Mark Holthe 0:04
Music. This episode of the Canadian immigration podcast is sponsored by the Canadian immigration Institute, one of the best sources of video content on Canadian immigration to help you navigate your way through the Canadian immigration process. Head on over to the YouTube channel, where there's tons of video content, and you can join mark yes myself in a number of live video streams, Q and A's all designed to help you navigate your way through this crazy Canadian immigration process. When you're done there, like and subscribe and then head on over to the Canadian Immigration institute.com where you can find all those awesome DIY courses that I've been talking about. Thank you, Canadian immigration Institute. You are the sponsor of this amazing little podcast. You
Unknown Speaker 0:59
music.
Sponsor 1:05
The Canadian immigration process can be complex and frustrating with the Canadian Immigration Department making it virtually impossible to speak to an officer. There are few places to turn to for trusted information. The Canadian immigration podcast was created to fill this void by offering the latest on immigration law, policy and practice. Please welcome ex immigration officer and Canadian immigration lawyer Mark Holthe as he is joined by industry leaders across Canada sharing insight to help you along your way.
Mark Holthe 1:51
Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Canadian immigration podcast. I'm Mark Holthe, Canadian immigration lawyer here in Lethbridge, Alberta, and I've got my fearless co pilot here, Alicia, back when Bahari, how are you doing? Alicia, I'm
Alicia Backman-Beharry 2:05
doing well, Mark, and I'm glad we're doing this series, because we're trying to address questions that we get over and over and over again. I think we've had this question so many times over the years that it's happening enough, and we know horror stories of when people don't do this correctly, and so we want to make sure that when clients are filing Express Entry applications, you are actually providing the proper settlement funds at the right time, with the right documents and understanding when you do or do not need to provide settlement funds. Yeah,
Mark Holthe 2:38
that's the it's all about showing me the money, essentially. And I've had a number of consultations, even recently with people you know. Alicia, the express entry has been around for 10 years now, and there's so much content online on this topic, obviously, within the Express Entry accelerator course, we cover this at length, and I've got my little dog here beside me, who's jumping around and shaking my camera. He's sad. He's sitting in the window waiting for my wife to come home while we record this episode. But no express entry has been around for 10 years. Sun, Moon funds have been discussed a lot, but there's still a lot of misconceptions, and this series, like you talked about the Express Entry, getting it right series. It's all about trying to help you guys clear up those little areas that are going to trip you up and cause your applications to get rejected. And I have said, you know, with some hesitation in the past, you only get one shot. But in reality, sometimes people would, you know, they would have enough serious points that if they had their application rejected, even if it was four or five months later, they were still probably good enough to be able to get another ITA, in many instances. Well, Alicia, that's all changing now, and when we have things like the job offer being pulled, what impact is that going to have on settlement funds? You know, with the PNPs, that interaction between getting a nomination and then filing your eapr After you get your ita through Express Entry. How does that impact settlement funds? Do you need them? So we're going to be talking about that today. So there's a little breakdown here. We've got our little our little overview of what we're going to cover. We're going to start with why settlement funds, and then who needs them? Who doesn't need them? We'll talk about it, as you know, under the PNPs, and whether or not you need settlement funds in those situations, we've got a great blog post that we will direct you back on that. How much money do you need? How to prove the settlement funds? What if you don't have them? And then finally, how long do I need to keep the funds in my account. So all of these are some of the main, main issues that we see all the time. And so Alicia, why don't we just start right off the bat with our very first one, which is, why settlement funds? Why does the government care?
Alicia Backman-Beharry 4:55
And so this is when we're looking at people who are coming under an economic category specificity. Typically under express entry. And the government wants to ensure that whoever is going to be arriving in Canada will be able to kind of land on their feet. They will have enough money to have basic expenses covered, meet living requirements. They will be able to, you know, get their kids and themselves established in Canada once they land. And so that's where the settlement fund requirement is coming from. And we know that some people are coming from outside Canada, and increasingly, now many people are landing from within Canada. And so this is where we have differences in who needs to provide those settlement funds.
