Settlement Funds: Prepare for FSW Canadian Immigration

When you apply for a Federal Skilled Worker program in Canada, you need to show them that you can survive in their country with a 6-month worth of savings.

This is a practical approach by the Government in order for an applicant not to be dependent from them once they arrive in Canada.

Although the government can help you while you're in Canada, they make sure that you don't risk yourself and your family for a bad situation while you're in their country.

Due to this reason, they require an applicant to show a proof of fund or what is also known as the "Settlement Fund'.

Note: You do not need this if you have an arranged employment in Canada.

What is a Settlement Fund?
A settlement fund is your personal assets, this will be in the form of:

cash

documents that show property or capital payable to you (such as stocks, bonds, debentures, treasury bills, etc.) or

documents that guarantee payment of a set amount of money, which are payable to you (such as bankers’ drafts, cheques, travellers’ cheques or money orders).

Source: www.cic.gc.ca

How to Compute for the Settlement Funds?
This is how to compute for the total settlement fund.  You have to subtract all your assets from your liabilities.

ASSETS - LIABILITIES =  TOTAL SETTLEMENT FUNDS

You need to show these values at the form Schedule 3: Economic Classes (IMM 0008 SCHEDULE 3) item #11. 

It should look like this...

How Did I Showed My Proof of Fund?
Since I applied for an FSW on 2007, which was returned by the way, I had already prepared my bank accounts during that time.  My only problem at that time is MONEY, which I needed to accumulate more.

As soon as I went to work in Singapore, I made sure that I have money to put into my bank account every month. When I applied again for an FSW on 2013, I was sure that I'm ready to show my proof of funds.

So, my situation was I had 3 diversified bank accounts in the Philippines and a POSB bank account in Singapore.

I got a house property in the Philippines, which I was paying my mortgage since 2003, I included this as my proof.

This is the summary of what I've submitted to the Canadian Immigration:

1. Three bank certificates in the Philippines
2. One bank certificate from POSB bank in Singapore
3. Two certificate of Policy from my insurance/investment in Singapore and Philippines
4. One copy of my mortgage contract from the house developer stating how much is the total cost of the house and the outstanding balance.

Then I made a summary in a Microsoft Word format, arranged in a tabular form stating my Assets and Liabilities.

I uploaded a sample format for you to download. The description and the amount written there are all fictitious, it's just an example.

How to request a copy and download: Email me at benalagnam@yahoo.com and I will add your email to my google drive and send you a link to the file, so you can access the format.

After you download, you can edit it for your preferences.  This is for your reference only .

What I Submitted in the Canadian Immigration as a Proof of Fund?
I listed down all my personal assets and liabilities in a piece of paper.

Info: In Philippines, the bank requires the requestor to fill up the bank certificate request form and some forms had a section where you need to sign and allow the Canadian Immigration to call the bank for verification purpose.

I requested certificates on each of the three banks in the Philippines and one at the POSB Singapore.

For my insurance,  I gathered the policy certificates from my Insurance in Singapore and asked for another letter from the Philippines.

The house mortgage contract copy was photocopied and certified by an attorney.

All of these bank certificates are original copies and the bank accounts should not be less than 3 months old.  If the copy is not original, asked a lawyer and have it certified as a true copy with their signature in it.

I compiled all of those documents, placed the summary page on top of it and inserted it with my whole application package.

Where to save and invest your Settlement Funds when you arrive in Canada?

Got questions about FSW application to Canada? Register in MM2C Community to download the Proof of Fund Summary. Click the photo below.

Register to MM2C Community

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Getting NBI Clearance for FSW Applicants In Philippines

One requirement of the Federal Skilled Worker Immigration program is to check whether an applicant and his dependent, 22 years old and above, has a criminal record in any country where he stayed for more than 6 months.

In order for a Canadian Immigration Officer to assess a Filipino, either a citizen or a resident in any other country, that he don't have a criminal record is to request for a clearance from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

If an applicant is residing in the Philippines, this will be easier.  

How to Get a Clearance from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) when in Philippines?
Any Filipino citizen can request a copy of their clearance from the National Bureau of Investigation.  There is a new procedure wherein the applicant can now register an appointment with the NBI so that he can easily or should I say make the job easier for the Bureau to issue the copy.

An applicant for the NBI clearance should visit the NBI site, make an appointment and will go to the nearest NBI issuance station in their area.  Below are the links:

1. NBI Appointment website - This is where an applicant can register for an appointment.  Take note that the applicant should fill in all the necessary information and review it thoroughly to avoid spelling mistakes.

