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9th September 2023, 07:03
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| BHPian  | My Journey : From an International Student to a Permanent Resident in Canada Hello Everyone, There is already a thread on moving to/settling overseas and I would be lying if I say that I have read every single post, but I used to read the posts whenever it was on the Home page. Today is Sep 8th, 2023 here in Canada as I start writing this post and I received a final decision regarding my Permanent Resident (PR) application. I don't know when this post will be finally published but there are multiple reasons for making this thread/post: 1. Explaining the process to someone who is thinking of moving to Canada. 2. Giving an outline to make sure you don't need to go to an immigration firm and waste your hard earned money. 3. Give an honest view of all the aspects of life in Canada and how everything went as we moved from one stage to another. 4. Making a permanent memory on the Internet, to remind my self that "I did this too" in my life. 5. Closing thoughts after looking at current scenario of immigration in Canada. Note: Very long post. All the views expressed in this post are from my point of view, and it may be different from yours, but this is how I felt and so if it is offensive to anyone then I am sorry. No hard feelings. Please don't waste your and my time in trying to prove your point, if it is a technical mistake I'll acknowledge it, if its just that my view doesn't resonate with you and you want to debate about it, then I am sorry, I don't have the time and energy for it. A little background: I graduated in 2014 (in engineering, what else!  ), but in the year 2013, it was clear to me that Private Sector isn't my cup of tea and there are only two options either Military or Sarkari Naukri (Govt. Job) [Off topic: I am from Haryana, and we are crazy about Government jobs. Period. You'll find so many Haryana people in Delhi preparing for all level of services than any other state and also find them in all the government departments through out the country], and so I started giving time and Military was my first love, I am pretty sure if I had gotten in then I would have been Major by now but may be in next life. So, I prepared for these competitive exams and cleared the CDS (Combined Defense Services) Exam every time it happened, but I couldn't make it in the military interview (SSB), either got out on first day or on the last, and also I was about to the hit the age limit making me ineligible to these services. The next option was to go for SSC(Ministry jobs throughout the country) or the IBPS (this body selected Clerks and Probationary Officer(PO)/Assistant Manager for Nationalized Banks(PSB)). For the most part both these exams had same pattern but in some areas it was vastly different. I wasn't aware about the culture of Public Sector Banks(PSB) at that time but I was aware of the problems with SSC, the exam could be cracked but what would follow is a lawsuit, delayed results and delayed posting, overall you're looking at 2-4 years even before you can join, with IBPS I knew that in one year I will be working, so focus went on to IBPS. After coming home in May 2014, me and my younger brother started this journey and the result were following (We are general category candidates):
So, I signed up for the Syndicate Bank and my brother signed up as Agriculture Officer in PNB. I had to go through a one year program first, but it gave me a Post Degree Diploma, and that was nice as that helped my with an additional increment in pay when I joined the service. In 2016 I joined the bank and in March 2021 was the last time I went there, a lot happened during that time, I got married, became father in 2019 and also brought my Triumph (Time with my now-sold Triumph Street Twin) that same year, went to one of the most memorable (Mandvi, Gujarat and Rajasthan on a Triumph Street Twin) journey with my best friend on my motorcycle, saw the "Demonetization" and lived that awful period as a banker. The following is my take away working as an Assistant Manager in PSB (it contains both negative and positive aspects of the job): 1. As an officer, you get many perks such as lease if you're posted outside your hometown, you get huge amount in housing loan and that too on simple interest, you get to have a 2 wheeler and 4 wheeler loan on the same principle as a housing loan, you get one additional percent on FDs/RDs and you get all those brand new currency whenever you want them at a function/party. So, if you come from a humble background then bank will improve your financial standing for sure. 2. You get to make real contribution in making people's life change, I have done almost all sorts of loans barring corporate loans and felt this happiness every time I disbursed the amount to their accounts as then they were making progress in life and I had a small part in that progress which it always brings a feel good feeling. PSB employees don't get any commission, its fixed salary, so if I was helping someone financially then it was purely out of dedication, not for any other motive. 3. I got to see various businesses and understood how they worked, and met people from all walks of life, the dirt poor and the rich tier of the society. 4. I got to see the worst of the human nature as at the end of the day I was dealing with money and people change instantaneously when money is involved. 5. I got Covid, my wife too (as she was also a banker) and pretty sure we gave it to our son too who was not even 1 year old when Covid happened. 6. I got to witness how the bankers have no backbone and they have no self respect. Anyone can come and shout on you (never happened with my brother and me as we would tear that person apart) and your hands are tied, and god forbid if you do stand your ground because you have self respect then there can be complaint against you on every portal wherever there is a possibility and then you'll be forced to say sorry and ask for forgiveness in writing. 7. I got to see how tremendous the work load is, and how the odds are stacked against an honest officer working in PSBs because there are just so many things happening every single day, for example the higher management is not your friend, they are actually your enemy, there are leaves such as Privilege, Casual, Sick but taking them honestly is a task in itself, the Indian and Local government have so many hollow schemes and there is a new application everyday under them and if you deny them then you have the opportunity to have a complaint against you, and if you sanction these application then you have a very high probability of that loan turning into Non Performing Asset(NPA) or bad loan and then the internal bank auditors will be on your back as to why not due diligence was paid while sanctioning this loan, overall it is a rock and hard place situation. 8. I got to see bankers committing suicide under this pressure, and among those who committed suicide was a known to me, and I remember the year I came to Canada, there were already 5 bankers who had committed suicide that year and it was only April at that time, think about the pain those people were going through because of this working environment, that you are ready to leave your kids and family on their own, so that you don't need to meet the target on an XYZ scheme the next day and deal with those blood sucking AGM/DGM of your reginal office on the phone. Wow, I am a little bit triggered thinking about all those poor souls. But, like I mentioned earlier, I was doing my job honestly and I was posted in my hometown after a stint of 2 years out of state, and life was good but it wasn't enough, my wife and I were earning decently, savings was good and living in our father's house but we both were stuck and had this clock ticking, we were to be sent out of state again (most probably) if we took promotion and if we don't do that then the day we complete 3 years in our town, we would have been transferred somewhere else (could have been same branch in the same city or in another district). Also, we were going to bank at 9:30 in the morning and returning around 6:30-7:00 everyday leaving us tired and having very little time with our son for whom we are in this grind, so that he can have even better circumstances compared to us. And, then the idea of Canada materialized. Being from a General Category and seeing the state of affairs on ground level, two things were clear, we will not stop with the population, it will keep on increasing and we will never get rid of the quota system. It took me, my brother and wife almost a year of our lives to ace these exams to get these jobs and the same can't be said for the future when it is time for our kids, I come from a family where we all were educated, but had no lands or businesses to inherit, so getting these jobs was the only shot to become something in life and the more I age everyday the more I realize that there is so much more to do and I don't want to put my kid on the same path. My father says that there are two types of India, one we see on news channels, where the so called Think tanks sit together and discuss the state of affairs and then there is the other India, the raw India which doesn't care even a bit regarding the pollution, population and whatever topic we hold dear, all they care is having enough to make it to next day. Its like how Zakir Khan said in one of his comedy specials, there is India and then there is Bharat and I have seen the Real Bharat. Thank the God for the cheap internet available in our country keeping our youth glued to their phones, otherwise people will go crazy as the unemployment is so real and if we won't keep the crowd busy then one day it will wake up and it will be a stampede. Anyways, I will stop now, lets come back to our main topic. Canada. Closing thoughts to new bankers, seasoned veterans and the Customers too: Please don't succumb to pressure, it is just a job, at the end of the day nobody in the higher management cares and the worst they can do to you is transfer you in some weird area. I know its easier said than done but think about it, what is the worst thing they can do if you are not achieving branch/campaign targets, they won't physically hurt you, they won't come to your home at night, they can do nothing, the worst they can do is being petty, like delaying your lease, or making every request of yours slow, but that's about it. Their biggest weapon is transferring you, and once you make peace with that, then this is it, it will be just a job, which gets your home going and you can concentrate on good things in your life. I know it is hard but it is not possible, unless all the banks are privatized and then the job security is gone. Customers, please be respectful to these public servants. They are Public Servants, but they aren't literally your servant. Yes, there might be bad experiences, but the banking landscape is changing, folks are now young and most of them don't want to keep your work delayed, as there is already so much on their shoulders, by keeping you in limbo, they are not gaining anything. If you will be respectful and appreciating of their work, then it will motivate them and help them do their jobs with even more dedication, but if you get in altercation, and that too physical then you're just making them more numb to your requirements/aspirations and loosing the enthusiasm to help their fellow citizens. So, if you're having a tough time, rest assured, the banker, at least at the present time is having more on his plate than he asked for. The process of coming to Canada: If you're deciding to come to Canada, then first of all, I highly recommend to see the different pathways to Permanent residency available and read about them. The more you'll read the more you'll know. There are so many programs like Federal Skilled Worker, Canadian Experience Class, Province Nomination Program, Atlantic Immigration Program etc and may be something related to businesses too, but I don't have thorough knowledge of each and every program. Your friend here is IRCC, every information is available here and you just need to see if you qualify for the program. Your other friend here is the CRS score calculator. If you're curious to see if you have the score then please give it a go and to make things easier, for point 7, put the answer as NO, for point 8(LMIA, more on that later), put it as NO, for point 9(PNP program, more on that later), put it as NO. Now, see what you're scoring. This tool gives you a rough idea of where you stand today and if you come to Canada and study and find a job, then how much is the bump in points and will that be sufficient to get the ITA (Invitation To Apply) from IRCC. After checking your CRS score, check the cut-off of previous draws, which happened recently, giving you a fair idea, if its worth taking the risk. In 2021, I was going to be 30 years old and for IRCC that is old, after turning 30, every year you loose 5 points due to your age. So, age was not on my side and I gave the IELTS (General), without preparation, I must admit, but scored well except for the writing section. Even if I had scored well in that section too, I wasn't able to get past the cut off at that time and so "back door entry" plan had to be implemented. Off Topic: Besides IELTS, IRCC and other College/Universities also states which English Exams they accept, so IELTS is not the only test you have to take, and IELTS are of two types, Academic (for admission in an Education Institute) and General (for Immigration purposes). Back door Entry in Canada: If I had applied for immigration in Canada then I would have applied under Foreign Skilled Worker program or I could have tried to find a job here and come on a closed work permit which is also called LMIA (Labor Market Impact Assessment), it basically means that the employer tried to find a worker for a particular job but wasn't able to find one locally and then had to hire an overseas worker for the same. I was a banker, so finding an employer to go through all this hassle was next to nothing and so coming as a Student here was the only viable option. It would have meant two things: 1. I was about to dip into our savings which could have been used to purchase a property here in India. 