Canadian Citizenship Application

Just where did the time go? How time flies so fast and yet here we are now applying for our Canadian Citizenship.

I remember starting this blog for my Little R to one day read how we journeyed just to have him/her in our arms. That we can do anything and everything just for him/her even leaving our family and our home country. I documented everything for him/her even if we are still waiting 3 years after we landed and applied for citizenship.

Yes, you read it right, we have already submitted our Canadian Citizenship application in May this year but it is only now that I am blogging because of our busy schedule doing renovations in our home and the house blessing almost 3 weeks ago. Most importantly, I was waiting for our acknowledgment of receipt (AOR) before I post this page, LOL. 

Well, what is really important before trying to apply for Citizenship is knowing your Physical Presence. I used CIC's Physical Presence Calculator to calculate our eligibility to apply for Citizenship especially that we went home to the Philippines last October 2018 for my father's wake. It is easy actually to maneuver said Calculator. You can log in to your old email address on your Express Entry profile, edit and/or save if you must, but once you are ready, you can print it off and use and/or attach this form in lieu of Form CIT 0407. Just remember that the date on the Physical Presence form must be the same as the date of Form CIT 002.

In addition to the Physical Presence, permanent residents must have 1,095 eligible days within the last 5 years before they can apply for Citizenship. For me and my husband, we have 1,104 credited Physical Presence based on the CIC's calculator, see below. Thus, making us eligible to apply for Citizenship. If you go out outside of Canada most of the time, it is stated on the Instruction Guide to give at least 5 days allowance on the 1,095 days just in case you miss a day out. You don't want your application to be returned and I will tell you later on why.😀 (Oh, I like that I can put real smileys now, LOL)

Before actually starting to fill up your forms, open CIC's Instruction Guide on Application for Canadian Citizenship to help you on the filling up process. It is well-explained on the guide what to do and what is not, what document to provide and attachment, if any. Also, consider printing or scanning out the Document Checklist just for heads up on what basic paperwork an applicant needs. We actually need 8 documents only per applicant. How cool is that compared to the bulky documentation we did during our Provincial and Federal applications, LOL.

Anyway, remember to read the right Form to fill up as almost every year, I think, CIC updates their Forms. Ours was CIT 0002 (02-2019) E. If you used the wrong General Form, your application will be returned. So keep that in mind. The Guide will tell you and the number of the Form is located on the lower left corner of the 8 pages Application for Canadian Citizenship Adults (18 years of age or older).

On said Form above, don't forget to tick important boxes for yourselves and the word N/A on all boxes that has no answer. Mind you, some application/s has been returned just by not ticking 1 box in their application and a blank/s on their Form. Yes, same as Provincial and Federal, no blank spaces.

What is really tricky on the Form which I find confusing (but the Guide will answer it as well) are the following:

1. No. 10.a: where they asked for your addresses for the last five years - if you notice our Physical Presence Form, our eligibility period is from 2014-05-26 to 2019-05-26. Thus, you need to key in your home addresses for the last 5 years including your country of residence before you become permanent residents. and
2. No. 10.b: our answer is "YES" for this reason because in the last 5 years we lived in the Philippines for 365 days before we become permanent residents 3 years ago. And if you went out of Canada for travel or emergency like ours, just 14 days and is no more than 183 days then no need for a Police Clearance. I, however, attached our Police Clearance (NBI) which we submitted during the Federal stage and stated that we submitted it on our Immigration Application in Year 2015. A Police Clearance is only needed if you have a continuous 183 days pf physical absence in Canada.

Moving forward to passport. No need to print all pages. I only printed the biographical pages of our new and old passports.

On photocopy of proof of knowledge on English or French language. For mine, since I am the principal applicant on our Immigration application, I sent a photocopy of my IELTS which I submitted 3 years ago. I hope you still have a copy of yours.😀 For my husband, I made a Letter of Explanation for him and I quote:

             "I am writing this letter to show proof of my English Language.

           I did not take my IELTS General Training when I came to Canada because my wife, _______, is the principal applicant in our permanent residency application. In this connection, I am presenting my diploma in __________ as proof that even though I did not take my IELTS I know how to read and write in English because from Elementary to College we have English subject included in our curriculum. Please see also my attached Transcript of Record with English subjects such as: Grammar Development, Technical Writing, Speech Development and Public Speaking.  

           Gratefully hoping for your favorable consideration. 

          Thank you."

The rest of the document checklist is self explanatory. I must say though that you need to pay your Citizenship upfront and attached the receipt on your application/s. The fee for adult is CAD630, minor I think is CAD100 (if my memory is right), please check.

Again, check, double check, triple check before submitting because Citizenship application is paper base. Once you commit an error your application will be return. We submitted our Citizenship application last 27 May 2019 and was received by "T Allen" on 29 May 2019.

