Express Entry – Step 8. Your document checklist: Tips and Advice

There is no need to upload any documents during the Express Entry profile creation process. The scanned copy of your documents needs to be uploaded during your post Invitation to Apply (ITA) stage.

When should I start gathering documents?

As soon as possible! As you only have 60 days to gather all documents after receiving your ITA, you should look for the documents that might take you more than 2 months to provide.

For example, some police certificates need months to be issued. You should check which police certificate you might need to apply for and check the processing times for receiving yours, and plan accordingly.

You also have to check, double-check, and then triple-check all the documents you already have, such as passports, degrees, marriage/divorce certificates etc. If you find out that there’s an error or a discrepancy at the last minute, you will not be able to correct it. Take your time before getting your ITA to go through your documents multiple times, so you will enough time and no stress to re-issue any document that includes a mistake.

When do I have to upload documents and in which format?

Your personalized document checklist is created after filling the post-ITA application forms. ​This checklist is dynamic and changes based on the information you have supplied in your post-ITA application form. You should provide all documents that appear in your Personalized Document Checklist.

For each of the following sections (e.g passport, police certificates, …), you will have only one spot to upload your documents. If you have multiple documents to upload, you will need to merge them into ONE PDF document, that has LESS THAN 4 MB. You can use SmallPDF (free but after a few tries, you will have to wait an hour before trying again) to merge, compress or convert your documents, so you can have the right document to upload.

Applications that do not contain the following documents will likely be rejected as incomplete. To read about some common errors that previous applicants have made in their application, check this link.

Documents of identity and marital status

What to upload?
You have to upload a clear and readable copy of the bio page of your passport or your travel document. You should scan every page that has a marking, visa, or stamp. No need to upload blank pages. Stamps that are not in English or French must be translated. If your passport is new and contains only your biographical page, just upload that page.

​Who has to upload the documents?

• You, the main applicant,
• Your spouse/partner, and
• Your accompanying dependent children​.

What to upload?
​If your are married, documents proving this status need to be provided. The marriage has to be valid under Canadian law.

If your marriage occurred in Canada, you need to provide a copy of the marriage certificate.
If your marriage occurred outside Canada, a copy of a legal marriage certificate issued by the proper authorities.

Who has to upload the documents?

• You, the main applicant.​

​What to upload?
​If you have a common-law partner, you need to prove this status and upload the following documents:

• The Statutory Declaration of Common-Law Union form (IMM 5409), and
• Evidence that you and your common-law partner lived together for at least 12 continuous months, including but not limited to:
  • copy of lease agreements,
  • copy of joint bank account statements, and
  • utility invoices.

  Who has to upload the documents?

  • You, the main applicant.​

  What to upload?
  If you and/or your spouse/partner are divorced, documents proving this status need to be provided.

  If the divorce occurred in Canada, you need to provide either a copy of the divorce order or the certificate of divorce.
  If the divorce occurred outside Canada, you need to provide a copy of a legal divorce certificate issued by the proper authorities.

  If available, you need to also provide the copy of the legal separation agreement.

  Who has to upload the documents?

  • You, the main applicant, and/or
  • Your spouse/partner.​

  What to upload?
  ​If you are a widow, you will need to provide a copy of a death certificate, and/or any other relevant legal document related to the death of your late spouse.
  ​
  Who has to upload the documents?

  • You, the main applicant.​
  Have dependent children

  What to upload?
  ​If you have dependent children, you need to upload the following documents to prove your relationship to the children:

  • a birth certificate,
  • an legal document proving you are the parent, and/or
  • a Letter of Explanation (in case the country of birth does not issue birth certificates).

  Who has to upload the documents?

  • Your dependent children, accompanying or not.​
  Have adopted children

  What to upload?
  ​If one of your dependent children is adopted, you will need to provide a copy of all relevant legal adoption documents.

  Who has to upload the documents?

  • Your dependent children, accompanying or not.​
  Digital photograph

  What to upload?
  ​You and your family members have to provide a digital photograph meeting IRCC’s specifications.

  Who has to upload the documents?

