landing experience saskatoon Nov 2010

[teddyjorn]

Greetings guys,

Just sharing some info about our (family of four, 2 adults, 2 kids) landing yesterday.

* Flight was booked from Amsterdam to Saskatoon via Minneapolis
* At Minneapolis everyone had to go through immigration even if you were
connecting to Canada.
o We were also in possession of a US DV immigrant visa, so we went through new immigrants procedure at Minneapolis for US residence
o Eventually we will drop one but I want to make sure it is the right one we keep, we want to at least explore all the options
* In general landing in Saskatoon was a breeze, IOs were very helpful, welcoming. One IO had even picked up our luggage from the belt, and stacked them neatly on a trolley for us!

* Upon arrival in Saskatoon while I was filling the arrival declaration, an officer approached me and asked if I was doing alright. I said yes and told him we were doing the first landing
* This IO helped me fill the arrival declaration, then told us to follow him to an office where we will get further assistance. At this time were almost the last ones at the arrivals; our flight also came in late around 11 PM
* We were ushered into a room by IO, here again they offered tea water for the kids and asked if we needed anything else.
* We waited for a while before IO started processing our documents. The whole process was just about filling some official forms to document arrival. One important thing was to sign the forms arrival records for the IO. Watch out here you don't want your signature to spill out of the box !
* IO simply asked us how much money we had available, didn't even bother so see any proof. We had a local bank statement and some cash at hand, IO just asked us to tell her the total we had available to us, we told her and that was it!
* After everything was done, IO and her colleagues asked us if our contact person was still waiting else they could help call a cab for us. Our contact was still waiting so IOs told us welcome to Canada and we were on our way, just about an hour after arrival.
* IO said PR cards will be coming in the mail soonish...Canadians use this a a lot,....20-ish, soonish etc...
* We didn't hand in any goods to follow or goods accompanying list. We didn't have any. All we did was present the arrival declaration in which we declared only personal items of little commercial value.

Update:
Next day we went to the government offices downtown for SIN number, and health insurance.
SIN numbers were issued immediately. Due to some errors, we only mailed the health card application today, so still waiting for that too.

For job hunting, we have not started anything in that domain as we will head back to Europe by month end, and then come for settling finally by mid next year. I went over to Ontario to have a look and talk to some prospective employers and it seems we will be moving that way when we do come to settle finally. Ottawa seems to be a very nice place. Saskatoon was very smallish ...Ottawa is a mix between Montreal and Toronto ( effectively a mix between Europe and America)

Hope this was informative and will help someone ease the anxiety of landing...it is very "anti-climatic" as someone in the forum had put it. Nothing to worry, just relax and save your worrying for something else.

My 2 cents

T.

 

[barsindoo]

Cool! Welcome to Canada. Let us know which of the PRs (US or Canada) you prefer in the months ahead.

 

[Azad Jan]

Thanks a lot for sharing. Hope you're able to make your decision soon.

 

[ankit_20]

Thanks for sharing

 

[pearl2010]

Hi teddyjorn,

Thanks for sharing your experience

Regards
pearl2010

 

[sarabjitssingh]

Congrats teddy...whats is the temp in Saskatoon now...?

 

[vibez_well]

Congrats teddy...whats is the temp in Saskatoon now...?

between 4°C to -8°C

 

[rocky272727]

Hey teddyjorn

Share more about Saskatchewan, how is the place....public transport and other details.

Thanks

 

[trinatocanada]

hi teddy,

you are right about ottawa and I love it here! welcome to canada

 

[Olabisi2010]

Congrats Teddy.

 

[aljarreau]

hi teddy,

you are right about ottawa and I love it here! welcome to canada

Hi trinatocanada,
are you right now in Ottawa? could you please talk about the town? (jobs, people,feelings...) I got the visa and would like to land in Ottawa. But I don't know any things about the city.
Your comment could be a great help
Thanks
Al

 

[rubyalabar]

just want to ask, if one of my layovers/stopovers is a US airport..will i be required to go through US immigration too?

if so, what documents will I need?

i.e. manila-LA-Detroit-Regina,SK

 

[gte439u]

just want to ask, if one of my layovers/stopovers is a US airport..will i be required to go through US immigration too?

if so, what documents will I need?

i.e. manila-LA-Detroit-Regina,SK

To pass through the U.S. in trasit to a third country requires that you clear U.S. immigration. You will need either a valid U.S. visa or a passport from a visa waiver country.

Why not just fly from Manila to Vancouver, and then on to Regina?

 

[rubyalabar]

just exploring other possibilites so i guess, manila-vancouver-regina it is! no US layover...

To pass through the U.S. in trasit to a third country requires that you clear U.S. immigration. You will need either a valid U.S. visa or a passport from a visa waiver country.

Why not just fly from Manila to Vancouver, and then on to Regina?

 

[teddyjorn]

Re: landing experience saskatooHi n Nov 2010

Hi trinatocanada,
are you right now in Ottawa? could you please talk about the town? (jobs, people,feelings...) I got the visa and would like to land in Ottawa. But I don't know any things about the city.
Your comment could be a great help
Thanks
Al

Hi trinatocanada ( and others)

I went to Ottawa and Toronto to talk to some prospective employers. After visiting , Saskatoon, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal , I fell for Ottawa. I think, Ottawa is a nice mix of European and American styles. The city itself if beautiful, there was still a small window of good weather when I got there. Public transport is quite efficient. That is also true for Toronto and Montreal. You can mostly forget about public transport in Saskatoon. It is quite also a small city. My occupation (medical physics) is very specific and there are only quite a few places I can work at. That does not bother me now because the occupation is till in high demand. I don't know much about other jobs but it was my feeling that you can get jobs readily in all these cities, especially if your English is really good. It really comes down to a matter of choice. Toronto for instance is really expensive, Montreal has some weird rules about sending your children primarily to French schools and things like that. In general Quebec seems to take better care of its residents. Nightlife in Montreal and Toronto are superior to that in Ottawa. Since Montreal is only a two hours or so away from Ottawa, you can have some fun there over weekends.
There were more jobs in Montreal even in my field, than in other cities. I also heard from friends that there were more of other job openings in Montreal. In Toronto, you have to prepare to be a fighter and have lots of money or at least have someone to lodge you for a while.
My general feeling about Canada is that apart from the weather in winter, I will be more happy here. People are nice, not too much administrative stuff, every official document I have come across is easy to understand etc. Government fees for documents are less or nonexistent for corresponding documents in Europe.

For banking, we have opened accounts at President's choice, this is one of the banks with no monthly fees or hidden costs. For those who want to do basic banking, just go to President's Choice, it is an online bank but I haven't heard anyone having any problems, the representatives are still everywhere in the cities. I have heard that they are not good for building your credit but for me that is not a problem now, I am coming to settle at a later time and will investigate more about that. I learned that some other banks, including Bank of Montreal allow creation of accounts from abroad, in case anyone needs to do that.

Today there was lots of snow, we had to move snow to get the door opened. For those who forgot what the Saskatchewan winters are made of, there was a harsh reminder, so anyone coming to Saskatoon in the winter, be very very prepared

Until next time.

Teddy