2. I could loose my job in India as I had applied for leave without pay, but the answer was pending and it was kind of now or never, because if I go ahead then there is no turning back, no matter what the outcome of bank was. I would like to add something on LMIA, almost all the burden comes on the employer, who handles your application, you get 50 points! which is a big jump in your Permanent Residency, but it is not so easy, there are professions like IT guys, or as North America is reeling from Truckers shortage, so Transportation Companies are also willing to go through LMIA process so that the guy works for them and gets to stay. Immigration consultant/agencies also help out with LMIA but you're looking at a very big fees (may be in the line of CAD 50,000 or INR 30 Lakhs, it could be more or less, but that is a rough estimate) which doesn't mean that things will work out, as there is always a potential for scam in this one. Anyways, lets go back to the story. But, my wife and I had decided that we will do this and then next question was who'll do the actual study?  as it had been years since we touched books and studying that too in a foreign country where we had no clue how its all going to go down?I was chosen as the student and my wife would come on open work permit as spouses are allowed to work while their spouse studies. So, at least on thing was sorted. Next was to decide where to study and what to study? My good friend CJ, from Bathinda, Punjab helped me a lot in making this decision. I had a friend in bank who went to Ontario (it is on East side of Canada) province/state and stayed there in the colder months and he said it was brutal. CJ, suggested to come to British Columbia (here onwards as BC) and settle down here as the weather was kind of similar to India (when it is winter in India) and winters are cold but not as cold as the rest of the Canada. CJ came here in 2018 and this was in 2020 when we started talking, so, he had some experience and suggested that opportunity wise and how advanced things are, BC and Ontario are my best option, the other provinces are great too but not as great as BC or Ontario, plus BC has the weather on its side. Next, was to decide what to study? IRCC, has this unique thing, I think, this applies to almost all the countries, that, we(applicant) apply for a Visa and then try to convince them that we'll return back to our home country, which is really not the case, they know it, we know it, but you still play this game. So, my study program had to be something valid which aligns with me, with what I have done until now and I have to convince them that I will return back to India. Every province has a different procedure to apply for admission but for BC here is the process: 1. Give the IELTS (Academic) exam and try to score a band of 6 in every section, a more favorable case will be scoring 6.5 in each section. 2. You'll need to get Transcripts from your college, from where you have graduated. Transcripts are marksheets basically, printed on college's letterhead with Registrar's signature at the bottom. Not the case, in case of you coming here right after grade 12. When you apply for transcripts, get two copies, one for you and one for sending to World Education Services (WES, more on that later). 3. You'll need to get a backlog certificate from your college. Not the case, in case of you coming here right after grade 12. 4. You make an account on Education Planner BC and then start applying to the College of your choice. Another point, I would like to add is make sure, the college you're applying to is a "Designated Learning Institute" or a DLI and are allowed to offer PGWP(Post Graduate Work Permit, more on that later) programs. If you get into a college which isn't eligible to offer PGWP then you have wasted your time and money and now nothing can be done. 5. After applying to a College through the above step, you'll receive an Offer Letter from the institute, giving you information that you're eligible for so and so program, and in order to secure a seat, you need to give X amount of money transferred to them before so and so date. 6. You'll transfer them the money and then you'll get an other letter from them, informing that your seat is secured and you have paid X amount and your classes will begin on XYZ date. This letter will be the basis for you to apply for a study visa. 7. You'll go to IRCC website and apply for a Student Visa, a student visa application will generally asks for the following items, there might be more or less as times change but I was asked the following:
Indian students are eligible for SDS(Student Direct Stream) entry, if you make a GIC(kind of an deposit scheme in Canada of at least CAD 10,000 and deposit tuition fees for 1 year in advance), this scheme gets your visa application processed in 20 days (it doesn't mean it will get approved for sure, it means you'll have a decision). GIC: As mentioned earlier, it is kind of a Fixed Deposit, which minimum needs to be $10,000 for a student. Once, you land in Canada and visit your bank, then they'll start transferring the GIC amount back to you. How it works is that, in my case, I made a GIC of $10,000 and they gave me around $2600, for the first month and then the rest of the amount of given as $667 per month. This continued for 1 year. GIC is great in two ways, you get to be part of the SDS scheme and you have spare $10,000 already with you, which can be used for the upcoming fees. 8. You'll get a decision on your file, hopefully a YES and then if its a YES then you'll inform your college, send your passport fom stamping and book flight to the city where you're going. I know this seems a lot, it was stressful for me too, but look at the bright side, you'll be making sure your file is perfect, which an agent or consultant will not do, not that they don't care but they won't care as much as you will do, because its your file, next is that you'll save close to 1 Lakh rupee, depending on the fees of consultant, which can be used to book air tickets or as the money for your initial stay while you look for jobs. I would also like to point out that, yes, some of the agents don't take money from you and all the services provided are free, that is because then they send you to a college of their choice, or give you a list of colleges where you can go as per them, in that way they get a hefty commission from College, so they are making money in one way or the other. Note on WES: WES stands for World Education Services. It is an organization, which evaluates your Indian Degrees and give you an equivalent standard for the Canadian Education System. For example, you have done B.Tech in some discipline, but for them it might be only equivalent to a diploma in Canada. The following is the process for WES: 1. You'll make an account with WES and provide the name of your college/university in India and what have you studied there. 2. You'll pay your fees for the evaluation. 3. Your college will either send hard copies or send soft copies, the point is, the transcripts need to go directly from your institute in India, if you're sending them from your home, then the envelope needs to be sealed and stamped by the registrar and that envelope then can be sent by you. 4. You'll get a print out from WES which needs to be pasted on the envelope in Step 3 and the package will be sent to WES. 5. In few weeks you'll get your evaluation result, one copy will be provided to you and other will be for IRCC. Your evaluation is done and is now valid for the next 5 years. I highly recommend to do this whole process first and then go to your college to get the backlog certificate, as it will save your time and money (when its time to apply for PR as you'll need this education evaluation) and two things will be done together. Due, to Covid in its full force, my application took close to 45 days I guess, even though I was an SDS eligible applicant. I boarded the flight to Vancouver, Canada on April 14th 2021. Very Very important Note: In all this discussion above, I forgot to mention the most important bit. Choosing a program and where to study is important, but more important is choosing the length of the program. So, here you can have 1 year program or 2 years or even 2+ (if you're doing Phd or undergraduate degree), and then you get a work visa, called Post Graduate Work Permit(PGWP). Lets take a look at different scenarios: Scenario 1: You come for a one year program, it is called one year, but it will be only 8 months long and you'll get your PGWP for 1 year. Scenario 2: You come for a two year or longer program and it will give you 3 years of PGWP. Scenario 3: You come for a one year program, then again take admission in another 1 year program, and so completing two 1 year programs and this will also give you 3 years of PGWP. Although there are instances where IRCC handed over only 2 years of work visa as the applicant had only studied for two separate 1-1 year program IRCC expects you to study for at least 16 months and then you're eligible for 3 years of work visa. I chose Scenario 2, why you ask, because 2 year program was definitely going to be costly compared to 1 year program but it would give me 3 years of Work Permit, essentially giving me ample time to make it here, I could have chosen scenario 3 too as so many people do that but then again I would have applied for study permit, again the same process, and again the same wait, which frankly I didn't wanted to go through. Last edited by Sangwan : 12th January 2024 at 01:07. |
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19th September 2023, 08:18
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| BHPian | |
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28th September 2023, 09:36
