My Experience.....

[OSR1982]

Hello friends.

It has been more than a year since I have landed in Canada. I have had many experiences, some good and some bad, which I want to share with all of you.

Please forgive me if my story seems boring to you.

I will write my experience in 3 parts.

1. From application to getting the visa.
2. A horrifying journey from India to Canada. (A very bad experience in plane).
3. My experience till now after landing in Canada.

Part 1 (from application to getting visa):

It was around Feb 2010 when I was sitting in my office and just surfing the net. In one of the websites, an advertisement of a renowned consultant popped up stating “Immigrate to Canada in less than 6 months.” Suddenly, the idea of moving to Canada stuck to me.

I went to the consultant's office where the lady officer told me that I would be eligible to immigrate with my wife being the primary applicant under NOC 4131 as she was an IT trainer. So after considering all the factors, both me and wife decided to go ahead with it. So we applied, filled out all the forms and patiently waited for the next step.

Then one morning in mid of April 2010, I got a call from the consultant's office that they have received a letter from Canadian High Commission (CHC) that my initial application has been approved and a file number has been generated. I was very happy that first step has been successful. I went to the consultant's office to take a copy of that letter. Consultant told me that I have 3 months to collect all the documents. Then, started the painful process of collecting all the documents. It was really very tough getting transcripts from universities, reference letters from the employers, police clearance, etc. But I did it within one month. Submitted all the documents and fees to the consultant and was very happy that my Canadian dream was coming to be true. Then again, waited patiently for the good news.

In June 2010, we got the news that CIC has changed all the rules and they have put all the applications on hold that were submitted before June 2010 and then after that it was a long wait. Every Tuesday I used to check my ECAS status and every time it showed the same thing “Application Received”. I got fed up of this and stopped looking at the status and thought that just forget it for now and went on with my life, as I realized that what was supposed to be a fast track 6 months process is now going to be a long wait for many years. But I hoped that someday my application will be reviewed and I will get the good news.

Then in January 2011, my daughter was born, and I immediately applied for her passport and submitted her passport copy and all the forms and fees to the consultant to add my daughter's name to my application. Now, after the birth of my daughter, I was in no hurry to immigrate as I wanted my child to have grown at least 2 year old when we immigrate. But I was very certain that sooner or later my application will go through and I was sure that we will be going to Canada one day.

Almost a year passed by and in February 2012, I GOT A SHOCK. I received a call from the consultant and they said that they received the letter from CHC that MY APPLICATION HAS BEEN REJECTED. I was shocked, shattered, and almost fainted. It was unbelievable. Everything was good and perfect. All my documents were perfect, then why?

I rushed to the consultant's office to get the CHC letter. Upon seeing the letter, I just could not believe. Visa officer wrote that he was not satisfied that my wife has worked in NOC 4131. This was ridiculous, I submitted all the documents, reference letters, Form 16s and every possible document. Then why he was not satisfied. This was absolutely wrong and baseless decision. Consultant told me that they are just trying to reduce the backlog by rejecting the genuine applications. Consultant said that now the only way is to appeal against the decision, and that will cost a lot of money as I will need a lawyer for that, and certainly I was not able spend so much money, and moreover there is no guarantee. So, I asked the consultant to at least write a letter to CHC and explain everything. But the lady at the consultant office said there was no use of writing a letter and it will just go to the dustbin. And she did not send any letter to CHC.

For three days, I was in shock, but then I decided to move on with my life, maybe God has something better for me, but I thought before closing this chapter at least I should write a letter to CHC and let them know that their decision was wrong and baseless, and then I will forget everything and move on. So I sat down and wrote a 2 page letter, explained everything politely, and next day I courierd it to CHC New Delhi, and then I was back to my routine and enjoyed seeing my child grow. Everything became normal.

After about 2 months, I got a call from my consultant office. The lady told me she has received an email from CHC in which it was written that “in response to the letter I wrote to them MY CASE HAS BEEN REOPENED.” I was pleasantly surprised and happy that writing a letter was a good idea. My letter did not go in the dustbin. After about a week or so there was another email asking me to re-submit the fees that was earlier refunded.

