 Hi everybody, welcome to the channel. Today I wanted to do a video about completing forms. I wanted to give you eight tips on how to complete immigration forms. When you complete an immigration application, there is always a set of forms to be completed. The forms they change all the time. They can be found online on the IRCC website and sometimes they can be quite confusing, they can be unclear and it's important to complete the forms in a proper manner because if you don't do that then there's a lot of chances that your application might get refused or sent back or you can get a lot of delays and complications. So here are my eight tips. So the first tip is make sure that you complete the latest and most updated version of the form. So sometimes what can happen is you can decide you're going to apply for an application for example a visitor visa and you download the document checklist, you print it and you print all the forms and you start working on it and you work on it for a couple of weeks or sometimes even let's say something happened, you put it on pause then you come back to it like in two months and you decide to finalize the form and you sign the forms and you submit it. Don't do that. What's best to do is when you're ready you know that in about a few days or maximum a week or two you're going to file your application then upload download and print the most the latest version of the form that's online because the forms they do change all the time for all the applications. Sometimes forms don't change but I find that's rare. There are certain types of files where there is a couple of forms that I haven't changed let's say since 2012 but even though sometimes you'll you might notice at the bottom it says 2012 but then if you compare that version with another version kind of looks different so immigration can be a little bit picky about that so I would always recommend that you download and print the latest version when you are close to submitting your application. This is what we do at our office let's say a client retains us. We always ask for the supporting documents first and that could take let's say a couple of weeks for the client to provide it to us and we start working on the file and then it's at the end that we send the forms to the client so we can get the information because the forms they do change. Tip number two type instead of hand write so yes you could hand write the forms immigration usually accepts that but if it's possible for you it's recommended that you type it just nicer and cleaner it's going to make the officer's job a little bit easier to process and analyze your information. Sometimes people have certain people have very very difficult handwriting so you don't want your information to get confused because you decided to hand write. When you type there's a certain organization that takes place so I always recommend that you type the forms. Tip number three complete all the sections so that's super important it sounds pretty simple but it's kind of easy sometimes to forget to include entire sections. Often what you'll see in some immigration applications is that there are certain sections that might not apply to you for example it says children's information or are you in any kind of organization or any political affiliation or something like that. What we do at the office is we always write none or not applicable. We never leave any section blank just it's an exercise for us to make sure that we've completed everything and I would recommend you do the same thing if you're filing yourself go through every section and make sure you give an answer for everything and if it doesn't apply to you then you write n slash a non-applicable or no this does not apply to me. You're just going to make sure that you keep complete everything. Tip number four sign at the right place again it sounds simple but there's a lot of people sometimes our clients would give them very specific instructions but they will sign at the wrong line the wrong place often at the at the end of an immigration form there's two sections one that says sign here and data and at the end it says if this form has been translated to you you need to sign and the translator needs to sign sometimes our clients will sign there then we have to ask them no if this form if this form wasn't translated to you in this case it's not you need to sign you know up up of that not where it says translations translator's signature something like that so very important to read carefully where to sign and also are you signing or is the sponsor signing so very important to read co-signer applicant sponsor so that you sign at the right spot that's something that's extremely important and immigration will return an entire application if you've signed at the wrong spot or if you missed the sign one form one form tip number five the document checklist so most applications have a document all applications have a document checklist that says all the documents that you need to provide so make sure you include the document checklist in your application and make sure you tick off every single line and if it doesn't apply to you for example you don't have to provide police clearances or you don't have the pendants or you don't have to provide a medical examination or something like that make sure you put n slash a non-applicable or write non-applicable if there is something that for example in our files sometimes for humanitarian applications we don't submit police clearances from the beginning because we know that for this type of file it's not necessary so we always write on the document checklist will be provided later so we make sure to write that but in your case if you're applying yourself we always always make sure you you go line by line and you make sure that you tick off every single box so that you don't forget anything important tip number six no gaps in history this is super important there are often questions where have you lived in the last 10 years what activities have you done in the last 10 years or since you're 18 that has to be if you know if you're studying if you're on vacation if you're a student if you're unemployed you can't leave any gaps so you can't even have one month where there's no information so let's say you were a student for a long time and then you had a summer off then you worked for a little bit part time then you were unemployed then you work then you became a student again and then you were unemployed again you need to write every single gap every single section timeline has to be what you did what was the activity on the forms there's usually four or five lines it's it's usually often it's not enough it might be but for a lot of our clients what we do is we ask them to or we prepare for them an additional sheet a word document that we say continuation of the form and sometimes it's it's it's long it's like another 10 lines or another 20 lines of because some of our clients they've traveled a lot or they've had multiple part-time jobs so we always tell them do not leave any gaps and we double check to make sure from it's if it's from 2017 January to 2017 December that's it that was one activity then after that it has to be January 2018 until and then we we make sure there's absolutely no gap so that's very very important immigration will return applications because there's one month missing tip number seven keep a copy for your record so once you've completed all the forms ideally you've typed them I would suggest you save as attachments on your computer on a hard drive sometimes because Adobe or programs they change or the forms like weird things happen you might not be able to open it again what I would suggest you do is you print your the forms that once you've completed your forms before you send your application photocopy them or scan them rather than attachments because then if it's impossible to open at least you have a scan copy for example if immigration loses the application or they ask you for some further information years down the line and you want to double check what you did if you decided halfway through or after you want to hire a lawyer you're doing it's it's good if you have a copy of what you submitted because you can refer to it you can send it to your new representative and then we have access to the information right away tip number eight be honest be honest when answering questions so that's also super important there's sometimes there's very very specific there are specific questions have you been refused before have you been detained before sometimes it's quite specific have you been refused a visitor visa to Canada or any other country have you been charged or detained you know charged or convicted for example so if you've been charged even if it was dismissed or withdrawn or dropped but you were charged of something petty theft or something very very minor you need to you need to say yes and then you need to explain so always answer the forms in a truthful manner because down the line it's just going to make everything simpler for you to just be very honest in your in your forms and in your documentation thank you and see you next time