Mark Holthe 5:38
I think I remember when I first got my feet really, really wet with Express Entry. This is one of the questions that would come up really quite frequently. You know, with these funds, what if I have a spouse? What if the funds are in my spouse's account? What if my spouse isn't coming with me? You know, all of these things were kind of percolating to the surface that there were no answers, and we relied, and I relied heavily on the immigration represent representatives email address to inquire and to get clarification on these errors. And the interesting thing Alicia is that over the, you know, over the 10 years or whatever, we've had Express Entry, a lot of these things, they have never updated in the program delivery instructions. So although I have email confirmations from the you know folks running express entry that this is the way you treat this, and this is the way you deal with this, they've never taken the time to actually list it in the resources that are out there. And one of those resources that I want to point to as we get started here is in the completeness check program delivery instructions for Express Entry, there's a section on proof of funds. And this is kind of like a, you know, the the the law, I guess, to some extent, in terms of policy, on how they interpret when you provide, you know, your your proof of summon funds, the documentation that you need. And so we would direct people back to that for sure, and that will form a little bit of the foundation of what we're talking about, as well as some other web resources that we have as we're covering these topic areas. So why don't we start now with who needs the settlement funds? It's not everybody. So how do you know the difference?
Alicia Backman-Beharry 7:16
Yeah, and so if you have been given an invitation to apply under a federal skilled worker category, Federal Skilled Trades, or anything other than CEC. Generally, you will need settlement funds. There is, and we can get into who doesn't need settlement funds right away as well. But in general, you do need to provide settlement funds if you are given an invitation to apply, and you can check, so go and pull up your invitation to apply and check which category you were actually invited under. And this is it used to be more of an issue in the past, when we had general draws, or we had Federal Skilled Trades draws, or we had Federal Skilled Worker draws, and that's where you would go. You'd check your invitation to apply, because it could have been that you got pulled under either of these categories or one of these categories. It was kind of up to IRCC, so it is still important to check that ITA. Increasingly, because of what's been happening in the last few years, we've had more and more applicants who are inside Canada who are getting those invitations to apply, and often they're under CEC. So if you do, however, happen to have, like a targeted draw, so maybe you were drawn in a French draw, right? There was just a huge French draw, the 6500 applicants. And it's quite conceivable that many of those people were outside Canada. And if they were outside Canada, and they don't have any Canadian work experience, probably, if they're under that targeted French draw, they are actually getting invited under FSW, right? So take a look at that invitation to apply and see what it says on there in terms of the category of eligibility. And then from there, that's, that's how you determine who needs those settlement funds, if, and this is where we're talking about now who doesn't need settlement funds. If you were invited under CEC, and it clearly says that on your invitation to apply, then you shouldn't need settlement funds. But here's where it also gets interesting. There are two kind of exceptions to who needs settlement funds. The first big category is if you were invited under CEC. The second big category, and this is going to change, presumably, as soon as they take away the 50 points for valid job offers under arranged employment. The second category was if somebody's already authorized to work in Canada, so most of the time they would be working under a valid work permit, or maybe they might have implied or maintained status authorized to work in Canada. So if you are authorized to work inside Canada, and you have a valid job offer, even if you were applying under FSW or FST, so we know that these valid job offers, it's not just. Just any job offer. This is, I think a lot of people read this section mark and they get super confused, because they're like, Wow, I have an employer who said that they would give me a job. And that is not what we're talking about here when they talk about job offer. It links back specifically to arranged employment points for a job offer. And this is a whole different ball of wax, and it means that you basically have to have a closed work permit. It either has to be LMIA based closed work permit, or in certain circumstances, it has to be a employer specific imp work permit, and you've been working for that employer on that closed work permit for at least a year, and the employer intends to continue to employ you for another year after PR. So we know that this is how arranged employment and those job offer 50 job offer points are currently working. So presumably the government has said they are taking away these arranged employment points. So we'll have to see what happens to proof of funds, because it makes sense to me that they would say, All right, well, if there are no arranged employment points, and that doesn't exist anymore, then maybe the only people who won't need settlement funds will be if you were specifically invited under an ita for CEC.