2. NBI Regional Offices - This is the site where you can see the list of NBI field offices per region.

3. List of NBI Clearance Issuance Station -  You can visit this site to know the nearest NBI clearance issuance station in your area.  The stations are listed at the website's NBI Clearance Advisory, which is found at the website's left sidebar.

4. NBI Clearance Procedure - Check out this section on the requirements and the process on how to get the NBI clearance.

My Experience Getting an NBI Clearance at the Duty Free Philippines Fiestamall, Manila
The Duty Free Philippines is not only the place for balikbayans who want to buy imported goods.  This is also a place where you can get an NBI clearance.  Where is it?


Duty Free is just beside the NAIA 1 and is along the Ninoy Aquino Avenue.

The NBI Clearance Office opens at 8:30am.  I went there at 4:30am because the guard told me that there will be lots of applicants coming in.  That is why I thought that I should be earlier than them.

To my surprise at 4:30am, as soon as I hit the gates, the guard informed me that they will only open the main gate at 7:00am.  Lucky that there is a Jollibee near the place, which is at the Unioil Gas station. So I went there to take my breakfast and kill the time.

At exactly 7:00am, I went back to the main gate and saw it was already opened.  So I hand-signalled the guard and I went in and walked heading to the left side, facing the Duty Free Entrance.  The office is near the Exit of the Duty Free building.

As soon as I arrived at the main entrance of the NBI office, there were more than 50 people waiting for the door to open.  WOW!  I thought that I was too early.

The man in uniform instructed us to write our names in the paper, which he placed on the table.  Everyone rushed to the table and I was so lucky that I'm near to that paper, so I was the number one.

Tip: The paper is only for those people that do not have an online appointment.

At 8:30am, the guard went out of the door entrance and called all the OEC applicants to submit their application forms.  He then called the NBI clearance online applicants and that includes me. 

He asked us to submit our online application forms and he went inside the office, closing the door tightly.

After a few minutes he went out and called all the OEC applicants and followed by us.  We were called 5 persons at a time.

I went inside the office and was asked to sit down and wait for my name to be called.  For around 5 minutes, the cashier shouted my name and asked me for the P115.00 payment. and she said that I will wait for my turn for my fingerprinting.

At the fingerprinting section, the lady asked me to place each fingers at the fingerprinting device (No Ink) and she asked me to review all my details at the monitor.  She submitted the information and the monitor displayed "WITH HIT"!

What is A WITH HIT or NO HIT?
If an applicant has a HIT, this only means that there is something to verify at the main office and the clearance will not be issued on the spot.  This will take 3 days to get the clearance.

A HIT means that you or someone has a record filed at the NBI and you need to clear this with the Quality Control first before they will issue the clearance.  At most cases, there are persons that has identical names and whose name has cases filed against the person and this will be considered as a HIT.

The officer wrote a date at the back of my receipt and instructed me to come back to their office after 3 days.

For persons that has NO HIT, their clearance will be printed and will be released after the fingerprinting process.

Thanks for reading my post, if you want to know more, please click the links below:

ARHIVE - The list of posts that can help you easily navigate with my site.            

ASK ME - You can ask me any questions related to the FSW Canadian Immigration here.

EXPENSES - How much you need in applying for FSW

And please SUBSCRIBE to my blog.

Before You arrive in Canada

My Medical Exam Procedure at the Raffles Hospital in Singapore

On my previous blog, I mentioned about how I prepared the documents for my medical exam.

To find out which hospital should I ask for an appointment,  I checked the list of hospitals and the  doctors in Singapore  from the list provided to me by the Canadian Immigration.  

See the list of Panel Physicians to find the doctor in your area.

Canadian Immigration List of Panel Physicians

 

After setting an appointment at the Raffles Hospital in Singapore,  which I found the telephone attendant more friendly than the other clinic, I searched its address online and found that it was just beside the Bugis MRT Station.


View Raffles Hospital in a larger map

What are the First Steps of My Medical Examination?
It was Saturday and lucky enough it's not raining. The appointment was around 9:00am and I entered the building entrance facing the Victoria St.  Good thing of having an appointment is that you don't have to queue.

The lady at the desk is attentive and I informed her that I'm having a medical examination for the Canadian Immigration requirement.  She handed me a form to fill up, around 5 pages.

I finished filling all the questions for around 20 minutes.  Then I stick the photos at the forms, using the glue that the lady had provided me.

