Hello,
Please is there any group for folks coming to Edmonton?

Reach out to me if you need assistance [/quote]

Congratulations to you. This is so inspiring, presently our score in the pool is 490 and seeing this, I know there is hope

Teeores:
Hello Nairalanders/Amazing People,

This is my first post here and it's coming a day after receiving my PPR. I promised to share my experience on this much sought after journey once I received my PPR so here it is. I'll try to keep it as brief as possible.

My decision to travel started late 2017 after my sister had moved to Canada in 2016. She argued I consider taking similar steps given the many benefits we all know Canada has to offer. Not to say I was doing badly in Nigeria at the time but for sure I understood the benefits and I was thinking long term. She is based in Manitoba and hence advised I went through the Manitoba Nomination (MPNP) route which I did. I wrote my first IELTS exam early 2018, put together the needed POF, obtained work reference letters, and did all other necessities. Fortunately evaluation of credentials wasn't required by Manitoba. I only included my M.Sc. transcript. I was hopeful but then I realised a mistake I made. My sister resides in the city of Winnipeg in Manitoba but in order to boost my score, I had chosen Brandon as my destination in Manitoba. I assumed the rule was only applicable to having a connection in Manitoba but I was wrong. Brandon was a rural area in the province and hence gave additional points for rural settlement which I wasn't entitled to because my sister did not reside in the area. My application was refused in December 2018 and mehn was I heartbroken. I know we learn from failures but it sure doesn't take away the pain that failure brings.

I remember trying the Express Entry route right after the refusal but then I realised I needed to evaluate my credentials. I definitely would have gotten my M.Sc. credentials from a UK university evaluated but getting my B.Sc. transcript sent by Olabisi Onabanjo University to WES was like thinking a grown lion would make for a good pet. I really hope that has changed now though.

After that experience, I zeroed my mind and thought maybe Canada wasn't for me. I still submitted an EOI to Manitoba but with the way the scores were soaring, I was no longer hopeful. So i continued life in Nigeria and in 2019, I got married.

Fast forward to February 2021, my sister called one late night to enquire further (she had done so many times before) on what I was doing regarding this Jaapa endeavour and I was like this madam should just leave me cause I didn't just see any hope there but I told her I would have a look at the whole process one more time. I mean, only something supernatural could have made that moment come to reality cause that was the crux of my success story. One moment that changed my destiny.

I always understood that I needed to evaluate both my M.Sc. and B.Sc credentials (I might have been wrong though) but after that call I read an article on WES website dated November 2020 that confirmed that only the highest credential was required for evaluation for Canada's PR application. My hope was rekindled. At this point, wify and I decided it best I go alone as including her as accompanying in our application negatively impacted our CRS due to some factors.

I gbe body, gingered, and quickly got my M.Sc. credentials evaluated successfully in March 2021. Registered for another IELTS exam and scored R 8.5, L 8.5, S 7.5 and W 7 in April 2021. With all other documents in place we joined the express entry pool on April 4th with a CRS of 466. At this point we knew FSW draws were not forthcoming but we were hopeful. Afterall, we weren't too far off from the last draw of 468.

2 months went by and nothing. Hope was beginning to dwindle again. But those that say "just join the pool" seem to know what they say. I had no idea of OINP at the time especially after my experience with MPNP. On the 23rd of June 2021, I received a message on my phone from IRCC. Could this be ITA I thought. Nope, it was a Notification of Interest from Ontario. I started my research and discovered it was a PNP just like that of Manitoba but without the need for a connection because I really don't have a strong connection to the province asides a friend. Another hustle began, this time was finding the POF which I got partly from a gift deed. Fortunately, I already had most documents so 2 weeks later, on the 13th of July, I submitted. Although our application was processed really fast, we received a letter of intent to refuse after 9 days. Reason: I had used a business account alongside my personal account as POF. I thought being the sole signatory to the business account meant it was not encumbered, WRONG! Fortunately I was able to correct it and on the 3rd of August we got the Nomination and the ITA on the 4th of August. Just wow! Such speed! I thought. Before December we should have gotten PPR, WRONG! Oga, what do you know about IRCC? Anyways, thus began our relationship with IRCC.

Not to bore you all, the permanent residence application should really have been straight forward coming from the provincial processing point of view but PCC happened. I realised that I needed to obtain my UK PCC as I had schooled there and lived there for over 6 months. Oh my goodness! That is another story on its own, a battle with NIPOST. Those guys are so unreliable. I eventually got the PCC via courier and on the 30th of August we sent in our application and got AOR.

Looking back, we had little interaction with IRCC over the 7 months after AOR. We submitted medical appointments with our application and did them on the 23rd of October. We passed the medical exam on the 17th of December and I gave my biometrics on the 21st of December. We received RPRF request on the 31st of January 2022 as we did not pay it alongside the application processing fee. This was paid the following day and I must say it was such a relief receiving it. 6 weeks went by before acknowledgement of ADR was received from IRCC for the RPRF payment, Imagine! A ghost update followed the following day on the 16th of March and another on the 22nd of March. At that point I was sure PPR was coming the following day thanks to so many experiences shared by others and truly on the 23rd of March 2022 by 6.58pm the "Ready for Visa" email landed on us. A sweet way to end a nerve racking, stress giving, emotional wrecking, patience testing journey. It ended in praise.

I however must mention that I sent 5 webforms in between. One for my birth certificate which I missed out and was meant to help them confirm sibling relationship. One for US visa refusal which I forgot to mention. One for MPNP refusal which I did not mention cause the question on it was not clear at the time of submitting the application. One for Nomination Certificate which I didn't send cause it wasn't part of my document checklist. To be sincere I never really thought I needed to send it but just did to avoid any potential delays. The final one was to confirm my visa office and status of my application and also to reconfirm the previous refusals.

Thank you for reading this. I know it was long but I hope it will be useful for someone.

I wish everyone still hoping for Nomination, ITA or PPR the very best.