they are not sure i will be returning to my home country based on the following ground. 1) Travel history 2) purpose of visit 3)personal asset and financial status. Please what do i do? Do i request for a gcms note for better clarity?

sillysassysally:
Nairaland Fam!
Thank you all for the congratulatory messages
The past couple of weeks has been an emotional rollercoaster! But knowing that we were all on a similar journey - each one at a different stage - was some sort of comfort.

My Timeline
Applied with upfront medicals – April 14th
Medical Request – May 6th (I was surprised when I got this medical request because I did upfront medicals, so I was wondering why they were still telling me to do medicals). I sent a web form with my e-medical slip attached and I also sent emails to Lagos, London, and Kenya. On May 7th (the day after receiving medical request), I went to the hospital to see the doctor who attended to me and doctor told me that he sent IRCC a message to link my upfront medical ID to my medical request ID.
Medicals passed – May 8th
Correspondence letter and Passport request – May 9th
Overall, my study permit took less than a month to be approved! Specifically, it took 25 days!

Things I believe that worked in my favour
1. The Grace of God that covered all my errors and colored all my efforts.
2. My resumption date (June 17th). I sort of feel that they give priority to people with nearer resumption dates. If you look at the timeline we have, you’d all notice that people resuming closer tend to get their decisions quickly – this does not mean that you should intentionally delay your application. At the end of the day, no one really knows the minds of these VO’s.
3. I have a strong international travel history (USA, UK, Brazil, South Africa, etc)
4. I made my submissions as organized as possible. Infact, I did a table of content for each pdf I merged so that whoever was working on my application would easily understand it.
5. I explained all lump sums with proof… (Sometimes, I see people saying things like “they’ll increase the money in their account from 5 million to 10 million” and I feel this raises eyebrows as it would question whether those funds are really available to the applicant.
6. I wrote a banging SOP… details below
7. I was truthful in my application. I have like 5 half-siblings (one living in the US and one living in the UK). I mentioned all of them in my family information form even though I was scared that it could potentially weaken my home ties.

Things I believe were the weak points of my application and how I addressed them
1. This was what I perceived to be the main weakness of my application. I was using student loans as proof of funds for my tuition. Mind you, these loans were from a reputable and internationally recognized company called Prodigy Finance. I addressed this perceived weakness by using a sponsor who was financially capable of paying off all my loans (even though most of her asset were illiquid (land and truck). Also, I believe I was able to show a strong academic and professional track record that indicated that I was financially capable of personally paying off the loans on an installment basis.
2. The name of my sponsor across all her documents was not consistent because she is a divorcee. I addressed this by submitting an affidavit of change of name with a newspaper publication

My advice to prospective PO’s
The truth is that you have to do the hard work yourself... Even though you can easily get guidance here, you still have a lot of homework to do yourself... Understand your profile – its weakness and its strengths and address them.

Documents I submitted
CAQ (Mandatory for students schooling in Quebec)
CIC Forms
Digital Photo
My passport showing all previous visas and stamps
Proof of upfront medical exam
Evidence of work requirement in study (my program comes with co-op)
Letter of Acceptance (Unconditional – though I sent the conditional one via a web form. I also begged them to process my application speedily considering my close resumption. However, my web form was never acknowledged). The other documents I merged with my Letter of Acceptance includes; acceptance deposit receipt, academic qualification documents (such as my certificate, transcript, WAEC certificate and TOEFL results), professional qualification documents (such as my CFA level 1 badge, letter of introduction from current employer, my bio page on my company’s website, work ID, and letters of employment from internships I had done in the past), then other documents (such as my NYSC certificate and my birth certificate).
Proof of financial support – Prodigy Finance loan of about CAD 36k (30K for school fees and 6k for living expenses), Paid acceptance deposit of CAD 5K, Scholarship of CAD 8.5K, Dorm account statement with living expenses of CAD 11K… These were the funds that were budgeted for my studies. Apart from the aforementioned, I had about NGN 1m in stocks, NGN 100k naira in T-bills, NGN 250k in RSA, and NGN 70K in my salary account – all of which I showed. In addition, my sponsor (who was my mother) also had NGN 1.9m in her account, NGN 5m in T-bills and NGN 4 m in RSA. I also showed my sponsors illiquid assets such as landed property with valuation worth NGN 40m and sponsors business asset ownership (trucks) worth NGN 20m. The essence of all of these other funds and documents was just to show that my sponsor could actually pay off my loan. Someone (an Indian) told me that if I was using loans as proof of funds, it was important to use a sponsor whose financial situation showed that they could handle the loan.
Finally, under client information, I included the birth certificates of my siblings, as well as the international passport data page of my sponsor (mother). I also included a letter and affidavit of sponsorship, Sponsors business certificate of incorporation and memorandum of association, and sponsors affidavit of change of name with newspaper publication. Finally, my “banging” SOP was in this section.

