My Ultimate Express Entry Document Checklist for Canada PR 🇨🇦

Finally, my PR has been done. The PR card has also arrived. For almost 300 days, I had been suppressing this matter inside myself. I was just waiting. As soon as my PR card arrives, I will share with you all the information I have collected through the process of getting my Canadian Permanent Residency. In this video, I will tell you the documents and the mindset behind each document — why and in what way these documents need to be submitted, without wasting any time. In this video, I will share every single document that I used to get my PR. Now, I am not a registered consultant or a registered immigration lawyer. If you need one, please talk to a registered lawyer. I myself got my PR done through a registered consultant, an experienced registered consultant. If you need one, please use one. I can only share my own experience, and not something that I have stated is applicable to everyone. Without wasting any time, let’s start.

The very first thing — this is going to be very controversial, but you have to focus on what I am trying to say. You have to assume that the documents you have submitted, the PR file you have created and submitted, will be rejected, and you will sue the IRCC officer and take them to court. And then the IRCC officer and your documents will stand before a judge. And you want, in that situation, that your documents should be so good, so sufficient, that the IRCC officer should look like: "Bro, I made a mistake by rejecting this person’s documents." Always think like that — that you are standing in front of a judge, and the judge tells the IRCC officer: "Bro, all the documents are correct; why did you reject his PR?" Think like that. In every document, you have to think like that. In every factor, you have to think like that. Okay? With this mindset, let us move forward.

Second, what we Indians are probably taught from childhood is: have an unshakable paper trail. If you were working, you will have bank statements. Provide as much as you can to the consultant. And then they will decide which ones should go into your file and which ones should not. And if the IRCC requests additional documents, you do not have to go back running and find the documents. You have everything readily available.

Third, most importantly, never ever hide anything from the IRCC. If you have declared something earlier, in your study permit, then bro, declare it further as well. And just be truthful. Do not hide anything. If not today, then tomorrow, something or the other will be found out somewhere. Give them everything — bro, this is my life. And you should never hide anything from immigration. Right? Always be truthful.

Fourth, it is not the IRCC’s job to run after you saying, "Bro, give this document. Now give this." They will say: file rejected or file returned. It is your responsibility to make sure everything is perfect. Instead of one document, put three. Whatever has been asked for, exactly that has been given, in the proper manner. Not like taking a photo from a phone, scanning it, and sending it. Do not cheap out. Do not be a cheap person. Do a proper, high-definition, color scan — go to a proper scanner. So it is your responsibility to submit a good application. Not the IRCC’s responsibility to chase after you, saying, "Okay, give this, give that." Is that clear? Come on, now let’s move on.

First come your identity documents. Such as your passport — both old and new, if it got expired during the procedure, with all the stickers, all the visits, all the stamps — every page that has a stamp, all your permits: work permit, study permit, if you have any permit. Then the receipt of the medical you did while applying for your study permit. Next is the PCC — Police Clearance Certificate — for every country where you have spent more than 6 months. For example, before coming to Canada, I lived in India, so I had spent more than 6 months in India. So I had to get a Police Clearance Certificate from India. I know on forums, Reddit, etc., there is a lot of talk that if you have submitted your PCC and then you went to India, you need to get a PCC again. I am kind of a stickler for rules. So I read the rule. The rule says: if you are going for a duration of less than 6 months, you do not need to get a PCC again. You don’t have to get a PCC again. In fact, I got my PCC done in October last year. And after that, I went to India. I returned from India in less than six months. And as per the rules, I did not need to get a PCC again. I did not submit a second PCC. That same PCC was still valid. When should you get a PCC? After you receive your PR invitation, get the PCC after that. Do not get it beforehand, because its validity is short, and it will expire. Okay?

