Landing Experience (A dream come true)
Left United States
Destination: Edmonton, Canada
I was supposed to travel with my wife and 2 kids from North Carolina, US to Edmonton, Alberta via Chicago on Saturday 5th September, 2015 but we were late to the boarding gate by just 3minutes after checking in our 6 big bags, hence, we missed the flight. The boarding gate was like 15minutes walk from the security check point and my 2 year old son was just acting up that morning which contributed to us getting to the boarding gate late.
Anyway, we were rescheduled for the following day and we got there as early as possible. All our luggages already departed 24hours with the missed flight. The flight was smooth and it started with a 1 hour flight from North Carolina to Chicago, 1hour layover in Chicago, then another 3hours 21mins to Edmonton, Alberta. All passengers onboard were either American or Canadian and we were the only Africans onboard.
We arrive port of entry and the CSBA agent just collected our passports and asked where we were coming from. I told her US and she asked how I applied for the PR and I simply I told her I started the application before I left Nigeria to US for my MSC programme. That's all. She directed us to where we will complete our landing. Three Americans were attended to before us and if you see the way they were drilled, fear catch me. It was only 1 CSBA officer that attended to 5 of us that entered the room and she ended up spending 1hour 30mins with the 3 Americans. I think they came to Canada to work or something but the immigration officer really questioned them one after the other. I thought we will be questioned too but nothing like that as I was just asked basic questions on the COPR which I answered NO and we were asked to sign (All these took about 20mins). No proof of fund was asked. We signed the COPR, filled the goods-to-come form and that was it.
I just did our SIN application, Alberta Health Card is on hold as they require proof of Alberta residency. Account opening will be tomorrow and that will be CIBC as I was told they give $500 credit card to new immigrants. I surveyed all the telecoms and I settled for wind mobile which is the best from the survey I did. $39 plan for unlimited Canada-wide call and text, Unlimited US-wide call and text, unlimited global text. It costs 5cents to call Nigeria per minute. Although its coverage is not everywhere as they are new entrant in the telecoms market.
From the little time I have spent here, I have discovered that it is expensive to live in Canada than US. I was told people that live at the border areas of US drive into US to buy petrol. I used my GTB naira mastercard and I was charged $1CAD to 177naira. So please, come prepared
There are so many job listings in IT and I am packaging my CV well to fit into the labour market and by God's grace, I have strong hopes that I will land a good job soon.
Congrats to those with updates from AVO and I wish all forum members best of luck as we get our visas and are preparing to land at our various destination.
