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 Travel › Re: Canadian Express Entry/federal Skilled Workers Program- Connect Here Part 6 by Sting007: 12:48pm On Dec 02, 2018 |
Sting007:Pointers IELTS - My opinion: It may be stale as we did ours 14 months ago o... Reading and Listening (You're better of with Cambridge materials for these) For reading, you can mix things up by doing academic too when practising. This seems to be much harder than the General one. For listening, you can watch Youtube videos too and change speed to 1.5 or 2x to improve how well you hear words if you have difficulty in doing that. As has been argued extensively, for Writing, pick one source to avoid confusing yourself... I used IELTS Advantage for this then. Speaking was a mixture of every...Liz, Talkwithemma, youtube videos....not one specific. ECA We used WES, But now with WAEC, wouldn't suggest it due to the extra expenses and the stress I went through with validation. Don't have any personal experience with other bodies though, so, can't share for them...But like I said earlier, my opinion though. Used One and the same Affidavit too as some names were interchanged. Work Experience I used a 9 years ago work cos I did it for about 5 years, got reference letter in CIC format, and it qualifies for FSW. My current work for about 5 years now just issues a generic letter. Hence added it to personal history as it may be a hassle getting an oga to draft letter showing duties (I wouldn't have minded if I had no choice of course). Although I still wrote a LOE explaining this and added the current job's employment letter and current reference letter too. To show salary basically and validate I'm working currently too. POF Used Stanbic Mutual Funds Letter only (Added 25% Pension as a buffer just in case rate changes). My GCMS notes read review required for POF. Perhaps cos it was a generic letter not in CIC format. The review was passed without any ADR probably cos of the salaries quoted in my reference letters (Hence the reason I added current employment letter). So, for POF, 1st page - breakdown; 2nd page - Stanbic Mutual FUnds Letter; 3rd Page - Pension FUnds VISA REFUSAL Had a UK Visa Refusal in 2006 (Wanted to go Industrial Training in a school there). But was refused all the same as VO didn't believe I'd come back. I declared this in the app and attached refusal letter too. GCMS notes read "review required pending stat question". Best wishes guys!! 48 Likes 2 Shares |
| Travel › Re: Canadian Express Entry/federal Skilled Workers Program- Connect Here Part 6 by Sting007: 12:46pm On Dec 02, 2018 |
Sting007:EXTREMELY LONG POST AND PROBABLY BORING ALERT!! This is coming with mixed feelings... Cos, I'm feeling quite overwhelmed at the mad rush to conclude modalities to travel (approximately 1 month). It took a lot for me to post this as the supposed long delay led to prolonged anxiety, hence dampened the excitement... But again, the good book says, in all things, Give Thanks... As such, I'm very thankful and grateful for this great news!! And also, to give hope and some pointers to the weary... So...here goes the very long gist... Please permit me if it isn't too organized... I didn't sit back to plan my writing...I'm just typing as it's coming to me... (this may give me a 6 in IELTS writing.). The decision to travel - August 2017 Registered for October Ielts with BC, where myself and spouse passed in our 1st attempt. Started ECA process with WES in August 2017. Was hoping to conclude ECA 2017, and submit our app in 2017 as CRS would be 450s. Spouse ECA came out in less than a month (Private Uni), while mine took a whooping and very frustrating 6 months (Thanks to NASU + Public Uni inefficiencies). While waiting for ECA, we buried our heads in full research of the application proper with Nairaland being our main source from part 1...still following it till now part 6 sef. (stalking it almost on a daily basis). I'm a strong advocate for learning from people's experiences...hence this was and still is a strong source of info for me. We did our medicals 1st week January (Major mistake  ), as this has now caused the overwhelming feeling to wrap every up within one month. At the time, NASU just called off the strike, and I assumed ECA would be ready before January ended...Coupled with our CRS Score, ITA would have been a given immediately, but the school had other ideas, didn't reply WES until February, hence ECA got ready February 28, 2018.The medicals decision set the tone for what was coming next...As at end of February, we had "wasted" 2 precious months. Hence, had just 10 more months to PPR (yet we never even get ITA). As such, we intended to submit the same day we receive ITA. The previous draw date was February 21, 2018, so, we believed there'd be a draw on 7th March 2018 (A week after ECA). Cos of our CRS, ITA was gonna be gotten surely based on the trend in score, we quickly went to do our PCC on 7th March, got our POF letter(used Stanbic mutual funds letter alone, no statement of account. Will share my view on this much later. Hope I remember o), got every single document scanned, labeled, and saved in their respective folders... But the unpredictable CIC had other ideas and decided to wait 1 more week (making it 3 weeks before the draws), thus enabling more powerful guys to dive into the pool, hence very painfully missed the cutoff by few points for the 14th March 2018 draws. Alas, CIC decided to do 26th March 2018 draws (Monday, as against Wednesday). We quickly completed filling and attaching already prepared docs...then met a 48-hour delay in submitting. Card issues... chai...All these led to a lot of tension in the home front too o (Medicalsssssss oversabi decision). Let's leave it at that... We finally submitted on March 