After a long silence of 10 months, in January 2013, got a call from consultant's office informing me that I have received the medicals and passport request. Then on, everything happened so fast. Within three weeks after doing the medicals, we received our passports back with visa stamped and our faces smiling. Consultant told me that it was first time in their career that a rejected case was reopened and that too with just writing a letter, no appeal, no lawyer, nothing.

Now, our next step was to resign from our jobs and book the airline tickets.

Well thats about it for now.

IN THE NEXT PART, I WILL WRITE ABOUT MY HORRIFYING JOURNEY FROM DELHI TO TORONTO

Very nicely explained - Sai baba with you ! Will wait for ur 2nd update!!

 

[omsai_786]

Thanks

I have already posted the second update (My Experience....Part 2)

 

[Liss]

For those interested....Find detailed below the second part of his story. I have copied and pasted it below:

______________________________________________________________________________________________


Hello again friends,

Thanks a lot for reading my earlier post in which I had written my experience from application to visa.

In this part I will tell you about my journey from Delhi to Toronto.

PART II (Journey from Delhi to Toronto):

Continuing from my earlier post...

After getting the visa, our next step was to resign from our jobs and get the tickets. I looked at various options and finally got the tickets for 10th of June 2013 on Lufthansa Airlines (Delhi – Vienna – Toronto), I found out later that it was operated by Austrian Airlines, which I didn't mind as it was a European airlines anyway. We Indians have a strange mentality that anything which is Western and not Indian is excellent in quality. It was first time in my life that I was flying in the plane, so did not know much about the airlines, their quality of service, etc. I just went for cheapest options available.

Anyway, after getting the tickets, I submitted my resignation in my company and my wife also did the same. The time we got for packing up was very less since after completing our tenure in our jobs we have to first wind up everything from Jalandhar (the city where we worked and lived) and move to our hometown in Ambala. So basically we got only 10 days to pack our bags. So hurriedly all the packing was done.

Finally, the day of journey arrived. But to my surprise, I was not happy. I saw my family members very sad and weepy. Every now and then my mother would sneak into her room and start sobbing. Also, first time in my life I saw my dad in tears. He had always been very strong no matter what trouble came to our family. I thought in my mind that was it really worth all this, leaving everyone in tears, and going to an unknown place where every thing is new and we have to start from the scratch, with lot of uncertainty. I went into my room, closed my eyes and prayed to God to give me and my family strength, and I left everything in his hands.

We got into the taxi and started our journey to Delhi. Considering the Delhi traffic, we started very early, but to my surprise, there was no traffic at all and we reached the airport nearly 7 hours before the flight. It was very hot in Delhi. Our flight was at 1 a.m. in the morning. My wife started feeling tired and uneasy due to the long wait, and my daughter also started feeling fussy and irritable. At round 11 p.m. Austrian Airways counter opened and we checked in our baggage and went to the security where our passports were stamped. There was a long queue. After passing through the security and after a long walk, we were finally at the plane. Two attendants greeted us with a smile at the door and we were at our seats. It was a small congested plane with a very little leg space or maybe we thought the economy class is just like that. It was really very chilly inside and we were feeling very cold. We should have kept something warm in our cabin bag. This was our mistake. They gave us only one small shawl/blanket per seat which was not enough to keep us warm.

After about half an hour, the journey started and we were in the air. Two hours in the flight, my wife started feeling sick, dizzy and nauseated and cold temperature added to her uneasiness. Daughter also started becoming irritable, and things were getting difficult for me. After a short while, I noted that my daughter was in high fever. I had a medicine in the bag which I gave to her but she was very irritable. Then, wife got up to go to the washroom. My daughter was in my arms at that time. Suddenly, one attendant rushed to me and told that my wife has fainted and she was lying on the floor outside the washroom. With my daughter in my arms, I rushed to my wife, tried to wake her up, and after sometime she regained consciousness and I took her to the seat. I told the attendant to give some more blankets/shawls as my daughter is also sick. She brought 2 or 3 more shawls and offered medicine to my daughter but I had already given the medicine and there was no fever but she was still irritable. I kept standing for the next 2 hours with my daughter in my arms. The food in the plane was so horrible and tasteless that we could not eat even a single bite. My wife slept on the three seats as I was standing with my daughter.

