Canada Blog: From Work Permit To Permanent Residence

Today we were dining in really great place - small authentic Italian restaurant near our place. Nice people, awesome food and just next to our place - everything we’d even dream of

Details - on their official site.

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If you need to find Family doctor for yourself or for some of your family members, you can use great service from CPSO (The College Of Physicians And Surgeons Of Ontario). Doctor Search provides information about individual physicians, including practice address, telephone number, qualifications, etc., and whether they are accepting new patients.

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

I will simply list here links to some useful sites with forums about Canada immigration and work permit abtainment process. If you know some different sites, please, notify me about them.

• http://www.canadaworkpermit.com/ - company provides companies and individuals with solutions for temporary or permanent migration for the purpose of employment and business in Canada. Site has great forum about workers immigration.
• misc.immigration.canada - Very active newsgroup about Canada immigration.
• http://www.immigration.ca/ - Canada immigration layer COLIN R. SINGER. Site has very active forums and some set of articles about immigration.
• http://www.canada-city.ca/ - Site about Canada, Canadian cities and some facts about live in Canada. Site has active immigration forum.
• http://www.russiancanada.com/ - Large portal of Russians in Canada with great forum.
• http://www.canada.ru/ - Russian site about immigration with very active forum.

Last Update: 2006-05-21