Road To Canada Forums

Hi all,

So I've been landed now in Ontario for exactly six weeks today. I landed on August 31st at the Lewiston-Queenston bridge.. the longest part of which was importing my vehicle.

Anyway, my husband and I merged into living together as though we've been doing it all along. I started job searching as soon as I got my Passport Request, and went on close to 20 interviews in the last six weeks. Many were for employment agencies and clients through agencies, but several were for just regular employers. I was starting to wonder what I was doing wrong, as I felt the interviews all went really well, but I wasn't actually landing a job.

I was also interviewing in Mississauga and Oakville, as the salaries are higher there and I didn't think I'd mind the 45 minute commute, since I had to deal with a long commute before I immigrated. In the end, I ended up landing a job at a local ScotiaBank branch, doing a similar job as I had in the states. I start on Monday.. and I'm excited to earn a paycheck again. I ended up taking a bit of a pay cut, but now that I'm in a two-income household, my income will primarily go into savings anyway. Plus, I feel like working five minutes from home makes up for a lot. I've never worked so close to home!!!

And I finally received my PR Card today, six weeks to the day of landing. I was a little surprised to see that the photo on it is black and white, as I provided color photos, but it's a pretty neat card (tons of security features!)

I'm adjusting to life in Ontario.. the money, the metric system, celcius temperatures (double it and add 30 for a rough fahrenheit estimate).. the new food brands in the grocery stores. No mail on Saturday.. ???

The mail thing has sort of boggled me, as my mother mailed me a somewhat important piece of mail last Wednesday or Thursday, and it's the following Friday and it's still not here! I know Monday was a holiday, but jeez!

So that's where I stand now.. settling in, starting a job, training a puppy, and loving my life. Good luck to everyone on the path to making things work, and everyone still waiting to get started with it all.

Glad to hear things are working out so well for you, and congrats on the job. I know, I'm still not used to the mail thing - my sister mentioned to me weeks ago that she had sent one of those 8.5 x 11 manila envelopes with some stuff in it to us. It finally arrived Wednesday. I used to get my child support checks by mail!!! At least ten days from California to Ontario - and that was if they remembered to put the right postage on it. Then again, sometimes it'd arrive in three days with the wrong postage. It was a nightmare. I finally started having them sent to my Mom cuz I knew at least I could depend on her to put the correct postage on them - but that only delayed things further because of the mail time to her, and then to me. Now they are credited to a visa debit card that I can put in an ABM here and take out the cash. Only drawbacks - I can only withdraw $300 at a time, and now with the exchange being what it is, that costs me $12 additional dollars US!! But that'd be the same, even if I was still getting a paper check.

Even so, I'm glad to be here but I sure wish my PPR would show up!!! Rob's calling the MP himself today - we e-mailed his assistant over a month ago (twice now) and Rob has called her to follow up and not a word. Mr Brown introduced Rob to her and promised him she'd take care of everything for us . . . he'll be quite disappointed to find out she didn't honour his promise.

But maybe we'll get some info on our file next week!

Congratulations on your new job and getting your PR card. I still have to ask about the metric system when I am shopping.LOL Its a little embarassing but everyone that I have ask is very helpful. When I mail or receive mail from Texas it takes one week exactly to get it.

Good luck with training the puppy and God bless you and your new family!

I've been here 3 years now and the mail still drives me crazy, I can get mail from anywhere in the US faster then mail from anywhere in Canada, it amazes me how slow Canada Post is.

Congrats on the new job.

My husband's had the opposite experience with mail, but it's only because his local postmaster and delivery people were positively awful at their jobs, in the US. At one point, several mail bags were discovered in a local dumpster, and no disciplinary action was taken!

I am so glad you were able to find a job. I am sure you will love it, it does give me hope for if I decide to start trying to look for something again. And hopefully my PR card will arrive next week!

Jennifer

Thanks for the well wishes everyone! At times, it was overwhelming to keep everything straight that I needed to take care of through this whole process, and now that things are actually in place, it's a bit strange.

I'll repost to this thread when the letter from New Jersey finally arrives here in Ontario. (mental eye roll)

Congrats on the job! And I have to say, it gets me excited to see someone whose paperwork went through so quickly. I'm soooooo hoping mine will go through fast as well.
And I thought the Saturday mail thing was only a Nova Scotia thing! I mean, this is the province that only introduced Sunday shopping last year and people are still pretty riled about it......lol It's so funny getting used to the different ways of doing things.

Dear All,
I just landed and residing in Ottawa with the family. My wife is here but not working. My elder son is studing in University. My younger son is trying to find a school to start his 11th grade. I want suggestions from my friends in Road to Canada at this stage. What should I do to find a job, which site I have to visit etc. Where should I go and etc...

I would search workopolis.com as well as monster.ca

Do a google search for 'canada job bank' and you can search there as well. Narrow the open positions to the geographical areas that you're willing to work in, and start sending out your resume/CV.

Best of luck!

(P.S. - My piece of mail still has not arrived.)