Finally, we were about to land in Vienna. Just before landing, one attendant came to me and inquired about our health and asked politely for our boarding passes which I gave her and after couple of minutes she returned and gave the boarding passes back to me with a “Thank You”. I thought finally it was over and now we will take rest at Vienna airport and everything will be fine now. We will board our connecting flight to Toronto. But I was wrong. The worst was yet to come.

It was around 4 hour stopover at Vienna. We found a comfortable bench and took good rest. The airport was quiet, comfortable and clean. Even though it looked very odd lying and sleeping on the bench, like railway stations in India, but we had to take rest, we were dead tired, and we have to take rest anyway. My back, legs and whole body was hurting. Got some chips for my daughter but she did not eat it and I knew she was very hungry, but I thought we will have something in the plane.

Time for boarding the next plane came. We were in the queue waiting to board. When our turn came, the person asked our boarding passes. He scanned it and there goes a loud “BEEP”. He looked on his computer and asked me for the medical clearance report as we were sick in our previous flight. I was astonished ``WHAAT``. He told that we should have got ourselves checked in the layover time that we had. I said I had no idea and none of the airline staff told me to do so and now you are asking me for a medical report. He said he will not let me in and asked me to get the medical check and board the next flight. WHERE, HOW....I just did not know what to do, where to go.

I repeatedly begged to allow us in as we are fine now, it was just fatigue, nothing else. He said that because of us the previous flight crew was about to do emergency landing. I begged and begged but they did not listen to me and closed the door. After few minutes an officer of the Vienna Airport came to us and took us to the clinic which was in the airport. The doctor over there checked my wife and daughter. Wife was okay but child was having fever and ear infection. An ambulance was called which arrived within 5 minutes. We were given special permission to get out of the airport into the city. The ambulance took us to the children`s clinic somewhere in the city. We reached the clinic after about 20 minutes of drive and then the ambulance left. Doctors and nurses checked my child. We told them our story and they were shocked and horrified that how can airlines refuse anyone to board the plane with just an ear infection and slight fever. They took the blood test and after seeing the reports they okayed us to travel to Toronto and gave us a letter stating that we were fit to fly to Toronto. They also gave us some medicine. The clinic staff took my child's passport copies and signatures and did not take any fees from us at that time (later on after few months I received a bill of Euros 132 as medical expenses). All the clinic staff was so good. They comforted and reassured us. Then they called a taxi for us. We had to pay USD 70 to reach the airport. At the airport, I showed the letter from the clinic and they booked our seats in the next flight that was next day. The lady who booked the next flight said that airline will reimburse the medical bill but we will have to pay for the hotel. (Later when I sent them email to reimburse the medical bill they simply refused).

One of the airline staff was an Indian guy who took us to NH Vienna Airport Hotel which was just outside the airport. We got the room for Euros 114 for one night. Our situation was very bad. We were tired, scared, angry, horrified, and of course hungry. But did not felt like eating anything. How could we eat when our baby was not putting anything in her mouth. She became very weak. What was all this happening? Never expected this thing.

Luckily, I had my Indian HDFC credit card in my wallet and I was able to pay all the bills. No one was accepting Canadian dollars, and could not find money exchange centers, they were only at the airport.

Left my wife and child in the hotel room and went to the pharmacy, bought the medicines and something to eat and then went back to hotel. But we did not eat anything. At that time, I was literally in tears. Prayed, prayed whole night, could not sleep. Child was very fussy. She was just crying and crying. I was worried that if the child was in the same condition next day, then airlines staff will again stop us from boarding.
Next day came, got ready, we drank some water, paid the hotel bill and left for the airport. Waited for one hour at the airport until the boarding to the next flight to Toronto started, got in the queue, after security check, showed the boarding pass to the person, and we were welcomed inside the plane. Luckily, my child was fast asleep in my arms all the time. No one questioned anything. I thanked God that everything was okay now. Plane took off, ate some chips in the plane but nothing much. Baby was still not eating anything. She was just sleeping.

