₦airaland Forum

lavivaavril:
Hello guys, happy valentine! I just got info that accessing a BSc degree along with an MSc degree gives one more points under adaptability when getting into the pool. I thought I wouldn't need WES to access my BSc if I have an MSc but I'm just hearing that although an MSc gives you the maximum points under education, accessing both BSc and MSc gives you maximum points under adaptability. Please my people, help me validate this and correct me if I'm wrong.

tunai:
Nice heads up for me. So how many months did it take you to land this job in Canada?

Bcolah:
I have some questions. I hope to get ITA by the next draw. Are there any steps to take while waiting for the draw in order to get prepared?.
Also I put my NYSC job experience on my EE profile but I can't get any evidence of that. I worked with oceanic bank back then. What's your advise? Do I remove it from my profile? I've worked with another bank since July 2009 till date. Will this alone suffice for job experience?

Cc Zandora and other landed immigrants!

Bcolah:
Thanks for the very explanatory writeup Zandora. God bless you.
Pls I sent you a PM and just need u to respond. Want to ask some questions and don't want to derail the thread.
Thanks

twaj:
Congrats, Zandora. For those of us that are landed immigrant we 'll like to receive tips on what facilitated your securing job within few months...will be glad to ask some questions, if you wouldn't mind my email is blessjiboye@yahoo.com. or you could send me email or give me your email or better still share the tips with the whole house.....even those still awaiting nomination from CIC may learn and be informed ahead. Thank you.

Thanks for your message, of course I'll share my tips so here they are:

Your choices - Firstly I had already made up my mind that I wasn't going to do menial jobs immediately I landed and gave myself 7 months until I started looking at other avenues. The reason is that say you get a low skilled job working at McDonald's for example just to get the Canadian experience or to make ends meet before you finally secure your dream job, it will be almost impossible to land your dream job after. Why do I say this? You can apply for a job today and get called to attend an interview as early as the next day if shortlisted. Now if you've already taken up a menial job, what time would you have to attend the interview bearing in mind that if you're new to a job it's almost impossible for you to get any time off? How many excuses would you then be ready to give your new employer to take time off to attend your interviews? Another thing is that by the time you get home after work most of the time you'll be very tired and won't have time to start looking for the jobs in your field to apply to since most of those menial jobs are quite demanding. Finally, once you take that menial job and your working environment is very conducive, your manager very nice etc, you'll almost certainly become to comfortable and therefore end up being stuck in a dead end job before you know it.

Your resume - Your resume has to be in the Canadian format, in fact this is a must! You can look up Canadian format resumes online or pay one of those Canadian recruitment websites to clean up your resume for you (my friend got rejected and was told it was because of the grammatical errors on his resume). Furthermore, get rid of the countries on your resume. Sadly in this day and age people still discriminate, so once they see an experience is not from Canada but from a 3rd world country like Nigeria they'll be very quick to judge. If you've got the skills trust me they'll contact you and then ask where the company you worked for was located and if they like you they'll take you. Trust me, I can't count how many times interviewers told me they had never heard of First Bank.

Your Accent - Believe it or not this is a deal breaker, I didn't believe it before until I saw it for myself. A friend of mind told me and another friend about a job opening so we applied for the job. A few days later I got a call from the HR of that company asking me a few basic questions, then he booked me in for an interview on the spot. Excitedly I called my other friend to ask if he ever got the call and if he too was to attend an interview. He told me that he got a call but the HR guy didn't book him in for an interview but instead said he'd contact him later (he never did). I then asked my friend what he said to the HR guy on the phone and he said "nothing oh!, I only said elo, oo is this", I just knew there and then it was because of his accent. Now my accent was never perfect, in fact it took me a while to stop pronouncing ask as aks. I'm not saying you must have phonetics, just be able to pronounce you words clearly without any 'h' or any factor. It might be hard but it's achievable.

Your Experience - Whatever is on your resume would be the job you'll be shortlisted for. So if for example you worked in customer services then you should apply for a customer service job. If you worked in a bank as cashier then you should apply for a teller job to maximise your chances of being selected. If you are a cashier applying for a sales or any other role it'll be very difficult to get the job. So my advice, if you have experience in a job you didn't like doing, put it on your resume then when you get the same job here work for 6 months and change departments. There's lateral movements in many companies here, infact companies that are looking to fill vacancies hire internally before going externally.

The Interview - I flunked my first 3 interviews because one of the reasons was that I was always boning like I was attending a frowning contest. When I was in Naija I landed my jobs by frowning and speaking viciously. Unfortunately I thought this would work here but how wrong was I. It was after my 3rd interview that I then went to carry out some research and found that Canadians are one of the friendliest people and like when people appear friendly and chatty. So on my 4th interview I planted the fakest smile I could muster, jeez I was smiling at every and anything so it was no surprise when I progressed to the next stage of the interview.

