- Mar 22, 2009
- 34
- Visa Office......
- SINGAPORE
- NOC Code......
- 0213
- App. Filed.......
- July 2009
- AOR Received.
- November 2010
- Med's Done....
- June 2012
- Passport Req..
- September 2012
- VISA ISSUED...
- September 2012
- LANDED..........
- November 2012 Vancouver, BC
Hi Friends,
I got my visa approved from CHC Singapore in September 2012, though it took almost three years for the whole process but I think it was worth a wait.
NOC: 0213, IT Manager, CHC Singapore
Timeline: July 2009 – September 2012
I came out of the Canadian High Commission at One George Street with our Visa stamped passports . I lived in Singapore for almost 5 years, including 3 years as a PR, now it was time to move on and see Vancouver I call my dream land.
We were happy; after all we waited all these years for this moment. Now it was time to make a decision to move permanently to Vancouver or visit for a short time, complete the landing and take my pregnant wife to India for delivery, and move to Canada after a year or so. After so much discussion (including on this forum) we left everything on GOD's will and I resigned from my current position in Singapore and decided to move permanently in November 2012. It was too hard to leave our friends and a “known place” behind. I must say it was a hard to describe moment.
We packed our luggage, good to carry, goods to follow list, funds, passports and visa documents and took the flight to Vancouver YVR via Beijing. We have taken Air China, and paid SGD $500 for an extra luggage of 50 KGs. At Beijing we had a waiting time of 6 hours; we took a hotel room in the airport so that my wife can sleep for a while. We landed in Vancouver after total 1 6hours flight, tired and surprised (comparing VYR with Singapore Changi Airport) we collected our luggage and were in the immigration section for new permanent residents with long long queues. After waiting for almost an hour Visa officer called our queue number, Congratulating and welcoming us to Canada he checked our passports, visa documents etc and it was done. We went to the cash counter outside the immigration section to declare the funds, stepped in the queue for declaring goods. It was a long queue and my wife was really tired. I requested a friendly CBSA Officer to help us, they gave my wife a Chair and took us from the queue and processed the good lists quickly, they did not check the items in the list. Welcoming us to Canada the office escorted us to the visitor area helping with the luggage. My wife was so thankful to the officer and we both really appreciated his help. My uncle was waiting for us in the visitor's area and we went straight to his house.
***Bit of advice: Make your travel plans ahead and you can save on tickets, extra luggage can be sent by cargo. I will recommend taking a connecting flight with enough time in between so that you can relax a bit and take a nap if needed specially with pregnant women and if you are travelling with kids.
Next day we went for getting our SIN, it was quick and easy, in next few days we opened up newcomer's bank account in RBC Royal Bank, with Credit Cards. Bank Staff was friendly and they helped us knowing the financial products available for new comer's in Canada. We applied for MSP (CareCard) and to cover the waiting period we took travel insurance from a local broker. It cost us around $380 for 72 days.
***Bit of advice: Keep a copy of your Landing Documents with you while applying for SIN, Bank account etc, bec this is one of the primary piece of identification for new comers. Keep the originals at a secure place. Although filling up the MSP emrollment form is very easy, but you can always call Health Insurance BC [ http://www.gov.bc.ca/health/contacts.html ] to get any kind of information.
In next few days I started applying for jobs in IT sector on bctechnology, workopolice and monster. I updated my LinkedIn profile while I was in Singapore and started networking with IT Professionals and IT Recruiters. So when I landed in Vancouver I had a few meetings with recruiters lined up. It was a good motivation and I took it as an opportunity to know Vancouver professional culture. After a couple of recruiter meetings I was confident to face a technical interview.
***Bit of advice: I learned from this forum that networking is really very important especially when you are looking for a job, try to connect with people on linedin, but don't directly ask for helping you get a job. Discuss the job market and take ideas of jobs and opportunities in your field and skillset, it will really help you build the confidence.
I stared getting calls from recruiters for my resume on job portals + for jobs I applied. I also started discussing job opportunities with my linkedin connections (IT recruiters) actively. Within next few days I started managing my meetings/interviews in excel sheet to be able to followup with the recruiters with correct information on status of my job application.
