FSW 2014 applicants from Nigeria - Let's network

[Lighton]

Congrats Abby444! May His name alone be praised. What an inspiring testimony!

 

[Unibadan]

That's a personal decision for you to take. However, there's nothing wrong in beginning the process to see where it leads

Thank you boss.

 

[7G]

It depends on the province and the particular Drivetest centre where the Nigerian driving licence is presented.

For us in Ontario, particularly the GTA, some licenses were retained and some were released back to the owners but with the proviso that once you receive your Canadian driver's licence, you can't use the Nigerian licence in Canada.

Thanks to all for their opinions. The info have been useful.

 

[ibadanchap]

It depends on the province and the particular Drivetest centre where the Nigerian driving licence is presented.

For us in Ontario, particularly the GTA, some licenses were retained and some were released back to the owners but with the proviso that once you receive your Canadian driver's licence, you can't use the Nigerian licence in Canada.

I went to the Brampton Drivetest center. My Nigerian driving license was released back to me. But I had to present letter from the Nigerian embassy confirming the details on the driving license. If I remember correctly, that letter was not returned to me. That was in 2014 though so some rules may have changed.

 

[Pipis Husband]

I went to the Brampton Drivetest center. My Nigerian driving license was released back to me. But I had to present letter from the Nigerian embassy confirming the details on the driving license. If I remember correctly, that letter was not returned to me. That was in 2014 though so some rules may have changed.

Yes, almost same for me at Oakville Drivetest Centre. My Nigerian licence was released back to me but I didn't have to present any letter, FRSC or embassy. My Nigerian licence details were entered into the system, the card returned to me and I was booked for the computer test. No long thing

 

[FEMOL]

Hello Everyone,

Anyone landing in Calgary between now and june 13th and need accomodation, there is two bedroom Walk out apartment in a good environment in the Northwest of Calgary, with a lot of storage space, separate laundry suite, and more. PM me

 

[BabyBal]

Congratulations Mabertia and Jamezo78!!!

Thank God for his protection especially as our stamped passports and COPR arrived this morning, phase one completed!

I thank everyone for the individual/group support I have received here, Aguasa, Zoze, Pipis Husband, Silverblade, CalgaryChic, tbaba, Sisimee, Neyobash, Unibadan, jjalex, Lolesky, Blacky, SOTAJ, Guyman1234, Pastor Daniel, Kingsley John, Ayobunmi05. I thank most especially you, I mean reading this post, I pray it shall be well with you.

May all awaiting one form of update or the other receive it this week in Jesus' name, amen!!!

Glory be to God, Visa & COPR received yesterday for the entire family
God is to be praised

 

[BabyBal]

Congratulations hagnes on the safe arrival of your new born and thankful to the Most High that it has all ended, and started , well.

Dear All,

This is a thank you message for the forum members who have been so supportive throughout from 2014. I have shared pm with some of them including bonblu, bbjm, pipis husband,neyobash who have all encouraged me to march forward. We landed in Canada on 04.04.16 and we got a baby girl the day we landed. It was challenging to say the least.

We received our passports back on 28.03.16 and wife was already 39 weeks pregnant. We were unsure what to do cos the risks were high but God has already settled it tho we didn't know that. To the Glory of God, it was as if the check in counters and hostesses couldn't see the pregnancy even tho she had a big belly. Everything went well but the pain for my wife was too much and she was taken from YYC in an ambulance to the airport. She delivered around 4-5 hours later. Baby was delivered at 39 weeks, 5 days.Because of the emergency, my processing was fast tracked and they only checked my passport and my COPR. My wife was not landed cos she didn't go through immigration. We went to the immigration on 06.04.16 and she was officially landed and her paper was dated as 04.04.16.

It took strenght, determination and support to make the journey. We were advised that AVO might not be willing to issue the visa for the new born if she was born before we travelled. Our visas were also due to expire in June 2016 so it wd have been challenging to make a passport for the baby cos we had to go to nigeria (Have lived in Qatar for over 5 years), send the passport to AVO and await further instructions which could have resulted in delays or expiration of our visas.

FSW 2014 almost took 2 years but we thank God it has ended in praise. BBJM is a treasure. we have not even met and she was already sending food and wipes to us at the hospital. We finally met and she was there at christening of our baby. Lots of good people on this forum.

