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).

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

Have lots of fun during todays shopping. First of all, almost in every store you can find huge banners with text like “Pre-holiday sale - up to 50% off”, etc. But most interesting was shopping in The Bay store.

We’ve trying to find some sweater for Tanya and looked through lots of different stores in near shopping mall, bot no luck - everything sucks because of size,color, model, etc (you know women)… Eventually we decided to visit Bay store and go home…

But in Bay we’ve found lots of different cool wears for Tanya and she chose some to buy. When we were ready to checkout, some woman from Bay staff said: “Do you have your HBC Credit Card with you?”. Of course, I answered “No”, because I haven’t go it before (was not eligible). She said: “If you’ll get it today, you will be able to shop in Bay, Zellers and Canadian Tire with 10% off today!”… So, we’ve tried and now I have my own HBC Credit Card with $1500 credit limit! Without any deposited money like in BMO Bank!

So, we were really glad to buy sweater with 10% off… But just before checkout Some woman from Bay customers gave us some paper card with 15% additional discount! She gave it to us for free! Just because she was going to buy only one thing in Bay today and she has two cards… So, at last, checkout was complete and we’ve got really nice sweater with 25% off

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

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

Захотелось нам недавно пивка… Подумали мы и поняли, что нигде с самого момента приезда не видели ни капли спиртного… Это нас, признаться, немного смутило, т.к. двух пьяных человек за это время мы повстречали, да и по телевизору (в кино) они всегда горе заливают виски

В результате проведенного опроса среди жителей Канады выяснилось, что продажа алкоголя (пиво у них - алкоголь) в стране ооочень жестко контролируется государством и, по сути, никто, кроме нескольких (или одной) государственных корпораций, торговать зеленым змием права не имеет… Как результат - в стране ооочень низкий процент алкоголизма, а курящих (с табаком - практически такая же ситуация) - ваще почти нету. Еще немного поисков привели нас на сайт компании LCBO, которая имеет право торговать “напитками” у нас в городе. Сегодня мы отправились в ближайший магазин…

Итак, мы - в магазине! Скажу честно - мне это понравилось. Очень много спиртного со всех краев нашей необьятной планеты и все в одном боольшом магазине. Все рассортировано по странам и по типам напитков - очень удобно. Результат похода в магазин - одна (тестовая) бутылка пива “Славутич Светлое (Imported from Ukraine)”, бутылка Corona’ы, некоторое количество местного пива, посоветованного знакомым коренным канадцем и, на закуску, литра Martini Bianco

Вот, вроде бы, и все, но я решил написать отзыв на экспортный Славутич… Ну, что сказать… То, что продают в Украине - наааамного хуже того, что везут сюда (как и предполагалось перед тестированием)! Экспортное пиво - менее горькое и имеет более мягкий приятный вкус (больше похоже на чешский старопрамен или будвайзер).

If you don’t know, all our photos from Canada are in our gallery.

Сегодня наткнулись на магазин с интересным названием Dollarama и не менее интересной идеей - все товары в нем стоят доллар или меньше (есть варианты типа 2 товара за доллар или 10 за доллар). Очень-очень пожалели, что не зашли в этот магазин в день приезда - это просто рай для эмигрантов - есть все, что нам было нужно в первые дни: дешевая посуда, всякие товары для дома (кухни, ванной и т.п.) и некоторое количество дешевой еды (в основном - напитки и сладости), очень много всего.

Глядя на этот магазин, я начинаю менять свое мнение о ценах на товары в Канаде - не все так плохо и, если знать где покупать, то можно найти товары по ценам, не выше, чем те, к которым мы привыкли у себя на родине :-). Короче, сразу после приезда нужно искать такие магазины (их здесь, как оказалось позже, много) и покупать там все, что нужно - если позже захочется более красивых тарелок или более удобных ножей с вилками, то не жалко будет выбросить старые!

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