A candidate received an ITA in June 2023 at CRS 486 (3+ years of multi-company Indian work experience, a one-year Canadian credential worth 15 points, strong IELTS) — and then discovered they weren't ready to file. The lessons from their post and the replies:
- Collect reference letters before the draw, not after. The poster had declared employment spanning 7–8 years on the EE profile but hadn't collected the letters. Once you declare a job for points, you must document it within the 60-day ITA window — and old employers move slowly. A commenter echoed this: some companies (or individual managers) simply stall on reference letters, so start early and escalate through HR channels.
- Know the Canadian-education points rules. A useful clarification from the comments: the extra CRS points for Canadian study require a program longer than 8 months at a Designated Learning Institution (the DLI list is on IRCC's website), and this member's qualifying course was in person, not online. Verify your program qualifies before counting the points.
- Draws are unpredictable — file-readiness is the hedge. The poster's core regret: given how inconsistent draw scores were, they didn't expect an ITA and had nothing prepared. Treat your profile going live as the start of the documentation race, not the ITA.
- Vet immigration consultants carefully. Several replies traded warnings about consultants who mishandled files, with one member describing a failed consumer-court case against a consultancy. The reusable lesson: pursuing remedies after the fact is hard, especially from abroad — check reputations and keep control of your own documents from the start.