Mark Holthe 11:20
Now one thing Alicia, lots of people, are super, super confused about, is, what happens if I get a nomination from a province? What if? What if the province has a requirement for settlement funds? Does that mean also that I have to have those same settlement funds for the purposes of IRCC? And here's one thing that I will qualify right off, right off the bat, you guys, the reality is, if you were required to have the settlement funds and to demonstrate that for the purposes of the PNP, there is no circumstance in the world that I can see where you just deplete those funds and you don't have them also for express entry. Now, with that being said, you may not need to prove them for Express Entry. But there is an underlying implication that if you have those funds and you're demon, you must demonstrate them to receive the nomination, that the province also wants to make sure that you have those at the time in which you become a permanent resident and settle in the province. Now that there may be pathways where for the Express Entry application, and we'll talk about that where you you may not need to actually demonstrate that in your your eapr, but I just wanted to point that out Alicia, to some extent, it's kind of like people who come to me and say, How long do I need to stay in the province after I get my nomination right and and the reality is that, you know, there has to be a genuine intention at the time in which you become a permanent resident, and at the same time, there has to be a genuine intention to to demonstrate those funds and to have those available when you become a permanent resident, when you transition. So, but there's, there's more clear direction than that within, you know, within the directives from from the government, but it's not so easy to find. So let's, let's hit that now. Alicia,
Alicia Backman-Beharry 13:02
right? So exactly like you said, Mark, we're kind of disentangling two concepts. The first concept is that if you have a specific program under which you're nominated by a province, you have to meet the requirements of that provincial section. And so some provinces, like in Alberta, for example, under the rural renewal stream, you have to have settlement funds, and that is to show that you have enough money to settle in the province BC, Ontario, a lot of the provinces have similar provisions depending on the subcategory. So make sure you're meeting that, just like Mark said the next
Mark Holthe 13:34
I'll add one thing to Alicia just, just kind of one qualifier with Alberta, like when you take the rural renewal stream, for instance, if you're living and working in the community, then you don't need to provide it. But if you're a new just like the Federal Skilled Worker Program, if you're outside of Canada, not working, they need you to demonstrate that you have enough funds to come here and it's, you know, and to actually, actually settle. And so it just comes down to the program. You have to read the fine print to make sure, because there are distinctions depending upon your work status in Canada.
Alicia Backman-Beharry 14:03
Yeah, and that's that's a super good point, because, yes, look at the very fine details of each of the subcategories of the PNPs that you're looking at. The next thing is, all right, the the interesting thing, when you get an invitation to apply under a PNP, it will literally say PNP. It won't say FSW, CEC or FSD, it'll say PNP. And then people are immediately confused, and they're trying to figure out, well, do I need to provide settlement funds or not? And so this is where we dug a little bit deeper, and you actually have to go to the program and operational instructions and manuals for express entry itself. And so this is where IRCC is giving officers the ability to kind of scroll through this to make sure that they're understanding, well, what happens if there is a PNP nomination. And so if we go to the very bottom of this webpage. Section. There's a section on how IRCC is processing through Express Entry and a PNP. And so this is where there's the Provincial Nominee Program applications for permanent residents. And this is the section evaluating PNP applicants on a 11.2 and so we know that that's under the Act the completeness check, right, making sure it's a complete application under express entry. And the interesting thing is that the delivery guidance is that, all right, when there is a ita under a PNP, officers then are to evaluate the application in order. And so they will take a look at, does the applicant meet the requirements for one of the federal programs? And they will start with CEC. And so they'll say, All right, if somebody's been given an ita under PNP, let's evaluate them based on the eligibility criteria for CEC, if they meet that great and theoretically, then you don't need to provide settlement funds. However, if you don't meet program eligibility for CEC, you don't have one year of high skilled Canadian work, then what they do is they actually go to fstp, and then they go to Fs WP. So they will look at the Trades Program, and then they will look at the Federal Skilled foreign workers. And so this is how they kind of triage their assessment of whether settlement funds are required. So just keep this in mind, if you do have a nomination under PNP,
