waqarcan said:
Hi all,
Alhamdolillah, my wife received her passport back with visa on 10th January 2012.
She has been sick for the last few days. She had issues with her spinal cord for the last few days and has been undergoing treatment. Once she is OK physically by the grace of Allah, she will plan to arrive in CANADA ASAP.
CHC PAK started Orientation Classes for new comers to Canada in Lahore, Khi and ISB and advised my wife to join one of these classes.
It took 27 long months of wait to get to this point.
Thanks everyone for encouragement and support to go through this ordeal.
Thanks once again.
Waqar
Congratulations Waqar!
What are these orientation classes about? Is it mandatory to attend them? Also how long are these sessions for?
Never mind I found this on google. Sounds like good idea for a new immigrant to attend this and learn about Canada before they get here.
IOM MIGRANT TRAINING PROGRAMMES OVERVIEW 2010 – 2011
The Canadian Orientation Abroad (COA) is a Govt. of Canada-funded pre-departure orientation training project.
IOM has been conducting CO sessions since 1998. The objectives of the seminar are:
• To provide immigrants (all categories) and labour migrants with accurate information
about life in Canada;
• To help immigrants develop realistic expectations about settlement in Canada;
• To develop immigrants' awareness and skills necessary for successful adaptation
to their new society,; especially during their first 6 months of stay in Canada, and
• To address migrants' concerns and questions.
COA benefits refugees, skilled workers, Family Class, Provincial Nominees, Labour Migrants (live-in caregivers from the Philippines only) and Investors COA sessions are conducted in 14 permanent COA sites, which include: Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Syria. COA has a liaison staff based in IOM Ottawa.
Satellite sites include Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi, Kakuma Refugee Camp, Dadaab Refugee Camp, Guinea Conakry, Tashkent, Dushanbe, Almaty, and many others, as the need arises.
In 2009-2010, 13,800 immigrants received COA. Sessions were conducted in 21 different countries, in 15 permanent COA sites, and 4 satellite sites. There were a total of 32 mobile training missions to various locations. COA is funded and supported by the Canadian Government's Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) department, and falls under the Integration Program Management.
http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/shared/shared/mainsite/activities/facilitating/IOM_Migrant_Training_Programmes_Overview_2010_2011.pdf