If you are applying for permanent residence in Canada, you must provide an official letter issued by your financial institution indicating your financial profile. This must:
_list of all your bank (chequing and savings) and investment accounts, the account numbers, dates each account was opened and the balance of each account over the past six months,
_list all outstanding debts, such as credit cards and loans,
_be printed on the letterhead of the financial institution, and include your name and the contact information of the financial institution (address, telephone number and e-mail address).
I have multiple accounts with Bank, Credit unions , car loan etc, how do I get the consolidated report?
I have money invested in stocks and cryptocurrencies, will that count as part of my saving?
Can I move the money out of my account after I have the certificate?
You can get an individual summary document of each your bank accounts (e.g. by visiting the branch and asking for visa/immigration letter etc) that states all these details. You can then write your own summary document that sums up all your liquid funds (this is not required but advisable). To support each of your individual summary documents you can attach banks statements for the past 3-6 months. I’m not sure how thoroughly they check the statements but it’s highly advisable that you include bank statements.
If you have the current valuation of stocks you can include that as part of your financials. However I’m not sure if a major portion of your funds can be in stocks/bonds etc (@anon25417004?) . A distinction can also be made between retirement savings accounts like 401k, IRA, and full-fledged stock trading accounts as one tends to be more stable and monotonically increasing (most of the time) than others.
It’s better than you have everything “liquid”, that you can encash tomorrow and use that money. If you have sufficient funds in your bank accounts, then I wouldn’t include any stocks/cryptocurrencies (especially cryptocurrencies since it is highly speculative and can lose all its value tomorrow). If you want to convert it all to $$s and then show it in your bank accounts that’s fine, but be sure to include the transaction receipts for how you got so much money in your bank accounts all of a sudden.
Certificate? You mean the summary statement? Remember that you need to show your proof of funds while applying for PR, as well as during landing after you get your PR visa (could be 4-6 months from now). I would recommend keeping the funds as they are till you land and become PR.
Thank You @avj
Moving stocks to $$ in account is a good idea.
I do need to take out money from my account due to personal reasons, but I will replenish the required amount by the time I will need to do landing. Is that acceptable?
BTW, what is the minimum amount that should be there in the account?
The link I sent earlier contains the minimum required.
As long as you have the minimum required amount during landing and you haven’t borrowed it from anyone that’s fine. They may or may not ask for it during landing, it’s upto the individual officer. During my landing he just asked me to tell him “how much money I have access to” and I told him and he wrote it down on my CoPR. Did not ask for any documents but it’s good to have everything in case they do.
"You can’t borrow this money from another person. You must be able to use this money to pay the costs of living for your family (even if they aren’t coming with you).
If your spouse is coming with you, you can count money you have together in a joint account. You may be able to count money in an account under their name only, but you must prove you have access to the money.
If you are invited to apply, you must give written proof that you have this money."
“You may be able to count money in an account under their name only, but you must prove you have access to the money”. So how do we show that we have access to money in Spouse’s account?
I have half the required money in my USA account ( in USD) and half in my wife’s Indian account (in Rupees).
question on funds that we need to show - do we need to show all current/savings accounts as well as the debts such as credit cards, personal loans or auto loan etc?
I have 5 credit cards (incl. store cards like amazon and target credit), 2 Personal loans and 1 car loan in US.
Do I need to show them all OR does few of them are enough (no need for amazon or target for example) as well as car loan statement (which i am planning to sell off and close account before moving to Canada as and when that happens
Can I show minimum amount required in my US bank (ex. $15k) plus extra amount in Indian account (husband account) to cover both minimum amount plus debt? because if i only show my US account, it might look like I have more debt than liquid cash available.
The website states that the letter from bank should show the average balance for last 6 months. Does the average balance should show whats the minimum requirement? ex. if the minimum requirement is to have 15k, should the letter state that average balance was 15k for last 6 months?
The reason I ask these question in advance is because I am currently gathering all information on when we should apply for express entry… if eligible now or in few months when we are able to lower our debts bit etc.
The point of showing 3-6 months’ of bank statements is for CIC to make sure that you weren’t broke one month and suddenly got rich because you borrowed money from someone to show for the PR.
When I submitted my PoF I got a letter from both of my banks stating all the details like when I had opened the account, how much money I had in all accounts, and the average balance (the bank had that number for a year, and not 6 months) and I added the statements for this bank for last 6 months. Since I had just started my job for some of those months the balance was lower than (but not too much) what was required but I still submitted it and that was fine. It also helps if you add a cover page summarizing the numbers so it’s easier for them to look through it. I also added 6 months worth of statements for two of my credit cards that I thought were “important”. My outstanding balance wasn’t much, and I had no other loans so that probably didn’t affect the decision at all. For other lines of credit such as car, house etc, you probably want to add that as they want to know your liability. I’m not sure whether or not it affects their decision though.
I think I will wait for couple of months before applying EE and lower my credit card debts so the balance does not show like I have major credit card bills even though I have minimum balance in my account. I do have a full time job so I don’t know if that will help to show that even though I have big credit card bills and personal loans, I am able to pay all monthly with my salary.
I will show all my major credit cards, personal loans and auto loan. I guess it’s ok if the debt seems more (due to auto or PL) as they are to be paid over the years.
I will show minimum balance required for 6 months in US account and support that with statements as well as India account of my husband which has some savings in it… any extra liquid cash is good to show I think.
You do have 90 days between when you apply for EE and when you submit the documents. Your call, as long as u get the ITA after two months it should be fine.
I do not think debt such as home mortgage and car loan will be counted against you. Homes can be sold, and instead of renting one can decide to own.
As far as bank balance and credit card goes, I think the rule of thumb is going to be around your average balance. From the date you take the bank letter ideally your account balance would increase, there might be slight drops but overall it should hover around the average balance. Now, I tend to move money from my checking to savings, since I am attaching my bank statements I am showing actual proof of the transaction. Furthermore, the statements help the officers to dig deeper if something looks fishy.
If it’s in your name only then they’re your funds and they’re liquid, i.e. they can be encashed tomorrow if needed. It might be a good idea to either get a translation done from INR to CAD by a bank, or do it yourself. You may need the deposit slips, not sure if they accept copies or not.
I had a quick question around minimum balance and average balance that we need to maintain as proof of funds?
I know we need to show minimum funds in a span of say 6-8 months to show that it was all gradually saved and not borrowed but does it matter if I am able to save up minimum balance in 8 months and my average balance comes up pretty low because I just started to save? Will that affect the application?
Say for example, I saved 15k USD in 8 months time but my average balance in 6/12 months comes around 11 or 12k - will that be alright?
Otherwise, Should I just wait till I know my avaerage 6 months balance is also atleast 15k USD (which is minimum funds required in my case?)
Convert to CAD and check again.
You don’t need to show 8 months. 6 months is also fine. Gradual increase in funds is OK. As long as your final balance is over the minimum it should be OK. A couple of grand fewer in the initial months should not pose a problem.