Hello all.

I am looking for some guidance as to how to assemble my application.

Myself and my common-law partner who is my sponsor are about a week away from sending our package off, but I'm confused as to how i'm meant to assemble the package.

Form: IMM 5491 Document Checklist is required to be completed 'attach this checklist to forms and supporting documents'. Does this mean it needs to be attached to the front of ALL forms, or just on the top of the whole application package with the corresponding ticks in the boxes.

Additionally, there is the 'Appendix A-Document Checklist - Immigrant' that is required. This states that I should 'Assemble all your documents as listed and attach the list to your documents' this only lists the Immigration documents for the 'Sponsored applicant' along with things like the police report, medical proof, proof of relationship etcetc... SO. Which one am I meant to follow?

I'd really love to know how people assembled their application as it seems there is lots of cross overs (especially when it comes to proof of relationship).

Would anyone be able to break down for me how they assembled their application into categorys as i am about ready to lose my little mind.

It's been a while since I did mine but I will try and answer your questions as much as I can remember.

There are 2 parts to the application, 1) The sponsorship and 2) the application for PR. One of the document checklists (I believe IMM 5491) goes with the sponsorship documents and the other one goes with the application for PR. You follow both as you need to attach both.

Yes, tick the boxes to show that everything is included or else put N/A if it doesn't apply. Anything you should have included but didn't you should give an explanation for.

Sponsorship checklist and application to sponsor goes on top;
Application for PR checklist and PR application goes underneath.
Backing documentation (police checks etc.) go under the checklists but on top of the application forms - put the supporting documentation in the same order as the checklists.

So.. anything to do with the application to sponsor goes together and everything to do with the PR application goes together separately.

As to the rest, if you put them in the same order as the form questions you will be about right. Any additional sheets with additional info you have should be included with the corresponding form. Remember to clearly label all additional sheets with the form and question number that it corresponds to and put your and your partners' name on it as well.

Things like photos, phone records and similar (if they are just to support your application and not in answer to a question) go at the back in chronological order.

Make sure to include any forms even if they don't apply, but put N/A or similar on them.

Read through the guides (both of them - and the UK one) and make sure everything is filled in, then read your completed applications from back to front (I know, but it works) to make sure you have filled everything out correctly and you have included all the forms and documentary evidence. Then get your partner to do the same - you would be amazed how easy it is to miss something when you have read over it time and again.

Don't use staples!

I am sure someone will be along who has put their together more recently than I, so hopefully you will get another opinion!

To follow on from siouxie's post, we used binder dividers and separated the application into 5 sections:
-sponsor forms (leading with the checklist)
-sponsor supporting documentation (for stuff like passport etc as listed in the checklist)
-sponsored person forms (leading with the checklist)
-sponsored person supporting documentation (as listed in the checklist)
-appendices (for things like photos, lease, wedding paperwork, bank statements, etc)

I had all the forms in a huge binder while we were preparing, then I just took it out in that order and put it in an envelope to mail. I put a table of contents in the very front as well with the title of each section and listed out the forms/documents in that section.

Both previous replys are awesome. I just want to add...


KEEP A RECORD OF EVERYTHING YOU ARE SENDING including the medical receipts/certificates, if you haven't got a digital copy eith scan them in or photocopy them!!!!!

I put everything in loose as requested with an appendix list of everything inserted at the top then my sponsors application followed by all documents requested for this including relationship evidence (a letter from my husband talking about our relationship) then the Applicants Forms and Evidence then at the bottom any other additional evidence such as greeting cards etc.

Good Luck

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!!!

I have been finding it all so overwhelming. Siving through 5 years worth of emails turned my mind to smush last night and i just couldn't think straight!!!

Great to have some guidance as to the order and will help organise things in my mind and make it clearer for me to figure out what i still need to gather

Agree 100% with Scottish Maple, make absolutely sure you have a copy of every single thing you are sending - including copies of the forms and any additional pages.

You will be fine.. just take your time and it will all work out ok.

Oh crikey. I know it's kind of a given I should make copies, but the thought of scanning every individual piece into my comp makes me feel kinda nauseous - That will take hours :S.

I have saved most things to my computer, but things like emails i'm just printing straight from my email... Hmmm...I'll have a think as to the best way to make copies...


On the note of emails/proof of relationship. I have literally just selected random emails over the span of our 4 yr long distance relationship, then the 1 year I have been in canada - The emails measure around an inch all in all - Will this random selection of emails, accompanied by a few letters we sent to each other, birthday cards etc suffice? We used skype a lot and have no way of retrieving the skype calling convos, and my cell phone provider in the UK doesn't do the 'detailed breakdown' so we have no solid proof of phone calls - although we called each other every day...hmmph. I am including a photo essay in answer to the 'development of your relationship' question on the questionnaire, and some additional photos just to support other documents i provide. Is this enough??

