My Landing in Canada:
Finally, I landed in Canada a few months ago. I flew with my family from UK (From Glasgow to Toronto via Halifax) by westjet. At glasgow airport, The airline officials were very skeptical when they saw no return ticket and this prompted them to do a thorough check of the authenticity of our visa/s. Simply put, the airline offcials in Glasgow are ignorant of the Canadian Visa. They are not even sure how the Canadian visa should look like. After ~30 minures of checking, the wesjet airlines finally agreed to check us in to the flight. The flight from glasgow to halifax was ~6 hours and was very boring. I travelled with my wife and two kids.
Since our first port of entry in canada was halifax, we had no option but to complete the landing formalities at halifax airport. Soon after getting out of airport, we went to the immigration. I spoke to a immigration officer and told her that I came here to Land. She said whatever you still have to wait with others (mostly british travellers who doesnt require visa etc) in the quoue and wait for my turn Sad. Anyways, we waited for ~15-20 minutes to reach to the immigration officer (IO). The IO checked our passports and landing documents and asked us to go to the immigration kiosk to finish our landing procedure. When I went to the immigration kiosk, the whole section was deserted and no immigration officials were available. I waited for ~5 minutes and then went back again to the immigration officer and informed her that there are no one in the immigration office. She apologised and promptly radioed her colleagues who came from their hiding placed to finish my landing. They checked our COPR and asked us to sign a few places and then returned our COPR. I gave the address of my friend for PR cards delivery. By this time my son was well into his tantrum which made things very difficult.
Then we went to the checked in baggage carousel and collected our bags. Unfortunately, the stroller that we handed at the gates in Glasgow went missing. I signed a missing baggage form and proceeded to the customs area. the same officer who processed my COPR processed my customs declaration form. I only made a vague documents saying that I have 4 mobile phones worth 2000CAD gold worth 20000 CAD (~x grams) etc. The officer stamped the document and also stamped one page of the photograph of gold. Then he said "Good Luck sir" (no one said "welcome to canada" to me Sad). We them went to the connecting flight kiosk and the westjet attendants were very helpful. They informed us that by now they have located out baby stroller and after ~30 minutes we were united with our baby stroller. They suggested us to drop our bags at the carousel for connecting flights. When the officer scanned my baggage she found three deodorant spray bottles in the checked in baggage and informed me that she need confirmation from westjet that they are okay with me carrying three cans of deodorants in my checked in baggage. By this time i knew that i have to part with my deodorant. The X ray officer was bit nosy thats what I concluded, afterall the baggage was coming from UK with no problems whatsover, i dont understand why she made a fuss about it. Anyways, i dumped the deodoant sprays and checked the baggage to Toronto. After a short flight of ~1:30 hours we landed in Toronto. SInce it was a domestic flight, we landed and collected our baggae and were out of the airport in ~30 minutes. My son was again in his tantrums and crying all the way which made things very difficult.
I switched my mobile On and connected to my "knowroaming" sim and called the hire car company. The hire car company (Routes car rental) was actually located off airport and in order to reach them, i had to take the link train from terminal 3 to viscount station. At the viscount station the hire car company picke us in their truck to the hir car agency off airport location. The hirecar office was not luggage friendly as there were no ramps which made things difficult. We collected the car from there and drove to the hotel. It was brand new car which was only driven ~5000 km or so. We were so tired after reaching the totel that we slept for the next 4-5 hours. when we woke up it was ~9;30 PM. I went to the hotel reception to enquire about any takeaways nearby and he gave me some pamphlets of take aways. We had a short friendly chat about the situation in canada and he informed me that he came to canada ~15 years ago. He was a assistant professor in pakistan and now he is a receptionist in a hotel. He also mentioned that one of his friend who has a PhD is now a taxi driver. He gave me a advice that we must be willing to make some sacrifice. He chose to stay in Canada for his children. He also mentioned that there are others who go jobs in their respective profession as well.
The next day we went to get our sin number. The service canada was deserted and therefore we got our sin number in 10 minutes or so. The lady there mentioned that they wont send any physical SIN card and she mentioned that the prinout of the SIN number is all that we will receive.
I then went to walmart to do some shopping and then went to a Scotia bank nearby to activate my Scotiabank account that i opened online from UK under the startright program. Since the branch i opened my account online was a different one, they didnt activate my account and directed me to visit the branch mentioned in the papers. I then went to the branch were i opened the bank and activated my account in ~30 minutes. I also received my debit card. The lady at the bank mentioned that i may receive 100 CAD as a good will gesture and suggested that i maintain ~2500 CAD always in my account or i will incur charges of ~10cad per month. An interesting thing that i noted in Toronto is that majority of the employees in walmart and scotia bank were either of indian/pakistani origin.
We also went to Niagra Falls for a day and we liked the place. It is definitly a place to visit at least once in a lifetime.
After we stayed for some time in Canada, we returned back. We didnt have to undergo any immigration check while coming out of canada. We just checked into out flight, went through security and then to the gates and then into the flight.
My impression of canada: It is gonna be a struggle when i go there to live. Getting jobs will be tricky. Hope for the best and be prepared for the worst.
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