Now, in education documents, there is not much to explain. 10th, 12th, college — within that, degree, transcript, and completion letter — these three things. Your home country degree needs to be evaluated. There are many organizations that do the evaluation. I personally got it done from WES. And regarding the entire procedure of how to do it step by step, from A to Z, I have made a video on WES. So you can watch that. The WES procedure was smooth. When should you get WES done? As soon as you receive your PGWP, get it done immediately after that. Do not wait for your invitation, PR application, file creation — get WES done beforehand. That is the Canadian equivalency of your foreign education. Okay?

Now come the employment documents. Employment documents are split into two parts: one is your employment within Canada, and one is employment outside Canada. First, let’s talk about the easy one. Within Canada employment: offer letter. Okay? Exactly as you received it, as it is. After that, all pay stubs. Every single pay stub for which you will claim points — the job you are saying is a NOC job or a TEER job — you need all those pay stubs. For the job for which you are not claiming points, if you have pay stubs, great; if not, no problem. But for the one you are claiming points, you need all pay stubs. The agent you have usually submits only the last 6 months. But the IRCC sometimes says, "No, I want to see the entire pay stub history." From the very start to the end, you should have it handy, instantly ready to go. Okay?

After that comes the most important document: the experience letter. Now, the experience letter should be recent. Let me tell you what must be included in the experience letter. The experience letter must include: the date of issue — on what date the letter was written; employment duration — from which day you started (date, year, day); then, if you are currently employed, "presently," and if there is a last day or not; if "presently," then accordingly; job titles and timelines — if you got a promotion in the company or moved departments, whether horizontal or vertical, any changes, it should be clearly mentioned: "Piyush started working with us at position X. At position X, he worked from this time to this time. He received this salary. Then he got a promotion or changed department. There should be a clear indication: OK, he was here first, then this happened, this position is starting from this date." And properly. Okay?

Now, in the experience letter, the job duties can be aligned according to NOC or TEER. Please do not copy-paste. Many people get rejections due to copy-pasting. Your employer — the Canadian employer — should not care whether the job duties match the IRCC. No, they don’t care. The job duties should be what you actually do at work. It may happen that the crux of the TEER job duties comes out as: this person must do this work. The way of writing it can be completely different, but the meaning is the same. Do you understand? So take inspiration from the NOC job duties, but do not copy. I hope you get my point.

After that, compensation should be very clearly mentioned: whether it is yearly compensation. If it is yearly compensation, how many average hours are expected to work; that is yearly compensation. If salaried, whatever the compensation, it should be precisely, clearly mentioned with dollar and cent values and currency: e.g., "this many thousand in Canadian dollars," or monthly, or hourly — whatever your wage will be. After that, all this information should be on the company’s original letterhead. What are the requirements for the letterhead? On the letterhead, there should be the company’s address — a proper physical address. After that, contact information: phone number, email, website — the basics. Then the company’s stamp and the supervisor’s signature. If there is no stamp — some companies don’t have stamps — that is fine. But your supervisor, your manager, or your manager’s manager — whoever is responsible in your company — their proper details should be mentioned: "Signed by X Y Z. If you need more information, you can contact me at this phone number or this email." It should be written properly so that if the IRCC needs clarification, they can contact.

Now listen to me very carefully. Some people do this: they write a letter themselves and give it to their employer. They say, "Just sign this so I can submit it to the IRCC." This is happening a lot these days — a lot, a lot. The IRCC calls employers: "Did you write this letter?" Yes or no. If your employer says, "Yes, I wrote this letter and it is signed by me," cool, very good. If your employer says, "No, the employee wrote it and gave it to me. I just signed it" — if they don’t know the contents of that letter, it could be a problem for you. You are not allowed, not authorized to write your own letter. The employer has to write it. So if you are getting a letter signed, or if you are telling the employer what to write, they should know the contents — what they have written. That is the difference between giving a checklist and making a video. Okay?

