Canadian Express Entry (EE) Success Story

The long wait ended in joy

This night, November 14, 2019, I could not sleep because I had some things on my mind and having read some people’s detailed Passport Request (PPR) gist, I decided to start typing mine.

My JOURNEY started in May 2018 with World Education Services (WES) credential evaluation. Shortly before that time, my bestie relocated with her husband to Canada. Prior to her departure, she encouraged me to start planning my EE application. I had known about this since 2017, I was not just interested, partly because we lacked the funds. Even, I granted my bestie, who was my colleague then, days off to write IELTS exams…as “almighty HRM”. Lol.

Therefore, I decided to start the process and I started reading up. My husband was originally interested in relocating to Australia so I started by researching Australian immigration. Later, I discovered the process was complicated and that we may end up not getting Australian Permanent Residency because of our occupations, which were not in demand. After much ado, I settled for Canada while my darling husband was still dragging his feet.

I am resolute once I am sure of my decision, so I did not mind. Sometimes, I would whine and fake cries just to get my husband’s support but his initial lack of support did not deter me from starting the process.

Luckily, I got some money from the company I resigned from in May 2018, some of which I used to begin the process for my credential assessment (ECA). I evaluated my Master’s degree from University of Lagos, Nigeria (UNILAG). By August 2018, ECA was ready. At that time, my husband was ready to follow me into the pool of transit to Canada. Shortly afterwards, we commenced the evaluation process for his National Diploma (OND) and B.Sc. WES caught us in the demand for Secondary School Certification Exam (SSCE) result. In all, his ECA was ready in December 2018.

Between September 2018 and December 2018, I had attempted IELTS two times. Listening was my major issue. I have short attention span. I remarked listening at the second attempt. EOR was negative. In January 2019, I gave IELTS another shot, hoping that I will scale through because it was CBT, but listening got the best of me again. I was so upset that I refused to pick up my TRF from BC. The day I checked the result online, I was angry. I later calmed down, and then I got the inspiration that I should tell my husband to register for IELTS while I registered for my fourth attempt as well. My thought was that even if I do not get the desired score, maybe he will and then, he will be the Principal Applicant. We registered for IELTS exam with CBT, wrote the exam on 14 March, 2019. After 5 days, we got our results and mine was the most beautiful result ever. Guess what? I maxed out the score in Listening and got the almost impossible 9. Darling Husband also supported me with his scores. CRS shot up to 457. We sat pretty in the pool. Some higher powers must have been involved!

Meanwhile, in the spirit of optimism, we did medicals in December 24, 2018 at QLife Clinic. We got there before 8am and did not leave until 1pm. My BP even went up; I did not know what went wrong. I had never had a high BP.

We got ITA, April 3, 2019. Submitted April 11, 2019. God came through for Proof of Funds (POF). I saved funds in the Money Market Funds. My bestie who I mentioned earlier, paid for our application fees, including RPRF. Unbelievably, within a month we passed IELTS, got ITA, and got AOR (from March 14, 2019 to April 11, 2019).

To submit, we scanned the documents and placed them in their rightful positions. I wrote Letter of Explanation (LOE) to explain the breakdown of funds because I used Mutual funds with AXA Mansard and 25% of my Pension funds. We also included the exchange rate calculation. We used the one from http://www.oanda.com

Medicals was passed in May 22, 2019. We got BIL two days later. Bio-metrics was done May 27, 2019.

Then, SILENCE!

We raised CSE 3 weeks after BIL and got to know our application was being processed in Ottawa. I called, raised CSE about 2 times afterwards to find out the status of our application. Nothing was passed. I think criminality was passed later in August. We ordered for GCMS notes in August but we didn’t receive it. The wait was excruciating, draining and tiring. The silence was loud. We mailed our darling Uncle Ralph by end of August. He said nothing special about the status of our application.

September and October were the slowest months so far. Everything in me wanted to be in Canada already, but our dear IRCC had other plans. In September, I remembered that we did not include the statement of the Money Market account. Thanks to Topsmamen, he encouraged me to raise CSE with the statement. I did immediately and it was acknowledged after six days.

October 22, 2019, We got re-medical request. The earliest date from IOM was November 5, 2019. We got notification that we passed medicals November 8, 2019 and a ghost update on November 14, and the almighty long awaited eagle (PPR) landed at 10:46pm same day.

I am grateful to my bestie (my one and only Onyinye), my husband, my kids, my siblings especially my brother and the angels I met through the many platforms I used for research and inspiration. You all are amazing. Stephanie (my love), Adepeju (my baby girl), Faith (my LadyM), Seye (my nairaland spouse), Topsmamen (egbon of life), Yemblaze (sister of life), you guys rock. I love you and I can’t wait to unite with you in Canada. You guys made the wait easier than it would have been.

Finally, to God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask for, I give you my unreserved praise.

Cheers to growth!