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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!

Will this be helpful to you or other applicants, please tick the LIKE button below.

26 August 2015

Helping Other Applicants: Be An MM2C Contributor

It's been two years since I first wrote my first post, Moving To Canada: A Dream.  At that time, I was not sure if my application will pursue because of my repetitive failures of my previous FSW applications.

Sharing my experiences made me more confident in expressing myself to my readers.  Even though my English was not that good, but at least the thought was there.  

Because of this blog, I know that I helped some people along the way as they themselves kept in touch with me sharing their good news.

It's been a fulfilling part of my life when I had helped people along their way on getting their FSW Visa.

I can feel the anxieties and excitement felt by applicants during the process of their application.  The moment they emailed me that they have received their Visas, me and my world cheered with joy.

I made this post, to let you know that Me Moving To Canada is open for FSW applicants to share their experiences.  Let's share our experience to others and help them succeed and be part of the MM2C community.

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.

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

I'LL WAIT FOR YOUR MESSAGE!

Will this be helpful to you or other applicants, please tick the LIKE button below.

21 August 2015

University Education For Your Children in Toronto, Canada

Yup, children have free education here in Canada.  But, not all of it are FREE, it's only for the Primary School and Secondary students (4-18 years old).

This is a system that was provided by the government, which they gave ample time for parents to save money for the University education of their children.

The next question is, how much do we need to save and when do we start?

In this post, I'll give you an idea about 
* What you need to know about University tuition?
* How much to save for our children's University education?

How Much are the Tuition Fees for Universities Degrees (2013)
I have done some research about the average tuition fees in Canada and here's the data that I've found from the Statistics Canada as of the year 2013.



The data was taken from the school year 2011 to 2013.  It shows the percent change of tuition fees between the school year 2011/2012 and 2012/2013.

As you can see, at the table for Undergraduates, Dentistry (C$16,910 with a rate increase of 5.4%) has the most expensive tuition, while Education has the cheapest (C$4,006 with a rate increase of 5.3%).

With this yearly increase of tuition, with a maximum of 6.8% annually,  we can predict how much would it cost for the tuition fees after 5 or 10 years.

How Much Should I Save?
I always ask my son on what course should he take when he'll be in college. He's still 10 years old now, but he is very serious on getting an Engineering degree.  Well, what I can do is to support him the best that I can.

So, I computed the cost of an Engineering degree 8 years from now, when he turns 18,  with a rate of 6.8% or let's say the worst and the easiest to compute is 10%.
Engineering Tuition 2013 - C$6,552 per year
Rate Increase - 10% per year
Tuition on the year 2023 (my son turns 18) - C$16,994 per year
We also need to consider the miscellaneous fees like books, dorm, etc...

I asked a mother with a son in college.  She explained that the miscellaneous fees would cost her another C$3,000.  There are books that cost about C$800 each.

So, in order for my son to be in the University on 2023, we need an estimate of C$19,994 on the first year.  That would be about C$80, 000++ for the whole Engineering degree.

Are you interested more about Education for your kids in Ontario, Canada?  Email me at (benalagnam@yahoo.com) to get more information about education loans and education savings plans with the help from the government.  There are ways on how to save now and give yourself and your child a worry-free education.

If my post is helpful, please tick the LIKE button below.

03 August 2015

Pursuing My Passion In Canada

For the past 10 years,  the dream to be in Canada was just a part of my fantasy.  Now, I had achieved it with my family.  Though there had been hardships along the way, it is now giving me back what I deserve little by little.

One of the best thing that happened to me here was having a good life with a decent job and intact family relationship.

What I haven't mentioned was that I had a very strong passion.  A passion that started way back 3 years ago when I was looking for something to get hold on to for my future investments.  It was only a few browse online, then I found it instantly.  It lured me during that moment and keeps me haunted until now.

It's been 3 years since and finally I got what I wanted most.

What's My Passion?
Precious Metals Stacking...YES, it's my passion. One of my fulfillment and gives me pleasure is when I get to hold a precious metal on my hand. Others will say their passion is all about collecting lots of jewelry, tons of branded shoes, expensive cars, and/or "golden" mansions.  Some would even say, taking care of high-end chicken for cockfighting.

Yes, I'm not kidding on the cockfighting thing. It's my Dad's passion back then.  Even though I grew up feeding these fighter cocks, I had never been passionate to follow my Dad's footstep.

The precious metals were now my THING.

Why the Precious Metals?
Having an entrepreneurial mindset that I got from my parents, I grew up thinking of having something that I can profit for.

I want to combine entrepreneurship and passion so I can live a better life doing two things at the same time.  This is why I became passionate about precious metals.

There were many options that I wanted to invest my money from and I had few of them in my portfolio.

Ever since I stumbled upon the precious metals, I can't get it out of my mind! I'm stuck with it.

One of the reasons of buying the precious metals is because of the value of the currency and inflation.
 The currency that we are using now is a piece of paper with printed faces of government leaders and coins that are made up of 60% less precious metals and mixed with alloys.  These pieces, when kept for a long time, will devalue with inflation.

As we all know, inflation is the increase of good's price against the currency per year.  That means, a kilo of rice today was worth more than the previous years.  It will not stop climbing.  I remembered back then when a kilo of rice was about P3.00 and now it's around P40.00, a 1,233% inflation rate.

So, do I care?  Yes, I need to have a way that can preserve the value of my money today.  This I found in the precious metals.

The price of GOLD for the last 10 years was US$400/oz, now, you can buy it for US$1100/oz.  The price of SILVER, on the other hand, was US$5.00/oz against the present of US$18.00/oz but was US45.00/oz last 2011.  The best advantage of having these things is that it won't rot.  Gold and Silver will remain Au and Ag for the next centuries and beyond.
Coversion: 1 Troy Ounce (Oz) = 31.1034768 gram
You see how the price of precious metals rises if kept for the past 10 years?

In addition to that, Gold and Silver were the only stuff that I know which we can purchase without a GST tax, in Singapore, and HST/GST in Canada.

What Precious Metals to Choose?
At first, I was thinking of having a GOLD to stack.  Then I thought that it was way too expensive for me to invest for the time being.

Since Silver was found to be an important raw material in the electronics industry because of it's lower resistivity properties against Gold, I think that it will be scarce when the next electronic boom will occur.

When I went to Ottawa, I visited the Royal Canadian Mint, where the precious metals were made.  Canada is the only country that can make 99.999% (five 9's) pure silver and gold. Unfortunately, their souvenir store will only sell numismatic coins and not the investment type ones.

Front Door of the Royal Canadian Mint where I bought
my first Pure Silver numismatic coins.
Anyway, I was really struck with the beauty of the metal and I didn't hesitate to buy the numismatic pure silver coin to ease up my craving.

So I bought one coin of the Exploring Canada: 2014 Gold Rush collection and one of the Exploring Canada: 2014 Arctic Expedition.

Each coin is placed inside a red box with a signed certificate and a serial number indicating the coin's number over the total number of coins made. It was nicely packaged inside a carton box designed with the drawings from the coin.

My first collection of pure Silver coin from the
Royal Canadian Mint
I also bought a vial of gold foils in a clear liquid as a souvenir.  It's my first collection of gold.

My next action plan is to buy the investment coins and I'll inform you on my next blog posts.

If you need to know more about Silver and Gold, email me at benalagnam@yahoo.com.  Share your thoughts of physical Silver and Gold investing here.
Ben Alagnam - MeMovingToCanada