SOP
Unfortunately, I cannot share my SOP on this forum because I don’t want a case of copy and paste. My SOP also contains personal information… Nonetheless, I can share the structure.
- I started out with an Intro about myself, as well as my academic and professional trajectory.
- Then I moved to another paragraph I called “my purpose” where I spoke about my motivation for the course I wanted to do
- Then I moved to another paragraph I called “Why I chose McGill University” where I spoke about why I decided to opt for Mcgill as opposed to other options in Nigeria and in other countries.
- Then I moved to another paragraph called “Justifying the cost of my program”. This was important for me to do because – as I mentioned earlier, I was using student loans to finance my education and my school fees is freaking expensive (CAD $ 47,500) so it was important for me to “justify” the cost of my studies to the VO.
- Then I moved to another paragraph called “Family & Economic ties to Nigeria” where I spoke about my home ties being all my family in Nigeria. I also explained things that would make me return to my home country such as the amazing career I had started in Nigeria (evidenced by all the documents I submitted in my Letter of acceptance). I also spoke about specific things I wanted to use the Msc to achieve in Nigeria.
- Then I moved to another paragraph called “Funds available” where I showed a table of funds I had available.
- Finally, I finished with a section called “My responsibilities as a student” where I explained that I fully understood my responsibilities as an international student in Canada – bounded by the conditions of my student visa and by McGill University. I also wholeheartedly committed to abiding by all the rules and responsibilities that would apply to me as an International student in Canada and at McGill University.
- Then I ended SOP by telling them that their support is very essential to my dreams. I also humbly requested for the issuance of a study permit that was effective on or before the 1st of June 2019, as I wanted to travel to Canada by the 10th of June 2019 to acclimatize and get ready for my schools’ orientation on the 17th of June.

I have gotten so many emails today alone and I’m afraid that I may not be able to reply all in due time, but I would encourage us to share the questions here. There are so many amazing people on this forum that are committed to helping people! Special shout out to all the people doing this! Cc JustMellow, Bracha, etc. I can’t mention you all, but it gives me great joy when I see how selfless you all are to helping out willingly! Only God can reward you all!
On this note, I want to especially thank Frankrobbn1 - this guy is so amazing! He was so interested and committed to helping me that I started to think he was working for IRCC as a spy… I want to also specially thank AAO7 – amazing person! First time I sent her an email, we moved to WhatsApp and chatted all through the night to about 1 am. It was nice having someone to gist with and to both share all the frustrations we faced with the entire process.

Finally, I want to say a word of prayer to all TRV hopefuls…
Dear God,
You are in control of every situation of our lives and you know every one of our needs, as well as the dear desires of our heart.
I pray that in your grace, mercy, favour, and love, you would allow the application of the hopefuls of this thread to be approved quickly and without delay.
Thank You because you are a God who hears and answers the prayers of your children when we come to You with open hands and a humble heart.
I pray in Jesus name, Amen.

IT SHALL END IN PRAISE!

Bracha:
Yes, I am. I thought everyone knew lol

Teslimot01:
Pls guys I applied via online route and I just tracked my application and my back check and eligibility review are running together. Should I expect a final decision from them soon and I have not done medical test.

sillysassysally:
Nairaland Fam!
Thank you all for the congratulatory messages
The past couple of weeks has been an emotional rollercoaster! But knowing that we were all on a similar journey - each one at a different stage - was some sort of comfort.

My Timeline
Applied with upfront medicals – April 14th
Medical Request – May 6th (I was surprised when I got this medical request because I did upfront medicals, so I was wondering why they were still telling me to do medicals). I sent a web form with my e-medical slip attached and I also sent emails to Lagos, London, and Kenya. On May 7th (the day after receiving medical request), I went to the hospital to see the doctor who attended to me and doctor told me that he sent IRCC a message to link my upfront medical ID to my medical request ID.
Medicals passed – May 8th
Correspondence letter and Passport request – May 9th
Overall, my study permit took less than a month to be approved! Specifically, it took 25 days!

