Canada Blog: From Work Permit To Permanent Residence

And again, quite a long time without posts… hope this one will be useful for new immigrants in Canada.

Last week I decided to take a test for G1 driver license (so called student’s license that’d allow me to take a driving test and then buy a car). After a short research I’ve figured out that I’d need to take the following steps:

• Get a letter from Ukrainian consulate that’d proof my Ukrainian driver license validity.
• Go to a drivers test center, pay something about $100, get my vision checked and then take G1 test.

This is it So, on monday I went to Ukrainian consulate on Bloor Street West (next to High Park). I paid $40 for the translation and approval of the validity and it took them 3 days to finish the work. Procedure was pretty straighforward and I really liked the experience of working with Ukrainian consulate.

When I got the papers, I went to the test center in the Downsview Park. They checked my vision, asked me to pay $85 bucks and gave me the test papers. In 15 minutes I was a proud owner of a G1 drivers license and now I’m going to prepare for the driving test.

Hope this helps someone.

It took a long time before I decided to continue writing about our life in Canada. I wasn’t writing too much because many interesting and (sometimes) disturbing things were happening here, but now it looks like everything is fine again so it is time to tell our story here (see this and other following posts)

So, as you maybe noticed in this post’s subject, I’ve changed my work place. It was quite a painful process because my new employer is a company from the US. Actually, there were many factors which made this process painful and one of them was the fact that we didn’t know (we weren’t sure) that a US company could hire non-canadian citizens who are temporary canadian residents now. At the end we’ve retained really great lawyers (the best immigration lawyer in Canada and one of the best in the world) and they’ve helped us to fill all papers and make it easy to switch to the new employer.

My new employer is Scribd.com - online document publishing company which is in top-500 sites in the Internet now (and growing). My primary duties there as a Scalability Expert are “simple” - our site needs to be able to keep up with growing popularity of the service. I still work remotely from Totonto, company’s head office is located in San Francisco, California.

So, here we are, I’ve started writing new posts again And, to emphasize the major idea of the post I’d like to say it again: if you’re not a canadian citizen, you CAN switch to a new employer even if it is non-canadian company (at least it works for the US companies).

I’m going to apply for PR really soon, and thankt to my employer I’ll apply with 10 points for arranged employment. But as all people on Earth we’re pretty lazy and don’t like an idea of waiting few months for HRSDC confirmation letter… Today I called to CIC hotline and asked them how can we apply w/o this letter and they said, that if I have a valid work permit now, I can apply with photocopy of my WP attached now and then, when I’ll get new WP, I can send its photocopy to them. So, I don’t need to have a WP valid for at least one year from application date as mentioned in official docs.

Tomorrow I’m going to review all my paper ready for application and will describe this process thoroughly here. Stay tuned

I was going to fly to US at the end on May and it was my first visit to this country. So, entire visa system of US was really new for me and because it is little bit messy I want to describe it here in this short article.

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Hi, All! It’s been a long time without posts here, but next few months I’ll post really many information here. Why? Because:

1. I did CELPIP test (it is test like IELTS, but computerized and could be done only by Canada residents).
2. We’re going to apply for permanent residence really soon.
3. We’re going to prolong my work permit next month.
4. We think about moving to Toronto (from Brampton) and I’ll describe this process thoroughly.
5. We are going to visit Ukraine this spring, but there are lots of questions about obtaining new visa.
6. We did some research about apartments pricing in Toronto and about mortgage in Canadian banks.

So, stay tune and you’ll get lots of interesting information about live in Canada.

Before last week I thought, that temporary residents of Canada are not eligible to use Canadian health care system. But few days ago my boss said, that we are eligible. After not so long research I’ve figured out that we’re eligible for Ontario Health Insurance Plan. According to OHIP site, almost all Ontario residents are eligible for provincially funded health coverage (OHIP). To be eligible for Ontario health coverage you must :

• be a Canadian citizen or have immigration status as set out in Ontario’s Health Insurance Act, and
• make your permanent and principal home in Ontario, and
• be physically present in Ontario 153 days in any 12-month period.

OHIP coverage normally becomes effective three months after the date you establish residency in Ontario.

