If you wish to work on your application for submitting to the federal Express Entry Program, you must keep in mind that this requires some specific documents and forms that must be filled out in a very particular manner for the application to gain permanent residency. Missing out one or more than one field or not getting it exactly correct as the form is requested to be filled, you can give an explanation for that. This is what a letter of the explanation comes into use for.
A letter of explanation is an official document that will be accepted by the Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada as an explanation for not meeting a specific requirement of the Express Entry Program or for not being able to fill a field correctly. But this resource should be used in moderation, and with some exceptions. A letter of explanation should really be treated as the last resort.
The IRCC themselves have explained that they do not guarantee that all the letters of explanation will be accepted in lieu of an official required document for the program.
Your consultant will also be able to help you judge in which case a letter of explanation will have a chance of getting accepted. For instance, if you submit a letter of explanation explaining the lack of mention of annual salary in your work experience report, that may get accepted. But if you submit an LOE explaining why you do not have a valid passport, then that may not be accepted at all.
When To Write A Letter Of Explanation
Listed below are some situations in which you can submit a letter of explanation and have a chance of it getting accepted.
- You can make your case with the help of a letter of explanation if your police clearance certificate could not be ready at a time during the submitting phase of the application.
- If the proof of job experience you submitted does not contain all the fields and information, such as information about the duties you were required to fulfil during your time in that occupation, that is required for the program as per IRCC requirements.
- If the proof you submitted to show settlement funds does not have all the fields and information that, such as the opening date of the account, are required according to the IRCC standards.
A letter of explanation is not going to always be useful, it will not rectify the gaps in your application or missing information in all cases. Listed below are some situations in which a letter of explanation will not be helpful:
- If your application is missing a vital document like a valid passport.
- If you have not submitted the results of your medical examination from an authorized doctor.
- If your documents have not been translated into English or French before submitting them along with your application.
It is quite essential to make a note that a letter of explanation is just that, an explanation. It can only explain why a certain format is not followed in a document, you cannot use it to explain a situation in which you do not meet the eligibility criteria.
For instance, to be eligible to apply for the Express Entry Program, you will have to show proof that you have funds sufficient enough to settle in Canada and support yourself without becoming a burden on the Canadian government. As a part of the proof, you will have to submit documents from your bank that need to be in a specific format dictated by the IRCC. If the bank provides the letter to you, but it does not mention all the requirements that you need to show for the application, you can explain this situation in your letter of explanation, and that will be considered a valid case. Here, an LOE can be helpful. But this also means that you still need to have the funds required for the eligibility criteria.
How To Write A Letter Of Explanation
The applications submitted to the Canadian immigration programs are all assessed by immigration officers, they are not scanned by computers. So when you start working on your letter of explanation, remember that you need to convince the immigration officer of your case, that you meet the requirements but just are unable to produce the documents to showcase that for any reason.
If possible, try to add extra documentation that proves your point and strengthens your case, or even establishes your eligibility with more certainty. For instance, if the proof you are submitting to showcase that you have the required funds does not have the average information about the balance in the account for about 6 months, which is required according to IRCC rules, you can work around this by supplementing your letter of explanation with statements from the bank. If the proof of job experience you submit does not mention the salary you offered, you can supplement your proof with stubs of your pay.
The immigration officers and agents processing applications and letters of explanation are busy, analyzing a large number of cases every day. So it is better to keep the tone of the letter polite and also convey the objective of your letter quickly. Try to avoid writing useless information that is not really going to help your case.
Sending Letters Of Explanation
The document extension, such as .pdf, .doc, etc of the letter of explanation should be the same as the expansion of the document to which it refers. The letter should be present as the first page of the file so that it is easy to find for the immigration agent assessing your letter, and so that they are able to read the file as soon as the letter is opened.
For instance, if you are working to write a letter of explanation regarding the details of our police clearance certificate, make sure that this letter is added as the first page of the police clearance certificate document. The certificate itself can come after the letter of explanation.
After you have prepared the file in this manner, uploading it for processing will follow the normal procedure, going to the page “my application” and submitting this file (letter of explanation and the document to which it refers) in the section “supporting documents”.
