When you created your Express Entry profile, you claimed points for your age, education, language scores, etc. On the basis of those claims, you got an Invitation to Apply. Now is the time to provide proofs for all those claims that you made. You will have 60 days from the date you received the ITA to gather all those documents, so you will have to work like an eager beaver. Once you are ready, you will need to upload colour scanned copies of all these documents in your Express Entry online portal.
Before you submit you application
Remember that once you receive the ITA, the ball is now in your court. If you don’t get PR from here, it’s on you, so don’t mess up this opportunity and do everything you can to submit your application on time.
In order to improve the processing times, IRCC has put the onus on the applicants to submit the complete application with all the necessary documents. While checking your application, if they find a missing or incorrect document, they probably won’t look at the rest of your application and will return it to you. You may even have to start the entire process right from the beginning. Because of this, IRCC is able to spend more time on complete applications instead of wasting time on incomplete applications. You don’t want to be the one whose application gets returned, so be very careful in reading the instructions and triple checking everything.
Documents to submit with your application
This is a big one, so we have broken it down in smaller chunks. Some of these documents are a little more complex (such as police certificate, proof of funds, medical exams, and proof of work experience). They deserve to be discussed in a bit more detail, so you’ll find a separate page dedicated to them.
1. Police Certificates
Read this page for police certificates
2. Proof of funds
Read this page for proof of funds
3. Medical Exam
Read this page for medical exam
4. Proof of Work Experience
Read this page for proof of work experience
5. Proof of education
In this section, you will need to upload all the documents related to your education for which you claimed CRS points. For example, if you have bachelor’s and master’s degrees, then you will need to upload documents to prove that. This is needed for both, the principal applicant and the spouse.
If you were educated in Canada, then provide:
- Copies of your degrees, diplomas and certificates
- Transcripts for these degrees
- Designated Learning Institution (DLI) number of the Canadian Institution where you completed your highest degree
If you were educated outside of Canada, then provide:
- Copies of your degrees, diplomas and certificates
- Transcripts for these degrees
- Education Credential Assessment (ECA) reference number
- Scanned copy of your ECA report
You can also include your language results, such as the IELTS test report form, under this section because you would have claimed points for your language skills.
6. Passport copy
You and your dependents in your PR application will need to scan the bio pages of your passports (the pages that have your name, address, etc). Although IRCC doesn’t ask for the rest of the passport, you can scan the pages with a visa or entry and exit stamps. We went a step ahead and we also included a cover letter which mentioned all our international visits including dates of entry and exit. You don’t have to do it but extra information doesn’t hurt.
7. Digital photos
You and your dependents will also need to submit digital photographs that will eventually be printed on your PR cards. The photographs must be recent and should meet IRCC’s specifications listed here.
8. Provincial nomination (if you have one)
If you have received a provincial nomination, then the letter of nomination will be in your Express Entry account, so this is already taken care of.
9. Written job offer from an employer in Canada (if you have one)
Having a valid job offer gives additional points that helps some applicants get an ITA. If you are one of those, and have claimed points for a job offer, you will need to share the relevant documents at this stage.
10. Certificate of Qualification (if you have one)
If you are applying under the Federal Skilled Trades program, then you can get a Certificate of Qualification for your skills from the regulatory body that governs trades in any province.
To get such a certificate, the regulatory body must assess your training and skills and decide if you are eligible to write a certification exam. You will likely have to go to the specific province to write your certification exam.
If you have received your certification and you claimed points for that, you will need to upload the document at this stage.
