Landing:
Landed on Edmonton Airport from Mumbai-London-Edmonton route through Jet airways –Air Canada and landed @ 6.10 pm Edmonton time on 24th July 2014.
At the Passport Control:
At passport control, informed officers that we have come to do our 'landing'. The officer checked our Disembarkation Card and our passport/s & visa and directed us to "Newly Landed Immigrants' Counter". BTW,We collected our baggages after the passport control .
At the Immigration / Custom Counter:
Lady officer greeted here and asked us to show COPR & PP .She filled up our PR application ,asked us the address where we are going to stay and noted down on COPR as well. She asked us about goods to follow in future and we said no. Here she didn't ask for the POF or carrying goods list. COPR copies were attached to our respective passports and she said “Welcome to Canada and now you are PR of Alberta and Canada as well. Please save your COPR copies well until you get your PR cards as this is the only document on which you can travel back in case of Emergency before your PR card arrives.”She later on guided us towards exit and wished us again with smile. At the exit, my friends had come for pick up and drove us to his house where we stayed for 15 days.
Weather:
Temperature was @ 15 degree and for another couple of days it remained rainy and humid. The nicest thing about weather I found was the day was too long and I remember I played Cricket match @ 9.30pm with full sunlight!!Sunset time here from May to August end is @ 10 pm which is so good to see. In last two months temp. has been fluctuating from 0 to 25 deg.cel.with a day when we had -2 degee and some flurries for couple of hours.But overall the weather here remains pleasant and in the range of 10to 25 deg cel.
2nd day:
My friend took me to Service Canada first in Millbourne mall and got the SIN no. COPR and PP copies are required here so pl.ensure to carry those with you. Went to registry and applied for health card which I received after 10 days. Also opened up a/c in TD bank, submitted d/d for deposit and was informed that it will take 10-15 days for clearance. Got that d/d cleared on 17th day of arrival.( So make sure that u keep enough cash with you as you can see it takes 15-20days for d/d to be cleared.)
Accommodation:
Let me tell you that like jobs, accomdation is also in high demand here so one need to book the apartment, houses in advance .It took me around 10days to find out an apartment so if you are planning to land in Edmonton and have relatives or friend ,ask them to see and book one. Sometimes you even need to pay some application fees also.1 bhk would cost you @ 1000 $ and 2 bhk should be @ 1200.You can even get a bachelor suite with a big room and kitchen if u have a small family or only couple staying.
In Edmonton,Millwoods,Millbourne,South gate are the preferred areas for Immigrants. You will find many Asians particularly Indians and also have lots of grocery,veg. shops,restaurants around such areas. Please avoid downtown-Jasper,north,strathcona,Boney doon area in your initial days of staying as these areas are not safe and sometimes costlier as well.
Also for renting an apartment or house you need to have a cosigner who can sign the leasing documents and need to provide SIN no. or credit history for verification. Most of the apartments will be given to you in2nd week of the month as even if the landlord gets it vacated from the previous tenant, they take a week time to get those apartments clean up, paint, electronics appliance check up and cleaning, carpet cleaning etc.Apartments are mostly equipped with Dishwasher,cooker,refrigerator and shared laundry machines.
Job Search:
You can't ask for anything more when you have just come in Canada, applies on your third day of landing, gets an interview call on fifth day and gets an offer in second week.
YES!!It has happened and I can proudly say that I got selected in a first interview I faced in Canada and that too in my very own field!! The story doesn't end here. I had applied for the post which was in a lower category than what I was eligible for and got a job which was even in higher rank than what I had worked previously. While interviewing, my employer found me more capable of doing the job than they had advertised and offered me the position which I had not even imagined..!!and that is why Canada is called a place of opportunities..On the fifteen day of my landing, I got recruited and started the job with an immediate effect.
Driving License:
One of the things where I did a mistake was about my driving license. Before coming to Canada, I was in Middle East and had a driving license. When I approached the driving registry, they told me that I can drive in Edmonton up to three months and can even buy a car so I was thinking to buy a car and start driving. The issue happened when I wanted to buy a car and approached insurance companies. On this point, I came to know that buying car was not an issue but the real problem was to get an insurance without Alberta driving license. Nobody was ready to give me an insurance without the license so I had to go back to the basics and started preparing for the knowledge test. I wasted around a month thinking that I will be buying a car soon but could not due to the insurance issues. Later on cleared the knowledge test and my road test is due in a couple of days. My Job is only 5 kms from where I am staying and Bus services are good here with reasonably good frequencies. You can get Bus services almost everywhere in Edmonton.
City & Cost of living:
Overall Edmonton city is peaceful. Not very much crowded, people are nice, friendly and helping. It's very green in summer times and full of parks, gardens, picnic spots, walking trails.Edmontonains enjoy their summertime to its fullest and hence organize lots of festivals, sports & entertainment activities in summer times.
Other thing is Edmonton has jobs.I don't know about other places but right from the first day I applied for Canadian Immigration,I was sure about my decision to land in Edmonton and It has paid me back and proved that I was not wrong.Many of my friends,relatives who stays here in Canada or US had repeatedly told me not to choose Edmonton but I can say now that It has got lot of Jobs and those who are in technical field ,production,mfg..don't give a second thought on your landing..You are welcome in Edmonton..!!
Cost of living is higher compare to Middle East countries and even more than US but higher wages makes it in check. You will pay taxes altogether @ 20-25% of your take home salary.
Let me end what I had to say here as the mail has become too long.If anybody wants more info. about Edmonton or Landing, Job hunt, send me pm and I would love to help you guys.
Regards,
Edmonta
Lovely, detailed writeup Edmonta, hoping to try my luck in Calgary since Edmonton is the same province do U have any idea of what it's like there? Really appreciate your response