I submitted back the form to the lady and she instructed me to wait for my number to be called. She handed me a bottle, where I need to place my urine sample.

The toilet was just at the corner and so I took samples of my urine.  I dropped the bottle at the Window 8 drop box as instructed.

I sat down the waiting area and waited for my number. 

Details of the Medical Examination
First, I was called to go inside the room, where the nurse took some blood samples.  This part is the worst for me because I hate needle poking.  I told her to signal me once she starts to poke the needle in to my skin.  It took around 10 minutes for the whole ordeal.

Second, I was then asked to wait outside for another instruction.  My number was displayed on the screen prompting me to go inside another room.  This time, the nurse took my height, weight and asked me to read the letters at the wall. Easy!

Third, again the waiting never stops until my number appeared once more and so I got inside the other room.  This time, it's the doctor...she asked me questions that are also almost the same as the one in the form. 

Then, she asked me to take off everything except the underwear and asked me to lie down, she pressed few corners of my stomach while asking questions like, do I have tattoos or operations.

She took my blood pressure and thank God it's normal.

I was then asked to wait for another step, which is the x-ray.  This is the fastest procedure, when I went in, I was then instructed to take off my upper clothing and asked to press my chest against the x-ray plate, took a deep breath and it's done!

After the Medical Exam Process, What's Next?
The next 3 minutes was waiting for the x-ray film that I never had a chance to see.  The nurse instructed me to pay at the counter, where I saw my x-ray film beside the cashier, and to pay the medical examination fee. 

The nurse informed me that they will directly send the results at the Canadian Embassy, Manila.  She wrote the phone number at my receipt to dial in case I need to inquire about the document tracking.

Tracking the Result Documents
Few weeks had passed, I called the Raffles Hospitalnumber to ask about the result of my medical.  They said that they cannot provide the information of the result but informed me that my documents have already been sent to the Canadian Embassy using their USAHA courier. 

So I called the USAHA courier for the update, the guy was friendly enough to provide me the DHL tracking number.

I found out at the DHL online tracking that the Raffles Hospital had sent the results 4 days after my exam procedure. 

Sending the documents from Singapore to the Canadian Embassy, Manila took 2 days.  The whole sending process was less than a week.

Hoping for a good result!

First 2 weeks in Canada

I found a video in Youtube that will be helpful for new immigrants in Canada. This will help us plan on what to do and where to start as soon as we land. Although it's too early to plan our arrival, at least we have an idea about it so we won't panic.

How I Sent My FSW Application Documents to Nova Scotia, Canada

Sending the documents to Nova Scotia is not a rocket science.  I don't know the reason why it's so difficult for me to consolidate my full application before sending it to the Canadian Embassy in Nova Scotia.

It's so simple that packaging it was so hard to decide.

• Do I need to staple each document?  
• What is the size of the paper that I use?  
• Do I need a paper clip?  

So simple, yet so many questions...

Can I Staple the Documents?

There are documents that has more than 1 page such as:

1. Certificate of Employment

2. Additional Information sheets  (specially if you have long list of family information)

3. The application forms 

....and others.

I stapled the documents that has 2 or more pages together.

What Paper and Envelope Should I Use?

The documents such as the additional information sheets should be printed by the applicant.  I printed it in an A4 size paper.  

There is no problem with this in Singapore since almost all of the offices uses A4.  If you can not get from your office, you can buy this paper at the Popular or any book store in Singapore.

I inserted my documents inside a white large envelope and made sure that the A4-sized documents fits into it.

How Did I Compile my Documents?

After the gathering the documents and ready for packing, these were the next steps that I did:

1. I photocopied each document for my personal filing. 

2. I printed the mailing address (From/To) in a piece of A4-sized paper, as stated in the instruction manual of Canada.  I stick  it using a glue at the back of the white envelope.

3.  I arranged the documents according to the order as written at the document checklist.  

4.  I placed the printed bar code pages on top of all the documents and the checklist.

5.  Inserted all the documents inside the white envelope WITHOUT paper clips.

6.  Sealed the white envelope with the use of the tongue (water is better). To be sure, add more glue.

Put a check mark at the Document Checklist (IMM5612) for those documents that you have included in your application, otherwise, put an X mark.  

I used a blue pen as it is mostly used by Singapore offices.  You can also use a black pen and there's no need to rely on computer technology this time.

As the document were sealed, I then took a deep breath, and whispered to myself...."GOOD LUCK!".

Here is the post about sending my document to Nova Scotia using the DHL.