Landed Immigrants: Share Landing, Job hunt, house hunt & other experience

[Deeaar]

Sorry for hijacking this thread..but I just wanted to share my not so good after landing experience since I am not a
frequent visitor of this forum and nor I will be so I am not starting new thread

- Well we came to Canada/toronto during 3rd week of July 2010 from Delhi/India
- First week we were very excited , we liked this city a lot and were busy in settling down took apartment for $1000 in north york area, got our kid into school
- Then start the job search I am under NOC 0213 ( MS from USA,experience in USA,Europe,Australia and India) my spouse has over 15yrs exp in ERP/SAP
- In last over three months we have atleast applied to 100 positions and attended on an avg daily interview with recruiters ( only few interviews went till actual client face-2-face interview)
- Some companies have weird basic requirements i.e. have to have canadian exp - well no comments on this
- Neither me nor my spouse got job in last 3 months ( I read in this forum only   @   some survival jobs, that does not excite me after spending heavy on my education and earning so much experience in my field with most reputed clients/companies of the world I prefer not to take those store jobs or ectc... )
- I have applied to every level in IT ( Team Leader,Sr Developer,BA,SA,Project Coordinator ) but nothing works
my background is in MS,DB2,VB,Project Management over 13yrs of exp
- We decided that one of us has to go back and work in India while other will keep looking ( atleast we can avoid loosing our all savings) so I return back to Delhi along my daughter and joined by previous company and supporting my spouse from India.
-  This place (canada/toronto) is very good we like everything here, specially our people they became just like family, I have never seen our neighbours in India taking so much time and trying to help us, but here they are amazing, so many families have helped us here ( see no one wants financial support what we want a moral support,encouagement and thats what we have got here...) but we could not continue to stay without having job
- My spouse has enrolled in some toronto university program which is costing us $6000 for 4 months hopefully things will change then

This how I would conclude our journey to canada in case we did not get jobs -
If my spouse did not get job even after doing that course then we would be under loss of atleast $50,000 during this  year ( The loss of my India salary for first three months,loss of my spouse salart for 10 months, rent of 10 months ,airfare,education cost in canada and other exp which looks small but when you add them its huge and above all its going from savings only )

Lesson Learned
Always leave your previous job with good terms, you don't know when you need that back

-Good luck to all of you

This is only my exp and not a situation overall, some of you might got job in short time in your own field
Do not consider this message as discouragement but try to learn from this and it may make your decisions more productive and useful

An excellent piece of info.....
Good luck buddy for ur future and hope to see u n ur family successful.
Cheers!!!

[Arkhan]

try canada hostelsbookers.com u'll surely find good deal i've done booking for many of my frendz n they were happi.

Seniors,

As I have told, we will be landing on 4th October. I tried to book safehomestay which is running housefull now a days thanks to this forum, I didnt get a room there tried since August!!

I have booked in

Howard Johnson Toronto East
22 Metropolitan Road, Toronto, ON, Canada M1R 2T6
Tel (Direct): 416-293-8171 ext. 605
Tel (Reservations): 416-293-8315
Fax: 416-321-7400
Website: www dot hojotoronto dot com

The rooms look costly here for about 75 and above, but I found if its extended  stay over week then they have good prices, I called them and email they offered as below email msg, which I believe is quite OK (no match with safehomestay)

Hi Nadeem,
  
Thank you for your inquiry with our hotel.  I do have a room with 2 double beds available for the dates you requested.  I can offer you a special extended stay rate of $55+13% tax per night.  With this special extended stay rate, the room will only be cleaned once during each week (on Tuesdays) and the towels and garbage will be changed twice during the week (on Tuesdays and Fridays).
  
Also included with the above mentioned rate is: free parking, wireless internet and continental breakfast.
  
If you have any questions, or if you would like me to make a reservation for you, please don't hesitate to contact me.
  
Thank-you and Regards,




I need help, as I am coming with about 10 Big bags with me and this hotel not offering any airport transportation, how to plan for transportation, Do I get prepaid taxi at airport, please do suggest me based on the size of luggage I carry I may need a BIG Van to carry 4 of us along with 10 Big bags

Please do share your exp with such luggage and getting a comfortable and economical transport to Hotel!!

Thanks,
Nadeem

[loveucanada]

Dear all,

Finally, finally, it's my turn to write something about my landing experience.

First of all, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all you guys who answered my questions, shared your stories, and encouraged me to face horrible waiting during the past 13 months since I submitted my initial application to NS through I got my PPR.