For all the people who are reaching out and helping others, divine help will always locate them. AMEN

My timeline:

App sent - 03.07.2014
PER - 03.11.2014
Medical Request, RPRF,PPC - 16.06.15
PPR Request - 03.03.16
Pick Up Mail - 23.03.16
L

 

[BabyBal]

Congratulations Mo Mo and Igwee!!!

We give God all the glory as we received our Visas & COPR on Friday.
Thanks everyone for all your contribution and support on this forum.

Congratulations Hagnes on the arrival of your daughter and on your successful landing in Canada. I am glad all worked out well for your family.

Just an advice to all on getting good deals on tickets for your trip, especially those looking at flying KLM. I will advice you search directly on their website: Klm.com or Klm.com.ng, very late at night or very early in the morning, while also putting the days of travel into consideration. Better still you can send a message to their Customer service on Twitter or Facebook to search for affordable flexible tickets for you. You will be surprised on what you will get compared to what travel agents and other travel websites are offering.

With Visas and COPRs now in hand, the next challenge begins...Thank you lord for thus far!

 

[BabyBal]

Congratulations, and a big amen to all the prayers!

Good morning your excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

It is with great pleasure and thanks to God almighty that I announce the arrival of our Visas and COPRs yesterday. It has been God all the way, all glory, honour and adoration be unto Him alone. Our timeline is on the left.........

The saying that every application has different stories behind them and each application has its own peculiar circumstance is very true. Just in case you are still doubting this, will you believe that we were never asked for proof of funds? We stated what we had at the initial point of applying, then we prepared for it but we never sent it and AVO never requested for it. It is definitely the grace of God that cleared that path.

A very big thank you to @pace for the advise and encouragement to explore other immigration options apart from the Quebec Skilled Worker application in 2014 (applied for QSW since mid-2014 and we are yet to get any correspondence or medicals till this present moment...... I have sent a request for the agent to withdraw the application as soon as PPR landed).

A very very big thank you to @PH for starting the forum.......... you will never know the value you have added to people's lives through this medium. My family does not really know much about these processes but we decided not to use an agent and whenever we checked here, there is an answer waiting for every concern. My brother, you can't lack anything good in your life in the name of Jesus Christ. We will definitely meet very soon. Thank you so much.

@Neyobash, omo egba 1 of the universe, God bless you more and more abundantly. I really appreciate the help and I am very grateful for the smooth process of sending and receiving the passports. You are in my prayers bro.........we must meet over there. God will make a way at His own time. Please believe!

To every other person expecting one good news or the other, the Lord will answer our prayers and give us multiple reasons to praise His name always. Though it tarries, it will come......... I believe.

Shalom!

 

[teagirl]

Go ahead and land with what you have. Once you are able to provide a certificate from a registered driving school here, you will can dive into the driver's licence system and start.

Great. Thanks

 

[BabyBal]

Congratulations Sainteben and Silverblade!!!

I want to say a very big thank You to almighty God and to the wonderful family on this forum.I am indeed lucky to have been part of this wonderful family.If only naija was like this,there would have been much progress.To the glory of God we got our visas and CoPR yesterday in the afternoon.Neyobash??????always delivers! "Egba ni mi, egba le mi"...thank u bro, pipis husband and everyone.....Thank you

Sorry this is coming a lil late as i have been basking in the euphoria of my PRV and CoPR since Monday.
I visited UPS office and collected my maple leaf on Monday, 18th April, 2016, and my life has not been the same ever since. May the name of the Lord continually be praised.
Please feel free to celebrate me.

Fellow members still awaiting update, keep the faith, its very close.

 

[BabyBal]

Thanks so much for this PH; +1,000 for you

Hi guys, top of the day to you all. A lot going on lately on our thread to the glory of God but we also anticipate more from heaven especially for pending MRs and we will not be disappointed, amen.

So I've been getting a lot of PMs about landing and preparing to land and what to do and what to expect questions. I decided to go back and pull my landing story to give some guidance to others coming over soon especially those who were not part of our family as at when I landed last year. After reading, it might answer some of the questions people are asking me and then they can ask new questions not covered in the write up. This is the link for those who want to bookmark it while the story follows below.

Warm regards from Pipi and I, her husband

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/fsw-2014-applicants-from-nigeria-lets-network-t202722.11760.html

As promised guys, my landing story.

I had booked my tickets since March for take off on 5th June, 2015. Ofcourse I advised everyone to check as many airlines as possible online to find good deals. I was fortunate to get a total fee of N717,400 for my family of five on Turkish Airlines which has only one stopover at Istanbul.

