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| Subject: I am in Canada!! |
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Finally! I have a chance to get back to this forum. As promised I want to keep an update that should be useful for new immigrants.
First of all, I did not lose a bit of my enthusiasm and optimism, I love Canada and I am happy to be finally here. Of course I am looking for a job so what ? I´ll find one. My husband got a small paid per hour job after a week so we can keep going financially. Even with that we are better off than we were in US.
This is a summary of our first 3 weeks experience.
Landing: no issue. It was so easy and simple, took 10 minutes. I guess landing in Calgary airport at 10.00 pm helped. There was NOBODY except the airport staff. By the way they did not ask us for proof of funds. As for the canadian address to be provided at landing (we did not have one) the lady gave us a form to fill and told us to fax it when we have an address. Ha ha! so the CBSA officers do have some sense!! I was amazed!
Accomodation: we did not know anyone in Calgary and we were completely unknown to the city and with no car and a toddler to carry around. Still we managed to stay in a house for rent for one week and we found an appartment after 2 days and moved in May 1. It was hard work and we must admit that Calgary is very well connected by bus and tram, it was not so bad to move around. Never had that in USA. We just LOVE this place.
New landed immigrant stuff: and yes like everyone else we applied for SIN number, health card, exchanged US driving license (no issue there either) everything was SO EASY. Opened bank account, got a cell phone (we found Solo the best deal) and got internet quite quickly. Total time: 3 days.
Ok so what´s the bad part ? well just one thing. We were caught by surprise when we signed up the lease. It turned out we had to pay 3 months rent in advance plus one month rent deposit since we were both unemployed at landing. We did not have enough cash with us and transferring money from US to Canada was A NIGHTMARE. Conclusion: I would recommend to take as most cash as possible I guess that would be 9,999 CAN dollars.
Else I find Canada different than USA in many ways. People seem to be more friendly over here. Well this is just a first impression that may change later.
Too early to talk about other things, I guess we just have to live longer here find out good and bad things.
This long wait as ALL WORTH IT!!!
[14-05-2008,03:50]
[**.71.223.153]
CBV333 |
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(in reply to: I am in Canada!!)
Congratulations!!!
Good Luck
Speedoflight
[14-05-2008,04:20]
[**.80.162.157]
Speedoflight |
(in reply to: I am in Canada!!)
fabulous news. WELCOME TO CANADA!
did you get caught with any of that snow?
[14-05-2008,07:25]
[**.155.160.37]
Sharon |
(in reply to: I am in Canada!!)
Great to hear CBV333
Roy
www.cvimmigration.com
[14-05-2008,09:34]
[**.55.218.12]
Roy |
(in reply to: I am in Canada!!)
Congratulations CBV. Just wondering if you could say in what way better off than in U.S.?
[14-05-2008,11:16]
[**.53.229.175]
Richard |
(in reply to: I am in Canada!!)
Hi CVB,
Congratulations on the great move. I think some apartments ask for advance and deposit, don´t worry too much, you should get that back when you vacate it. If you plan to live there for a while then you can maybe ask them after 6 months or 1 year to give some of that back, if both you and your husband are employed and have a steady income.
Did they do any credit check, and is the USA credit score of any value over there ?
Keep in touch.
[14-05-2008,11:21]
[***.242.242.2]
Raj |
(in reply to: I am in Canada!!)
Great CBV.
I sincerely hope that your good luck and enthusiasm continue and wish you would settle well in the new home.
If you can find "Your Home" then that´s the best place on the earth; above all logic/stats..whatever.
[14-05-2008,11:23]
[***.254.208.246]
DC |
(in reply to: I am in Canada!!)
Calgary is ok city, very busy though with high prices for rent, downtown especially. SW and NW are expensive communities to live in. NE is ghetto (that?s where I live LOL), and SE is mostly industrial area, lots of car junk yards there, if you need spare parts or something.
Calgary is very well connected by bus system, but you have to wait for a bus for 20-40 min. each time. There is a big shortage of drivers in Calgary, the tickets used to be 1.95 I think, in October of 2007 some one broke one of the bus drivers nose and the city raised the price of the tickets LOL, so they can pay for the price of the operation.
Prices on the cars went down a lot lately, but the gas went up haha. But its still worth having a car to get around this city. Oh and buses and Ctrain don?t work over night.
A good thing about Calgary its so close to the mountains and to some of the national parks, so you can easily escape from a busy city life for a weekend. Lots of jobs too indeed. But if you don?t have the education you will be working for the minimum wage (8$ I think) or btw there is also a cash corner where you can go and get an xtra work for cash. Usually around 15$/hr its not much but if you have no job can make some spare money to spend.
Oh also they have a food bank, you can stop by and they can give you tons of groceries that will get you by once you first move in. just a thought.
Overall Calgary is OK. I have never been to US, but people here are friendly. 7 ave downtown is total crack palace.
Good luck with your new life in Canada! Hope everything goes well!
[15-05-2008,19:15]
[***.209.209.129]
Alberta Bound |
congratulations (in reply to: I am in Canada!!)
Congrass, yes , usually people in the US are not as friendly as in Canada, I had live here for a long time, and yes you can make some great friends , but in general, their ok. How long had you live in the US?
[16-05-2008,01:25]
[***.1.52.40]
luna |
(in reply to: I am in Canada!!)
I enter the forum today to find out about you... I am happy to hear that you are happy and doing great! Congratulations, I hope you and your family continue to do well in Calgary! Best of Luck!
[17-05-2008,13:23]
[***.229.236.216]
Lily |
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