Canada Blog: From Work Permit To Permanent Residence

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).

Here they are - our latest photos.

Do you like to eat tasty food? Do you like to cook? Or, maybe, your wife, girlfriend or mother like to cook? Then you definitely need to take a look at new site started by the team of creators of the “Best Tech Videos”. Welcome to the “Best Cooking Videos” site! Here you can find tons of high-quality videos about cooking, free lessons from professional chefs, interviews and much more. Really soon we’ll release more features like favorite videos bookmarking, videos filtering and even posting your own videos!

Join us today - subscribe to our RSS feed or simply visit us from time to time to get more interesting information on cooking!

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.

This week was really rich for entertainment and trips for us. On monday we were on Niagara Falls and on Sunday we have got great trip to Toronto Downtown.

Speaking of Niagara Falls, I’ve never seen any natural phenomenon with such power as I saw in Niagara Falls! It was awesome, really beautiful and very interesting for us! So, I want to thank my employer, Kan, for this opportinity to see one of the most beautiful places in the World. Photos from this trip you can see in our gallery in Niagara Falls secrion.

As for trip to Toronto, we have trying to get there for last 2 weeks, but unfortunately there were some problems, because of which we was not able to make this trip. But today we have done it - we were in Toronto Downtown! It was as good as Niagara falls, but Niagara is creation of nature, and Toronto Downtown created by human hands. Really huge skyscrapers and, of course, CN Tower - one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World - Toronto’s most recognizable landmark. So, what I can say, I like this City! And some day I would definitely like to move there. As for now, I have lots of photos from this beautiful place for you. You can take a look at them here.

Btw, if you will move to Canada and will need to trip somewhere near Toronto (in GTA), you can use GO Transit service - it has great prices and very good conditions. Their site is http://www.gotransit.com. You can find there lots of information about schedules, prices, bus stops, etc. So I will suggest this service - it is really good.

Minimum cigarettes pack price here is about $7-9!

Have no posting here for long time… But there are lots of interesting experiences in our life.

First of all, I have got my new Mastercard credit card from Bank of Montreal. To be more precisious, need to note, that it is not a real credit card as most canadians have. Because I have no any local credit history, I can’t get any credits in local banks. But I put some money to bank account ant they gave me my credit card with exactly the same credit limit as my deposited amount of money. But later, when I will get some credit history using this semi-credit card, I will be able to get real credit card with much bigger credit limit. So, this is their credit system - there is no life without credit history

Another thing I like here are mail-in rebates. Idea of mail-in rebates is following: sometimes in bug shops you can find some goods (hardware, office supplies, etc) with marks like “$20 mail-in rebate”. If you will buy these goods, then mail your receipt to main rebates processing center or fill form on their site, yo will receive 20 bucks cheque my mail in 3-6 weeks. I just rereived my $20 cheque from Zellers, where I bought great Wireless Broadband Linksys Router for $48 last month. So, its price for me is $28 only, which is really good price for this device!

And the last interesting thing are ATMs… If you have some Visa card and want to withdraw some money from your account, don’t try to find ATM with Visa logo - simply put your card to any ATM and you’ll get your money! I’ve spent lots of time trying to find Visa ATM and then asked about it in one of near banks

After some time of problems we’ve got our home phone number and connection to Bell! Our new number is +1-905-861-9378. To get this connection I have only filled connection request form on their site. Connection fee will be included in first month bill. It is really simple!

By the way, if you will need to Bell 611 Repair Service from outside of Bell, you can use following number: 1 800 668-6878 no charge from anywhere in North America.

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