Now come to the next step. Who gets cash salary in Canada? Nobody gets it, bro. All salaries come into the bank. So you should have bank statements showing regular salary credits — weekly credits or monthly credits, whatever your arrangement is. If you are filing taxes with the CRA, you will have a Notice of Assessment (NOA) which provides a breakdown of the entire salary, tax, CPP, EI. And each company gives a T4, so you should have those T4s as well. Okay, bro? Now come to the main document: how to prove employment outside Canada. This is the most important. In fact, I got a PFL — a Procedural Fairness Letter. And I will make a separate video on how I responded to the PFL. Because you only get seven days to respond. One day is already wasted when the PFL arrives. And the last day is... if you want a video on PFL, let me know. I am going to make it anyway, but if many people ask, I will make it sooner. Okay?

Now, most PFLs come because of issues with documents from outside Canada. Listen to me carefully. If you worked in India 4 years ago, 5 years ago, 6 years ago, 3 years ago — what interest does an Indian employer have in writing NOC duties and giving you an offer letter? Do you understand what I am saying? What do people do? They get offer letters from India backdated, and they have NOC duties written in them. It is suspicious, it is fraud. Full fraud. And they know it. Don’t think you are the first person doing this. Bro, millions of people are getting PR in Canada. A visa officer has seen hundreds of thousands of applications, and how many they reject. So don’t think, "Nobody will know." What interest does an Indian employer have in writing a letter with NOC duties? When you hadn’t even come to Canada back then? So your original offer letter should not contain any NOC duties or anything like that. Just submit it as is — like what you submitted during your study permit. Okay?

The second document is the experience letter, which you will get made on the current date. You will tell your employer, "Hey, I am applying for Canadian PR" or whatever you tell them, and they will write a letter for you on the current date. In that, they can write job duties in a new way. Please do not copy-paste job duties, and have them write the job duties that you actually performed, so that when verification happens, they say, "Yes, this person used to do this work." There should be absolutely no divergence between your original offer letter and the experience letter. Okay? So you can have that written. Again, I have told you what an experience letter should include: date of issue, employment duration, job title, job timeline, duties, total salary, compensation, any extra bonus. It must be on the company’s original letterhead — company address, contact info, company stamp, and supervisor’s signature with contact information — for the India one as well.

Second thing: if you used to receive salary in India — bro, who gives cash salary in India? What are you talking about? Maybe someone does. But if you are saying, "I was working as a business analyst" or "I was working as a marketing manager somewhere, and I used to get cash salary" — you have written big job duties like, "You know, I handled so much data, IT, years..." Okay, and salary was in cash? Bro, you are not the first person in the world using a mischievous mind. Okay? Always be truthful. Who gets cash salary? Nobody does. Come on, whatever salary you used to get, you will have bank statements. So just provide the bank statements. Why hide? Give them the bank statement: "Look, here is proof that regular salary was credited."

Secondly, even if I assume that, bro, you are special — salary was in cash or you got gold and silver, whatever — you must have signed something, like a cash receipt voucher. Every company has that — cash vouchers exist. Many things exist. There will be some proof with you — old-dated cash vouchers with some proof. So bro, find that proof.

Third thing, which is the undeniable proof I was talking about. Come on, let’s assume you received salary in cash or in the bank — whatever. You must be filing taxes, right? Taking salary in cash is not a crime, first of all. Okay? If you used to get it in cash, then you used to get it in cash. Say it with your chest: "Yes bro, I used to get it in cash." So what? Working for cash is not wrong. Tax evasion is wrong. So now you are saying, "I used to get ₹50,000 per month in cash, and I didn’t pay taxes to the government. I don’t have ITR." Then comes the next document: ITR and Form 16. ITR is India’s Income Tax Return. The page behind it is Form 16. Form 16 gives a complete breakdown: where did this income come from? What were the sources? How much salary came, how much rent came, or whatever. If you have this kind of breakdown, you must include Form 16 and ITR. Tell me — come out of the applicant’s mindset, come into the officer’s mindset, or the judge’s mindset. This person is saying, "I used to take ₹500 or ₹400 a month in cash, but I paid zero tax. I didn’t even pay nil tax." So bro, what is this? How does it sound? Suspicious. Okay? A bit. We gave the entire ITR, Form 16, with bank statements, with pay stubs, everything. I said, bro, take everything — I have nothing to hide. And the experience letter you are getting made — talk to your consultant first: "Bro, is there something you recommend should be written?" Just talk to your consultant first before directly getting the experience letter made.