More than 2 months has passed and of course the waiting game is killing me again. This is why I was anxiously nervous since last week waiting for our AOR. In Citizenship application, we wait for a minimum of 2 months for that magic AOR email from CIC. If you received your AOR, this just means that your submitted basic requirements are all good and complete. However, when your document is returned, the applicant must comply with whatsoever error made on the application, then mail "again", and wait for another minimum of 2 months.😏

See, so who will not panic if everyone on the forum is getting AOR except you, LOL, same feeling during Provincial and Federal.😀 So, I called CIC last Monday, 12 August, LOL, as per forum and inquired. I just gave our UCI Nos., I was only waiting for the agent to say, I cannot find your application nor your payment, blah, blah, blah (as per forum applicants' experiences) but nope heard nothing of it. The agent just says everything is good (it's like music to my ear, LOL) and we just need to wait because there is a bunch of applications. Oh, I know, LOL, just waiting for the magic words. But... we did not wait any longer, the following day, we finally received our AOR, see below.

Now, we can really relax and wait "again" but we can, however, go online to check status of our Citizenship application through ECAS. I just have no time yet to do it. What is important is we passed the first stage. Thank you dear Father God for all the guidance.

First-Time Home Buyers

Having a house for us is very important. This is where our proof of fund or settlement fund came from when we were applying to come to Canada in 2015.

Ever since we landed in 2016, it has always been one of our dreams to have a home here in Canada as we are not use to renting. We have been looking forward to it because we believe paying for a home mortgage is way much better than renting an apartment. Having a home is a very large and secure investment any mature individual desires to have.

If you never have a home for the last four (4) years in the maple leaf country then you are considered a first-time home buyer. Income, debt, assets and employment status are important factors to be considered for a home loan. However, credit scores also plays a very important key role on whether or not a person will be approved for the mortgage.

We were told that to have a good credit score or to make it higher at least is to pay off your credit cards on a monthly basis to which we did. And since we are newcomers, debt is a lesser factor for us as we only have our car loan. 

In December 2017, we tried to apply for a home mortgage on a property owned by Colpitts Realty. Almost everything inside of that townhouse is my dream color, stainless steel appliances, kitchen island and so on. It just that it is not a bungalow type. A bungalow house has always been my dream home but my husband has a weak back and he does not want to do the plowing on winter time nor can I do that. Thus, we agreed to settle on a townhouse.

During that time we were pre-approved by CIBC with its cash back program, signed a contract for closing, gave a downpayment but backed out at the end. Why cash back? Because we were hoping to use first our money for our IVF procedure as downpayment but backed out because my husband's aunt told us that the cash back is no good as it will give you higher monthly instalments and interest rate. We also went to our bank, RBC, to inquire or ask an opinion and that is also what they told us and even asked us if what do you prefer, a house or the procedure? Of course, the procedure. That's when we told ourselves, it's not yet time.

This leaves us in despair on how to have a house and at the same time do our IVF(s) procedure. Then we remember the advise of my husband's aunt and also a little knowledge I learned from my training with H&R Block which is to put more money on your Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP). Annually, there is a required amount an individual can save on his/her RRSPs. What we did, we put 5% contribution each on our RRSPs via our weekly salary deduction. In addition, the Government allows a one-time big amount deposit on our RRSP to which we did but bearing in mind also not to go over your limit for the year. Then unknowingly, after a year of doing this, we finally save more than enough of the 5% downpayment and additional 1.5% for the processing and miscellaneous fees needed in buying a house. The Government allows first-time home buyers to borrow up to $25,000.00 each on our RRSP as downpayment, tax-free. This, however, must be repaid for within 15 years as the amount is only borrowed from your RRSPs. A good deal for us who is undergoing infertility treatments. At least we can do 2 things at once.

On this note, we started looking again for a prospective house. We also talked that it is better we get a house now than spending so much again in our infertility treatments without savings. I mean everything is just going out of our savings and we were thinking when we have a house then at least we have something coming in for us not as a saving but at least an investment. And so, the last quarter of 2018 has been a habit for us both to go house hunting on weekends. And during those trips, we always go back to this new townhouses being built at Mia Circle. Funny but we've entered every unit of the townhouses there, LOL.

Thus, in January this year, we tried applying for a home loan again but were denied at pre-approval stage. Why? Because of my credit score. I only have 611 when we applied and my husband at 660 plus range. How did this happened? As per my last post, my father died in October 2018 and that we went home to the Philippines. I used my credit card to purchase our tickets with a limit of $4,000.00. Our tickets cost is almost $4,000.00 plus other expenses that we need to pay off when we came back in Canada. This put my credit score in a bad situation because according to the bank using almost everything of your credit limit is not a good idea plus the fact that we have not pay the full amount of our tickets for at least 2 months because of course of some "other" expenses. Our bank told us to get rid of my bad credit history first from October cut off and give another 2 or 3 months (from January) before trying to apply for a home loan again.