I got around 10-12 recruiter meetings/interviews and dozens of phone calls and landed into 5-6 potential positions in my field/skill set. With initial talk on phone, Technical Interviews were in personal mostly, with one on skype as the employer was in Langly.
I was interviewed by a company upto three rounds, all went well but to my surprize they turned back saying I was over qualified for that job and I may get bored as this was an intermediate Role (I worked as a Senior Software Consultant in Fortune 10 Financial Institution in Singapore). Another called off saying I do not have experience in what they are looking for, and yet another said they wanted to hire me for a Health Care project but I don't have Canadian experience.
Over all within a month working with different recruiters I got two job offers, I chose a permanent position in Vancouver downtown IT Company over a contract and started working from first week of January 2013 on this permanent position.
We received our Care Cards and PR Cards recently. Yes, one more important thing, we got the free prenatal care for my wife at BC Women's Hospital as they accessed us as new comer's with no income. My wife has regular checkups at the staff clinic in BC Women's hospital with “Blue Card”. Staff and doctors are very friendly. They do all required checkups, blood tests and ultrasound. We visit the staff clinic for regular checkups and see the doctors using the same blue card.
During the Christmas holidays, we visited few places with Uncle and his family. We found a place to rent, craigslist.ca is a great source of local classified ads for rentals. purchased TV from bestbuy, furniture and other stuff during boxing week and moved to this rented place in January 2013. Got a good deal from Telus phone/internet and TV service which cost $100 for first 6 months with 12 asian (Indian) channels and additional $10 for unlimited India calling. I recently registered with ICBC for Driver's Licence to convert my foreign DL to BC Driver's Licence, passed the knowledge test and now doing some driving practice before booking a road test. Now just adjusting with the new environment and trying to make the place comfortable for my pregnant wife as the delivery is due in March 2013.
I want to thank all the forum members for their support and guidance during the immigration process. Please let me know if I can help anyone who is landing in Vancouver, BC.
I was able to secure a job within a month of arrival; I believe it is with GOD's will and blessings of my family and good wishes and support of friends. I did my part by following the directions put together by decision making, observations and networking.
Regards,
PankajK
I got my visa approved from CHC Singapore in September 2012, though it took almost three years for the whole process but I think it was worth a wait.
NOC: 0213, IT Manager, CHC Singapore
Timeline: July 2009 – September 2012
I came out of the Canadian High Commission at One George Street with our Visa stamped passports . I lived in Singapore for almost 5 years, including 3 years as a PR, now it was time to move on and see Vancouver I call my dream land.
We were happy; after all we waited all these years for this moment. Now it was time to make a decision to move permanently to Vancouver or visit for a short time, complete the landing and take my pregnant wife to India for delivery, and move to Canada after a year or so. After so much discussion (including on this forum) we left everything on GOD's will and I resigned from my current position in Singapore and decided to move permanently in November 2012. It was too hard to leave our friends and a “known place” behind. I must say it was a hard to describe moment.
We packed our luggage, good to carry, goods to follow list, funds, passports and visa documents and took the flight to Vancouver YVR via Beijing. We have taken Air China, and paid SGD $500 for an extra luggage of 50 KGs. At Beijing we had a waiting time of 6 hours; we took a hotel room in the airport so that my wife can sleep for a while. We landed in Vancouver after total 1 6hours flight, tired and surprised (comparing VYR with Singapore Changi Airport) we collected our luggage and were in the immigration section for new permanent residents with long long queues. After waiting for almost an hour Visa officer called our queue number, Congratulating and welcoming us to Canada he checked our passports, visa documents etc and it was done. We went to the cash counter outside the immigration section to declare the funds, stepped in the queue for declaring goods. It was a long queue and my wife was really tired. I requested a friendly CBSA Officer to help us, they gave my wife a Chair and took us from the queue and processed the good lists quickly, they did not check the items in the list. Welcoming us to Canada the office escorted us to the visitor area helping with the luggage. My wife was so thankful to the officer and we both really appreciated his help. My uncle was waiting for us in the visitor's area and we went straight to his house.