11. Other documents
Based on your situation, you will also need to upload a few more documents if they are relevant for you. For example:
- Birth certificate – if you are declaring dependent children
- Adoption certificate – if your child is adopted
- Marriage/Divorce/Death certificate – if you have declared your marital status as married/divorced/widowed
- Common law union form – if you have declared your marital status as common law
- Use of a representative form – if you have hired an immigration consultant
- Proof of relationship to a relative in Canada – if you are declaring that you have a relative in Canada for which you earned points
Letter of Explanation
If there is anything that you want to share with immigration officer handling your file, then you can make a letter of explanation (LoE) and upload it with the rest of your documents. It can be about anything. For example, you couldn’t get your police certificate on time, so you can mention what steps you are taking in your LoE. I wrote an LoE because I had worked in 3 different NOCs and I wanted to clarify that I am selecting 0124 as my primary NOC. Trisha also added an LoE mentioning that her entire name is wrongly written under the first name in her passport.
When the officer is reviewing your application, it helps him/her understand the reason why one or more of your documents are not in order. There is no format for this letter but try to keep it short and to the point with all the relevant details.
Submitting your application
Based on your responses in the application, you will receive a personalized checklist to upload your documents. For example, if you declare that you are married, you will see a checklist for related documents but if you declare that you are single, you won’t see a marriage related section in your checklist. You will have to upload documents under all those items that appear on your checklist.
The documents should be in PDF format. You will be able to upload only one document under each section. For example, under proof of education, you can submit only one PDF even if you have multiple degrees. Since you need to share all your degrees and education assessment, etc in this section, you will need to combine all those documents in one PDF. Remember that if you upload individual degrees one by one, the last upload will replace the previous upload. So, don’t make that mistake and combine them into one PDF file. Repeat the same for any other section where you have more than one document.
There is a limit of 4 MB for the file size, so you may need to reduce the file size if you are going above 4 MB per PDF. There are many softwares available online to reduce the file size but try to select the ones that feel more genuine. It is possible that these websites store an online copy of your documents and someone may end up using them for fraud.
Paying your fee
The last step before your application finally reaches IRCC is paying your fee. As of 2021, the fee per adult is $1325, out of which $825 is the processing fee and $500 is the right of permanent residence fee. If you are a couple, expect this figure to get doubled and if you have dependent children, then add $225 per child.
You will be given an option to pay the entire fee of $1325 right away or you can pay only the $825 processing fee (which is non-refundable once IRCC starts working on your application) and the $500 right of permanent residence fee can be paid later once your application gets successfully processed. We would recommend paying the entire fee, otherwise your application can get delayed by a few days while IRCC waits to receive your $500 fee. In case your application gets rejected and you have paid the full fee, IRCC will refund you the $500 portion so it’s okay to pay the entire fee right in the beginning.
Depending on your country of origin or citizenship, you may have to undergo a biometric assessment and pay $85 per person.
Acknowledgement of Receipt
After submitting the application, you will receive an Acknowledgement of Receipt (AoR) in a day or two which means that IRCC has received your application. This does not mean that they have opened and checked your application which will happen later. You did whatever you could and from here, the ball is now in IRCC’s court. Your application processing time starts now.
What if something changes between the ITA and AoR
If anything changes such as your Passport number, or if you get married, or you have a baby in this period, you will need to let IRCC know. If your score goes down because of something and your new score is below the cut off for the draw in which you receive the ITA, then you will need to decline your ITA and wait for the next round. It’s better than getting your application rejected. For example, if you were claiming points for your spouse and now you got divorced after getting the ITA and your new CRS score falls below the cut off for that round, then you should decline the ITA.
What if you submit an incomplete application
If the application is incomplete, for example, a document is missing, the application will be rejected and your fee will be refunded as applicable. If that happens, you will have to start afresh by creating a new Express Entry profile and wait for another draw. You will not be given an option to submit that missing document.
You could lose many months in this process and you don’t want to be in that situation, especially, if your CRS score was very close to the cut off. The cut off may not drop to that level again and you may get stuck. So triple check your application before you submit. We got each other to check our documents before submitting as a second set of eyes can always spot errors that you normally cannot. Do not take any document lightly because you’ve got only one shot at this.
Common mistakes
We have heard about a lot of applications getting rejected because of silly mistakes and omissions. You can learn from others’ mistakes so that you don’t repeat them. Learn some of the most common mistakes people make in their application.