The invitation changes everything. Until yesterday you were waiting. From today you are behind.
You have 60 days to submit a complete application for permanent residence. That clock does not stop, it is not extended, and it does not stretch because a document has not arrived from another country.
The difficulty is that the two documents which take longest cannot be rushed — and those are the two that catch most applicants out.
Day one: work the clock backwards
Most people start at the beginning. Start at the end instead. Ask which document takes the longest to obtain, and set that one moving today. Almost everything else can be done in the final fortnight. A police certificate cannot.
Police certificates: the real bottleneck
The rule itself is clear. You need a certificate for every country where you have spent six months in a row or longer. The window is the last ten years, and only time after your eighteenth birthday counts.
- “Six months in a row” means in a row. Three separate two-month stays in the same country do not trigger the requirement, even though they add up to six months.
- The issue date matters. The certificate for the country you currently live in must have been issued no more than six months before you submit. For any other country, it must be issued after your last six-month stay there.
In practice this often means more than one certificate. Six continuous months in Türkiye, the UAE or anywhere else, and that country wants one too. Each has its own process, and some are slow to deal with from abroad.
Start this in week one, not week two.
The medical: after the invitation, not before
The exam has to be done after you are invited and before you submit, with a doctor IRCC has approved. These are called panel physicians, and IRCC publishes the official list by city. The physician gives you confirmation that the exam took place, and that is what you upload.
Appointments run weeks out in some cities. This also belongs in week one.
Proof of funds: the exact figure, and the evidence that counts
You are exempt from this section if you are applying under the Canadian Experience Class, or if you are authorised to work in Canada and hold a valid job offer. Otherwise you have to prove you hold the amount below.
| Family size | Funds required (CAD) |
|---|---|
| 1 | 15,263 |
| 2 | 19,001 |
| 3 | 23,360 |
| 4 | 28,362 |
| 5 | 32,168 |
| 6 | 36,280 |
| 7 | 40,392 |
| Each additional member | 4,112 |
These are the amounts IRCC published with an update date of 7 July 2025, and they are reviewed each year. Check the current figure on the official page before you go to the bank.
The letter from your bank has to carry specific things. The bank’s contact details and your name; your account numbers and the date each was opened; the current balance; the average balance over the past six months; and your outstanding debts.
Two things are not accepted: borrowed money, and equity in property. Money that arrived in your account last week to make up the number will show itself in that six-month average.
And the funds must be available both when you submit and when the visa is issued. You cannot empty the account after filing.
If a document will not arrive in time
You may be able to submit a letter of explanation with evidence that you did everything you could — a request receipt, a tracking number. Do not build your plan on it. An incomplete application can be refused.
There is another option that gets mentioned far less often. You can decline the invitation before the deadline. IRCC’s own position is that your profile then returns to the pool, and that you will be considered in future rounds if you are still eligible. Nothing guarantees a second invitation. If you neither decline nor submit within the 60 days, the invitation expires and your profile is removed from the pool altogether. Declining deliberately is not the same as letting it lapse.
What to do in week one
- Write down every country where you spent six continuous months after turning 18. Request all of those certificates the same week.
- Book the medical exam.
- Ask your bank for an official letter containing the items listed above; it can take several days to produce.
- Put your identity documents and employment records side by side and find out what is missing.
- Allow time for certified translation. Every document not in English or French — the bank letter, police certificates, birth certificate, employment records — needs one, or the application counts as incomplete. Choose the translator in week one and send each document as it becomes available, rather than all of them in the final week.
Sixty days sounds like a great deal of time. It is not, for someone who discovers on day forty that one more country’s certificate was needed.
This article is general information, not legal advice, and it describes published official rules rather than any individual case. Hadi Imani is a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant, licence R522575, practising in Toronto; that licence covers Canadian immigration only.