Things I believe that worked in my favour
1. The Grace of God that covered all my errors and colored all my efforts.
2. My resumption date (June 17th). I sort of feel that they give priority to people with nearer resumption dates. If you look at the timeline we have, you’d all notice that people resuming closer tend to get their decisions quickly – this does not mean that you should intentionally delay your application. At the end of the day, no one really knows the minds of these VO’s.
3. I have a strong international travel history (USA, UK, Brazil, South Africa, etc)
4. I made my submissions as organized as possible. Infact, I did a table of content for each pdf I merged so that whoever was working on my application would easily understand it.
5. I explained all lump sums with proof… (Sometimes, I see people saying things like “they’ll increase the money in their account from 5 million to 10 million” and I feel this raises eyebrows as it would question whether those funds are really available to the applicant.
6. I wrote a banging SOP… details below
7. I was truthful in my application. I have like 5 half-siblings (one living in the US and one living in the UK). I mentioned all of them in my family information form even though I was scared that it could potentially weaken my home ties.

Things I believe were the weak points of my application and how I addressed them
1. This was what I perceived to be the main weakness of my application. I was using student loans as proof of funds for my tuition. Mind you, these loans were from a reputable and internationally recognized company called Prodigy Finance. I addressed this perceived weakness by using a sponsor who was financially capable of paying off all my loans (even though most of her asset were illiquid (land and truck). Also, I believe I was able to show a strong academic and professional track record that indicated that I was financially capable of personally paying off the loans on an installment basis.
2. The name of my sponsor across all her documents was not consistent because she is a divorcee. I addressed this by submitting an affidavit of change of name with a newspaper publication

My advice to prospective PO’s
The truth is that you have to do the hard work yourself... Even though you can easily get guidance here, you still have a lot of homework to do yourself... Understand your profile – its weakness and its strengths and address them.

Documents I submitted
CAQ (Mandatory for students schooling in Quebec)
CIC Forms
Digital Photo
My passport showing all previous visas and stamps
Proof of upfront medical exam
Evidence of work requirement in study (my program comes with co-op)
Letter of Acceptance (Unconditional – though I sent the conditional one via a web form. I also begged them to process my application speedily considering my close resumption. However, my web form was never acknowledged). The other documents I merged with my Letter of Acceptance includes; acceptance deposit receipt, academic qualification documents (such as my certificate, transcript, WAEC certificate and TOEFL results), professional qualification documents (such as my CFA level 1 badge, letter of introduction from current employer, my bio page on my company’s website, work ID, and letters of employment from internships I had done in the past), then other documents (such as my NYSC certificate and my birth certificate).
Proof of financial support – Prodigy Finance loan of about CAD 36k (30K for school fees and 6k for living expenses), Paid acceptance deposit of CAD 5K, Scholarship of CAD 8.5K, Dorm account statement with living expenses of CAD 11K… These were the funds that were budgeted for my studies. Apart from the aforementioned, I had about NGN 1m in stocks, NGN 100k naira in T-bills, NGN 250k in RSA, and NGN 70K in my salary account – all of which I showed. In addition, my sponsor (who was my mother) also had NGN 1.9m in her account, NGN 5m in T-bills and NGN 4 m in RSA. I also showed my sponsors illiquid assets such as landed property with valuation worth NGN 40m and sponsors business asset ownership (trucks) worth NGN 20m. The essence of all of these other funds and documents was just to show that my sponsor could actually pay off my loan. Someone (an Indian) told me that if I was using loans as proof of funds, it was important to use a sponsor whose financial situation showed that they could handle the loan.
Finally, under client information, I included the birth certificates of my siblings, as well as the international passport data page of my sponsor (mother). I also included a letter and affidavit of sponsorship, Sponsors business certificate of incorporation and memorandum of association, and sponsors affidavit of change of name with newspaper publication. Finally, my “banging” SOP was in this section.

SOP
Unfortunately, I cannot share my SOP on this forum because I don’t want a case of copy and paste. My SOP also contains personal information… Nonetheless, I can share the structure.
- I started out with an Intro about myself, as well as my academic and professional trajectory.
- Then I moved to another paragraph I called “my purpose” where I spoke about my motivation for the course I wanted to do
- Then I moved to another paragraph I called “Why I chose McGill University” where I spoke about why I decided to opt for Mcgill as opposed to other options in Nigeria and in other countries.
- Then I moved to another paragraph called “Justifying the cost of my program”. This was important for me to do because – as I mentioned earlier, I was using student loans to finance my education and my school fees is freaking expensive (CAD $ 47,500) so it was important for me to “justify” the cost of my studies to the VO.
- Then I moved to another paragraph called “Family & Economic ties to Nigeria” where I spoke about my home ties being all my family in Nigeria. I also explained things that would make me return to my home country such as the amazing career I had started in Nigeria (evidenced by all the documents I submitted in my Letter of acceptance). I also spoke about specific things I wanted to use the Msc to achieve in Nigeria.
- Then I moved to another paragraph called “Funds available” where I showed a table of funds I had available.
- Finally, I finished with a section called “My responsibilities as a student” where I explained that I fully understood my responsibilities as an international student in Canada – bounded by the conditions of my student visa and by McGill University. I also wholeheartedly committed to abiding by all the rules and responsibilities that would apply to me as an International student in Canada and at McGill University.
- Then I ended SOP by telling them that their support is very essential to my dreams. I also humbly requested for the issuance of a study permit that was effective on or before the 1st of June 2019, as I wanted to travel to Canada by the 10th of June 2019 to acclimatize and get ready for my schools’ orientation on the 17th of June.