Mark Holthe 16:35
yes, and I just want to allude, well, I just want to bring something up. So here, yes, we've got the instructions for what you need to provide for proof of funds, but I just want to go up to the top here, and I want to show you and just clarify what this really means. So this is what officers are scanning for to make sure that what you've submitted would be considered a complete application. The completeness check. The impact of it, you guys, is that, if going through here, and this is a list of all the documents, everything that that you need to provide, and an explanation to the officer what they should be looking for to make sure that you've provided what IRCC wants. If any of this stuff, please, clearances, you know, work experience, any of this, if this is not provided in the exact way that IRCC has set out here, then they can return your application as being incomplete. So that's what the whole a 11.2 completeness check means. And I think some people don't fully appreciate these are not guidelines. They an officer has the ability to literally return your application if they feel it doesn't meet these expectations. And so as we go through this, I want to make sure that everybody is is paying very, very close attention to this. So we'll go down to funds, and as we go through what's required, and as we advance here, this is, is literally you have to treat this like the law. And if you don't, and you take it lightly, it can come back to bite you. And in a world like we have right now, Alicia, people are not getting a second chance, so you have to be 100% accurate in what you're doing and very, very specific and diligent. All right, let's talk about how much. Yeah.
Alicia Backman-Beharry 18:21
And so the interesting thing is that how much changes, and it changes based on how many people are in your family. But here's another thing to keep in mind, it changes based on the updated inflationary adjusted amounts that IRCC publishes on a relatively regular basis, and so the amount of money that you need is going to fluctuate, and it's important to keep tabs on this figure, so you can see that for a single applicant, if it's just you as the principal applicant, there are no accompanying or unaccompanied family members that are part of your family Unit, then the settlement funds for one person are $14,690 and that last was updated June 3 of 2024 so keep in mind, it's coming. Figure is probably coming quite soon, and it's going to be coming upwards, right we have tariffs happening right now. We'll see what's happening, given press conferences happening soon, but presumably that figure is going to be adjusted upwards for inflation, and so make sure that you have buffer when you are looking at your settlement. The other thing that always catches people is the exchange rates. And so I know a number of clients Mark who have currencies where they are super worried about the adjusted exchange rate between their dollar and the Canadian dollar, and so making sure that if that is fluctuating quite a bit, you've got extra funds in there. So the other thing, I think that trips people up with how much money you need is if you keep scrolling down when you're looking at the Express. Entry documents required for your application. It says, Okay, how to calculate the size of your family. And this is people don't always open this drop down, but it's important that when you're looking at your family size, you're including yourself, your spouse, dependent children, your spouses and common law partners, dependent children, right? So even if they're not your biological children, and even if they're not coming to Canada with you, even if they are non accompanying, right, and
Mark Holthe 20:31
and if, even if they're Canadian citizens or permanent residents. Now, in many instances, you know, people will consider a spousal sponsorship. But now Igor, now I can't, when did we do it? Just do that podcast with Igor. I'm trying to remember now what we're seeing with the lengthy processing times of 28 months for an in Canada disposal sponsorship. You know, if people have the opportunity, do I sponsor my spouse, or my spouse can get an it on their own and go through Express Entry. Many are going through Express Entry versus the sponsorship, because five or six months is a whole lot better than 28 to become a permanent resident.