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| BHPian | Re: My Journey : From an International Student to a Permanent Resident in Canada My first job in Canada: General Clerk at Save on Foods On May 5th, 2021, I started my first job as a part time employee at Save on Foods, Wilson St, Victoria. In a way, there was never a break in my income, I got the March salary from bank, then in April I moved to Canada but before moving, I had applied leaves for a whole month, so got paid again and in May I was working, so, no gap whatsoever, which was awesome  What's the job you ask? Well, I was given work for two departments Deli and Cash Register. Deli is a department in grocery stores where you get the processed meat, salads, people at Deli prepare different dishes which are ready to eat, they also prepare different sandwiches. Overall, a busy department and you're always moving or making something. I used to get the evening shifts, meaning I start my day at around 1 PM and then used to close the Deli department with another clerk. There I washed big utensils, cleaned the floor using broom, emptied trash cans, and prepared stuff for the morning staff. Cash register, is a different thing, there are self checkout counters, and then there are individual cashiers. Only 1 clerk works at self checkout and for the rest of the cashier lanes, there is an individual clerk. I used to get the morning/afternoon/night shifts. It was easy but boring, as the was no customer sometimes and then you just wait and sometimes it was super busy, like no time to relax at all. If there was no work, we used to go to different aisles and start doing "facing", which means we used to arrange the products, bring them near to the outer edge of the shelves, so that the store looks pretty. I was being paid $16.50/hr and that wasn't much or less, it was okay, I had no car/motorcycle, the bus ride was free because of the pass, so I was able to pay my rent, buy groceries, and pay other bills too. Keep in mind, that I could only work 20 hours per week. 18.5% tax was being deducted on my paycheck and roughly I was earning $1100 approximately every month. Also, if you're curious about the work environment/conditions, then here's my answer. Overall, it was great at the store, everyone was warm and helpful. For total 8.5 hours you're there, and how it works is that in first 2 hours you get 15 mins as break, then another 2 hours and you go for the 30 mins break and another 2 hours, you get 15 mins break and after the last 2 hours, you go home. Nobody will ever ask you to even stay a min extra, which was absolutely different compared to India. Here in India, in the banks, the manager will make such a face when you tell them that you're going home as if you've committed a heinous crime and they are super disappointed. Note: In the starting weeks as they were training me, the hours allotted to me were super low, sometimes 8 or sometimes only 12, that made me a little bit worried, as I didn't wanted to waste my savings and I tried to find work at other places too, then found a job at a recruiting agency. So, these folks, provided construction related workers, you could be a general laborer, electrician, carpenter, and what not. The businesses called them for a guy and they provided one. I went to them 2-3 times before SOF (Save on Foods) started allotting me full 20 hours. And, believe me guys, it was back breaking, it paid more but it was tough work, so working as a clerk was more easy. Last edited by Sangwan : 12th January 2024 at 01:26. |
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29th September 2023, 09:29
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| BHPian | Re: My Journey : From an International Student to a Permanent Resident in Canada 2021 Saga: Life, Bills, Tasks, Education and the Driving license Having started the job at SOF took care of the financial side, now I had my passport but nothing else, so I needed to take care of other stuff as well. As a student you need to take care of the following things (some of these might be REPEATING POINTS):
I took care of the above and so in this section we are going to talk about life in general and how everything felt. Let's start. Canada: First and foremost, everything is beautiful and clean and pretty and exactly how you see them in the pictures. When I exited from the airplane, and I inhaled the air, the feeling was absolutely different, even better compared to air when we go to mountains in India. Being in northern hemisphere, the sun is way bright and its windy and its cold. Vancouver lower mainland and Vancouver Islands have the best weather compared to rest of the Canada but it was cold. Being madly in love with cars and motorcycles, my happiness knew no bound when I saw all those cars which I generally saw on wallpapers or in big cities like Delhi, Chandigarh etc. Nobody honked for no reason and its overall pretty quite, I really don't mind it but it can be weird for some when they try to sleep because its pin drop silence, and Vancouver is one of the most popular cities in the world but even it goes to sleep at a reasonable time and you don't hear much noise in afterhours. People are friendly. Majority of them have a smile on their face and if you meet their gaze then a small nod or greetings happens which could be as small as a Hi! or Hey!. I got used to this later but found it a little bit uneasy in the start because if my gaze meets someone back in India then it is mostly to get something done . One of the best thing I felt amongst the people here is that how appreciative they are if someone is providing service to masses, the best example can be of city buses, whether Victoria or Vancouver, everyone said "Thank you" to the driver when they were getting off the bus, it isn't mandatory but they do it as gesture and I loved it. Very wholesome.People were even more friendlier on the island where Victoria is, if Vancouver is friendly then Victoria is super friendly and very welcoming. And it is a city but after staying here, you can say that it is a Big Town as its not as big as a city and population is less too. In Victoria, you see animals so close to humans. I never expected but once I settled in my room, I used to see Deer regularly roaming around in the front yard, I saw eagles, racoons and rabbits, and those small sparrows we used to see everywhere in India when we were kids. Also, these animals were not really afraid of being in between humans, even the birds used to come a lot closer compared to India. And then there is the coastline, every direction had some beach, and coupled with less population, you had a total relaxing time, it is just you, epic beauty, wooden logs and your thoughts. Education: Education is pretty different compared to the education system in India. Here the emphasis is on team work and preparing authentic work, evaluating your peers and really try to learn something. Back in college days in India, if needed, the final exam can be cracked within one night of study but here that strategy won't work at all, as the final marks will have a weightage of only 20% and the rest 80% will be already decided by then. Compared to India, education is easy and only you need to keep up with the curriculum and you'll be fine. I believe, every college has a student portal, mine did, so what they do is, they assign subjects to you as per them for your first trimester, you can change it if you want I guess, but things were new to me and I didn't knew back then, so started with whatever they felt fine, but after the first term, everything is on you, so that is again a lesson to the student which is "to be responsible". I had only three subjects in the start, I needed to complete total 15 subjects in order to complete the program and few of these subjects were mandatory and others were elective/ as per my choice. I won't go into much details but here is how it was for most of these subjects:
As the first term was nearing, I got the notification that on so and so date the registrations will begin for international students and the key is to make sure as soon as it starts you're on it because after the first term, nobody is going to help you out. If you waste your time, then you'll be waitlisted and it is not good, most probably you won't get the subject that term. It is not that there is cut throat competition as it is in India, but still you need to be active in doing so because as soon as you complete these courses, the sooner you'll finish up your program and be on work permit. It took me 4 terms to complete the whole program and in Aug 2022, I was done with it. Life: My life was easy and hard at the same time. Overall, I would say things went smoothly except for few issues. I was living alone, and my only responsibility was to take care of myself, work and study. I used to wake up early everyday and go on walks, which I couldn't back home as bank was occupying my life, I remember I used to walk almost 12,000 steps everyday. I would call my family, be on the phone with them and complete my steps. Attend the class in person or on laptop and then on someday go to work as I could only work 20 hours. We(my wife and I) had decided to wait for 1-2 months before applying for Spouse Open Work Permit (SOWP), which was a huge mistake, as what happened was it took 11.5 months for IRCC to approve their(wife and son's) application and then few more weeks for them to get the passport stamped and tickets booked. So, I missed a year of my son growing up, the Farmer protest was in full swing this time and my wife was driving through the protest every day back and forth from Bahadurgarh to Rohtak, Haryana. The internet sucked, and the wait was killing us, because of this wait for a decision on their application, it was becoming this burning issue whenever we talked as we used to run out of topics to talk and this issue lingered on, it was especially more harder when folks at my wife's place used to argue with her as to why we took this step (they are still not happy believe it or not), and this isn't the way to live and so much more that I can't disclose everything on the internet, but you get the idea, things were tense. But, other than that, everything was good, I was doing good in studies, had enough income to meet my expenses and used to go on long walks whenever time permitted. With my first place of accommodation, I signed lease until August 30th, as my plan was that my wife and kid will be here, we'll shift to a bigger place and so my lease was short term. It turned out to be a huge mistake. My landlord had already found new tenants and then started a month long ordeal, to find a place. It was at that time I realized how bad the housing market is in Victoria. I was going through all the listings on craigslist, facebook, kijiji and other rental place and in most of the cases, I didn't get any response or if I did, then the people told me that I was in waiting and if the person before me turn down the offer, I will get a chance. The situation was so bad, that at the end I even decided to come to lower mainland and live in Surrey and go back and forth taking the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria. On August 30th, when it was the last day of my lease, came a listing on craigslist at around 7 AM and the person responded, I told him I can visit them today itself and he told me to come at around 9 PM which I did, this place turned out to be great, it was near to my workplace and college was doable from here on bicycle. The person's name was Noel, he told me that in almost an hour they got almost 50 inquiries and I was the first person who messaged them, and that is why they contacted me first. What an adventure it was! On August 31st my current landlord, dropped me off at my new place and that was my place before I went to Surrey (more on that later). This new place was on Wallaston St, Esquimalt. My work place was less than 2 KMs way from here, there was a beautiful park near it and Victoria has this really long trail for walking/cycling/running, called Galloping goose trail, it was also not that far, and so I used to pedal to college, head to the gym, then attend classes, pedal back to my room and this happened throughout the remaining time. Driving License: ICBC is the authority which issues Driving License(DL) in British Columbia. Here a full privileges license is called Class 5 and motorcycle's license is called Class 6. The following are the steps to obtain class 5/6 license:
