Have been away from the forum for a while since I was focusing on settling in Canada over the last few months but had a look today and saw that the classic "Canada sucks, don't come" posts keep coming, sometimes from older and sometimes from new members, so thought I'd share my own, positive experience for a change.
Had applied with the working holidays IEC program and came here with my wife. Had a limited budget, so if things didn't work out well, we'd have to go back home. If they were just like back home (Greece), then we'd just treat it as what it was supposed to be: a working holiday. If they were really good, we'd consider the spousal sponsorship, since she has the Canadian citizenship.
I will be as short as possible: Landed on June 24th in Toronto. The whole procedure to get my open work permit took exactly 6 minutes with the officer. Then took the next flight to Regina. I'm a Mechanical Engineer with no work experience, so would just search for any "survival" job. Without looking too much and just by starting some discussions with random people, we met someone on the 3rd day on Southland Mall who offered me a job at the kitchen of his son's restaurant. I took it and had my first job (10/hr) almost immediately.
My wife focused on buying stuff and making our apartment clean and comfortable for the first 3 weeks and then it was time for her to search for a job. We had already met a lot of people in the first few days, they helped us get things for our home and then introduced us to other people who offered to help with jobs etc. Needless to say, my wife found a job within the 1st week of actually looking and on her second interview. Only stayed a few days as she got a better offer and left for 13/hr. After 3 more weeks they called her from the place that she had her very first interview and offered her a job as a dining attendant for 16/hr. The next day I got an offer to work as a cashier on a major supermarket for 13.5/hr and both of us will be getting considerable raises every 3 months. I have also sent my resume to engineering companies and will see if I can get something there but even with my current job, I'm really happy, much happier than I was back home.
We pay all of our bills, eat in restaurants quite often and shop whatever we want and still put around $1500 on the side every month. Many more people have come and keep coming here and find jobs without too much hassle. Apart from the rents everything is significantly cheaper than in Greece and our quality of life has increased x100. Before travelling, I couldn't expect the start to be so easy, even in my wildest dreams. Back in Greece I'd work for more hours, for less money and I was considered one of the lucky ones to still have a job, barely making ends meet. So, thanks Canada and I'll be starting the PR application shortly! 8)
Had applied with the working holidays IEC program and came here with my wife. Had a limited budget, so if things didn't work out well, we'd have to go back home. If they were just like back home (Greece), then we'd just treat it as what it was supposed to be: a working holiday. If they were really good, we'd consider the spousal sponsorship, since she has the Canadian citizenship.
I will be as short as possible: Landed on June 24th in Toronto. The whole procedure to get my open work permit took exactly 6 minutes with the officer. Then took the next flight to Regina. I'm a Mechanical Engineer with no work experience, so would just search for any "survival" job. Without looking too much and just by starting some discussions with random people, we met someone on the 3rd day on Southland Mall who offered me a job at the kitchen of his son's restaurant. I took it and had my first job (10/hr) almost immediately.
My wife focused on buying stuff and making our apartment clean and comfortable for the first 3 weeks and then it was time for her to search for a job. We had already met a lot of people in the first few days, they helped us get things for our home and then introduced us to other people who offered to help with jobs etc. Needless to say, my wife found a job within the 1st week of actually looking and on her second interview. Only stayed a few days as she got a better offer and left for 13/hr. After 3 more weeks they called her from the place that she had her very first interview and offered her a job as a dining attendant for 16/hr. The next day I got an offer to work as a cashier on a major supermarket for 13.5/hr and both of us will be getting considerable raises every 3 months. I have also sent my resume to engineering companies and will see if I can get something there but even with my current job, I'm really happy, much happier than I was back home.
We pay all of our bills, eat in restaurants quite often and shop whatever we want and still put around $1500 on the side every month. Many more people have come and keep coming here and find jobs without too much hassle. Apart from the rents everything is significantly cheaper than in Greece and our quality of life has increased x100. Before travelling, I couldn't expect the start to be so easy, even in my wildest dreams. Back in Greece I'd work for more hours, for less money and I was considered one of the lucky ones to still have a job, barely making ends meet. So, thanks Canada and I'll be starting the PR application shortly! 8)