28th... and the wait begun...in the early days, if cic server wasn't having 200TB RAM, i may have contributed in crashing the server cos I(and a lot of you guys too...yes you "fill in your name"  checked my app status multiple times every day (as if one can get PPR in just a few days, lol). Anyways, I just wanted to see "activities". Anyways, 1st activity noticed was medical passed on 12th April 2018. I strongly believed (and hoped) cic will pity us small considering the 6 months ECA wait and give us PPR after like say 6 weeks, but shortly after medical passed, got how to find a job in Canada or so letter... and based on previous sightings, 7/8 out of 10 of people who see this na London o (na hypothesis sha). I was weak after seeing that... I ordered GCMS notes April ending, got it a month later and it confirmed my fears...London (Just did a mental calculation of 6 Months which would be September 24th or so). Afterward, cic site rested from me a bit(Timetable changed to twice a week Mondays and Fridays), but still followed nairaland fam in anonymity. Several months later (Sometime in September 2018 I think), I started reading about several members of London Gang dumping London and jumping to the Kyiv train (Since Ukraine weather be like Canada own). So, I directly mailed Kyiv to know my app status (as though I knew my app was there), got a response a few hours later about my app being transferred to them and other generic stuff. So, ordered for another GCMS notes mid-September (was hoping app was near completion). Was surprised/ shocked as per the activities noticed.... Virtually no change from what was received in April/ May...only change was file transferred to Kyiv. So, the thing just packed dust until the transfer...Thankfully it didn't start packing Snow, as background check started a Month later (October 25). Then i thought just a matter of hours...turned to days...then weeks... Mailed Hon Ralph mid-November to use my lifeline .... got a response that Eligibility passed, Criminality and Security passed October 25. App awaiting final review and decision. Earlier this week, I come comot mind that they have to extend my medicals o or at worst ask for re-medical or something...That I won't mind doing IOM even if it's pricey, would have lil choice considering QLife won't have a slot until February.We went to Studio24 earlier in the week and took our PPR Pics (Oversabi as some may call it...That you never learn your lesson from Medicals still?). This now came in handy...thankfully. Finally, around 10 am Friday morning, got a request mail, I was like "what now?" (as if they had been in constant contact prior to now). Opened the request and voila... stared at it for a few secs/ minutes. Lay down (fortunately I was home on Friday), and tried to let it sink in...but I just wasn't feeling it...I guess the timing and the overwhelmed feeling swallowed up the excitement. After gathering my thoughts and clearing my head, I sprung into action. Panic come start (Medicals caused too. Cos I have to get stamped passport back, book flight, PTA if we get, book Airbnb, resign, pack, prepare, see and spend time with fam, friends, and a lot more in 30days). And most of these can't be set in motion until passport is gotten back. All the information I had extracted now turned to greek, the saving grace was TEECAN(Thank You), who drafted a summary of what is needed for VFS... So, quickly followed the breakdown and added Newmum's input too. Rushed down to VFS for submission (now 17790 per person). In conclusion, there's a wealth of valuable information on this thread. Reading cannot be overemphasized. Prepare yourself professionally and mentally too...use the wait time wisely (Not to spend it all on nairaland and cic). I didn't realize this write up was this lengthy o. And i even had to cut off several points..apologies. Will try to share some pointers in Part 3/4 of this series. lol. On a side note, I envy those with quickly concluded applications though...You wouldn't understand what AVO, LVO, and some Ottawa pips go through...But as TEECAN would say, it will end in praise (Thankful it has ended in praise) Thanks to all contributors. Benefitted immensely...Best wishes now and always guys... Just to mention a few... Kontagious, Happytbaby, cochtrane, joo2018, dumprep n luffyhaki(been quiet these days...effect of seastone?) - Manga pips too, Newmum0615, GlitteringStar 1 n 2, Ifeoma, Mcstan, smslive, canadianfly (you guys succeeded in chasing her), einsteino (left for the sister thread), Elfman/ Elfmanisback/ Ontariossauga, Hephgirl n Owlette, Prof raphrulz, smslive2, Topsmamen (Super bro), Dontee07, Ramj, Tojued, Stonecoldcafe (Shekere mama), Feygbe, 40manlappy, Mummyjaygirls, Zandora, et al Going back to hibernation, but actively and aggressively trying to get things set while waiting for the passports to set other things in motion. Hoping not to get too overwhelmed as I really am... 114 Likes 1 Share |
| Travel › Re: Canadian Express Entry/federal Skilled Workers Program- Connect Here Part 6 by Sting007: 12:38pm On Dec 02, 2018 |
Ok...on a more serious note... Silent Reader/ Observer... Abridged post... IELTS - Oct 2017 ECA - Mar 2018 ITA - 26 Mar 2018 AOR - 28 Mar 2018 IP1 - 12 Apr 2018 LVO - London File Transferred to Kyiv VO- 02 Aug 2018 IP2 - 25 OCT, 2018 No ADR PPR - 30 NOV, 2018 AOR - PPR: 247 Days... 8 Months basically Before Prof Raph comes for me, please see next post (if interested cos it's quite long o. This one na summary) 33 Likes |
| Travel › Re: Canadian Express Entry/federal Skilled Workers Program- Connect Here Part 6 by Sting007: 11:39am On Dec 02, 2018*. Modified: 12:34pm On Dec 02, 2018 |
Gather round guys!! Great news!! It's PSS....1st Sunday in December!! 5 Likes |
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