I was confident that for me it won't be an issue but how wrong was I, because on my 3rd attempt I got the DL and I still haven't got the motorcycle license. Knowledge Test: You have to score more than 80% on your test in order to clear it. My idea was to get both the licenses together, so I gave knowledge test of both car and motorcycle, I cleared them both. It doesn't take much to clear them, there are various webpages/apps to go through the questions and even ICBC lets you to take two mock tests I guess. After clearing them, they looked at my Indian DL, which is the old one, the laminated one with no chip in it. I think the representative was suspicious of my license because how it was and took it to her boss, she was okay and so they pasted a sticker on back of my license and gave it back, they asked me to book a road test as I am eligible right away because of the experience I had. I guess you have to wait few months or 2 years before you can take the road test if you don't have an experience ( I could be wrong on this one), but I was happy that one step is done. Failed attempt #1: My friend in Vancouver, handed over his 2020 Toyota Camry keys to me and I took it Victoria, on Vancouver Island and was at the center. I booked the first slot available in the morning. Before my test began, I drove around the area and I was confident that I will excel. Before this attempt, I must add that I had never driven automatics and I think the Camry has a CVT, so there I was practicing and soon went to the test center. I met the ICBC instructor, he asked me to use the lights, honk the horn, and press the brake pedal and asked me the hand gestures, then he got into the co-drivers seat and we were off. Everything went well and I was happy that it was going so smooth but then we took this right turn and all of a sudden we were on the highway, I was on 40 KMPH at that time and the speed limit was 80!, so the instructor asked me to speed up and the CVT took its sweet time to do the same which in the instructor's eye was a violation as I was driving slow in a high speed lane and so he failed me. After failing me, he asked me to call someone who had a full privilege Class 5 license as they took my original Indian DL and gave me a yellow paper, which can be used as a DL but it had a condition that I can only drive if a Class 5 person is supervising me. I waited for almost 40-45 mins while telling the story of failure to my friends and family back in India and then drove away alone in the car which I would not recommend others to do, as I was violating the terms and could get in trouble because of that but nothing unfortunate happened and at the weekend I again drove the car (not recommended) alone, and handed over the keys to my friend. Failed attempt #2: This time I gave the exam in Surrey, which is on lower mainland. My other friend CJ, also has a 2014 Toyota Camry, we practiced again and again and this time covered merging on to the highways and making sure I am following the speed limits everywhere. The time for test came and again things were going well, I followed all the instructions but because I have driven all my life in India I couldn't control some of my instincts. So, what happened was, my instructor took me to these residential areas, and every time I was at an unguided intersection, I wasn't braking but had my foot off the gas pedal which in her eyes was a mistake as she said that there was no reason to slow down and to her it seemed that I was not confident. So, again I failed. Successful attempt #3: So, with two failed attempts under my belt, I was finally ready to go for training (haha!), as something was going wrong every time. So, I contacted few driving schools and got in touch with Nitin. He and I talked on the phone, I told him the situation and we fixed an appointment. He came to the place where I was living and asked me to drive while he gave instructions as he wanted to see how good/bad my driving was? and what was needed for improvements. He came in a Toyota Prius, as it was a Prius, I wasn't even curious to find out which year it was and then it had the gear selector near the steering wheel on the dashboard, which I suspect, must have given Nitin another reason in his head as to why I failed . We drove for almost an hour and at the end he said that I am ready and he doesn't understand why I failed in the first step. He asked me to book the test ASAP and said that we'll go on another session of driving on the day of the test before it begins. Here it is guys, the test went smoothly, I overspeed a little when I was merging on the highway but other than that, there was no issue and I got my Canadian DL by driving a Prius!What about the Motorcycle license? Well, it was already the month of Nov when I got my Class 5 license, so I decided to halt my plan for motorcycle as I had already wasted my limited earning on the failed attempts fees, the fees for driving school and the fees for borrowing the car on day of test. So, I decided in 2022 I will get the license. My second job in Canada: Amazon Delivery Driver As soon as I got the license, I started applying for jobs where driving was involved as the pay was more. It was another mistake which I made and I will tell you why, if I had carried on with Save on Foods, I would have gained almost 1.25 years of experience as a Clerk, which was more than enough in this industry, and then as soon as I was about to graduate, I could have applied for department manager position, which would have helped me with my residency but wrong decisions are part of learning and so I looked for driving jobs. I applied for Delivery Driver position and after applying in about 5-6 hours, I got the call from a company's HR department and he started asking me questions and when can I start, it was all happening too quickly that I thought I was being scammed and I asked him like Hey! you don't need to do an in person interview? But it was real and so on Nov 26th 2021, I started working for Corporate Courier Logistics(CCL) which delivered Amazon packages. The pay was $18.50/hr but the biggest benefit was that the shift was of 10 hour, so instead of three days like I was doing at Save on Foods, I would do the job only for 2 days, giving me more time to take care of my education. With winters rolling in, here I am with my 2 weeks notice to my current employer and I started the training at being a delivery driver. I was supposed to go onto training with more experienced drivers for the first three days and then I was on my own. Here's a pic of My Ride( Just how the guy says in the starting of Tokyo drift movie):  Source: Google So, from no wheels I directly upgraded to this thing. It had a V6 and that was the only good thing about it I guess. It was a RWD, super light weight and tall, so not a good vehicle while it snowed and it did snow a lot on Christmas time. I worked with this company till Sep 2022. I never had an accident, once I had to call a tow truck as I got stuck in mud at a residential area, one time I damaged some bricks of a driveway and one time I couldn't make it on to the next slope when winters were on as my tires slipped and I rolled back, fortunately I was in the countryside and there was no traffic and got the van out with help of 2 local men in around 1.5 hours. I worked for CCL in Victoria till March 2022 and then from April onwards I worked in Burnaby which is another city in lower mainland. This opportunity helped me to witness each and every corner of beautiful Victoria and most of the parts of Northern Burnaby. While I was in Victoria and on the job, I saw some spectacular homes, surroundings, beaches and countryside, it was so beautiful sometimes that I used to just sit in my drivers seat and soak in the view for few mins. Victoria is gorgeous and if situation permits I would like to spend my life over there. Also, with this jobs things were not easier, it was 17 Kms away from Victoria, in a town called Saanichton. I used to spend 1.5-2 hours in city buses to get to my workplace, do the 10 hours shift, again spend close to 2 hours to reach my place, prepare/heat the food and then sleep. And winter was brutal because in order to reach home quickly after I was done for the day, I used to walk 2 KMs while it was -2 to 5 degrees or on the negative side of 0 degree Celsius, and there were couple of instances where I ran 2 KMs in one direction with two layers of clothing on my legs, 4 layers (including Jacket) on top, with a bag on my back and heavy snow shoes, and reached the bus stop, then the bus never comes and then the bus on the other side is coming is coming soon and so I ran another 2 KMs back to my original spot, plus 400 meters more to make to the bus stop and have waved/shouted to ensure the driver sees me and waits for me otherwise its another at least 40 mins wait for the next bus to show up. Overall, not good experience when it comes to winters. Side Note: Amazon Corporation, in order to not be liable for a mishap, doesn't hire directly the drivers here in Canada, rather they give out contracts to logistics company, so that later on if something goes wrong, they are the ones, handling the issue, plus the drivers are not their employees so no need to give any sort of benefits to them. Expenses/Tasks: In the starting with INR and CAD exchange rate in my mind with every transaction, I used to think how expensive it is. Even the good old "Dhaniya" and "Hari Mirch" were costing in $s and every single thing seemed expensive, but I must say there was quality in it. It is here in Canada, I finally felt a taste while having potatoes, Haha. As I had no vehicle, the following were my monthly expenses:
If I had gone for a car I would have needed to pay for insurance too and that is expensive. I am not sure but people say that auto insurance is cheaper in USA compared to Canada and in British Columbia, there is only one authority which is ICBC and their premiums keep on changing, so I don't know the exact calculation process but having experience helps. I currently pay CAD 179 and CAD 173 on my two Santa Fes every month. While I was a student, roughly I had $1100 after all the deductions in my bank account in a month and in this amount I used to manage everything, and of this $1100, $700 was deducted right away every month as that was rent so I managed easily on $400 with all the other above listed expenses. I eat whatever and whenever I wanted, money was never an issue between me and my tummy and with no other expenses, it was overall a smooth sailing. Bye-Bye 2021: I got to celebrate my birthday with my friends, which was good but on the new years eve, I was alone, I didn't had my Amazon shift and also it was my wedding anniversary (yes I got married on 31st Dec), so went out and donated blood and that was it. Lets welcome 2022! Last edited by Sangwan : 12th January 2024 at 01:50. |
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4th November 2023, 07:30
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| BHPian | Re: My Journey : From an International Student to a Permanent Resident in Canada 2022 Saga: Things notched up a little bit The new year started, I had big hopes from this year as maybe just maybe IRCC will finally approve or disapprove my wife and kid's application, I will be done with my studies and earn a decent income, will start gathering experience for PR process but the biggest point of happiness is I will have my son and wife here and no more phones and no more "Re-connecting..." error on WhatsApp. Hurray! Decision to move from Victoria to Surrey: Now, I mentioned in my earlier posts that Victoria has a housing crisis and it still is, and finally in Feb/March of 2022 IRCC approved our application and it was going to happen, I would see my wife and kid, but that gave rise to a new problem, where to stay? I again checked the usual websites, applied and things were as bleak as they were for me when I switched rooms. Most of the places were out of my budget and if something felt within the budget, then they were allowing only two people, not 3 even if one of them was a kid. So, I tried for few weeks and as I was running out of time, I finally decided to move to lower mainland, as there were more job opportunities, rent was less compared to Victoria and more Indian restaurants/grocery stores. So, I asked my friend CJ to see the listings I sent him and he finalized one, where I still stay (or I moved, depending on the time when this thread goes live). So, it was a 2 bedroom basement suite, which included hydro, electricity and Wi-Fi. The rent was $1250 for start and now at the time of writing it is $1400. Off-topic: In tiktok/Instagram reels I have seen how people show the "basement" in Canada, it is like this under the ground place with no ventilation and what not, which is true on the Ontario side, but at least the places I have seen in BC are decent. Most of the basement suites including mine are semi-underground i.e. the area below the window is in the ground but that doesn't mean its not ventilated, my place has big windows in every room and it is more than enough space for 3 people leaving together. Back to the story now, this place had two benefits, there was a children's park near-by and a day care just 3 houses away! With housing solved, I needed few more items to make this place a home for family. My landlord gave me a 2 seater reclining sofa and a round table, which we are still using and I decided the following was needed:
