12. DACA Update

Breaking the silent streak to provide some, surprising to many, disappointing news. Supreme Court on June 18, 2020 sided with Dreamers in an inflammatory case which was argued back in November of 2019. 

I wanted DACA to be rescinded, buried, and put to rest... forever. That was the only way the Congress of the United States would have attempted to provide some sort of permanent relief to oddly 700,000 young immigrants like myself. President Trump had made it very clear that he would formulate a deal to keep Dreamers in the US "when" the Supreme Court issues results in his favor. Veracity of each of his words has always been questionable. However, given the history of melee on this subject between Democrats, Republicans, and a Republican President, and the sheer catastrophe that would befall on the lives of hundreds of thousands of dreamers if they were to be placed under removal proceedings or left bereft of their temporary authorization to work, a deal made under a pressure cooker seemed as the only viable option.

That didn't happen. To my surprise, the highest court of the land gave a pretty sheepish judgement. 

"… the agency failed to consider the conspicuous issues of whether to retain forbearance and what if anything to do about the hardship to DACA recipients. That dual failure raises doubts about whether the agency appreciated the scope of its discretion or exercised that discretion in a reasonable manner. The appropriate recourse is therefore to remand to DHS so that it may consider the problem anew."

The court wants Trump Administration to "consider the problem anew". Consider the problem of what to do with dreamers anew. That, according to Supreme Court, is the "appropriate recourse".

It is beyond my cognition as to why the dreamers, and ostensibly supportive organizations, are celebrating this "chickening out" of a ruling. Supreme Court didn't rule "DACA cannot be rescinded." Neither did it rule that "DACA is unconstitutional and must be rescinded." Both of these opinions lead to a logical conclusion of tossing this issue onto the legislative table and figuring out a way to lift a veil of uncertainty off dreamers.

Supreme Court has asked Trump Administration to "consider the problem anew." If Trump's DHS follows these instructions (which only a dimwit wouldn't), then all they need to do is incorporate in their reasoning to rescind DACA a definite decision "of whether to retain forbearance (i.e. prosecutorial discretion), and "what if anything to do about the hardship of DACA recipients." Based on this ruling, isn't all that DHS has to do to circumvent a future negative ruling is say "No" to first question, and "place all DACA recipients under removal proceedings" to the latter? 

A few hours ago, on that note, the President announced via Twitter "We will be submitting enhanced papers shortly...". 

The hammer is coming down soon, Dreamers. Toss the champagne and run for cover. 

11. Road Map Update

My spouse finally received her ECA and her degree has been recognized as Master's.  Therefore, this step has concluded and technically, we're ready to create our Express Entry profile! 

10. IELTS Results!

The tenth post marks a milestone of receiving IELTS results.   Language proficiency is a criterion with room for most flexibility to gain points.   It's much difficult and time consuming to get an additional degree or a year of experience than upping your language score.   

My spouse made it a point to check online for our results every 5 minutes on the day they were supposed to be released.   You may check your results online before the hard copy is delivered to provided address by clicking here (for USA).  You will need your passport number to access results.  Below is a snapshot of my online result! 

I am extremely happy with my score even if it's not perfect.  What matters is the equivalent CLB level. See equivalent CLB levels below from IRCC website. I've highlighted my score on the chart. 

And that's the reason for my happiness - CLB10 in every section!  

Note in the official online result, I've not really shown the entire text below the result line.  That part contains cookie-cutter advice to improve your score.  

Don't ask my why it reads "IDP IELTS AUSTRALIA" when we took our exam on the east coast of US! 

9. Road Map Update

My spouse and I received our IELTS results (online) and are content with it.  Therefore, another milestone in our road map is marked as closed. 

8. Education Credential Assessment Report

WES made an electronic copy of ECA report available as PDF through their portal in ~ 27 business days.  A snail-mail is also en-route, although its pace may be further dampened by COVID-19 situation.  Below is the actual snapshot of my report. 

It's a one-pager report with an equivalency summary on top.   IRCC is not interested in course-by-course evaluation or GPA.   According to IRCC, this report is valid for 5 years.  So, have this step covered as soon as possible.

7. Education Credential Assessment Process

I just received my ECA report from WES and would like to share some thoughts on that.  

Purpose of Education Credential Assessment (ECA) Report

For all academic degrees and diplomas foreign to Canada and for which you wish to claim points, Canada requires an assessment to ensure they meet the country's academic standards and are bona fide.  

Getting ECA 

• Where: Canadian immigration department (IRCC) has an approved list of agencies for ECA, of which WES is the most popular and the one we used.

• Degrees to be evaluated: Ideally, you want to get the highest level of education assessed.  For example, you may only need to have Master's degree assessed and not underlying bachelor's degree as well.  There are exceptions though. 

Requirements for a Master's degree differ between countries and even disciplines.   A Master's degree in Engineering may be assessed higher than that in Archeology.   

I've come across forums where candidates have expressed disappointment when their MBA (Masters in Business Administration) was assessed as a diploma and not a full Masters.   This is especially true with candidates from Asian countries like India where number of semesters required to achieve MBA is often less than that in Americas.   In such a case, the candidate MUST have BOTH bachelors degree and masters degree assessed to get maximum points of 128 or 119 (w/o or w/ spouse, respectively) under the following criteria: 

Two or more certificates, diplomas, or degrees. One must be for a program of three or more years

The highlighted sentence stipulates that one of the degrees MUST be a bachelors degree.  But it's still better if Masters degree is assessed as such because that holds 135 or 128 maximum points (w/o or w/ spouse). 

Important: if you are a candidate from Africa or Asia and hold a Masters degree from a University in your home country, I strongly recommend having both Masters and Bachelors assessed AT THE SAME TIME.  Doing so, agency will assess BOTH degrees as part of one application for no extra charges.  Otherwise, if Masters is assessed as a diploma, and you THEN wish to have Bachelors assessed, that would count as a new application with applicable charges! 

I do not have a reason to believe that candidates with American degrees need to be concerned of devaluation.  

• Documents Needed: It is applicant's responsibility to arrange official records from their alma mater.   From colleges in US, on an average, it may take up to 10-15 business days for ECA agency to receive credentials.  From other countries, this period maybe more than a month.

Note: if you choose to use e-delivery method, make sure that electronic access to your documents is unrestricted (no password or time-limit).  For most US colleges, this is not the case (including mine).  Therefore, I decided to send both through snail mail and electronically.  Although, going by the timeline provided by the agency, hard copy version was the one which was considered. 

After ECA agency receives credentials, allow at least 30-60 business days for production of ECA report. 

In the next post, I will share my ECA report to familiarize with its format. 

6. Road Map Update

I received ECA (Education Credential Assessment) report from WES as PDF, in addition to a hard copy en route to my address.   

No updates in the cost.  Refer to previous update.