Alicia Backman-Beharry 21:05
Yeah. And so this trips people up. They don't realize that when they're calculating their family size and the settlement funds that they therefore have to have, you have to include Canadian citizens or permanent residents. You have to include children of common law partners, even if they are, you know, not your biological children, and even if they're not a company,
Mark Holthe 21:24
I'll share a little insight for those listening to some tips when it comes to funds, like Alicia indicated it's important to have a buffer. This usually goes up like, I don't think I've seen it go up 2000 in one year for that, for a single person, you know. But usually it's, it's over 1000 and somewhere in between, like maybe $1,500 or something more that it will go up. So whenever I'm meeting with clients, and we look at this, this amount here, and it looks like they're probably not going to get their eapr, you know, approved, until, in this case, let's say if it was middle of June and this just happened, if the changeover in funds just happened, then I'm not as stressed about it. If I think that they're going to get the funds pretty quick. But generally speaking, I always advise them to have at least 2000 for one person, at least $2,000 more. And some people will say, Okay, well, what if, at the time in which my application is finally adjudicated, it's been delayed. And what if I know the funds I put in my APR are lower than this, are lower than the new, updated amount, so it increases while my application is being processed. Well, in those circumstances, IRCC is not going to refuse your application for not having enough funds. They will send you an additional, you know, document request, and they'll say, Please provide evidence that you have this updated amount of settlement funds. And so they will always give you an opportunity to increase it. But why delay the processing of your application another 30 or more days have that buffer in place so you know, and give yourself a couple $1,000 more, if you can do that as a buffer, so that when the time comes, an officer will look and say, okay, the funds amount have gone up, but this person still has it.
Alicia Backman-Beharry 23:11
Yeah. And then you know that it's important that people realize that it's not just having those funds in one account. What if you have, you know, $20,000 set aside, but in your other accounts, you have $15,000 in loans. You've got car mortgage payments, you've got things credit card balances. Well, do you still have those $20,000 No, you do not. And so this is important for people to realize that they're not just looking at assets. They are also looking at debt. They
Mark Holthe 23:42
are okay. Let's advance here to our next topic, which is how to prove settlement funds. And I always go back to the source. I always go back to the completeness check, and I read very carefully what officers are looking for. So for those who are listening, we're just on the completeness check website right now the proof of funds. And it says, basically the purpose is to confirm whether the applicant meets the low income cutoff, assessed by the amount of money they hold compared to the number of people in their family. And I would also add in there if I was providing a better purpose to assess the amount of money they hold, basically compared to the assets, or basically, uh, compared to the debts that they have, and factored on the number of people in their family. So it's really assets versus debts, to some extent. But people are often confused with this, and I'll keep, I'll keep going through this just we'll lay it out very quickly here the parameters for how to provide this, but they ask you to provide an official letter from one or more financial institutions that list all current bank and investment accounts, so not just the one that you want to put the funds in, and then you don't disclose the others, all of them, as well as outstanding debts such as credit card debts and loans. And often, people, once again, will will choose not to provide those and. That is a misrepresentation by omission, if you do not provide all outstanding debts. And I have seen immigration come back, you know, especially in African countries, and want a certification of debt from the bank where the individual is, you know, has their funds. So they, you know, they want an A formal declaration. I've seen them come back and ask when they have questions about that. So you have to understand that they do look at all of your assets and your debts. But it doesn't mean necessarily that they are going to sub subtract your loans or your debts against the assets that you hold. They have the ability to look into those things. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they're just going to do, you know, a simple addition of all debts held because people have mortgages, they have cars and loans, but those assets can be sold. And so when you're providing proof you also can't use those assets as proof of funds. They have to be liquid. So let's look a little bit further here, and let's see what it says. So the letter from the bank must be printed on the letterhead of the financial institution. And must, this is the this is the thing. If it says must, then they mean it must include the applicant's name, the contact information of the financial institution, which, this is an area that can be a real problem for people, because a lot of banks now don't provide this level of detail. They're just generic letters. And I think IRCC has softened a little bit, because we're not seeing refusals because they don't have well, in some cases, banks are online. They don't even have an