I had CJ living in Delta (Another city, adjacent to Surrey) and a friend living in North Vancouver (Where I lived for around 2 weeks before my wife and son came here), so all these things I could get later. The pressing matter for me was to get a Car and that's what I did first. Mind you, at this time I was still living in Victoria, it was March of 2022 and I decided to get my first car in Canada. I won't get into the details, you can read about it here (My TWO used Hyundai Santa Fe V6 AWDs | Ownership Review) and I am updating the ownership thread regularly (incase you're curious). So, I came to Vancouver through the ferry and then drove the car back to Victoria, loaded all my luggage and dropped them at new place. Then I was off to Vancouver to my friends and these are friends I know from College days, so it was like boys hostel again but now more civilized. During this time, I spent extensive time on FB Marketplace and bought an almost new 55" Samsung TV($450), a TV stand( $50), a shoe rack ($10). I got all the items such as almirah, drawer, small plastic boxes, towels, chair, stool etc from IKEA. I ordered king size frame and mattress from Walmart and Amazon and with this my place was ready to welcome my family. April 22nd, 2022: This was the day when I was re-united with my wife and kid, what was supposed to be a 3/4 months wait tops turned into more than a year of longing. As I type this I am still hoping to re-unite with my and my wife's family, its been close to 3 years now! I won't call myself a tall person, but by seeing them only on the phone and seeing things/people here in Canada, I found them pretty tiny the first time I saw them in person . I took my son in my arms, he came to me but I could see he has forgotten me a little bit, then we proceeded to the parking lot with all the luggage they brought with them and my wife was just walking and when I told her this is our car (our Blue Santa Fe), I can't explain with words but she had this look on her face as if she saw a behemoth (she was used to seeing our Honda City). Then came the hardest part, instead of talking and feeling happy, my son wanted to get into the driver seat with me, and this was my and my family's mistake. This kid had been either on the drivers seat or the co-drivers seat till this date and being a 2.5 years old, it wasn't easy for him to digest the fact and that day and the few weeks after that, it took him time to get used to car seats and sitting in the back.This is him(and look at his face in the IRVM) with my father in our 2015 Thar (we no longer have this one with us) back in Aug of 2021, so you can understand what I am talking about.  Now, as I was already familiar with the steps to be followed for a new immigrant, we did the same and I got all the things done for my wife like getting the SIN number, a new phone number, including them in the medical coverage, new bank account and BC Id (which can be used as a valid ID instead of a passport). As for my son, as he is less than 5 years old, he was only included in the MSP, we can't get BC ID or anything else for him at this moment and that is fine. I couldn't recall if anyone has asked for some sort of Identification for him to this date. My wife was earning since 2015, so being at home doing nothing is not possible for her, as soon as we got the SIN for her, we updated her resume and started with Indeed. Believe it or not, I was applying jobs on indeed for almost 2-4 hours everyday and may be I had applied close to 500 or even 1000, I don't know, wherever we felt it was doable, we applied and money wasn't a concern at this moment as the priority was to earn right away without wasting any time. I would also list out the following places you should/shouldn't visit on the internet and apply/not apply:
We applied to banks too because of our banking background but they hire people with PR/Citizen status I guess as they never responded to our applications. I have only heard twice (since 2021) back from them otherwise it was all in vain. Note: When you apply for grocery store jobs, keep the resume super simple, emphasize on customer service, don't provide all the details of your previous accomplishment as that will appear to the recruiters as you're just trying to find in something for a short term before you find your actual job. Back to our story, we gave three interviews in total and finally started with Thirst First Refreshments (TFR), where my wife still works. We said yes to the first person who said yes to us, TFR approached my wife first and TFR was one of the best decision we took because timing, pay for starting over there and the work culture suited her. She started working for them on May 16, 2022. So, in less than a month my wife was on a full-time job, but this took an effort by us and that's why we had this great start, otherwise if we had been lazy with our approach, it could have taken a month or two more to find a job. Guys! consistency matters! I would also like to shed some more light on the work culture in Canada. At my wife's workplace, meeting happen often and the employee who performs is given due credit. For the first time my wife was praised so much by her supervisors and even by the director and owner of the company. Back home in India, in our Nationalized banks, no matter how much effort you gave, it was not enough and appreciation from your seniors was the last thing you'll see. My wife felt difference of night and day here and now she jokes she can never go back and work for bank again after this. With wife's working life sorted, me with my last term on, everything was going well and then we started with our next target which was to get one of our parent over here, as our son was never left alone in a daycare/play school and we were not ready I guess at that time. My father was still working and my wife's father was retired, so he could come and help us and also that would have saved a ton of money which could have been used to buy other things, or used towards the down payment for a property. So, we thought lets get everyone's visa process done right away, so that when someone decides to come, then all they would need is purchasing the air tickets. Today is Nov 16th 2023, sheesh, its been over 2 months since I started this thread and there is so slow progress. So, this is the current process to apply for a Visitor Visa. I won't be attaching any screenshots, as I feel the process is pretty straight forward, but first I will list out the documents which you would need to file for visitor visa to Canada. The documents you should have with you when applying for a Visitor Visa.
Very very important: Once you enter all the details in the visitor visa portal, you'll have a space to upload Letter of Invitation (LOI) and Statement of Purpose(SOP), SOP is uploaded in Additional Client Information section. I firmly believe that SOP and LOI help you represent your case in a better way and helps you to reduce your chances of application getting rejected. If your English ( mine isn't perfect either but does the job) isn't good then ask your kid or a friend or someone to write the SOP/LOI for you as with these documents ready and SOP/LOI in your hand, you won't need to hire any consultant at all. Almost 99% of the time, the refusal letters from IRCC mention the following reason, a) You don't have the financial means to support your stay in Canada. b) You won't leave Canada at the end of your stay. Your SOP should have the following details: I like to write them in a paragraph form, please don't use cheesy lines, or some English sayings or something idiotic, keep it simple, short and try to wrap it up in 1 or 2 page, don't write unnecessary things. Start with an introduction about you (and your spouse/travelling partner...if any), tell them where you reside, how old are you, things like that, like how we introduce ourselves in an interview. Then write about the person who is in Canada and how he/she is related to you and when and why you want to visit them. Then talk about your finances, how you're going to finance your stay, talk about your liquid assets more and if you're being sponsored by the person living in Canada, then talk about his salary, where he works etc. After that you'll move to a new paragraph stating what places you'll see in Canada if your stay is approved, don't use vague terms like "visit beautiful places in Canada". Canada is vast and so you should mention places which are tourist spots in the city you're visiting or the places in the nearby provinces. This will show that you've done your homework and have a rough itinerary in mind. Then tell them that after you have met your loved ones and have seen the places you wish to visit you'll return back to India or your home country. Talk about your ties, such as the property you own, or the job you have to join back once the leaves are over, your kids/parents back home, your extended family, you can even attach pics at the end of your SOP. Then end your SOP with a happy note like, "I/We hope the Canadian High Commission approves my visa application and I/we get to meet my/our XYZ. Thank you for reading. Regards, ABC" Steps to create account on new visitor visa portal: 1. You need to get an invitation code first, open this link and you'll get an invitation code on the email you mentioned. 2. Then go on to this Sign up page and make the account with the invitation code you just got. 3. Then you'll start your application, just be calm and read everything, you'll not screw up and will easily ace it. Side Note: Its easy stuff if you'll read carefully, otherwise if you're confused but are a member of this forum, DM me, I'll help you and will charge a very nominal fee. Thank you. Another important note: Canada is part of Five Eyes (I guess that what's its called), the other four countries are US, NZ, UK, AUS. So, if your visa got refused in these countries or even somewhere else then be truthful and disclose it right away, because if you don't do so and then they find it out, it will leave a really bad impression, it can lead to refusal of visa or in some worst cases, being banned for a certain number of years. So, don't lie! Its raining visas Y'all: We applied the visas and got rejection in one application (re-applied again and next time it was successful), everyone who was thinking of coming here had visitor visa in their hand. But, then nobody came. You know, how sometimes we are like crazy after a thing and once you have it, it feels like it was nothing, and the euphoria dies. Well, this is how it went with our family, first everyone was on our back with their applications but once everyone got it, nobody showed willingness to come here. It was clear that our son is going to a daycare. Finding a daycare: You might be elder than me or younger than me, still I will share my parenting advice with you guys. There was a daycare just three houses away from where I live, I talked to them last, first I checked other daycares near me, my aim was to find the best one within the radius of 5 KMs. So, I went to 4 daycares in total and here is my takeaway on them:
As I mentioned earlier, I checked four daycares and the one where my son went wasn't my first choice but now I am glad it was as closer to home, we took our own sweet time to adjust him to new reality and overall it was great. He didn't went to my first choice because that day care was full and they were not taking in anymore kids. I am not mentioning the address of the daycare where my son went because it might move by the time this thread goes live. Daycare was expensive for sure, I was paying $800 per month in the start, but it was a boon because my son was now more confident amongst other kids, he communicated and was learning English, as I still prefer Hindi when we are home. And now he is always waiting for me to drop him at daycare so that he can just stay with other kids and play as much as he can. What about school? : In Canada, your schooling starts at the age of 5, so the year in which your kid is turning 5 he'll need to enroll in school. The schools start their term in the month of September and as the schools are public, education is free and they take kids based on the residential address. You need to register your kid in the month of Jan-Mar of the school year and that will ensure their seat in Sep. I have no idea about private schooling, nor I will write more on this topic now as my son is 4 years old. August 2022, and Flag polling: In the month of August, I completed my studies and got my "Official Transcripts" and "Letter of Completion" from college. Only these two documents are needed from your end to apply for Post Graduate Work Permit (PGWP). You have to apply online using your GCKey login but as I was living in Surrey which is close to US border, I decided to Flagpole, and to make sure not to get stuck in a crowd, I decided to go early in the morning at around 5 AM as the border office is open 24 hours. So, I got up really early and went to Peace Arch/Douglas border. Those of you who know about this place must have noticed that there is this point when you can make U-turn and not get into the US and just drive back to Canada, I did exactly the same. The Canadian Border Officer stopped me and I told him what I was doing, then he asked for my passport and here I realized my mistake, instead