I had been packing for about 2 weeks before take off date and still wasn't finished. Just getting rid of my stuff in my house was crazy. I gave away and gave away stuff after I had sold what I could but I still had so much stuff left! In the end, Pipi just left everything on the floor in the living room for the caretaker to deal with. He is still thanking us today for the brand new sets of dishes, curtains, cupboard, paintings, lamps. My gate boy 'inherited' a TV, dvd player, TV stand, clothes hanger, clothes. I just wanted everything gone before the house agent comes to inspect. My advice to all of you yet to travel, start getting rid of stuff today! Sell, dash, throw, do what you must to avoid the coming nightmares of being confused on how to get rid of things. I know Frances has started feeling this Start packing your luggage with those things you need in Naija but you will need in Canada. All those your bottom box naija natives, give them away and keep just three to four sets each cos they will be useless here. Most of you will expand in size so the few you have will also end up being useless to you very soon. As you are packing, get a bathroom scale and weigh each bag/box to ensure they don't exceed 23kg. You are allowed an extra kg or two above 23kg but it pays to sort out the weight issue at home to avoid being confused at the airport and having to throw things out painfully. I also advise you check in online the light before your flight and select your seats yourself to avoid getting allocated seats next to the toilet. Trust me, you don't want to travel to Canada next to a busted toilet! This will also save you time at the check in counter.

So D-day finally arrived and we got to the airport. Thankfully, traffic was light as I left home late. It was that same day I finally sold Pipi's SUV and got the balance for the sale that morning then rushed to convert it to FX. Reminder, do all your selling of stuff early, you might not be so fortunate as me and you will need every penny you can raise. A piece of advise, if you taking palm oil with you, hide it in the centre of your luggage as if found by their scanner, it will be removed from your luggage. That was how I had to return my keg of palm oil home. Got to the Customs desk and when the Lead officer saw my 10 pieces of luggage, he looked up, looked down and said to Pipi, 'Madam, just pass with your load but you go settle o'. 2k later, we were at the luggage check in. All the bags and boxes were weighed, all were accepted, all were tagged and went in. We said our goodbyes to my folks who brought us to the airport and proceeded to the boarding area.

Some of you might be approached by airport staff to pay for 'express service', that is, they will take you from the back of queues to the front of queues and save time. All I will say is 'shine your eyes'. At the boarding area was a queue so long, I thought they were sharing Swiss visas there! Once again, Pipi just stepped to this Customs guy manning the VIP express queue and I and my boys followed. While she was asking the guy to please let us through my boys just went forward as if I own the airport. Who was I not to follow them? Pipi sef join the parade and we got to passport stamping sharply. From there, we proceeded to board the aircraft. The plane took off about 20 minutes behind schedule but nobody complained. I think most of us were relieved to just be leaving Naija with the fuel scarcity wahala and PHCN vacation.

Another one of advice; hide enough gala and small chops in your hand luggage as some airline food may not be to your taste. I could eat it but my sons went on strike! I ended up begging them to manage until I could get them McDonalds. See blackmail from my last son who insisted it must be pizza! I had no choice but to agree so that the ministry can move to the permanent site. There were lots of movies to select from on the flight for those who like films so the flight can be enjoyable. My kids were just switching from Disney movies to games to other kid films, having a blast. So in all the flight was alright and we arrived at Istanbul for the transit. Since Ataturk is a large and modern airport, we had a great time there window shopping and moving around so the eight hours felt like two hours. Pipi enjoyed herself trying out dresses, shoes and jewelry. The kids were just skipping about and I was just relieved none of them was harassing me. Soon we were on our way to Toronto, same nice flight but I advise those in similar circumstance to sleep on this second leg, you will need energy for the landing ahead. And ensure you fill your landing papers which will be shared on the flight.

We landed and proceeded to Passport control and visa check. We then moved to immigration and this is where everybody needs to be sharp and alert because this is where they will check your COPR and ask about landing funds and maybe POF. I advise you have $10,000 cash with you and declare as such. All immigrants with families in the hall that day who declared 10k as landing funds did not have any problems, no question of POF arose. I think psychologically, this amount satisfies them that you 'hold your side'. I wasn't asked about POF but I had prepared for that by getting a copy of original bank statement from my bank before I left Naija. I advise you do same and get your statement or recent original fixed deposit certificate handy. Better to be stressed now but prepared than to be deported. A word is enough please...

