Your Master Document List for the Permanent Residence Application
The kitchen table disappears under paper about six weeks before most people expect it to. A police clearance here, a marriage certificate there, three different scans of the same matric certificate because nobody’s sure which version the assessor wants. If you’re staring at the same table, what actually helps is a master document list for the permanent residence application — not another explainer of what Express Entry is, but a plain sorting system for the mess in front of you.
IRCC doesn’t ask for one impossible mega-document. It asks for several distinct categories, and almost everything you’ve seen mentioned in a forum thread belongs to one of five piles.
Identity and civil status
Passport, birth certificate, and — for anyone married or previously married — the marriage certificate plus any divorce or death documents that explain a changed civil status. This pile also holds anything proving a name change. These are usually the fastest to gather, since South Africans already hold most of them.
Education and language
Your educational credential assessment goes here. It has to come from one of IRCC’s five designated organisations — CES, ICAS, WES, IQAS or ICES — and it must be less than five years old when you apply. In most cases you only need your highest credential assessed rather than every diploma you’ve ever earned. Language results sit in the same pile: CELPIP-General, IELTS General Training or PTE Core for English. They expire after two years rather than five, so check the date before assuming an early result still counts.
Money
Proof of funds is its own category, and the amount depends on family size. IRCC’s table — last updated July 2025, so worth re-checking before you rely on it — runs from roughly $15,263 for a single applicant to $28,362 for a family of four. Borrowed money doesn’t count, and neither does home equity. Even if you’re exempt (invited under the Canadian Experience Class, or holding a valid job offer with work authorisation), you still upload a letter explaining why — the system asks everyone for this pile by default.
Background checks
Police certificates for every country you lived in for six months or more since turning 18, with the certificate for your current country of residence issued no more than six months before you submit. The medical exam is separate: done upfront with an IRCC panel physician for Express Entry, valid for 12 months, and required for every family member even if they aren’t immigrating with you.
Forms and fees
The last pile is forms and fees included in the submission. The processing fee plus the Right of Permanent Residence Fee comes to $1,590 per adult and $270 per dependent child, plus biometrics at $85 per person or $170 for a family. Those are 2026 figures — check the current federal fee list before you pay, because they move.
Five piles, not one master document. Sort what’s on your table into them, and an overwhelming stack starts looking like five manageable errands instead of one impossible one.
One category we can’t fill in for you: which specific SA-issued paperwork substitutes for a Canadian equivalent varies enough by document that a blanket answer would be wrong more often than it’s right. Where a document doesn’t map cleanly — an old SA divorce order, a name changed twice — that’s a fair moment to ask a licensed RCIC or immigration lawyer, rather than guessing.
Cape2Canada’s free guides go through several of these categories in more depth — a reasonable next stop once you know which pile is missing something.