***Bit of advice: Make your travel plans ahead and you can save on tickets, extra luggage can be sent by cargo. I will recommend taking a connecting flight with enough time in between so that you can relax a bit and take a nap if needed specially with pregnant women and if you are travelling with kids.
Next day we went for getting our SIN, it was quick and easy, in next few days we opened up newcomer's bank account in RBC Royal Bank, with Credit Cards. Bank Staff was friendly and they helped us knowing the financial products available for new comer's in Canada. We applied for MSP (CareCard) and to cover the waiting period we took travel insurance from a local broker. It cost us around $380 for 72 days.
***Bit of advice: Keep a copy of your Landing Documents with you while applying for SIN, Bank account etc, bec this is one of the primary piece of identification for new comers. Keep the originals at a secure place. Although filling up the MSP emrollment form is very easy, but you can always call Health Insurance BC [ http://www.gov.bc.ca/health/contacts.html ] to get any kind of information.
In next few days I started applying for jobs in IT sector on bctechnology, workopolice and monster. I updated my LinkedIn profile while I was in Singapore and started networking with IT Professionals and IT Recruiters. So when I landed in Vancouver I had a few meetings with recruiters lined up. It was a good motivation and I took it as an opportunity to know Vancouver professional culture. After a couple of recruiter meetings I was confident to face a technical interview.
***Bit of advice: I learned from this forum that networking is really very important especially when you are looking for a job, try to connect with people on linedin, but don't directly ask for helping you get a job. Discuss the job market and take ideas of jobs and opportunities in your field and skillset, it will really help you build the confidence.
I stared getting calls from recruiters for my resume on job portals + for jobs I applied. I also started discussing job opportunities with my linkedin connections (IT recruiters) actively. Within next few days I started managing my meetings/interviews in excel sheet to be able to followup with the recruiters with correct information on status of my job application.
I got around 10-12 recruiter meetings/interviews and dozens of phone calls and landed into 5-6 potential positions in my field/skill set. With initial talk on phone, Technical Interviews were in personal mostly, with one on skype as the employer was in Langly.
I was interviewed by a company upto three rounds, all went well but to my surprize they turned back saying I was over qualified for that job and I may get bored as this was an intermediate Role (I worked as a Senior Software Consultant in Fortune 10 Financial Institution in Singapore). Another called off saying I do not have experience in what they are looking for, and yet another said they wanted to hire me for a Health Care project but I don't have Canadian experience.
Over all within a month working with different recruiters I got two job offers, I chose a permanent position in Vancouver downtown IT Company over a contract and started working from first week of January 2013 on this permanent position.
We received our Care Cards and PR Cards recently. Yes, one more important thing, we got the free prenatal care for my wife at BC Women's Hospital as they accessed us as new comer's with no income. My wife has regular checkups at the staff clinic in BC Women's hospital with “Blue Card”. Staff and doctors are very friendly. They do all required checkups, blood tests and ultrasound. We visit the staff clinic for regular checkups and see the doctors using the same blue card.
During the Christmas holidays, we visited few places with Uncle and his family. We found a place to rent, craigslist.ca is a great source of local classified ads for rentals. purchased TV from bestbuy, furniture and other stuff during boxing week and moved to this rented place in January 2013. Got a good deal from Telus phone/internet and TV service which cost $100 for first 6 months with 12 asian (Indian) channels and additional $10 for unlimited India calling. I recently registered with ICBC for Driver's Licence to convert my foreign DL to BC Driver's Licence, passed the knowledge test and now doing some driving practice before booking a road test. Now just adjusting with the new environment and trying to make the place comfortable for my pregnant wife as the delivery is due in March 2013.
I want to thank all the forum members for their support and guidance during the immigration process. Please let me know if I can help anyone who is landing in Vancouver, BC.
I was able to secure a job within a month of arrival; I believe it is with GOD's will and blessings of my family and good wishes and support of friends. I did my part by following the directions put together by decision making, observations and networking.
Regards,
PankajK
