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| Subject: Landing Experience |
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Hi All,
I landed one month back in Canada and want to share my landing experience.
California - Montreal: We flew United from San Francisco on Aug 21st and landed in Pearson Airport - Toronto. It was an overnight flight
US exit: We did not have any problem at US exit point, they did not even take our I-94s. It was like travelling between states in US.
Canada Entry: We landed in the morning at about 7:30 am, we were directed to Custom declaration point, The gentlemen in the counter asked us, why we are here and asked us regular questions like any inflammable material, food items etc. He then directed us to the immigration counter. (It took us 5 min. here)
Immigration counter: There was a lady, who asked us for our COPR and passport and asked my wife to sign for my son. She asked how much money we are carrying and any local address to send our PR cards.
(Things to have at this counter is: COPR, Passport and local contact address ready, some of my friends suggested birth certificate for my son, she did not ask us!). She asked us to sign the COPR and one more form and gave us a welcome kit and told us that we should recieve our PR card within 30 days. That is it!. We were out of this counter. It took us (15 min)
Baggage collection: We collected our baggage and were directed to another counter to declare good to follow list, The lady asked us for our COPR, Passport, goods declaration form (to declare goods, actually we got this in the aircraft before landing and we had sufficient time to fill it in the plane itself!)and goods to follow list. (Things to have ready here is take a 2 print out of goods to follow list). I was importing my car and had not mentioned the VIN number, she asked me to write it down in the goods to follow list.
She made some photocopies and gave us back the goods to follow list stamped. It took us nearly 20 mins here.
We walked out to our car rental place. We loaded our luggage and drove to SIN office in Mississauga (We choose this, as one of our friends had invited us over for Lunch)
SIN Office: We took the ticket, and sat down in the waiting area, we were called after 45 mins, The lady in the counter was very polite and took our details (COPR, PASSPORT) and gave us a Print out of SIN and told us our cards will arrive in 2-3 weeks)
From SIN office we went to our friends place, had nice lunch and rested for a while and drove to Montreal.
our friends in Mississauga called us two weeks ago and told us that they received our SIN cards and Yesterday they called again and told us that they received our PR Cards too. We are planning to drive down to Mississauga during October 9th long weekend and collect our cards!.
( It took 2 weeks for SIN card and 30 days sharp for our PR Cards!)
Suggestion on Job Search:
I am a computer professional with 12+ yrs of experience (6+ yrs in US)
the day I got my IA cleared, I made my resume, and chalked out a plan, as to which industry to target ( I narrowed it down to two, one Oil sector in Western region, two Financial sector in East). I applied my resume in all the job sites.
1. Workopolis.com
2. Dice
3. Monster
4. Hotjobs.ca
Then I called some of the top recruiting companies like CNC global, CGI etc.
for two months i daily posted my resume and initially took mostly recruiters call, but later on companies called me. By 2nd week of July, I had two offers, one from CGI treasury services in Montreal and other from Deloitte Consulting in Toronto. I choose CGI as i wanted to be in Financial sector.
Stay in Montreal:
We had reserved a room in YWCA and CGI office was right across YWCA.
Our room was very clean and tidy, We crashed out after 5+ hrs of drive from Toronto - Montreal. ( we realized that we were nearing Montreal as sign board started to appear in French!, luckily my wife knows French ;-))
Next day we had school interviews for my son (Before starting we had narrowed down two private English medium schools for my son and had arranged for interviews). We liked a school in south shore (Brossard)
They took some test and told us that he could join the school on Sept 5th. Same evening we went and saw sunset in "Mount Royal" and drove back to our room.
Second day: we went for medical card, we waited in line and got our ticket/token and went to a counter when our number flashed.
The lady took all our details and in the end said she needed local address to send the card and could not send it to Mississauga.
(Please DO TAKE THE LEASE AGREEMENT WITH YOUR NAME IN THE LEASE AGREEMENT). We felt sad that we wasted our 1/2 day.
Third day: We went apartment hunting the whole day and did find any to our liking. Only on the fourth day we found one brand new condo, we signed our lease, but it was weekend, we enjoyed ourselves just exploring Montr?al.
On Monday I joined work and in the evening we moved into our new place. i took some time off on Wednesday and went with my family to get our medical card done along with the lease agreement.
I cannot say we are settled down, we are taking things slowly, this place is just like US (look and feel) only difference is that, people around us speak French.
That?s is all from my side. I learnt a lot from this site and wanted to share my experience with you all. I wish each one of you our best wishes.
Regards
Crisraj
[21-09-2006,22:59]
[***.164.192.115]
Anonymous |
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(in reply to: Landing Experience)
This is a very encouraging post after hearing so much about no jobs and "can´t afford sofa" stories. I am positive that if you land Canada as a qualified person you can afford a condo in Montreal :) Good luck to you!!!
[21-09-2006,23:48]
[**.225.27.20]
Anonymous |
(in reply to: Landing Experience)
Excellent post with the right details!
Just one question: you say you find your job in Montreal, Quebec. Did you apply for quebec selection or the normal federal skilled worker immigration program?
[22-09-2006,03:14]
[**.148.137.130]
Hobbes Sarkar |
(in reply to: Landing Experience)
Hi Hobbes,
I dont have CSQ, I applied in Fed skilled worker program, but got a perm job offer in montreal, that is why i choose to land in Toronto and drive to montreal. (I am told that if one does not have a CSQ and wants to land in Quebec, he needs to attend an interview with immigration officials - I choose not to do these, as if life is not exciting enough!!!!;-))
Good luck
Regards
crisraj
[22-09-2006,11:22]
[**.86.141.133]
Anonymous |
Reply to Landing Exp. (in reply to: Landing Experience)
The same exp. you have posted on the other forum also
[26-09-2006,09:12]
[***.23.29.71]
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