The next documents I submitted are obviously my marriage documents — wedding documents. The point here is not whether you are married or not. The point is that you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this is not a contract marriage, which is very popular these days. It even comes in the news — marriages being sold for ₹50-50 lakh, for Canada PR or whatever. You know how it is. So first, there is a marriage certificate. If the marriage took place in Canada, then a Canadian one; if in India, then an Indian one. If it is in a local language in India, a certified English translation. Wedding cards in India are beautiful. And immigration officers — look, India is the number one country from which the most people get PR. Immigration officers have obviously seen Indian wedding cards. So give a proper copy of the wedding card. Okay?

After that, photos — wedding photos, proper photos with both families together. Photos of you going out — if you say you have been in a relationship for the past two or three years, then bro, you must have gone out somewhere. You must have taken your girlfriend for ice cream or something. So you must have some photos to prove that you guys are a couple. And some time ago, someone posted the entire IRCC training document on LinkedIn. I read there that visa officers are trained to detect whether a marriage is fake or not. So they know what a forced marriage looks like. And many of them — if the ring is too small, a $200 ring — if you are really getting married, if it’s a genuine marriage, would you wear a $200 ring? Come on. How easily could it be fake? After that, proof of a shared life. What is the easiest proof of a shared life? A joint bank account — undeniable proof: "Look, this is a joint bank account that we run. It has been around for this many years; mine and Sum’s — we have a joint bank account, we use it regularly." After that, lease — if it’s an apartment, I added Sum to it. Sum is my wife. I added my wife so that now both our names are on the lease. Let me tell you another easy way: put her name on car insurance. Okay? "This is a second driver who lives at my house. That’s my girlfriend, wife, whatever." Add their name to the insurance. So that is proof of a shared life. And otherwise, you know the basics: utility bills can be together — gas, internet, all such bills. Okay?

The last thing where I have seen people cheap out is photographs. Bro, you paid $500 in fees. $100, $50000 — you paid the application fee. You paid the lawyer. You paid everything. Then get a good $25 photo taken. A proper photo, as the IRCC says — go to Staples or London Drugs, wherever you need to go, get a nice, proper specification professional picture clicked. There is no need to be a phone expert. And the photo has to be recent. Do not give the same photo you gave on your work permit. The photo must be from the last six months. Just get a fresh picture. Show the officer that you are serious about getting a Canadian PR. Not like, take a photo with your hand, whatever, standing here and taking a passport photo. Be serious. Show that — wow! That the application should look amazing just by seeing it: "Wow, bro, what a great file has come in! All documents are HD scanned. Nothing is out of place. There is no effort needed to understand what this is. Here is the offer letter, behind it are bank statements, behind that are pay stubs, behind that is the NOA, behind that is T4." It should be so that even the officer is happy. Make the immigration officer’s life easier, not difficult.

Now, people who are applying recently will know — four years ago, it wasn’t like this. Nowadays, ADR and PFL are coming very frequently. Even if you watch videos of famous Canadian lawyers, they keep posting that it’s raining PFLs, it’s raining ADRs — a lot are coming. I also got a PFL. For the PFL, you get seven days to respond. How did I respond? What did I do? Why did it come? What doubt did the IRCC have on us? I will make a video on all that as well. Thank you so much. You will find a link to download the list I have provided. Again, to be very explicitly clear: this is not some immigration guide. This is not an immigration guide. I am only sharing my personal experience. It might not be applicable to you at all. The guide you will download will be about what documents Piyush submitted, not what documents immigration requires. Go talk to a lawyer, talk to an immigration consultant. I am not one. There are some good ones out there — the one who processed my file — he is a good one. So thank you so much for watching this video. Subscribe. I am always here to give you good free information on YouTube. Thank you so much. Bye-bye, and I will see you in the next one.