Hello,

I'm American applying for the Canadian Skilled Worker Permanent Residency visa (I do not have a job lined up but have work experience in one of the Skill Level A occupations). I have been getting all of my information from the official immigration site (this forum won't let me post the url, but it's the CIC website), which is fairly straightforward but not great on the details. On this side of the border, the consulate in Buffalo (link from the CIC website) has some slightly different information than CIC, such as:

1. Provide a copy of my passport as well as my partner, but the document checklist says that only the primary applicant needs to send a copy. This one is obviously no big deal but confusing nonetheless.

2. There is a section on the Buffalo website entitled "supporting documents." These include birth certificates, education documents, documents in support of work experience (but no details on what these consist of), a statement of unencumbered funds, and police reports. None of these are listed in the checklist or indicated on the application. I know there are some documents they don't want you to send until later stages. Should I provide everything I can or just follow the specifications on the checklist/forms? I obviously don't want to delay the application because I left something out. But I'll be delaying it by gathering the rest of this information now.

3. do you know the minimum of unencumbered funds we need for our application to be accepted? this is also not specified on the form, although i have read that we will need $10,000 in order to enter the country but do we need to have that amount now?

4. Neither the visa offices nor the consulate will accept phone calls, I emailed the consulate, then received an email back that they don't answer questions over e-mail either (which leads me to wonder why they give you the option at all). Short of traveling to Buffalo (from NYC), if we went into the NYC visa office, could we speak to someone in person about these questions?

Thank you for any advice you can offer!

Collette Sosnowy