This has saddened us, especially me, because I really wanted the townhouse at Mia Circle but we are hoping there will still be a unit left for us in 2 or 3 months time even in Cojo Lane (just beside the Mis Circle).

Then came a message from the Realtor of Mia Circle last week of February telling us that a unit on Mia Circle is to be vacated. She explained to us that the unit was offered for rent-to-own basis to a family but because of personal reason they withdraw after 2 months. The Realtor has offered that unit to us because of my husband's persistency on asking if there is/are still unit/s left at Cojo Lane (not Mia Circle because we know it is all filled up), LOL.  We told her that we are still fixing my credit score history and we still have until April, at most, to apply for home mortgage. The Realtor together with the owner told us that if we really want the house, we can give a downpayment for reservation and do a rent-to-own for March until we get approved. To which we did because we don't want to let go of the unit especially that it is in Mia Circle and that the cabinet colours is the one that I really wanted (dark espresso with stainless steel appliances, wink, wink, ooohhh, plus kitchen island). So, by February we sent out our three-month notice to our landlord that we will be vacating our apartment end of April.

We paid our $1,000.00 downpayment and a $1,300.00 rent-to-own fee ($600.00 for rent; $600.00 as additional downpayment and $100.00 as building maintenance fee [required fee for townhouses]) last March while still renting in our apartment. We applied for a home mortgage end of March to which we were finally approved but will not go on the mathematical and bank details for personal reason. Just remember that when you wish to use your RRSP as downpayment, you need to fill up Form T1036 (Request to Withdraw Funds from an RRSP) and send it to your institution where you save your RRSPs for them to process it. Take note that you cannot withdraw all of your RRSPs and that a 90-day period contribution is not deductible as per the Home Buyers' Plan (HBP) regulation. We just added up an amount of roughly $125.00 to our rent of $775.00 for our monthly home mortgage plus building maintenance fee of $100.00 but exclusive of the Property Tax. 

I thought soulmate is only applicable for humans. I never thought it can also be applied in a house. Meant to be, LOL. Imagine always visiting the place almost every Sunday. Planning this and that so we can have it and out of the blue, we did. We are officially homeowners to one of this unit below.

Now, we are done with one of our dreams. Off to the next one, as we just celebrated our third year in Canada yesterday which means Canadian citizenship application is next but of course having our little R is still our main priority. In God's time, just a little more baby steps.

The Wheel of Life

It has been so loooong since I last posted and I'm speechless because my comment section has too many messages. Oh well, most of it are spam, LOL.

I need a lot of cleaning with those unwanted spams which leave me no recourse but to change my comment settings so it will be easier to clean it when I go on hiatus again, LOL.

Anyway, how have we been.

First things first, my sister's NBPNP application was not as successful as ours. Sad but after almost a year of waiting, their application for permanent residency was denied due to an undated Letter or Employment (LOE). It is just strange because LOEs are reviewed on the provincial level and, oh never mind, I believe also that my sister has a fault on it because this was one of her additional document but failed to reply. Or, maybe my fault too because I did not guide her all throughout their Federal stage as I was on social media break (FB, IG and WhatsApp) for so long last year and she did not really dare to bother me because of the below reason. Now that my sister's application was denied, my nephew is now routing the student visa stream. This may be a very long process but for as long as we are here, we will do everything for them to come to Canada too.

Well, as stated over and over, the only reason why we are here in the maple leaf country is solely for our Canadian dream of having our little R. However, part of trying to reach that dream is to try to gamble between happiness and pain. Armoured by so much faith and hope, we took the chance to do a procedure last year but we were never ready of the outcome of it. Year 2018 brings out the worst in us with our loss. It was unexplainable and unbearable. The pain is still there but month after months we have chosen to pick up the broken pieces of us and chose to stand up again through God's grace.

However, as we were to embark our repeat procedure after gaining the needed strength, I lost my first love too 6 months after we lost them. My dad went into cardiac arrest while undergoing an arteriovenous surgery. I have always been a daddy's girl and when I received those dreaded messages that my dad passed away when I was still mending my broken self ...ah, I was so disoriented. Going home to the Philippines is a bittersweet moment but has given us the courage to stand, especially me, on our own two feet "again". 

Year 2018 really is a very rough time for us both but has taught us so many lessons especially on "some" people around us here in Fredericton which is so much unworthy to even think or talk about it. Just a little note to ourselves:

I know this post is a sad one but this is our journey, it is not always a happy one. That is life, there will always be ups and downs just like a wheel. Sometimes your up, sometimes your down. Last year may have brought us enough trials but through God's grace, we survived. We've learned that sometimes God will put you to your worst so you can become a better person, know your worth, cautiously grow and carry on with a smile despite the struggles. 

Moving forward to 2019, I believe we are more than at peace right now, our hearts and minds are all good and very optimistic for the future especially to our Canada dream.

Now, let me do my spam cleaning, LOL, as more blogs is coming for this year as our Year 3 as permanent residents is drawing closer. Until next blog. Ciao.