address, but address, telephone number and email address, is what they're looking for. And it's been a long time since I've seen that level of detail with some of like some of the American banks, for instance, even the Canadian ones, to some extent, although most people can go into their branch and get this detailed information. You know, if you're in Canada, though you're mostly drawn under the CC anyways, but the letter also has to have the account numbers, the date each account was opened, and the current balance of each account. And then the one section that causes the most confusion is this final statement that says, as well as the average balance for the past six months. Well, the reality is, does that mean the person has to have those funds in their account for six months? Well, no, not necessarily. Why are they asking for this? Because they want to know that the funds are actually yours, that they're not just show money that you've got from your community, that one person's passes to another and to another, just a show money for the purposes of applying for immigration, kind of like people do for study permits, which, by the way, is illegal, is a misrepresentation if the funds are not actually yours. So people will rarely be able to get a bank to actually put in here the current balance, the average balance over the past six months. Sometimes we do see it, but very rarely do we do? We do we? Very rarely. Do we actually see that in the Bank ladder? So what do you do? Well, in those circumstances, I include the last six months of bank statements to confirm that that piece,
Alicia Backman-Beharry 27:51
yeah. And then the other thing that I recommend that my clients do, especially if they're American clients, because, like you said, sometimes it's really hard to get this information. A lot of the banks are online or they're virtual banks. And so I also recommend that they provide statements for the last six months for their loans and debts, because sometimes that's the only way to get the information. And so it's really important that people are taking the time required to properly go to the bank and get this information. A lot of the time they're like, oh, yeah, yeah. I'll just, you know, get something from my bank, and then they try to contact the bank, and it says going around and around and around. And it takes weeks or months to try to get this information. The other thing that I will say is this can be a giant package of documentation, and if your bank is not in English, right, if it is not issuing statements in English, then you also need to get translations and certified translations of many numbers of pages that can be sometimes upwards of really expensive, 5060, pages, which is really expensive, so be super careful and prepare in advance for This. Yeah,
Mark Holthe 28:59
absolutely okay. Okay, we're wrapping up here pretty quick. Here. Next item is, what if I don't have the settlement funds? And I wanted to hit this really quick, but this happens on occasion, you know, you don't have the funds. So sometimes people will say, Well, can I get the funds from someone else? What if my friend gives me the funds and or what if my mother or father gives me the funds? Well, you guys, I treat that very, very differently, and I've always said to my clients, it's what I teach in my Express Entry accelerator course, friends don't give money. Friends loan money family. Family gives money. So I could you could see your mother or father giving you the money for settlement funds as a gift, but it's really going to be tough to demonstrate that your friend just gave you $20,000 to settle in Canada, just out of the goodness of their heart. So in the course, one of the things I want to show as I'm just going to slide over to our Express Entry, course, it's the best place to kind of start. And there's a link in the description on the YouTube and you can. Access this right from our, our firm website, but the but the Express Entry accelerated course, I have a special lesson just on proof of funds. And in there I have some samples of a document if you are getting money from a family member, and it's a gift I have in the full lesson here, with all this other background information resources, I have a detailed breakdown of the essential elements of a gift deed. And this is something that is a legal binding document, that is, you know, that is, that is fully authenticated, that says the money has been given, free and clear with no expectation of return. The gift, he talks about the parties involved, it declares that it's truly a gift, and it's not. It's irrevocable. It's not alone. It gives the detail, the exact amount, the currency in which the gift is given. The purpose of the gift, well, it's for settlement in Canada, out of the goodness you know of my heart, financial information of the donor, who is it that's giving it to you? The date of the transfer, bank details, no obligation to repay. That's a critical component to it, and then signatures. And so in addition to that, I actually have some sample documents, and these look different, and maybe called different different countries, but if you're in that situation, you can't get settlement funds. That is strongly what I encourage you to to consider, don't just have them deposit the funds in your account and then expect that that's going to be good enough for immigration. It won't be. And, yeah, the this is, this is in module six lesson 57 that's all about proof of funds, and I go through this in detail. It's about an 11 minute video, as well as all the supporting documents and explanations. And so I'd, yeah, so that's available. Alicia, any other thoughts on this topic? Yeah.