Next is baggage claim then customs. We had prepared our goods accompanying list and goods to follow list but the lady attending to us was not interested in goods accompanying. She reviewed the list, entered it into the system and gave us a stamped copy so when our goods later arrive by cargo, we wont be charged tax on them. From here, you step out into Arrivals and Canada! Ensure you have your hosts phone numbers and full house address and that they know when exactly your flight is landing, Canada time. Otherwise like me, you may miss yourselves at the airport. Summary is after waiting four hours, I used a booking terminal at the airport to book a hotel for my family for the night. The major and popular hotels all have airport shuttle service which come to pick up their guests so that was how we got to Best Western Plus which I selected for the night. Now be careful here as Canadian establishments usually insist on credit cards and not debit cards which are more available in naija. However, as a sure boy, I was able to convince the front desk lady that I had cash and a funded debit card. So she accepted to enter my debit card details into the system while I would pay cash when I check out. The idea of them taking your card details upfront is if you stay and then dodge out to escape payment. They will just take payment from your card. That same night I was able to get my host on the phone and we arranges that I would get to his place the next day by taxi.

Fast forward to Monday, we went to a Service Canada outlet to get SIN for the whole family. You'll need your landing papers and passports for this. Take them as well when you go to register for your Canadian Health card. For those coming to Ontario, you get this at Service Ontario. Don't forget to bring your Nigerian driving license which you will need you go to write your driving test which you must pass before you can take the physical test.

With various registrations out of the way, you now face accommodation and the almighty job search. Husbands, love thy wives and wives love thy husband because you're going to need each other now. for couples, most likely one person will actively seek work while the other will stay back to care for the home. If there are no kids, then you can both plunge into the job market. If you are single then you can hit the ground running.

All in all, I wish you the best ahead. God bless.

 

[BabyBal]

Congratulations djdy!

To the glory of Almighty Allah, I received the visas and coprs of my spouse and I at exactly 8.38am today (20/4/2016) after 532days or 12768hours or 766080minutes or 45964800seconds since the day I first sent my application. What a great feeling guys!!!! ;D ;D ;D
I wish to express my profound gratitude to everyone in the forum that helped me along the way eg raising CSE about inclusion of my spouse and other tips too numerous to mention.
Thank you PH for being a shining light in the murky waters of canadian application processing. Without this forum, I would be lost at sea.
For all peeps awaiting updates, It will start raining blessings of MRs and PPRs for you all.
From Vancouver to Toronto, we shall achieve greatness and come back home to help our motherland.
God bless Canada. God bless Nigeria.
I remain humble
DjDy

Thanks so much for sharing this Ed_b_good, +1,000 for you

Culled this piece from internations.org https://www.internations.org/magazine/feeling-at-home-in-a-foreign-land-18831?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_mails&utm_campaign=16_20160422&utm_content=memberContribution&rel=mailing. It is worth reading as we will all go through this phase, no matter how prepared or enthusiastic we are.

Feeling at Home in a Foreign Land

Congratulations adaghogho!!!

COPR and Visa finally in hand! God be praise for it ended in praise.

My deep appreciate goes to everyone here especially Kollin & Solomowise who mentored me in the process of applying at Nairaland and via mails.
PipiHusband, creating this thread and your eagerness to help when one in boxed in a corner or confused is impeccable. You have always been dear and there for us.
Neyobash, I am just short of words cos the way you carry our matter for head nor get part2! you have been a blessing and I am grateful.
tbaba, You too much
Guyman123.. for keeping the laughter and smiles via your comic during the protracted break from AVO, thank you. Though we nor free see your break light again o abi you don go carry out your threat of slapping Mopol ni?
Technolee! My good friend, I appreciate you.

Everyone that contributes to this thread and the silent followers, you are duly recognized. May God bless you all.


For those awaiting one update or the other especially MR, I call it forth right now in Jesus Name, Amen.
Journey mercies to those travelling soon...


Maple leaf land is mine to explore and possess fully in Jesus name, Amen


There is ALWAYS a better way with God.

Congratulations aduni!!!

My sincere appreciation to God almighty for helping me to conclude the first phase of this long but intersting journey. i will not but mention our able Olowo ori Pipi who is never tired of attending to all my enquiries, what can i say but pray that God shall send help to you whenever you call on him. Neyobash, our link to AVO thanks a bunch.

I now have the papers to enter canada and becoming a canadian.

This and many more shall be the story of others awaiting one response or the other from AVO. We shall all reap the juicy fruits of the land.

 

[bolaopemire]

Congratulations bolaopemire and labiz001!

Thank you