Hello, my name is Gabriel M. and I am the creator of http://www.canada42.com/.
After several months of researching, I began my process of
applying for the visa in 1998 and finally I immigrated to
Canada in December 1999 from Colombia - South
America. I have an university degree as Mechanical
Engineer.
I will tell you some of the reasons that led me to take
the decision to come to Canada. After more than 12 years of
successful professional work in my country, I started to feel
that it was the moment to go.
I began to be worried by the idea of spending the
following years of my life in that comfortable employee
position, waiting perhaps for a pension (common thought in our
companies), especially in government jobs. Each time I went to
a social meeting celebrating a new retirement, the idea of
leaving everything behind and search for a new life in a
foreign country was more attractive and motivating.
I convinced myself that life is too short to limit it
to a series of repetitions in the same place, always with more
or less the same people.
One day, I decided that I wanted to play the second
term of my life game in a new stadium, in another country
where I could find new experiences, another language, and
other opportunities for my future and the future of my family.
United States is the preferred destination country for
immigrants from many countries. You surely know some friend or
relative who has entered USA, as a tourist to Disneyland and
then remain in this country as alien, with no legal
immigration documents. But the sour reality is that more than
80% of people living in the USA with no identification
documents, without visa, and working lots of hours with poor
salaries and without hope of a stable future or of achieving a
small part of the "American dream". Using legal ways, the
possibilities of obtaining a Resident Visa in USA for
engineers and technicians were very small (even more
restricted after Sep-11-2001). I rejected that possibility,
since I saw no sense in trying to live with my family in a
country in which you are exploited and exposed to a constant
and eternal discrimination.
Canada and Australia are the countries which offer the best opportunities
for many engineers, technicians and skilled workers from all
over the world to start a new life, and perhaps, the only ones
that have an open and organized immigration system. Both
countries are developed, stable and most important of all,
they need skilled workers to maintain their industrial
level.
After many, many hours of research, internet searching,
and reading several books on this subject, I realized that
Canada has always had the doors open, and they receive
annually more than 250,000 immigrants from all over the world,
with no distinction of nationality, race or
religion.
Canada is, with no doubt, the most multicultural
country in the world. Many languages, religions and nationalities living
in mutual harmony and respect, with no discrimination at
all.
The more information I found, the more feasible I
found the possibility of applying for Visa for my family and
I, which would let me live and work in Canada.
This possibility is the same YOU and your family may
have right now.
The following are, in general, the requirements for
obtaining a Permanent Resident Visa in Canada as Skilled
Worker:
- University
or Technical Education (minimum 2 years after secondary
school)
- Age from 22
to 49 years.
- Intermediate
level (minimum) of English or French.
- 1 year or
more of working experience.
- Economic
resources to support yourself during 6 months.
In my case, to fulfill the Canadian government
requirements, technical or university education of more than 3
years, several years of working experience and an intermediate
level of English wasn't trouble. So, gathering the documents
and filling in the forms to obtain the visa were an easy and
reachable task. I made by myself all the process of applying
for a Permanent Resident Visa without paying expensive
“consultants”. It was not difficult to prepare the forms
and to file the right support documents to be evaluated and
approved. After 10 months of proceedings, we were called to
inform us that we could claim our passports with our visas,
without even having an interview.
The great problem I had from the beginning was not
knowing anybody in Canada.
Not a relative, not a friend, not even a friend of a
friend. That was a big problem. Nobody to receive us at the
airport, to recommend us a hotel or to tell us the basic
things to start living in this new country in an adequate and
decent way, and most important of all... economically
acceptable. From my point of view, the landing in this country
was the most difficult part within a project that I did not
want to cancel at that moment. I didn’t want to go back, and
to overcome that fears and the lack of help, I become obsessed
for gathering any information about Toronto, the city of 5.000
km which I saw as the best opportunity, or perhaps, the one
with less disadvantages, among the cities that we might find.
Unfortunately, it was not easy to find at distance, help or
detailed information which may be of help at our arriving.