How to answer interview questions - In total I've attended about 10 interviews (all good roles in financial institutions). Wasn't successful in 4 of them, got 2 job offers and progressed to the next stage in the remaining 4 but cancelled after I accepted one of the offers. Around my 4th interview I did some proper research and realised I was answering questions wrongly. Firstly all the companies asked some repeated questions which were: Tell me about yourself? Give me 3 strengths and 1 weakness? Give me an example of when you worked in a team? Why XX company and why this role? You may look at the questions and think it's easy to answer them, wrong! There's actually a way to answer these questions effectively which is:

- Tell me about yourself: You need to use the EES approach which is Education, Experience and Skills. So you should talk about your education from your highest degree, then your experience from the most recent, then the skills you've acquired over the years (hint: you need to look at the skills they require from the Job posting and mention some of them).

- Give me 3 strengths and 1 weakness: If you just list them then you're making a big mistake. You have to mention each one and then give an example. Therefore you could say 'I'm very proficient in the use of Microsoft office suites, for example in my previous job I used Microsoft Word to type out letters to our clients and PowerPoint to give presentations'. Then for the weakness question you have to talk about a weakness you previously had and you've now worked on and how you worked on it.

- Give me an example of when you worked in a team: Talk about how you worked in a team, saw challenges, how you were able to overcome the challenges and the result.

- Why XX company: Check out the about us section on the company website. Also always talk about diversity because many, infact all companies hire ppl from various backgrounds as a policy. Each time I tell them I would want to work for them because they're very good at hiring people no matter the background they come from they always have this big smile on their faces and nod their heads affirmatively, they love it!

- Why this role: Talk about the previous experience you had in this role and how you loved it.

These are the most important things to ace a job in your field.

One important advice to those who are yet to arrive, don't believe those people who tell you that you won't get a job in your field. You only need to believe in yourself, have determination and trust in God. You're a skilled worker for a reason, so show the reason why you qualified as a skilled worker in the first place. At times you might be frustrated by rejections as I did but the biggest mistake you'll make would be to give up. I'm not saying that everyone who arrives would get a job in their field, but majority should.

I'm still going to take some certifications so I can transfer to another dept in my bank and in a higher level.

I apologise to the people who may think I'm taking up space by my posting as this thread is for people seeking advice for the FSW preparation but I just thought this might help a few people.

ramsol00:
Congrats to you Zandy, Greater things ahead of you by God grace. Please can you give me your mail or send a mail to me @ ramsol0007@yahoo.com. God bless and protect you

bubsykay:
Wow! Congratulations Zandy. God bless you

iphie25:
hello house...ive been here for a while now reading through the posts to help me make my decision btw Canada and Australia.i initially wanted to try the Australian route but the requirement for lawyers is really daunting, so i decided to switch to canada since i dont need to be admitted/licensed as a canadian lawyer(hope im right tho) to be eligible for immigration. please i need someone to help put me through the WES thing, i have created an account on WES but i have a few questions
1. is WES the appropriate body to assess a lawyer's credentials?
2. i chose western union as the payment route but i just noticed i have to pay in dollars which is a far cry from the CAD-NGN amount i initially did, omo i no fit o. Can i change my payment option? also can anyone help me out on the best way to go about this WES payment? i will register for IELTS this week and send my Law school and University transcripts this week too.

Any tip will be appreciated

May we all be successful IJN.

NB: where's d champagne *in Falz voice* to welcome me

shodexy:
dear all, i want to ask if it is advisable to apply for a study permit and express entry through FSWP at the same time period. I happen to be eligible for both programs having meet their minimum requirements but i am afriad that this may work agianst me. responses appreciated.

britiko:
Thanks for ur response. Its about 20 -22 mrks difference

shodexy:
For does that have already done their educational credential assessment (ECA) I want to ask if u did it on all your credentials or just the highest one. Thank you.

Tooyy:
@Zandora

pls do i need to send any documents thru courier for the EE FSW?

Momoluwa:
Thanks for the prompt response.

I have another question.

Since WES will assess ACCA as a 3 year degree and HND as a BSC equivalent , on the CRS score simulation can I fill my educational qualification as

1. two or more certificate Diploma's of degree one must be a program of 3 or more years
or
2 Bachelor's degree 3 or more year program.

Thanks

hartson:
Hello Zandora

I am a newbie in this forum,I managed to get along to be able to understand how stuffs work here.
From my assessment it seems you are the creator of this thread as it is often reffered.

Please I had like you to thrash this for me.I obtained IELTS score of L 7.5,R 6,W 6 and S 7. bandscore 6.5 and I have done the evaluation from WES as well.
I registered my details in the EE online assessment form and after submitting the form.I didn't see anything like score infact everything was blank.

I don't understand how all these scores people are getting works.Please help

Thanks in anticipation to your response

Garykasparov:
@JesusDway,
First, welcome back.
Second, i understand your point in your response, but it seems what you said applies to only primary applicant, and if that is the case, i cant agree more with you.
However, in the case of spouse, perhaps it is different.
There is an option for spouse's level of education "Two-year program at a university, college, trade or technical in school, or other institute"
I think this should be okay since ICAN is an institute and it has been assessed as Two years professional study.

