Track my progress here

[Honolulu]

Hi friends!!!!!

We, a family of three, land in Toronto on Boxing Day. Yup DDay is December 26th 2010!

I am opening this thread to let you know how things are going from preparation,through to landing, settlement and more pertinently job search. You can track our progress right here and cheer or boo as necessary :-X
Also of course give advice. (Thanks in advance)

Right now the house is strewn with boxes of various shapes and sizes and states of packing finalization.
We finished selling a bunch of things: sofa, our favorite glass cabinet and other now unwantables....
The car still lands waiting in anticipation, and the farewells from friends and well wishers have begun.

BTW we are a bit unusual, I am 49, my wife 47 and our daughter has just begun college here in Honolulu.
She has been accepted at York University, for a Bachelor's programme and will transfer beginning the winter session

Onwards to Canada!! We should and will make it good with your well wishes and prayers.


May all your dreams also come true

 

[jamesbond]

Well,

First of all good luck and soft landing!
Let us know how it went.

Thanks.

 

[Honolulu]

Re: Track my sttlement progress here

Thanks James (love your name, btw!)

So now the big one is where do we stay when we land?
Forums suggest Safehomestay and really Carol and Thomas who own/run it seem wonderful people.
I even spoke to them on phone.
But, its a long way to York University from there for my daughter...
I googled TTC (Toronto Transport Corpn.) and she needs to change buses twice and we are thinking bitter cold ???
Solid one hour 10 minutes as well.

Wonderful resource though:
http://www3.ttc.ca/Trip_planner/index.jsp

So now also tapped Residence and Conference Center, which has a number of branches across GTA.
The one at Scarborough ( RCC East toronto) seemed to have a DIRECT bus on GO transit - straight from the RCC to York University campus ....takes 40 minutes. Seems like she can get a student monthly pass too. Just CAD 90!

http://www.stayrcc.com/toronto_east/index.html

GO transit has tied up with Google for trip planner:

http://www.gotransit.com/public/en/schedules/google.aspx

Really love the Street View feature on google maps.

I am leaning towards RCC. Costs seem comparable with Safehomestay - though I can almost bet the homely feeling will not be there. Will possibly book over the phone as they seem to have a toll free number for North Canada.

Mulling this over.

Meanwhile got someone interested in the car today!!!
Slowly but surely.......

 

[Honolulu]

OK folks, got the dollar exchanges done.
It was insightful to lear that the canadian dollar is not too far behind the US!!!!
Currently, it is merely .99 to the mighty US and so I converted my ready cash into canadian dollars!!
Something to be excited about!!!

Will carry the balance of the lading funds in American Express Traveler's Cheques.
Although I will lose a little money in the exchange rate and service charge it seemed better than doing this by direct transfer.
Any comments?

And oh we got temporary accommodation at York University at $1250 a month.
Bedroom, kitchenette and a room with sofa cum bed.
There is TV and electricity and heat included - and a coin laundry in the premises.
Internet needs to be subscribed to, but we are happy our daughter has the promise of a good start.

Oh Canada!!!

 

[Drea]

Hey Honolulu! Thanks for starting this thread!

I'm in the same boat as you: I'm landing on December 13. Hmmm, 8 more days! My route is Abu Dhabi - London - Toronto.

Yup, I'm pretty busy selling all my furniture, changing my money, finalizing my clearance at work and so on!

I'm gonna keep you all posted about my initial experiences too!


Wish me luck!


Drea ;D

 

[Honolulu]

Hullo Drea!
Exciting to learn about your prep.
Good wishes as you land and lots and lots of luck!!
We should do New Years together somewhere!!

 

[Appan]

Dear Drea,

Wish u good luck and Happy Landing...

Appan

Hey Honolulu! Thanks for starting this thread!

I'm in the same boat as you: I'm landing on December 13. Hmmm, 8 more days! My route is Abu Dhabi - London - Toronto.

Yup, I'm pretty busy selling all my furniture, changing my money, finalizing my clearance at work and so on!

I'm gonna keep you all posted about my initial experiences too!


Wish me luck!


Drea ;D

 

[Drea]

Thank you Honolulu! Thank you Appan!