of my own passport, I brought my kid's. I apologized told him I'll be back in half an hour and that's what I did. I returned again, took the same U-turn and this time I was asked to go into the building with all my documents and wait, it was around 5:45 AM, they were changing shifts and so I had to wait for new staff to clock in. New staff came and asked me to give them all of my documents and I waited and my heart was racing. Why, you ask? Because I was working for Amazon and being a student there were instances where I crossed the 20 hour threshold and I was worried what if they see my timings and reject my application. They took almost 45-50 mins and then called me and asked me to pay the fees and printed the new work permit. YES!!!!! August 24, 2025 was the new expiry date and that is how long I had to make it in this country. Lets find a job now. Back on Indeed: I had already started applying for jobs in the start of August but after getting work permit I was applying everywhere. The goal is to find a NOC B/ TEER 3 or higher job. NOC or TEER are job classification level implemented by the Canadian Govt, in order to make your Canadian Experience count, your job should be at least NOC B or TEER 3 level. NOC is not being used anymore and its TEER system nowadays. So, I could work full time for Amazon as a delivery driver, earn decent money but it won't count as experience towards the residency which was the ultimate goal. So, I kept working and kept applying. First fulltime job offer and disaster: In the month of August itself, I got my first break. There is this firm called Spring Financial, they are based in Vancouver and offered me a position, I don't really remember the position but checked that it would count towards the Canadian Experience. So, everything went well, interview and everything and I deposited my documents and even my profile was set in their HR system. They asked me when can I start, it would be either August 29th or September 15th (don't remember Sep date for sure). My son had started daycare on Aug 17, 2022 and we were taking it slow with him, so I informed the HR at Spring Financial and told them I will join later on. I gave my notice to CCL where I was working as a driver and stopped applying on Indeed as I had got the job and was happy. So, on a Friday afternoon in September right before the Monday I was supposed to join the new position I got call from Spring Financial that their finances are not looking great and they have to take away job offers from everyone. I was sad/angry/devastated, I can go on and on with words describing my emotional state but all I said on the phone was OK. The guy on the phone said "if they offer new position in the future I will be on top of their list!", like really!? after all this has been said and done, I will still try to have a future at this company!? I hope this company dies and all the people go to hell. After this I shared the sad news with my wife and was back on the laptop, applying for jobs. Also, reached out to CCL where I was working and asked them to ignore my notice and keep on providing me shifts. Awful people at work again: So, CCL was wrapping up its business in Burnaby and were moving to Vancouver Island, and Sep 25th was supposed to be the last day of operation. I was still looking for job and a guy reached out to me from Jiffy Lube. Jiffy lube is a franchise operation, they perform basic maintenance like oil change, brake fluid change, transmission fluid change etc. They sell their franchise to businesses and so it is privately owned. I had applied there at one location and so this guy asked me to come in for an interview. I reached on time and met the supervisor, told him how crazy I was about cars and I will make sure that I will do my best here. He gave me the first bad news that I will be paid only $17/hr and it will increase based on my "performance" and I will be working 6 days a week. This salary was even less than what I was being paid at CCL but I needed the position in order to gain the experience (as every single day mattered to me) for residency and I was so happy, my happiness knew no bounds as I was going to be working on cars and being paid. The lower pay was really not affecting me or my spirits at all. Even with my family being here we managed on my 20 hour/week schedule, we can definitely make it work with this one, I said to myself. But, this happiness was very short lived and let me tell you why:
THE CALL: So, it was a Thursday when my son got sick and I didn't go to Jiffy Lube and had that disappointing call with the supervisor. Right after the call ended and I made up my mind to apply for jobs again, I got call from my current boss (depending when I finish this thread  ) asking if I still was interested in the position. Remember, how I used to apply non-stop on every single position on indeed, turns out I had applied at Tforce Logistics for a Supervisor position and my boss was finally reaching out to the applicants. He took my interview over the phone and was impressed and asked me to come in for a final interview. Monday was off for me at Jiffy Lube and he said Monday is fine and we met, I gave another interview and he told me the hours of the job, my role and how many applicants I am competing with (we were 3 people at the end competing for this position). I was working at Jiffy Lubes and got the call from Tforce, they were offering me the position and asked me when can I join and what documents I need to send. I enquired about the salary and it was $50,000 a year. Not much compared to IT people but from $17/hr to this was a huge jump for me and I said yes. I told my supervisor about the developments and he said I can quit right now if I wanted to, no need to give in the notice period, no wonder they don't want one as everyone just wants to leave that awful place but I stayed there till the evening and next day I was at Tforce office with all my documents. I joined Jiffy Lube on Oct 3 and on Oct 21, 2022 I started working as Evening Supervisor at Tforce. These people at Jiffy Lube were so bad that they never gave me the hard copy of my last paycheck, they never gave me my T4 which I needed for tax filing. Awful, awful people.END OF THE YEAR, ANOTHER FLAGPOLLING AND ILLEGAL ENTRY INTO USA!!! : I started my role at Tforce and in order to get my wife's and son's visa/permit extended I needed two things, a letter from my employer stating my position, duties etc. and 3 pay slips. So, in Dec of 2022 I had everything with me and again on a Cold Canadian morning we were heading to US-Canadian Border again (haha!). Remember how I told earlier that there was a place to take a U-turn, well on that day it wasn't the case and we had no other choice but to enter towards the USA. The US side border officer stopped us, I explained everything but this one was a very stern person and he was like, "you have entered US illegally, there is nothing called flagpolling". He just wouldn't listen and my and my wife's hearts started racing, he pasted an orange paper on the car's windshield and asked us to head towards the building on US side. He updated the guys over the radio about our arrival. When we went inside there were two other officer, they were in their 50s I guess and asked what's the issue? We told them everything and they understood and said well now we can't return you as the officer has created a case, he needs to come in, do his report and then he can let you guys go. What a nightmare! Well we waited for sometime and then finally "that" officer came. He was now a little bit calm and said this isn't the way, there is no such thing as flagpolling, he took our passports, ran it through their system, took our fingerprints and finally gave us a single page form. I asked him that in the future we'll apply for US visa for sure, will today's incident create an issue for us? He said no, what this form basically means is that you came to US but you didn't had the visa so we returned you back where you came from. I still have that form with us and when I applied for my PR, we mentioned this incident to IRCC but seems what the officer was saying was true, as there was no issue whatsoever regarding this at all. This officer then came out with us, made sure we sat in our car and went on the road towards Canada. So, this is how, I along with my family went to USA unknowingly. On the Canadian side, it was a smooth sailing. We explained to officer what had occurred since the morning and why we are here, also showed him the form the US officer gave us, he asked us to go inside, they took my documents and my wife's and son's permit and again in 40-50 mins, we had our permits extended to Aug 2025. After getting the permits, I had to again update British Columbia Health department about our permit extensions, they made new Health Cards for us and sent them to us via email. Our SINs were extended and for once everything was taken care off and we can relax and wait out. Looking forward to 2023 now. Side Note: Flag polling is great as it saves you all this time and hassle but if everything is going okay, you have finished your studies and can work full-time then just apply for the work permit through the regular route. I know the wait can be longer but it will save you all this headache, what if something worse had happened on US side and it would have costed money and more time to get that rectified. So, overall I feel like going through regular channel is more suitable instead going on this adventure ride. Last edited by Sangwan : 13th January 2024 at 00:47. |
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16th December 2023, 08:13
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| BHPian | Re: My Journey : From an International Student to a Permanent Resident in Canada 2023: A year worth remembering 2023 will be remembered by me and my wife for so many reasons which you'll come to know as you read along. There were certainly really some shitty days and some really peaceful, happiness generating days. For example, I always wanted to learn guitar and my wife too but being a banker and then having a kid around we never got the chance but we made a commitment this year that both of us will learn to play guitar this year. So, went to a musical instrument shop and bought a used almost new guitar for $100. It took me 2.5 months to learn how to play guitar and here is how I believe you can learn it too:
Life was going on as it is and every single day the time was coming closer. In the month of March we finally decided to create our file for residency as the rule is (I think I mentioned this in earlier threads too) that if two people are having same CRS score then the person whose file was made earlier in the system will get the invitation. The file can stay only a year and then you have to do the whole process again and enter with a new number. So, the first step is to create a GC Key account. You need to go on this link. Once you've created the account, you'll login and there will be an option called, "Start an application". You'll then go on to the section under "I do not have a Personal Reference Code", over there select the Express Entry(EE) option. It will start asking you a series of questions, like what language test did you take, on what date, what were your score, what is the job classification of your current job and how long have you been doing the job, at the end it will let you know if you qualify for an express entry program or not. While you create an express entry, you don't really need to upload anything at that point. IRCC believes you, and believes whatever you're stating is true. You need the following information while filling in the details: 1. Your Education History. 2. Your Employment History. 3. Your age proof. 4. Your English/French Language proof. 5. Details of your kids (if any)/parents/siblings. 