I have gotten so many emails today alone and I’m afraid that I may not be able to reply all in due time, but I would encourage us to share the questions here. There are so many amazing people on this forum that are committed to helping people! Special shout out to all the people doing this! Cc JustMellow, Bracha, etc. I can’t mention you all, but it gives me great joy when I see how selfless you all are to helping out willingly! Only God can reward you all!
On this note, I want to especially thank Frankrobbn1 - this guy is so amazing! He was so interested and committed to helping me that I started to think he was working for IRCC as a spy… I want to also specially thank AAO7 – amazing person! First time I sent her an email, we moved to WhatsApp and chatted all through the night to about 1 am. It was nice having someone to gist with and to both share all the frustrations we faced with the entire process.

Finally, I want to say a word of prayer to all TRV hopefuls…
Dear God,
You are in control of every situation of our lives and you know every one of our needs, as well as the dear desires of our heart.
I pray that in your grace, mercy, favour, and love, you would allow the application of the hopefuls of this thread to be approved quickly and without delay.
Thank You because you are a God who hears and answers the prayers of your children when we come to You with open hands and a humble heart.
I pray in Jesus name, Amen.

IT SHALL END IN PRAISE!

tunnybabsmed:
Hi Sillysassysally.
Congrats on your success. Please i have same issue of CIC requesting for medicals after i had submitted an upfront medicals. Please what is your advise regarding this?

sillysassysally:
I mentioned what i did about mine in the write-up you quoted

kniru:
Thanks for the response.
We have disturbed the registrar and they keep saying they don’t know what to do, is there any governing body we can escalate this to ?

tunnybabsmed:
Hi Sillysassysally.
Congrats on your success. Please i have same issue of CIC requesting for medicals after i had submitted an upfront medicals. Please what is your advise regarding this?

dejilale:
Please are we to submit the original passport together with the documents at the vfs office lagos?

makano:
This is a simple thing to do... Just send ur Upfront medicals slip through Webform informing them that U have previously done ur medicals before the request came in, and they will update it to pass in days time.. U can also send them mails too.. peace.

sillysassysally:
I mentioned what i did about mine in the write-up you quoted

makano:
If u are going through Paper route, its a YES. If u are going through Online route, its a NO.. Peace

sillysassysally:
The said candidates should give us a comprehensive summary of their profile. Its not all about having money and travel history...

abusmanlouis:
Not true, My friend applied online, did biometric and did medical when notification alert came, wait for final decision. And He got it

sillysassysally:
Can you share your application timeline?

AgroNACT:
Same reasons as mine, just that current employment situation was garnished into my own.

1) Please did you apply as a married person?
2) What are the assets you declared in your name?
3) Did you tell them in your sop that you would be willing to supply additional document if required?

4) Are u gainfully employed?
5) Going for Bsc, Msc or Phd?
6) How does your background correlate with the program?

I want to know the similarity between us that caused refusal.

You should apply for GCMS asap.


1) I am single
2)yes declared an asset in my name
3)i didnt state directly that i am willing to supply additional documents if required
4)yes i am gainfully employed as an administrative personnel
5)going for Msc
6)i have always worked along administrative line and i intend going for public administration. Nothing about current employment was mentioned in the feedback i received.

Teslimot01:
Pls guys I applied via online route and I just tracked my application and my back check and eligibility review are running together. Should I expect a final decision from them soon and I have not done medical test.

abusmanlouis:
When did you apply and have you done your biometric?

Desmondola2020:
Did he get the biometrics correspondence before the medical request?

Anamekele:
You can get it same day.
I got mine same day at Lagos.

abusmanlouis:
Absolutely yes

Teslimot01:
Just to be sure pls, does it mean you are not supposed to get biometric correspondence letter before you get a medical request..

Teslimot01:
Reapplication via online route 25th of March. My profile got updated today that both eligibility review and background check are running together tho background check as been on for a while. I also got a correspondence letter which is my major fear cause I didn’t do upfront medical and I have not gotten a medical request mail either .