We travelled to Canada with a stop in Miami, a couple of
days before the new millennium. With four bags full of hopes
and the pain of leaving behind a great part of ourselves, we
embarked on an adventure of a lifetime. Once in Canada,
in Pearson Airport - Toronto, immediately, we felt in our
bodies and bones the first mistake as immigrants me made (the
first of a long chain), When we got out of the airport
to catch a taxi to go to any hotel, temperature was -16 C and
it was just the second week of winter. To give you a cool
idea, the temperature of your refrigerators is generally
between -5 and -8 C. It was not possible to survive in
the snow with our tropical clothes, so once we where in the
taxi; our first task was to buy adequate clothes, as Canadians
use during the winter. (The beginning of our new life in
Canada was similar to the beginning of "Terminators"
films, looking for appropriated clothes for the new
world).
After buying some winter clothes in the first store we
found downtown Toronto, we looked for shelter in a "cheap"
hotel at china-town recommended by the taxi driver. Daily fee
was "only" $120 US, were stayed for our first 15 days in
Canada. After certifying my wife and son’s visas with
their presence in Canadian territory, I bought them the
tickets to return to our country of origin, (it was high
season, so I paid the double for the airplane tickets), while
I settled in the city, got a job and began my life in the
worst time to begin a life. Then, I began my integration
process. I rented a room in a family house and moved to a nice
neighbourhood in Toronto. I took a three month full time
English course where I increased my level of English. I was
lucky, because in the house I lived I found good and friendly
people who guided and showed me the way I had to follow as a
skilled worker (engineer) to learn and search a job in my
area. By the fourth month, I found my first job in my area of
expertise. My family returned 6 months later, and for the
first two years, 2000 and 2001, we lived in Toronto. Since
2002 we are living in a small town just outside Toronto.
How much I would have paid for a guide to prevent me
of many mistakes I have done in my process! Although I was
rather lucky to find adequate people, I would have certainly
saved hundreds of dollars if I would have been informed of the
many obstacles found at your arrival to
Canada.
From my own experience, and due to the lack of a clear
guide to immigrants in Canada, I thought of doing something to
help other people arriving daily as immigrants. To fill in the
blank, I start researching the subject, analyzing situations
and polls, consulting experts and most important of all,
skilled workers who have achieved professional and working
success in Canada.
One of the greatest satisfactions I had in Canada is to
have been able to help many people who have come after me with
my advice and experience. I helped other families to apply for the Permanent
Resident Visa, and then helped them in their "landing" in
Canada without much trouble. I have also helped many
people with my information and advice, and indicated the best
possible way in Canada for the not easy task of getting a job
related with their profession and interests. Getting a
technical or professional job is not easy, but there is a
process to follow in order to be competitive in the search of
a good job, such as in the presentation of resumes and
presenting yourself well in interviews. Of course, to get an
acceptable or good job depends on each person’s capacities,
and on other external factors, which shall not be mentioned
now. With a good guide and some time, most of the
professionals and skilled workers can get an adequate job in 4
or 5 months. (You can get a non qualified job in a month or
less).
Many educated people with strong desire to work (like
you), can see their illusion of living in Canada frustrated
simply by the fear of not
having a relative or friend in this country to
receive them at their arrival, to guide and help them at their
start of their new life in this country.
But after some time, I realized that having relatives
or friends in Canada is not enough in many cases. I also found
many professionals living in Canada for 5 or more years in
Canada who did not get working stability or simply who had
already accepted to survive with low salary, in non qualified
jobs. People talk about their experiences and their ways to
face living in Canada (sometimes to survive). For example, if
your friends or relatives have been working many years in
Canada in construction or cleaning companies (some of them are
very well paid), they will probably guide you towards that
kind of business which are the ones that they know. There is
nothing wrong in that, and people working in those businesses
usually earn enough money (more in the construction business)
to have a house, car and other comfort things usual in the
Canadian society. Each person shall try to help you from their
own perspective and experience.
The problem is that there are many possibilities that
among your relatives or friends you will not find SKILLED
WORKERS, with a clear idea and precise experience of the
process to get a job in your area. Not all the immigrants to
Canada are educated and with a profession. Some time ago,
until the 90's, the immigrants to Canada did not need to have
academic or professional requirements, unlike now. Besides,
there always has been a continuous flow of refugees, who are
helped by the government and have other integration
conditions. The needs, expectations, desires and point of view
are not the same between different immigrant’s categories in
Canada (investors, entrepreneurs, professionals and
technicians, refugees). The fact is that you, as a Skilled
Worker, shall want to look for a job in your area of
expertise, where you will be valued and paid accordingly to
your education, knowledge and experience. You will then have
to follow the adequate process to achieve your
goal.
This book “Canada- Guide for