 

[Honolulu]

Two more weeks only.
The TV was gone today and the car follows soon.
The house is looking distinctly bare and has begun to echo.
One more farewell this Friday!!
And I hear it is snowing in Toronto.
Already.....

 

[Honolulu]

Shortlist of sites browsed for renting apartments:

http://homes-extra.ca/mod-bin/index.cgi?cid=MARK-MCANO9-CanoeHomesRealestate_Rentershotline-ca_EN20090420NB1

http://www.247apartments.com/

http://www.viewit.ca/

http://toronto.kijiji.ca/f-housing-apartments-for-rent-W0QQCatIdZ37

(kijiji is good for many other things, free stuff, bargains, job offers etc. Sounded like a Canadian craigslist)

and of course

http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/apa/


This is a list of resources I found useful for the Toronto region but has links to the rest of Canada. By no means is this list complete. Just what I thought is a good resource with my own browsing and I thought I would share.

There is also mls canada for property search of a more permanent nature

http://www.mls.ca/

 

[apple3981]

Thanks Honolulu, will be watching and reading

 

[Honolulu]

Nice to hear from you Apple!
Well there are a bunch of interesting and informative threads already on settling down.
So I was hesitant to continue another one, hence the long silence...

But I changed my mind lately, so here goes:

Landed on 29th Dec. It was a traumatic three nights at Newark, stranded because of the snow!
Each day we would wait in a l o n g line to get our boarding passes updated only to find that our flights were cancelled again. The Newark Liberty International Airport was a deserted place with most shops closed except luckily a Macdonald's and a Breakfast place - so ate a lot of that - and slept on the floor.

All our misery disappeared as we reached the 29th. This time the passes were for real and we gathered in teh departure lounge and made our first acquaintance with Canadians, an Iranian couple, an elderly Chinese gentleman and a smiling old couple (of what seemed to me like British heritage).Everyone was like "Welcome to Canada, you'll love it there" Very reassuring.....

We trooped into a tiny plane and took off. Landed into Pearson, which at first glance did not seem terribly impressive, but oh well! And then, after what seemed like an endless march, came straight to a "Welcome to Canada" sign. Something inside us exploded in applause. We were "HOME" - at least in our home to be for the rest of our lives. The officials didn't look imposing, they were of all nationalities and everything appeared quiet and relaxed, unlike I must emphasize the US.
We looked at each other with congratulatory smiles. Yes, we were in Canada!

I wont bore you with the details of the what followed, there have been many excellent landing threads and we went through exactly what was mentioned by others in these forums. But yes, the immigration officer was so funny he cracked us up!! Made jokes about Canadians as he signed papers and kept passing on information on what to do. Customs people were nice too and indulged our daughter as she made her way to their rest room and sat on the floor eating her sandwich as we finished all the paperwork.

Oh yes, getting the baggage out was easy-peasy. Everything arrived intact and we loaded them really high and wobbly onto the "smartcartes" which we pulled out using our debit cards (no coin machines like we had heard). In fact didn't use a porter service coz everything seemed empty and somewhat dreary at Toronto that morning!

Next, we marched out into the exit area of the airport, all smiling and taking in the new surroundings with great excitement - here we had our friend waiting - loaded stuff into the taxi - we had tonnes literally tonnes of things ..... and split into the taxi and his car - and drove straight into their house.

I remember being HIT HARD by the blasting cold outside, but the smiling cabbie from Lahore just rattled on in Punjabi flavored Urdu as he introduced me to Toronto city on our drive....

 

[rubyalabar]

Hi Honolulu, congratulations on successfully landing in Canada!

Since you just recently landed, I thought I would ask you about one concern I have regarding the Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR).

My husband just landed from within Canada and he sent me a scanned copy of his COPR, my daughter and I are listed as accompanying dependents. However, my concern is that my family name when I was still single is the one listed there, the same way with my daughter. So instead of Ruby Alabar, it says Ruby Miguel (my maiden name).

In your COPR, were your wife's and child's name listed with your wife's maiden name too?

Thanks and am looking forward to your reply.

 

[Honolulu]

Hi Ruby Thanks!
Yes, for my wife it was the married last name.
I think you could explain to the immigration officer if you have the right papers and get it corrected.
Others can help in the forums too