6. Your residence history (places where you stayed in last 10 years). The data you provide to IRCC application portal will give you marks and that will reflect in your EE profile. If all goes well you'll get the invitation from IRCC to apply for residency and at this stage you'll start providing the proofs. Lets come back to my story so that we can understand things much better. Our hearts went racing: So, like I said we created our EE profile. First, we created an EE profile keeping my wife as the main applicant and my son and I would be the dependents. The reasoning was that from first day onwards on her job, the experience she was gaining was counted towards Canadian work experience as her position and duties fell under NOC B/ TEER 3 job. So, she was going to be completing one year before me. Then, we created another profile where I was the main applicant and my wife and son were dependents. The idea was whoever got the invitation first can get the ball rolling for the whole family. What is TEER or NOC? This is a classification system used by Canadian Government. Every single job they have in the market is classified in TEER (earlier the classification was NOC). So, in order to get your experience counted your job position in Canada should be either TEER 3 or higher, which will be TEER 3/2/1. In terms of NOC it should be either NOC B or A or 0. If your job category is NOC C/D or TEER 4 or lower then stop wasting your time and look for higher grade jobs. Your job duties matter not your title. Different organizations can give a job position different name. For example, when I applied for job at Tforce, the position was known as Operations Supervisor, when I joined it became Operations Coordinator. The supervisor position is NOC B but the Coordinator position was NOC C, but, it is the job description that counts, in my job description it was clearly mentioned how supervising is a part of job. So, go through the job descriptions first and you'll be all set. Another important point to keep in mind is that you should be certain of the NOC/TEER code under which you're applying. If you feel that you're not sure, then reach out to your boss or HR department, explain them why you're asking this and they'll surely help you out to make sure that you're putting in the correct information in your file. Back to the story now, as I mentioned earlier my wife started working in May 2022 and when you fill in the details about your employment, the application portal doesn't ask you about the specific date, it asks for the month and year you started working. Wife and I were not aware at the time but what it does is that in the month of April itself the system started giving our CRS score as 488. When we saw the updated score, instead of being happy, our hearts started racing as we thought somehow even after being careful all this time, we have made an error while filling in the details and something is so wrong because we were expecting the score to change in the month of May. Checked everything and it was perfect, so the scores do change and it makes sense in a way because as per the system my wife started working in May 2022 so she'll be done with her full year in April 2023. The Invitation: On April 12, 2023, IRCC conducted draw #246, 3500 applicants were invited to apply for residency. The cut-off for this draw was 486, and our score was 488. After about 2-3 hours, my wife got the email that we have been invited to apply for residency and the letter contained a table which showed the marks allotted to us in different categories and now we had 60 days to submit all the required proofs and submit our file for final submission. Off-topic, in the next draw, my best friend too got the invitation as for that draw, the cut-off was 483 and he had 486 as his score. Nowadays, the last draw cut-off was 541! (we'll get back to this thing when I'll give you my closing thoughts). OMG! so many documents: Buckle up guys, this is the real deal now. You have got the invite, you can't screw up this thing. No matter how frustrating or nerve wrecking it gets, be calm and make sure you have all the details. We'll go through them one by one. Age Proof: As the main applicant and/or as the dependent spouse, you don't need to worry at all if you don't' have a birth certificate or the details in your birth certificate are incorrect because you don't need it. In this section, you just need to upload your passport. BUT, an important thing to note is that besides the first and the last page of your passport, you need to also scan all those pages where there is stamping of leaving or arriving in a country or where the visas are pasted. Just leave the empty pages, and scan the whole passport. Make a single PDF file with all these scans and upload it. Also, keep in mind that the file size should be smaller than 4 MB. Canadian Work Experience: Easily one of the easiest thing to take care off after the Age proof. Here you don't need to do any jugaad. All you need is the following: 1. Letter from your employer stating that You are working as XYZ at XYZ organization since XYZ, being paid XYZ bi-weekly/bi-monthly/monthly and the following are the job duties. Then job duties will be mentioned. And at the end, your manager/supervisor will sign the letter. Remember is should be on the company's letterhead. 2. Your 3/4 latest salary slips or paystubs as they call them here. Note: Incase you have worked at multiple places like I did as I was a student then reach out to the HR office of those places and ask for the letter, if its not possible (as can be the case with small businesses) then attach the pay slips and T4 for the same. Education Proof: As I have already described in my first post about WES. It is an organization which will give you a document as a proof to show what your home countries degrees are equivalent in terms of Canada. You don't need to get each and every degree evaluated. If you have done masters as your highest degree then only that needs to be evaluated. You'll put the following details in your educational proof: 1. WES evaluation result. 2. Transcripts/marksheets scanned copies. 3. Final degree from the institution. 4. Attach the rest of the documents such as your other degrees/diploma/10th and 12th marksheets. Again, a single file needs to be made and all this information will be there. With WES only highest degree is okay but you need to attach the rest of the educational data of your so that it confirms with the timeline which I will tell later. Canadian Education Proof: Again an easy category, all you need is the following: 1. Program completion letter from Canadian College/University 2. Official Transcripts scanned copy. 3. Degree/Certificate from college/university ( not necessary, we attached it as we had it with us) India/Home country Work Experience: God, this could be so easy but for us this was the biggest hurdle. Public sector institutions are not helpful to their employees and my wife was the main applicant ( she had taken 2 years sabbatical leaves from the bank in India, it is Jan 2024 right now as I type this and her leaves are still left till May 2024 ), she tried few times to get the letter from HR (as I explained earlier for Canadian Work Experience) but every time, there was a question as to why you need it, because for every single thing you do, there has to be a request letter, a permission needs to be granted by the bank and then only you'll get that letter. So, it was clear that we will not get the letter from our banks and this is not official, but if you provide enough proofs about your experience then you can do it without letter too. In our case we attached the following:1.Employee ID card. 2. 3 Latest salary slips before moving to Canada. 3. Salary statements since the year working for bank which was 2015 in our case. 4. Form 16B for all the years of bank service. 5. ITR acknowledgement. 6. Confirmation as an Assistant Manager from the bank ( this letter is given to every employee when their probation ends as an officer) 7. Appointment letter from the bank. 8. Recommendation letter from bank colleagues. 9. JAIIB/CAIIB certificates (we can only clear these exams if we are bankers) 10. Salary account statement for all the years, highlighting the salary credit. So, you see this is a lot of information which could have been avoided if we had that letter from bank, a single page could have done the job but we gave so many proofs and the worst thing was that if even all this isn't sufficient for IRCC then we had to book a flight back to India, quit our jobs, get that letter and come back but fortunately it wasn't needed. I again insist, this is not a sure way to bypass the letter from employer condition, but you could try out instead of doing nothing. Medical Examination: When you come to Canada for a period of more than 6 months then having a medical examination is a requirement. Now, when you apply for residency, you have to have another medical examination even if you haven't left the country during the whole period. Lets, just say it is another way of the government asking for funding. So, at this stage we have two options, either to wait and get the medical done when IRCC itself asks you to have medical inspection done or you can do it Upfront, where there is no such request but you're doing it in advance and I decided to get it done right away, it has to be done so why wait. Costed us almost $800 for the three of us. We attached the receipt we got from the doctor's office with our Letter of Explanation (LOE). English Language Proof: You'll need to prove that the numbers being allotted to you for English language proficiency is real and that is done by uploading the result of the English Exam you took. IRCC has mentioned all the exams which you can take like IELTS, CELPIP etc. Wife and I gave the CELPIP exam, we felt that it was more easy and less time consuming than IELTS and also please make sure that you're giving the "General" exam not the academic one. The other thing you need to ensure that your English Language result shouldn't be two years old. The best way is to give the test when you're sure that the time of invitation is near by. We gave our CELPIP G (G is General) in August of 2022. Marriage Proof: If you're married then you need to upload your marriage certificate. You don't even need to upload your marriage pics as far as I believe. If you're in a live-in relationship, then I guess you need to provide more proofs such as lease agreements, pics. Won't comment much on this topic as I never had to think about this one. Police Clearance Certificate: Police Clearance Certificate or PCC is another step which I would recommend you do as soon as you feel that invitation time is nearing by. So, it is sort of a criminal record check which happens in India and IRCC says that if in case you don't get the PCC when you're submitting your final documents then make sure you provide them proofs that you did your best to get it on time. It is a pretty straight forward process. Also, please note that I am not sure on this one but once you get your PCC, you shouldn't leave Canada as otherwise you'll need to get PCC again I guess, kind of a grey area. You need to go on this page and get things rolling. I would have explained everything in detail, but I won't as if you'll go on the above mentioned link, there is a checklist option and everything has been explained in so much detail that you can't screw up. Note:
Proof of Funds: Depending on the size of your family, the program under which you applied for PR, you may need to show that you have the required funds to support your application. We were selected under Canadian Experience Class and in this program you don't need to provide funds proof but we were asked for the same. Here is the details of how much funds you need for your family. You need a letter from your banking institution, where they write on their letterhead, the amount, the account and since when the account has been with them. I suggest you borrow funds from your friends and family if you don't have funds well ahead of time, so that it doesn't seem suspicious to IRCC. Letter of Explanation(LOE): So, here we are on the final piece, the LOE. IRCC again provided a space to add additional documents, so my wife and I made a word document (later converted to PDF format) explaining our whole file, the documents we uploaded, English Language result, Explaining why Foreign work experience doesn't have the letter head, explaining the US border incident. We also, added pics from the time when she was in bank, added screenshots of the account balance in Canada and also added the document given to us by the USA officer at the border. Finally, we added a closing remark at the end and thanked him/her. Note: 1. All these documents above will be needed for every individual in the application. Its not only for the main applicant, the spouse and the child will be needing their own sets of documents (whichever is applicable to their situation). 2. You'll be providing your education details, employment details and details of the places you lived and the activities you did in the last 10 years. A table will be formed in the application portal showing all the things you did in the last 10 years, activities mean being a student, or being unemployed and staying at home or being employed somewhere. You don't have to provide proofs of the places you lived, just remember the address and dates for that place. 