Alicia Backman-Beharry 31:47
So one of the variations of what if I don't have the settlement funds is, what if my spouse has the settlement funds? And so we alluded to this a little bit. They do talk about it a little bit on the page and gathering documents for express entry. And so this is where, if you and your spouse are both coming to Canada, it's an accompanying spouse situation, and you have a joint account, that's okay, right? If both of your names are on the account, it's okay. The next variation is, what if the principal applicant is here and you have a spouse and the account is actually in the spouse's name. Well, then you've got to do a little bit more work to make sure that the spouse is authorizing the principal applicant to have access to those funds for settlement in Canada. So that's kind of what Mark was talking about in terms of the purpose and where it's coming from. The account details and authorization. And get that notarized
Mark Holthe 32:38
Absolutely. And it really doesn't matter whether your spouse is accompanying you or non accompanying. We get it regardless, especially if you're saying the funds are for settlement and your spouse is not accompanying you. Absolutely want to get that, you know, even a sworn statement that the funds are available for the family to settle in Canada, and it when, even when they're coming with you as an accompanying spouse. We like to have that. And of course, if it's a joint account, then, you know, it's joint. It's, you know, even in those circumstances, sometimes I'll get, I'll get a letter. And the whole reason you guys is that we just, you don't get a second chance. You don't, all right, finishing up, Alicia, how long do I need to keep the funds in the account? We talked a little bit about this. I mentioned this in the P and P discussion that personally, for me, you have those all the way through until you land, and that's no different, regardless of the situation, right? And
Alicia Backman-Beharry 33:29
this is what it actually says on the website as well. It says what we accept as proof your funds must be available, they must be liquid and available to you both when you apply. And so this is okay, is it the ITA or is it the eapr, but at least when you apply and then when we issue your PR, so at both of those times, you have to have the funds accessible, yes,
Mark Holthe 33:49
and we always advise people, when you're conducting the landing process, if you're outside of Canada and you're going through the regular landing, that you have a copy of your bank statement, at least, to demonstrate that those proof of funds are still in your account. Officers may or may not even ask for them, but it's your obligation to have that available, and I would get that updated. So don't just rely on what you submitted five or six months ago. Get an updated one, because an officer in within their right to to ask for proof of settlement funds when you land, and then once you become a permanent resident, then, then you're good to go. And
Alicia Backman-Beharry 34:23
the other thing I'll add right before we wind up is, because I get this question often. It is on the website, but it says, hey, if I was invited under CEC, the system still gives me a requirement to upload proof of funds. Oh, my goodness, what do I do? Well, the web page from IRCC on document gathering actually has an answer, and it says, All right, upload proof of a letter of explanation, saying, I don't need to provide settlement funds because I was invited under CEC and or right now there's still the valid job offer and work authorization in Canada, so you'd have to upload a letter of explanation, proof of why you are exempted from the. Requirement to provide settlement funds. But do keep in mind, you have to upload something to that section.
Mark Holthe 35:04
Indeed, thanks Alicia, and thanks to the Canadian Immigration Institute, which is the sponsor and the Express Entry accelerator DIY course, is the course that is allows Alicia and I to do these, this series of podcasts. And if you're interested, and you're going through Express Entry, we encourage you to go check it out. You can go to our website. There's a link in the description of this video and in the show notes for the podcast. But you can go to our website, or the Canadian immigration Institute website itself. When you click on Learn More, you can learn all about this and the over 70, I guess, lessons now, and we're going to be in the process of updating this. When you subscribe to The Express Entry accelerator, there is a master class associated with it. So you can come and join me every two weeks, as many times as you like. It's from four to 6pm Mountain Time. If you can't make it, you can post your comments in our community group, and then I will answer them in the question in the section, and you have lifetime access to this so every upgrade that you get, people who purchased it in 2016 or I think, when the first one came out, have access to this one. So it's a lifetime access and it's something that I absolutely love. And if you're interested, go ahead and subscribe. So thank you accelerator for sponsor of this podcast. Thanks, Alicia, and thank you all don't don't forget to join us every Wednesday at 10am well, it's 10 or 7am we're recording this and we're late to get on our live stream, so we'll see you over there. Take care, everyone.
Sponsor 36:34
Thank you for listening to the Canadian immigration podcast. Your trusted source for information on Canadian immigration law, policy and practice. If you would like to book a legal consultation, please visit www dot Holthe law.com you can also find lots more helpful information on our Canadian immigration Institute YouTube channel, where you can join mark on one of his many Canadian immigration live Q and A's See you soon, and all the best as you navigate this crazy world we call Canadian immigration. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