I landed at Pearson Int'l Airport (YYZ) on the 29th of December, 2010. Due to reading the experience shared by those experts, I had a big envelop containing all my landing stuff, i.e., passport, 2 pieces of photos, landing paper, my friend's address and phone number, money, and Canadian custom declaration form which I filled out in the flight. In fact, photos are not necessary for your landing, but I had them in my pocket just in case. I landed at YYZ Terminal 3. Unlike what others said, I was being "welcomed" only once. :-) I went to the custom at first. The officer was very nice and friendly. He asked me if I took any fresh food/meat/vegetable, etc. with me. After got my "No" answer, he started looking at my passport and landing paper without any other questions any more. Then I gave him the address of my friend, he smiled at me. He stamped admission date at my passport, crossed out the immigration visa, confirmed with me about the amount of money I took for landing, had me sign my name and initial at the landing paper, passed me the last page of the landing paper, and finally, "welcomed" me. That's all. Then he instructed me to my second station, "Immigration Center" (or something like that. Sorry, I already forget the name :-)) When I got that center, a lady wrote something on her note book and gave me a bunch of prints including the introduction of language training center, career development center, SIN application center, etc., plus a handbag which is really useful. I like that bag. To save my time, I didn't bring much stuff with me, so I only had a carry-on suitcase and didn't need to check-in/out my bags. So, I didn't spend any time to wait for my bags at YYZ. The third station and the last one was to declare my money at a counter which is very close to the exit gate. I took USD 9000 and EUR 2000 in cash with me as I don't want to pay for bank wire transfer. The officer at that station asked me to show him my money. I gave him the money and he didn't count. Then he filled out a form and put the amount exactly same as the one presented on my landing paper. After that, I met my friend at the gate, left YYZ, really "stepped" into Canada.

My friend drove me directly from YYZ to a drive testing center. We waited in a line for 71 minutes which I was told later by the officer who dealt with my license application. I got the full G license by exchanging through my US license. The total cost is CAD 75.

On the next day, I went to apply for SIN, which was really smooth, too. After that, I went to a bank to deposit my USD9000 and EUR2000. LOL

On the last day of 2010, I left Canada and flew directly to US to visit my friend. I'm going to completely move to Canada in the spring, most possibly, in March. 

Although I only spent three nights at Toronto, I love that place. I'm so happy that I filed my application and finally I made it.

I'm going to end up my landing "story" and may all of you a great, great, great new year of 2011!

Love-U-Canada! :-)

[swapnochary]

Dear loveucanada

Nice to know ur landing exp. all the best for you.

swapnochary

Dear all,

Finally, finally, it's my turn to write something about my landing experience.

First of all, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all you guys who answered my questions, shared your stories, and encouraged me to face horrible waiting during the past 13 months since I submitted my initial application to NS through I got my PPR.
....................................
...........................
I'm going to end up my landing "story" and may all of you a great, great, great new year of 2011!

Love-U-Canada! :-)

[mmilon]

An excellent topic I also intend to land in June/July-so it will help me a lot particularly regarding Housing as I have none there.
thanks

[FARPADANA]

I am planing to land in the coming spring with my wife and our 9 month son, we are both nurses and already sent our papers for assessment to get a working lisence in Ontario.
I am writing to share my concern about the job sphere in canada 4 nurses. since I have good job in kuwait in the  Kuwit Oil company and my wife in ministery of health still I couldnt decide wheter to get a oneway ticket or go and get the pr and return.my salary here is slightly less than canada and taxfree but I love being settle and stable in canada forever too. what do you think guys shall I make a risk for a good or hesitate to go.

[kchakus]

The best would be to take a 2-week vacation to your destination city, evaluate the cost of living, job opportunities, culture, safe locality and other important points of your interest during the early April 2011.
Return back to your native and then re-collect and re-evaluate your experiences and see if it is worth staying there for life long. Ofcourse, this would mean taking care of PR obligations and PR card address and other such mandatory precautions.

ALL THE BEST!!!

[rocky272727]

Hey everyone,

Its been long since I have shared any of my recent experiences so though of bringing this topic again.

This is regarding resume and job search.

Resume:

Always pay a lot of attention to your resume before applying to a job. Here My manager shared with me that they do not look for hard core technical skills always (off-course depends upon the job but this is majority of jobs) but instead high light soft skills that you have.

It is possible that you are not aware that what type of soft skills are required and what type of skills you have. Well to answer that, there are "n" number of resume's online and the best hint is the job description which states the key words they are looking at. Put them in your resume to get automatically picked up by their screening software.

Use Linkedin or other tools and do a lot of information interviews here. It really helps a lot to develop contacts and get your foot in the right place.

We were talking about this today, so thought of sharing this with you all.

I wish you luck in Canada. Work hard and stay focused, you will definitely get what you want.

Rocky

[odin2404]

Can someone please shed some light on this thread???

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/budget-of-250000-t63523.0.html

Thanks

[rocky272727]

Can someone please shed some light on this thread???

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/budget-of-250000-t63523.0.html

Thanks

http://www.househuntingintoronto.com/#homesearch

Use this website and look for it