Express Entry Timeline - the beginnings, the documents to send within 3 months...

2018 Q1, so... after submitting our Express Entry for the Federal Skilled workers, the real hard work starts...

Well, after the 'Invitation to Apply' in February 2018, did we just sat ourselves down, gave a pat for a job well done and yay, we're in!?! Alas, no, for all the simplicity of submitting an application, everything, that comes with it, needs to be verified. And we had 3 months to do so...

It's easy! Just get some documents! Right! Yes but no. For example, 

• we needed to get our degree certifications certified by WES
• we needed to get our letter of references from our previous employers to state what are the job titles we had, what we did ...etc

All in 3 months... 

Looking back, my main advice before anybody submits an Express Entry application, is to ensure they have all the documents. If you don't, please bear in mind how long it will take you to get these back...

For me, while it was straightforward to ask my UK universities to send me duplicates (for a fee, as nothing is for free). Yet, these needed to be certified by an education credential assessment organisation... and that takes a few weeks (3 in my case).

However, I also had to contact the HR of my previous companies in the UK and those in HK as well. Not an easy feat if you consider these HR are working hard on their day-day duties and you are asking them to do something for you because their companies owe you an indefinite gratitude for working there. Admittedly, I had that unenviable task to chase them up (and sadly ruffle their feathers) trying to get these letter of references within 3 months... Had I done it before I clicked submit, well... nirvana, right?

Last but not least, the police certificates. So, we had to go the police headquarters in Wan Chai, in HK and get the police to send to the immigration office of Canada... Took us 30 minutes. Fast and efficient service.