Everything went quite well then on. I thanked God for taking us out of that situation.

I forgot to mention that all through this time I carried a laptop with me and Wi fi was free everywhere. So I kept informing everyone in my family through this channel.

After about 8 hours of journey, we touched the Toronto airport. Went through the immigration. Everything was so fast. The CBSA officer did all the formalities, took the COPR, noted our address in Canada, asked few questions, and asked how much money we were carrying, and finally said the golden words “WELCOME TO CANADA”. At the next counter, we were given some information booklets about Canada, some papers, a handbag, etc.
We collected our luggage, and went to another hall which was all empty, just some bored looking CBSA guys sitting and talking. They just asked if there was any goods to follow. I said no. I showed them the list of the items in our luggage and they put the CBSA stamp on it. We went out and there we found our relatives waiting for us who came to receive us. And finally we were in Canada. First we went to his house in Mississauga, had something to eat. After that they took us to a walk-in clinic where doctor checked my daughter and prescribed some medicines.

My daughter recovered in about a week's time. For about 10 days, we were at our relatives' house, and after that we moved to our basement which has already been arranged for by my relatives.

In the next part, I will tell you about my experience in Canada till now.

Thanks to all of you.

 

[S4F]

wow! that was one hell of an experience. Unexpected things like these do happen to every one once in a while. it's one thing getting stranded in a foreign country when one is alone and quite another when with the family. So glad that it ended up on a relatively positive note for you.

 

[helena21]

It was really hard reading this. But I'm so glad that things worked up for you and your family.

Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[CanadianLov3]

Thanks a lot everyone for reading my post. I am working on my next part and will be back shortly.

Thanks !!

A very good read and very well put in words. The Experience you've shared will be a guiding light to others! +1,

 

[Liss]

The concluding part of the story........


Hello friends,

Here is the final part of my story.

Part III (My experience after landing till now):

In my first part I wrote about my experience from application to getting the visa and in the second part I explained about my journey from Delhi to Toronto.

In this part I will write about my experiences till now after landing.

I must say that whatever happened to us during the journey was kind of blessing in disguise and it made us stronger and gave us courage to take up any challenge. After the horrible journey, it took my daughter about a week to 10 days` time to fully recover. We were at my uncle's (relative) house in Mississauga for about 10 days and then moved to our own accommodation which was a basement, just a few houses away from my uncle's house. It was in the prime location of Mississauga. The basement was not that good but was okay to start with. Later on we moved to another basement which is very good.

After few days, I got a job in a factory as a laborer which was a very hard job but I was mentally prepared for that and I knew that I will have to start with such jobs, so I gave my best to that job and never got frustrated. My supervisor was very happy with me. It was a very good feeling that I have started to earn. At least I was earning something and my savings were not depleting fast. I did this job for 4 months and then got a home-based typing job which I did for 3 months. Luckily after some time, I got a good job in a doctor's office as medical assistant, and till now I am still working there. I am very happy and satisfied with this job and I am now planning to educate myself and make a career in the same field.
My wife started looking for job only after 5 months as my daughter was very young and we could not afford the daycare. Then in December, we decided to put her in daycare so that my wife could go for interviews. She started searching by uploading her profile in LinkedIn. She had lot of experience in IT training. The very second day after putting up her profile in LinkedIn she got an interview call from a local IT training institute, and she got the job, decent pay, decent timings. After about three weeks, she got another call from a consultant of a big IT company. After 5 rounds of interviews (technical and HR rounds), she got the job. Double salary, all the benefits, timing flexibility. It was really unbelievable. She resigned from the teaching job and joined the IT company. Within few months our financial position became very good. She is still working in that company.

As for my daughter, she is enjoying her daycare, has made lot of friends. She is very happy and cheerful.