  • ​You, the main applicant,
  • Your spouse/partner, accompanying or not, and
  • Your dependent children, accompanying or not.

  Mandatory Documents

  Medical Exam

  What to do?
  You, your spouse/partner and your dependent children, must see a doctor on the list of panel physicians. The panel physician will do a complete medical exam. The doctor may refer you for chest x-rays and laboratory tests. Once your exam is done, the physician will send IRCC the results. The medical exam should only be done after receiving your Invitation to Apply (ITA). Find out more on what to expect in our Medical Exam section.
  ​
  What to upload?
  Before October 1, 2023:​
  You must provide a copy of either (i) the information printout sheet (for the e-Medical system) or (ii) the Upfront Medical Report form (for the paper-based system), whichever the panel physician provides upon completion of the medical examination.
  Under exceptional circumstances (at IRCC’s discretion), the following may be accepted (without any guarantee):

  • proof that you scheduled the medical exam with an approved panel physician, and/or
  • a Letter of Explanation (LoE) clarifying why the medical exam could not be done.

  On or after October 1, 2023:​
  You no longer need to get an upfront medical exam before you submit your application for permanent residence through Express Entry. You will just have to upload a blank document in the upload field of your Express Entry profile when submitting your application, and wait for IRCC to send you further instructions on when to get your medical exam.

  Who has to upload the documents?

  • ​You, the main applicant,
  • Your spouse/partner, accompanying or not, and
  • Your dependent children, accompanying or not.
  Police certificate

  What to do?
  The applicant needs to retrace his/her life from the age of 18, and calculate the number of days spent in a specific country. If the consecutive total exceeds 6 months, the applicant needs to provide a police certificate. Before getting an Invitation to Apply, the applicant should check how to get the police certificate and how long that would take. This will help smooth and relieve the stress of not getting the police certificate in time.
  This IRCC page lets you know what to do to obtain the right police certificate.

  What to upload?
  Police certificates are required up front and are mandatory for each country (except Canada) where an individual has lived for a total of 6 consecutive months or more in the last 10 years. There is no need to provide police certificates for periods before the age of 18.

  (i) For the current country of residence, the police certificate needs to be issued maximum six months before the application for permanent residence is submitted.

  (ii) For a past country of residence (6 consecutive months), the police certificate needs to be issued after the date of departure from the country as a resident.

  You should check the validity of the police certificate, if there is one. If the criteria in (i) or (ii) are respected, the police certificate may be accepted if expired. If not, you can’t upload an expired police certificate.

  For the police certificate of a set of countries, IRCC needs a consent form which will allow them to ask for the police certificate directly. For example, an applicant seeking a police certificate from New Zealand must download and complete the Consent to Disclosure of Information (NZ) form available on the IRCC website. You only need to upload the consent form for these set of countries.

  You need to scan in colour the original police certificate(s).

  Under exceptional circumstances (at IRCC’s discretion), the following may be accepted (without any guarantee):

  • proof that the police certificate has been requested immediately after receipt of the ITA, and
  • a Letter of Explanation (LoE), clarifying why the police certificate could not be uploaded in time.

  Who has to upload the documents?

  • ​You, the main applicant,
  • Your spouse/partner, accompanying or not, and
  • Your dependent children over 18 years old, accompanying or not.
  Settlement funds

  ​What to upload?
  If you are a CEC applicant, or an FSW/FST applicant with (i) an authorization to work in Canada and (ii) a valid job offer, you do not need to provide proof of funds.
  ​To prove you own enough money (above the Low Income Cut-Off, LICO), you have to upload a letter from at least one bank, which details all your asset accounts (cash, investments, etc.) and your debt accounts (loans, credit card debts).

  • This letter has to include the letterhead and contact information of the bank, your name, account(s) numbers, opening date of the account(s), the current and average (over past 6 months) balance of the account(s).
  • You need to provide proof of origin of any incoming large amounts of money that cannot be explained by your job salary. For example, a notarized gift deed if you received large sums of money from your family within 6 months from applying, or the sale agreement of your car, etc.

  ​
  Check here for more information on the settlement funds.

  Who has to upload the documents?

  • You, the main applicant.​