I guess i'm at the 'second guessing myself' stage

OMG, one inch worth of emails?! Holy hell that is a lot - and IMO, way overkill. If you print one from each month for the last four years that's 48 pages and that shoujld be more than enough. Someone else on the board sent a total whackload of stuff and ended up having so many issues because CPC-M didn't send the whole package to London because of the sheer size of it, and then he had delays in London as a result of them not having all the evidence. Use your judgement - one per month shows ongoing and regular conversation, 1 inch of pages is, what, 200 pages?! That's totally insane. (In my opinion. You do not have to listen to me!)

I think Skype has a history mechanism, look into that.

Are you sure your provider doesn't do a breakdown? Who are you with? I'm with O2 and my monthly statements are stored online, so I printed out a random selection (statements go back 2 years only), I think every 4ish months' statement, and highlighted the calls and texts with my other half.

Photo essay - dare I ask how many photos you're providing?

Copies - we didn't make copies of absolutely everything, only where we were sending originals. The forms were all saved on my computer, I didn't make copies of things I could easily reproduce (like emails, phone records, etc). I didn't bother with bank statements either because if there's an issue I can't send copies so figured I'd have to go back to the bank/utility company to get new originals.
We DID make copies of the signed declarations, the police certificate, the medical receipt, and a few of the originals of a handful of other things.

DO read yur application back-to-front, though. By this point you have the whole thing memorised so it's easy to skim over mistakes when you're reading it in an order you're expecting. You can easily catch mistakes reading it backwards. (Reading it backwards we ended up finding one - we'd reversed the birthdays of my husband's parents on his family member form - we had to reprint it because of a previous error, and on the "final" version we realised we'd written it backwards upon a back-to-front review!)

HTH.

Another thing you can do is put all the emails from each other into a separate file on your mail client, then open it and do a "print screen" and save it as a .jpeg picture to show all the emails and dates sent - or if you have windows 7, use the snipping tool instead.

Haha. There are 80 pages of emails, I could probably go through and get rid of a few bits and bobs for sure. Thanks for your opinion I will definitely go back over them...

Skypes history only goes back 6 months...

I'm certain, I was with 3 mobile and I am unable to get 'detailed' print outs. I can just get invoices that say very basic things. I will look into this some more...


Photo essay- i am providing 2 photos for every 'event' for example when I would visit him, christmas together etc...

I will definitely make copies of what you suggested, and I will read the entire thing from back to front! Gosh, what do i get at the end of this? A medal? OHH yeah thats right. (Hopefully) PR

Just make copies of original documents like Medical Receipts, Police Checks anything that you have had to pay for to send them a copy of. For example, London has lost my daughters Medical File and have asked for information of where and when her medical was done, because I scanned in the receipt I was able to send a copy of this via the website as the Medical Centre do not keep copies.


I just sent them a random selection of emails with a note saying that we only use emails for sending important information or photographs.

I also sent Copies of our MSN chat, but only to show connection to webcam, I think I only sent one actual conversation. I do not want the VO officer seeing my personal conversations, showing that I was connecting everyday on MSN with a few sentences here and there I felt was sufficent, however I did also sent itemised billing from my Sky account and highlighted all the telephone connections to my husband telephone number which also stated Canada to show continous communication.

For my photographs I reduced the size of the digital photos and put them into a Word Document with a description of where, when and who was in the photograph and sorted them based on Date for example when I was talking about our trip to Florida Appendix XX would have the photographs of our trip to Florida etc.



You will be fine, just remember it is your application, if you follow the instructions and provide them with all the information they are asking for then you cannot go wrong. MAKE SURE ALL FORMS ARE SIGNED, THEY WILL RETURN IT IF IT IS NOT!

Just one last thing please do what SchnookoLoly suggested and Read the Application Back to Front, I was given this advice 9 months ago when we submitted and it was the best piece of advice I was given.

+1

Thanks!

Was it personal preference that you left out 'personal' emails, I just wondered if it's frowned upon to have overly personal content in the package?

My partner has a way to access his phone bills for the past year, so we will definitely include them.

I will absolutely take that advice and read the application back to front - thank you

It was just personal preference, I just don't want everyone and their granny to see my conversations, I am a really private person and after much thought I didn't believe that CIC needed to see the content, they only want proof of continous communication and signing on and off of webcam several times I day, I felt was enough proof. In order to avoid showing the content I took a print screen of my husbands and my email accounts showing a list of emails with name & date (I sorted the emails by name)

Hi everyone,

Hoping someone can help me with questions 22-26 on my checklist IMM5491. I am trying to locate the immigrants quide so I can gather the documents that they are looking for. Can anyone post the link for this?