JesusDWay:
Hi Everyone! I wanna thank you all for the solidarity in bringing me back at this time as i got 6days less the time placed on my ban for an innocent mistake. Special thanks to Etfash, Deesom and all those who championed this, and also to those who have kept the thread alive like Irondome and the rest, of course not leaving out OUR BRAINY ZANDY (you single guys should shine your eyes very well o, especially those who won't be getting ITA soon )

Ok so, back to business. For those asking whether ICAN assessment will count towards getting points for 2 or more certificates, please note that any assessment result that does not equate whatever the qualification is as being a degree or a diploma or a certificate, won't get any score under educational factor therefore, ICAN which is being assessed as a professional study does not get scored. The only professional qualification i've seen that falls under the category as defined by CIC is ACCA, as it is assessed to be the equivalent of a 3year degree. Don't waste your time claiming points for 2certificates and at the end of the day when you have gotten ITA, CIC sees your ECA that one of the qulaifications is a professional study and then deduct your score which may then make you score less than the cut-off at that point, thereby rendering your application ineligible. You would have wasted time, hope and also your application fee of 550CAD as every application that doesn't sail through after ITA loses the application fee

Finally, for those interested in Quebec, the application date has been shifted to January 25 which means for those who are yet to open their account online with them still have the grace to do so. Pls note that Quebec charges application fee of 765CAD for principal applicant and 162 i think, for each dependant. Check the link below for the online registration. God bless you all

http://www.immigration-quebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/informations/mon-projet-quebec/index.html

Garykasparov:
@zandora
For your perusal.

bubsykay:
Thank you sir! Saw few people that claimed they did on the Canadianvisa site thou, its between 2 closed related duties based on reference received.

Etfash:
It's still ongoing. I hope you know that you are invited to apply and not otherwise? With a minimum of 400, you are invited;if you are not invited after a while, withdraw your application and file in a new one.

Meanwhile, MOD, Supermod or Whoever is responsible for managing this section, kindly consider unbanning JesusDWay. His advert has already been removed and he's been banned for a while now.

I don't mean to interfere with your procedures, but I think it's okay if he's unbanned now.

yinx007:
@Zandora... it is well my sister, i'm yet to be in your shoes so i don't know. but reading from other immigrants i think what they do first is getting a survival job, then volunteering to gather canadian experience there after they write canadian certification and try reapplying again... i know its not easy, but there is light at the end of the tunnel so don't throw in the towel yet...

@house.. whats the way forward for paying RPRF with this new cbn policy would using someone's credit card not pose a red flag as CIC might see it as getting a loan from a friend.. how do we tackle this hurdle. and Zandora how were you able to show your POF at point of entry

irondome:
Hi Zandora,

What was the turnaround time like at the AVO, from Passport submission to final approval/Visa stamping.

Pidggin:
Hello all, my friend wants to use his Payoneer account statement instead of his Nigerian account, is this allowed?

shodexy:
Dear all, it is common knowledge that for this program, you need to provide proof of funds that will enable you to settle down adequately on arrival in canada. However, my question is that as a principal applicant that cannot generate the minimum money required(from their chart) on their own which is $12164, will the authorities accept it if it is being provided by ones parents free of charge?

edababa007:
@ Zandora & others,

As regards reference letter from employer... Should the letter be addressed "TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN" or i should have different copies addressed to different province? thx pple..

edababa007:
Hello House, For the CIC and other PNP's, do I only need to scan d data page of my passport or I must scan ALL d pages of the passport? Pls advise.

chimali:
Hi all,
Please for the SASK nomination what happens if one does not have the birth certificate? I have always used the affidavit.
Also, for those that have received the ITA under the express entry, Please is it true that if your occupation is not in line with the course studies in school your application will not be successful. Please educate me.

octavius:
hi Zandora,

we thank God for your bravery and resilience. it will workout for you in good time.

but however, if you don't mind sharing details on how they classify Educational backgrounds against salary/hour pay.

How's the general Pay like? for a basic Nigerian degree holder on the average.

irondome:
Thanks

Can I use the vfs in lagos for VOs other than AVO. In other words, can the vfs mail your passport to NDVO in India for visa stamping.

bclingerie:
Hello @Zandora Or anyone else who has gone through the process.

About this FSW -EE.......

I have registered for the IELTS and I paid online. I also uploaded my scanned International Passport.
Do I still need to visit their office for anything before the scheduled date of my Test in March?
They never pick up their calls or respond to e-mails it's so annoying, they must be feeling like gods at that British Council office!

My second question, I Once lived in the U.K for 2 years [6 years ago- HSMP] Do I need a police report from there too or just use the Nigerian police certificate only.

Thanks in advance