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Showing posts with label MM2CXPerience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MM2CXPerience. Show all posts

08 October 2015

MM2CXPerience: Is it Better to Bring Cash than Demand Draft?

I am happy to inform you that a friend of mine, an MM2C member, had successfully landed in Canada. 

It was April when I shared the good news that he got his PPR in my MM2C News: MM2C Subscriber Got a Very Good News.  He was able to land successfully in Canada and I got lucky to see his photos of Vancouver.

One of his experience that he wants MM2C to know was about the Bank Draft issue.  He brought his settlement funds in a form of a Bank Draft, but got a bad experience about it in TD bank, one of the biggest banks in Canada.

He emailed me what happened and wanted to share it to you as well.
"
Hi Ben,
I made a demand draft from DBS bank, brought to Canada, and deposited it to TD bank in Vancouver.
Today, after waiting for 30 days, the money came to my account.
However, the amount doesn't tally with the amount on the draft, a $100 difference.
Just now, I went to the bank and asked where the $100 had gone?
Only then they explained and gave me the breakdown as follows:
Foreign  Fee       $45Collection Fee     $30Couriers              $25
$100 for me is quite a lot.
Regards,
TTA
There are other options on how to bring the settlement funds to Canada, which I'd mentioned in my previous post Options on How to Bring Your Settlement to Canada.  However,  in my opinion, Cash is the perfect form of Settlement Fund to bring to Canada for the reason of liquidity and free from bank charges.

What do you think?

I hope you've learned something from this experience to help you settle smoothly in CANADA.

If you know or experience something that is worth sharing, please email it at benalagnam@yahoo.com.

#MM2CXperience in Facebook.

29 August 2015

MM2C XPerience: A Fatal Mistake on Reference Letters for FSW Canada

Contributor: DLS

Applying for FSW 2014 was one of the greatest experiences in my life as I did not ever expected that the application would be successful. 

Currently, I’m in the preparation of moving to “Toronto, Ontario”, the land of Ben’s dream.  

Ben is one of my inspirations, and I have learned about how kind he is, as he always shares information to everyone.

The Fatal Mistake on My FSW 2014 Application
I applied for the FSW 2014 from Indonesia on June 2014.  During that time, I tried to follow all instructions that were provided from the CIC website. One of the requirements was to provide a job reference letter that states an additional information, beside the period of employment and position, such as job description, type of employment (permanent or full-time) and the annual salary.

As this format was uncommon for the Human Resources Department in most of the companies in Indonesia, they requested me for the draft (I had more than two employments in the past). So I prepared the draft and sent it to each of the HR Departments. 

However, it seems that most of the HR personnel had just copied my draft, filled-in the job description according to my role, printed, signed and stamped, and handed it to me. I was not aware that it would be a fatal mistake for my FSW application. 

So I sent those reference letters to the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), without giving any supporting documents such as employment contract, salary slip or personal income tax report.

I got the Positive Eligibility Review (PER) on September 2014, but then I waited for a few months...and no result. The status in the website had only stated that my application had been received by the Immigration. 

Then, in early January 2015, I was so happy to receive an email from the CIC. But when I started reading it, I was so stressed and disappointed because it mentioned that the Case Officer was not satisfied with all the reference letters that I had provided. 

He said that they all looked similar and suspicious that they might be copying from a single format and needed more explanation with additional proof to show that they were all original. The Visa Office Singapore gave me two months to prove it.

The Solution
Thankfully, my previous bosses were so kind and helpful, that they provided me with a statement letter stating that my reference letter was original.  So I sent it with the employment contracts, salary slips, and personal income tax reports as additional supporting documents (all were certified copies), on early March 2015. 

At the end of March 2015, I was so grateful to receive the request for Medical Examination.

Two Important Tips To Avoid Suspicion
Because of these technical issues, it had delayed my application process by two months. So, what I learned from this case was that:

       1. You could get the same experience as me, as you might not be from an English speaking country.  Your HR Department might not be familiar with the reference letter template. If you have to prepare a draft for the HR, make sure that the format for each company should be different in style, and ensure that it consists of all the required information from the CIC.
       2. Enclose all the supporting documents such as employment contracts, salary slips, and other supporting documents related to your job. Make sure that all of them are certified copies.

By providing these documents completely, there's a chance that would not delay your FSW processing time and would not be suspicious to the Case Officer.

Thank you, everyone! I hope that this experience would be useful for you.

Regards,

DLS

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Share your stories and experiences with MM2C XPerience.  Your experience means a lot, you can share with us where you're now in your application.  Give some advice and lessons learned during the process.

To be a part of the Me Moving To Canada Experience, "MM2C XPrience (#MM2CXPerience)", you can contact me or share through these media.

1.  Blogger - send me an email to benalagnam@yahoo.com if you are interested to be added as a contributor to this blog.

2.  Facebook - Post your experience on my facebook page (BenAlagnam.com).

3.  Email - send your written experience to benalagnam@yahoo.com, let me know if you want your name and initials published or remain anonymous.

4. #MM2CXPerience - use this hashtag when you post your experiences in Canada.

Helping one another through sharing will make the process of immigrating easier.

I'LL WAIT FOR YOUR MESSAGE!

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Ben Alagnam - MeMovingToCanada