To get OHIP health card, you should should fill application in one of Ontario Ministry of Health Offices. When applying for a new health card, you must bring three original documents to prove citizenship/immigration status, residency in Ontario and identity.

• See health card Fact Sheet
• See Ontario Health Coverage Document List (PDF)

You may be asked for additional documents. For example, if your name has changed you may need to provide a marriage certificate or a change of name certificate.

After filling application and applying to one of Ministry of Health offices, we’ve got our health cards and now we can use Canadian health care system. I was wondering how different this system comparing to xUSSR countries systems. One of most interesting ideas of this system is idea of Family Doctors. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

A general practitioner (GP) or family physician (FP) is a physician/medical doctor who provides primary care. A GP/FP treats acute and chronic illnesses, provides preventive care and health education for all ages and both sexes. Some also care for hospitalized patients, do minor surgery and/or obstetrics. The term general practitioner is common in the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries, where the word “physician” is only used for certain specialists and not for GPs.

Yesterday we’ve got one family doctor for me and my wife in shopping mall near our home. IMHO, this idea of family doctors is much better, than our Ukrainian health care system based on set of polyclinics with huge line-ups. So, maybe, Ukraine will get such or some similar system one day and we’ll be able to have better health care system.

One of the most important things Canada residents should do is to apply for Social Insurance Number. It is pretty simple process - you need to visit near Service Canada Centre and fill-in your application. With your application you need to have some additional documents. If you are skilled worker with work permit, you need only Work Permit/Employment Authorization (issued by Citizenship and Immigration Canada Government of Canada).

Brampton SDC office information (service is in English only):

• Location: 18 Corporation Drive, Brampton, Ontario, L6S 6B2
• Phone: (905) 790-2525
• FAX: (905) 789-3885
• E-Mail: ontario.inquiry@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca
• Hours of service: Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm
• Busiest Hours: 9:00 am to 12:00 Noon

When your application will be processed (it will take about 15-20 minutes), you will get paper, which will proof your Social Insurance Number and after 3-5 business days you will receive your plastic SIN card.

Useful link: SDC Official Pages about SIN Application

This week I have received letter from my prospective employer about some specifics in work permit obtaining process for IT workers. As you can see at Canada Immigration site, IT workers does not need to have job confirmation from HRSDC because for IT workers this confirmation is replaced by letter from employer with job offer and detailed description of position (with NOC code) and salary.

In response to the need of employers to fill critical shortages in the software industry, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) collaborated with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), Industry Canada and the Software Human Resource Council (SHRC) on the development of a pilot project to streamline the entry of workers whose skills are in high demand in the software industry and whose entry into the Canadian labour market would have no negative impact on Canadian job seekers and workers. Under normal circumstances, a foreign worker who wishes to work in Canada requires an employment authorization from CIC and a validated job offer from a local HRSDC office. If the HRSDC office determines that there are no Canadian citizens or permanent residents available to fill the position, the job offer to the foreign worker is validated and the worker may then apply for an employment authorization for admission to Canada.

Under the pilot project, the job-specific confirmation was replaced by a national confirmation letter which states, among other things, that certain software positions cannot be filled by Canadian citizens or permanent residents. The national confirmation letter removed the delay associated with the job-specific confirmation process.

To qualify for this simplified process, the job being offered must fit within one of specified job descriptions.

For your convenience, you can use following checklist to prepare yourself for applying for Canada Work Permit:

• Work Permit application form with three photographs
• Personal Information Form
• Use of a Representative Form [if applicable]:
• Offer of employment for job in Canada, stating:
  • duration of employment
  • nature of work to be performed
  • salary to be paid in Canada
• Letters of reference from your current and previous employers, including:
  • start and end dates of employment
  • description of nature of work performed
  • job title
• Educational documents related to your IT/ computer studies:
  • including marksheets
  • highlighting computer related courses
• CAQ if destined to Québec

If you want, you can download or read online very detailed guide about Applying for a Work Permit outside Canada by CIC Canada.

In one of my next posts I will say about Ukrainian specifics and how to write letter of reference. So, you can subscribe to RSS-feed of this site and you will get next articles directly from your RSS-reader.