My only frustrating moments were when I was repeatedly failing my driving tests. Over here, without driving you cannot survive in this place. I wasted lot of money on this, and it was getting very difficult to move around in winter without a car. Last year's winters were ruthless. I had to walk all the way to do grocery. I failed 3 times in driving test. It was really very tough. Every time during the test I got so nervous and did some dangerous actions and failed. But finally I passed in 4th attempt. Getting a driving license here is an achievement in itself. I bought a used Honda Civic. It is a good car, still using it, planning to change sometime in April.

It's really a pleasure to drive here. Traffic is so well organized, highways are very good and smooth running, everybody driving a vehicle is so well trained, obey the laws, respect the pedestrians and drive safely. Of course, there are some people out there who do break the rules.

Winters are very rough here. There are 4 months full of disaster in winters.

Overall, my experience after landing has been good so far. I thank God for always being with us and helping us in the difficult situations.

Well friends...that's the end of my story for now. Let's see what the future has in store for us.

Thanks a lot for reading.

If I can be of any help to any of you please PM me.

God bless you all.

 

[immig_IT_guy]

The concluding part of the story........


Hello friends,

Here is the final part of my story.

Part III (My experience after landing till now):

In my first part I wrote about my experience from application to getting the visa and in the second part I explained about my journey from Delhi to Toronto.

In this part I will write about my experiences till now after landing.

I must say that whatever happened to us during the journey was kind of blessing in disguise and it made us stronger and gave us courage to take up any challenge. After the horrible journey, it took my daughter about a week to 10 days` time to fully recover. We were at my uncle's (relative) house in Mississauga for about 10 days and then moved to our own accommodation which was a basement, just a few houses away from my uncle's house. It was in the prime location of Mississauga. The basement was not that good but was okay to start with. Later on we moved to another basement which is very good.

After few days, I got a job in a factory as a laborer which was a very hard job but I was mentally prepared for that and I knew that I will have to start with such jobs, so I gave my best to that job and never got frustrated. My supervisor was very happy with me. It was a very good feeling that I have started to earn. At least I was earning something and my savings were not depleting fast. I did this job for 4 months and then got a home-based typing job which I did for 3 months. Luckily after some time, I got a good job in a doctor's office as medical assistant, and till now I am still working there. I am very happy and satisfied with this job and I am now planning to educate myself and make a career in the same field.
My wife started looking for job only after 5 months as my daughter was very young and we could not afford the daycare. Then in December, we decided to put her in daycare so that my wife could go for interviews. She started searching by uploading her profile in LinkedIn. She had lot of experience in IT training. The very second day after putting up her profile in LinkedIn she got an interview call from a local IT training institute, and she got the job, decent pay, decent timings. After about three weeks, she got another call from a consultant of a big IT company. After 5 rounds of interviews (technical and HR rounds), she got the job. Double salary, all the benefits, timing flexibility. It was really unbelievable. She resigned from the teaching job and joined the IT company. Within few months our financial position became very good. She is still working in that company.

As for my daughter, she is enjoying her daycare, has made lot of friends. She is very happy and cheerful.

My only frustrating moments were when I was repeatedly failing my driving tests. Over here, without driving you cannot survive in this place. I wasted lot of money on this, and it was getting very difficult to move around in winter without a car. Last year's winters were ruthless. I had to walk all the way to do grocery. I failed 3 times in driving test. It was really very tough. Every time during the test I got so nervous and did some dangerous actions and failed. But finally I passed in 4th attempt. Getting a driving license here is an achievement in itself. I bought a used Honda Civic. It is a good car, still using it, planning to change sometime in April.

It's really a pleasure to drive here. Traffic is so well organized, highways are very good and smooth running, everybody driving a vehicle is so well trained, obey the laws, respect the pedestrians and drive safely. Of course, there are some people out there who do break the rules.

Winters are very rough here. There are 4 months full of disaster in winters.

Overall, my experience after landing has been good so far. I thank God for always being with us and helping us in the difficult situations.

Well friends...that's the end of my story for now. Let's see what the future has in store for us.

Thanks a lot for reading.

If I can be of any help to any of you please PM me.

God bless you all.

Excellent post buddy, +1 for sharing your experience