3. It costed us CAD 2960 (roughly INR 183,520) when we submitted our application with IRCC. This doesn't include the medical fees, or the PCC fees. It just includes the PR application fees and the PR card fee. 4. This doesn't guarantee you have gotten your PR, as the actual process will now begin. File submitted and Additional Documents Required(ADR) request: On the night of May 22, 2023 we submitted our PR application ( it was May 23 for IRCC as they operate on Eastern time). We have done our job and now all we had to do was wait and pray. Pray because we were worried about the foreign experience part, what if they ask for additional proofs, and we have to go to India and deal with the bank. So, the wait wasn't easy for us. There was a long radio silence, the only thing which updated with regards to our file was the Biometric numbers. But on August 24, 2023 we got a request from IRCC. I was sleeping at that time as it was 5 in the morning but as I said earlier, IRCC operates on Eastern Time and so it was 8 AM for them and they were already in business. We were asked to submit the Canadian Education Proofs for my wife who was the main applicant. My wife wasn't the one who studied in Canada, it was me. I had uploaded my official transcripts and the program completion letter in the original application which we submitted in May. We again made a word document, explaining to the officer that who actually studied in Canada. We explained that my wife was allotted so and so marks for the following category, and also attached all the Canadian education proofs, this time I attached the diploma certificate I received from College and we also attached the original invitation letter from IRCC where there were zero points awarded to the main applicant for Canadian Education. This request also made a bit relaxed thinking well at least they are not inquiring about Indian work experience. So, we submitted our response and again the wait begins. OMG our file is approved: On Sep 8,2023 it was around 10 AM I guess. I had just dropped my son to the daycare and was getting ready to go the local gym (out of shape at that time and still out of shape as I type this thread, but will be in shape in the near future) but I didn't feel like going and was just moving around when I got the call from my wife and she was like "go, go, go check the computer, our file is approved, I just got an email from IRCC". I opened up the portal, checked her email account also and saw the email! Guys, I can't explain the feeling in words. If in just one word then it will be Relieved. I called my father in India, wife called her family and then called my best friends and one or two other friends in Canada, but that was it. After the calls, I just sat at the edge of the bed, no music, no noise, pin drop silence and me just thinking about all the time and energy my wife and I and our little son devoted to this expedition. This time and moment will remain one of the happiest moment in our lives. The email which we got from IRCC is called Portal 1 email. In this email we have to reply back to IRCC and give them details such as our name, height, color of eyes/hair, date of entry in Canada and some other basic details, overall pretty straight forward. Also, in the email I came to know about our Visa Office (VO), it was Montreal. Montreal is the worst and soon we'll know why. On September 14th, around 7:15 AM again my wife called me, while she was going to her office, that we have got another email from IRCC. This email contains login details to the PR confirmation portal (Portal 2) and here we have to tick a box stating that we are in Canada, all the information we provided is true and have to upload a recent pic of ourselves. They have used some software which does a check on the photo we upload and then gives the error if photo needs to be adjusted or needs to be brighten up a little. In my son's case everything went smoothly, his photo got uploaded without any issues. I and wife had issues, I tried with numerous adjustments but couldn't get it uploaded, so went to a professional photographer, got the pic taken and asked my wife to do the same. On 15th Sep, 2023 we all had uploaded our pics and everything was done and we were supposed to wait for our CoPR ( Confirmation of Permanent Resident) document. VO Montreal and the horrible unexpected wait: CoPR is a pdf file which is sent to the email address of the main applicant. There will be a separate PDF file for all the applicants and CoPR usually takes a day or two arrive in your email or in the worst case scenario a week. IT TOOK US 57 DAYS TO GET OUR CoPR!! 57 effing days. 57! While we were waiting for our application to get approved, we had joined a FB group, it is having more than 10K members and there we came to know that CoPR isn't being issued in 1 or 2 days, but we thought it wouldn't take much time but with every passing day, we were again getting restless and again the eyes were glued to the screen, checking the PR portal, checking emails, keeping track of other members on the group. Numerous theories came out in order to find a pattern, the human mind works mysteriously, always trying to find a way and one theory which stuck was the date of expiry of medical exams. So, what it meant was that the CoPR was being issued in accordance to the medical expiry, if your medical is expiring early then you'll get your CoPR soon. Although, this theory wasn't bullet proof as there were some odd cases where it didn't apply but for the most cases it was true. Our medicals were expiring in the month of April 2024 as we had them done even before IRCC asked us to get one. We replied back on the email when we first received email from VO Montreal asking to expedite this process but it went all in vain. On Nov 14th, 2023, yes it was children day and yes I am still a child in adult body, we got it. Finally, we became PR of this country and IRCC and all its shenanigans can be left behind. To be honest, it was a relief but this time the feeling was nowhere close to the feeling I got on Sep 8th. This one was like, okay what's next now. I wish no one had to go through this step, incase you're wondering, my best friend got his CoPR in 37 days, after 3/4 days after us. What was supposed to be a customary step turned into this huge shit show. Thank you for choosing Canada On Dec 2nd, we got the mail from IRCC which contained our PR Cards. And with this the PR journey ends. The letter we received from IRCC with our PR cards  And IRCC, I'll see you again in 2025 or 2026 when its time to apply for Citizenship When we received a decision on our application in September, we thought that at the end of this year we'll move into our own place, but see life is unpredictable and that didn't happen. Now, my wife says maybe it was a good thing because just like 2023 will be remembered as the year we got out PR, the year 2024 will be remembered as the year we bought our first home. Last edited by Sangwan : 13th January 2024 at 01:04. |
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11th January 2024, 10:12
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| BHPian | |
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13th January 2024, 08:54
| #8 |
| BHPian | Re: My Journey : From an International Student to a Permanent Resident in Canada Thank You I would like to thank the following people in this stressful but happy ending journey: First of all my wife. She is so sharp, funny, beautiful and yes she gets worried really quickly but always maintains calm and composure in stressful situations. No matter how much I write about her, it will never be enough and I will never be able to repay all the good things she has done/brought in my life. It is because of her we got the PR (she came in April 2022 and in 2023 we were PR) as she was the main applicant, she gave me a handsome looking boy as our kid, was okay when I purchased My brand new Triumph motorcycle in India (yeah! middle class) and is always ready to keep up with my crazy ideas. Always, thinking the best for everyone. My friends, Sardar (he is still working in Canara Bank) and CJ, who introduced me to things and initiated the thought process to think about things before moving, for taking time (CJ did it) to answer my queries when I was still in India and was not absolutely sure. Although Sardar has stopped talking to me (I don't know why to be honest) but CJ and I are good friends, I see him in every few weeks. My father and my younger brother. To be okay with me leaving my "Sarkari" (Government) Job, leaving my wife and kid behind and be on this adventure when I was going to be 30 years old in few months takes courage and a certain faith that yes this person will do it and not screw up. During this whole time when I was on temporary resident status, not once did my father or my brother had a second guess with this whole thing. They were always supportive and I will be always thankful to them. The soul sucking, awful experience at Syndicate/Canara bank which made me certain everyday that I will not spend the rest of my life here and will do something about it, not sure what it was but it was sure that I will not retire from Bank. But, in all fairness it was because of them I was able to earn, save and pay up for the Canadian dream. Another good thing about this was the friends I made in bank, I am still in touch with them. My freeloader son , this little fella will never understand what his parents did for him and for them too. Boy is just getting everything for free right now and my best friend and I are jealous of him. But he also has part in our shared success. He is well behaved and did his own shifts at day care while mommy and daddy earned. So, I am thankful to him too. Thanks to all the other people here in Canada and India, who contributed in their own little ways to get us where we are. I would also like to thank Team Bhp Mod Aditya, I have never met him or heard from him but he DM'ed me and every now and then kept on inquiring if I completed this whole thread or not. Aditya, I have finally completed it. Thank god. And finally a small thanks to me too, because of my "Dekhi Jayegi" (we'll see) attitude that I did everything what I did to get here. If I was a thinker like my wife I would have never taken this step as the fear of losing the bank job wouldn't have allowed me to do it. I still don't think much, no development as a person whatsoever. Haha. If you have read till here then I am grateful you gave your valuable time to this read and hope that you learned something valuable from it. Cheers, Sangwan Last edited by Sangwan : 13th January 2024 at 09:05. |
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13th January 2024, 12:03
| #9 |
| Team-BHP Support  | |
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14th January 2024, 11:32
| #10 |
| BHPian Join Date: Apr 2021 Location: Dehradun
Posts: 90
Thanked: 463 Times
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14th January 2024, 16:56
| #11 |
| BHPian Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: India
Posts: 478
Thanked: 1,039 Times
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14th January 2024, 17:02
| #12 |
| BHPian Join Date: May 2023 Location: Chennai
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14th January 2024, 17:52
| #13 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: --
Posts: 289
Thanked: 1,651 Times
| Re: My Journey : From an International Student to a Permanent Resident in Canada Wow! What a write up. Immense information. Must read for millions of aspirants from the north at least  From general category, it is the same story for everyone. Stiff competition for even clerical exams. I hope this writeup finds its place on facebook groups and portals like pagalguy.com and helps students or people aspiring to become govt servants.I know a hell lot of people who moved to Canada leaving 'cushy' govt jobs after serving for several years. You are indeed lucky. Have a good life! |
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14th January 2024, 18:07
| #14 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: KL, DXB, MUM, B
Posts: 55
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15th January 2024, 01:43
| #15 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Kolkata - Pune
Posts: 730
Thanked: 2,807 Times
| Re: My Journey : From an International Student to a Permanent Resident in Canada Made a great read ! Kudos to you for sharing your journey with honesty and mentioning every minute details. This thread will be a handbook for thousands of PR aspirants from our country every year. Wishing you & your family the very best in the land of Maple Leaf  |
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