Landed, my experience

Hi fellas,

It's been a while since I visited this forum, it's because I moved to Canada to become a permanent resident!
I lived in US for about 4 years. We got our immigration visas in July and we decided to move in July as well. We packed everything we could in our car and start driving in the morning. In the evening we where close to the border (Flint, MI), we spent the night at a hotel and in the morning we drove to the border.
I was importing my car so I needed to export it first from US, but to my surprised when we crossed the bridge (Blue Water Bridge) we were already in Canada. I was very confused: where is the US border?! Apparently they don't check you when you leave the US, only when you enter.
So, very important - if you want to export your car check for US immigration and then proceed to the bridge. Anyway when we crossed the bridge we saw Canada's flag and we were greeted by an officer at the booth, he just asked us what's the purpose of entering Canada, I told him we are landing as PR and he guided us the the Immigration Office on the right (it was a separate building), it took us (2 persons) about 30 minutes to finish everything and the officer said congrats you are now permanent residents. He also input some data about our car that we were importing and after that we were free in Canada. They didn't give us any welcome package but I didn't really needed it. Everybody was very pleasant and helpful, no complains. They stamped our COPR in the passports so we have them all the time.
All in all, the landing process was very easy and fast.

A lot of people wander how is life in Canada for a new immigrant, also some people (that live in US) wonder how is it different from US.
It's been now more than a month since I moved to Canada (Ottawa, ON).
Right since we crossed the border the first difference was the fact that speed is in kilometers, not miles. And the maximum allowed speed it 100KM/h. Other than that I didn't see a lot of differences (right then).
Life is a little more expensive than in US Midwest, but you have to remember that the Midwest is very cheap (probably the cheapest) compared to other parts of US.
In Ottawa, rent for 1 bedroom is about $800-$1000. For food (groceries, for two people) is about $400. Car insurance is $140/month. Gas is a little more expensive, if in US it's about 80-90c/liter, here it's 118c-130c/liter.
Living in Ottawa I have access to wireless carriers like Mobilicity and Wind, which are pretty cheap. I pay $40 for unlimited: data, voice, international/local sms, although I have to be in the Ottawa region to be able to use these services. Also I pay $48 (with taxes) for 300GB of monthly data at 15Mbps/1Mbps from Teksavvy.
Having said that, I have friends here that used to live in Sillicon Valley and say that Canada is very cheap compared to that, and that they used to pay twice the rent and food. So everything is relative.
In Canada, the government (provincial and federal) seems to be more involved in the social life of the citizens. From things like health insurance to things like the right to sell alcohol (in Ontario and Quebec alcohol business is not privatized). In order to get my Ontario car title I had to pass safety and emission test, thing that I never had to do in Midwest.
Banks, in US I noticed a more liberal politic towards giving credit cards/loans, while in Canada it's more strict. There are differences in the banking world. For instance there are no Visa/MasterCard debit cards. All the debit cards (called Access Cards) are NoName and part of a network called Interac (it's a Canadian thing). Also, what I liked is that credit cards have security chips and a wireless chip, you can make purchases only by waiving your card in front of a receiver.
But in general for someone from US it will be easy to accommodate to life in Canada.

So, right since the week we moved we started to apply to all the necessary documents, like SIN, Bank account, Driver's license (swap the American one with Ontario), car importation, etc.

While being in US I was always studying the job market in Ottawa. www.indeed.ca, www.eluta.ca, www.monster.ca, www.workopolis.com - there are the websites you should watch. I started looking for a job after 3 weeks of being in Canada. I was lucky enough to get a job in less than a week. Yep, a week. Now, granted I am a software engineer and Ottawa is a pretty good region for such a profession. I also think it was my home work done. I am extremely happy with my job and my new life in Canada.

As a conclusion, I do miss my friends from US, but it's something that will pass. Time changes everything. And so far, I like Ottawa very much. It has a beautiful weather (so far), very nice landscape and very nice people.

Good luck everyone in your process, at whatever stage you are, and I assure you Canada is a wonderful country. But don't expect to receive things for free, nothing is free you have to earn it!