An applicant proving a relationship to an aunt/uncle with PR in Canada noticed the aunt's birth certificate misspelled the grandmother's name ('Eugenia' vs 'Eugeina'), while the other certificates were correct. Would this hurt the application?
What members advised:
- First, check whether the relative claim even carries points. The key clarification: declared relatives in Canada don't add CRS points — they only contribute 5 points toward the FSW minimum eligibility criteria (the 67-point threshold). If you already clear 67 without the relative, the typo is essentially irrelevant — one member's advice was 'don't lose sleep over it.'
- If you're pre-AOR, a Letter of Explanation is the clean fix. Since the applicant was still assembling documents, members agreed an LOE noting the obvious typo is appropriate and sufficient.
- If you're post-AOR, use a webform to inform IRCC of the discrepancy.
- Don't over-engineer the fix. Members noted IRCC wouldn't expect a same-name-same-person affidavit for a one-letter transposition — and such an affidavit would normally have to come from the person whose name is misspelled, which is impractical for a grandparent's name on an aunt's certificate.
Practical takeaway: size the fix to the stakes. A one-letter typo in a supporting relative's certificate merits at most an LOE (pre-AOR) or webform (post-AOR) — and if the relative claim doesn't affect your points math, it may merit nothing at all.