TheHamzy:
Congratulations �

Thanks.

Sweetvie:
Congrats
I'm happy for you

Thank you so much.

studycenter:
Congratulations

Thanks a lot.

AZeD1:


Congrats Chief!!

Thanks so much baba

Blackbuddy:


Congratulations! Nice ending to your PR journey. Wishing you all the best in your new season as a Canadian citizen

Thank you so much.

Like every other day I rolled out of bed, but the day wasn't every other day. Few minutes later, I pulled out an I.D that life as I knew it centered on. I would do the unthinkable to it. I grabbed a scissors and cut up the I.D, qs instructed. As I did, I was ushered into a new identity. I am happy to announce that I have officially become a Canadian Citizen! All from the comfort of my bedroom!

It feels surreal, everything about this journey has. Just a few years ago I was writing on travel threads on Nairaland. Somehow, through that I wrote a new chapter of my life that brought me to this lovely country of Canada. The past couple of years here has been some of the most challenging I have lived, in ways I couldn't have anticipated and lack the ability to put into words... but has also been the most transformative of my life. I have learned so much about myself and people in general, & have had to push myself beyond what I once called my limits.

Canada has allowed me to feel at home and yet stay true to my roots. The kindness and acceptance I have encountered here, I truly believe I would not have found anywhere else. So I'm happy to call this country home. I'm thankful to everyone who has been with me on this journey, and I am extremely proud of the incredible Nigerian community here.

Dabgdap:
Hi, I just moved to Canada as a PR. any chance your firm is hiring Civil Engineers other than structural? I have experience in project coordination and management. please let me know.

Thank you in advance

Yes, the firm is in many markets and is one of North America's largest engineering firms. So it has engineers from various disciplines, not only civil. There are some openings for project coordinator and field engineers posted on the company website.

If you have not practiced structural engineering in a consulting environment, and you have been out of school for a long while, I advise you consider your alternatives. Structural Engineering here is very very academic in nature. I literally spend all day long doing detailed hand calcs (in MathCAD) for anything I engineer. The calcs have to be well put together, properly illustrated, and well prefaced like a textbook. On top of that I also have to write memos with the precision of a lawyer. These hand calcs and Memo/drawings go through 2 or 3 other senior Engineers who check it line by line and come back with comments and corrections. All of which have to be addressed and updated before anything is Issued For Construction. In summary, there is an emphasis on knowing things from first principle although we do automate a couple design.

The stress of using your brain all day; and the pressure to be on schedule and within budget, error free and the liability, is something no one warned me about. If you are indeed passionate about engineering infrastructures but have not done "actual" engineering in a long long while, you might want to do construction rather than structural engineering itself. In either, you still get to work on very interesting and complex structures.

A colleague at work, is trying to make the switch from Structural Designer to Structural Engineer. She asked me for some help with the technical exams PEO(Professional Engineers Ontario) assigned her. After looking at the courses, I came up with what I think are the best courses to take as an immigrant structural engineer. Since most Nigerian Civil Engineers are heavily focused on structures, this course selection might be the wiser choice for a Nigerian Civil Engineer who finds his/herself in my colleague's shoe.

Two group A courses:
Elementary Structural Analysis
Elementary Structural Design

One group B course:
Advanced Structural Design

I selected these courses because they involve less reading, since their knowledge areas overlap. They are also what I use everyday at work. That way, you are not just trying to pass an exam but brushing up on skills that you would need to land and keep a structural engineer job in Canada.

The only knowledge area in those courses that would be alien to Nigerian trained engineers is Earthquake Engineering and Seismic Design. The good thing is that the focus here is earthquake loads rather than the engineering design itself, that should not be difficult to learn. Even if it were the engineering, I would rather study that than have to do courses like Hydraulics or Geotechnical Engineering lol.

I have included a google drive link to reference textbooks and a draft of the required Canadian code. One thing to note, design manuals cover the same topics as textbooks. At work, we use Design manuals more often than textbooks but when you are trying to learn something for the first time, focus on textbooks.

Do not overload yourself, you are not trying to read every text from cover to cover. Focus on the topics listed by PEO, I also included a pdf of this.

If all of this seems too much for you, exhale and remember that life doesn't begin nor end in Engineering. There are several other rewarding careers in Canada and probably with less than half the stress. Even I remind myself of this. If you insist this is for you but you need an easier way out, consider applying to other provincial engineering regulators like APEGA.

One last tip:
If applying to PEO, you should make sure that you include a course description for at least all undergraduate courses. This is especially important if you don't have a Canadian post graduate Engineering degree (Masters or PhD). Even though I have that, I still included a course description, better safe than sorry. In the absence of course descriptions for a foreign undergrad degree, PEO is more likely to ask you to sit exams because they have no way to tell what topics your education covered.


Link to reference materials for the exam:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1I5aIWtjp9LCbe__4CKwMp0_Htfxt0zjP?usp=sharing

At work, HRs have been decrying what they say is a very challenging time to find Engineers to hire. According to them, the record low unemployment rate (in Engineering) is not helping and most Engineers snob recruiters who reach out to them on Linkedin. So, if you are an immigrant engineer trying to land your foot in the door, this might be the best time for you to try.

aestake:

Na so I carry one give my guy Wey dey Naija. The lady, 28 is making excuses just because she can't sponsor a man. She still dey set standards with her gbaana smoking and knife-fight stories.

I have since told him to get into the pool, who knows, PNP fit smile for nwa IT.

It is alright if she doesn't want to sponsor a man for whatever fears/reasons she might have, we all have those. So long as she doesn't wake up someday and blame it all on men, then that seems perfectly okay to me.

Its the growing trend of making men the fall guy for women's woes that disgusts me. I have met several ladies in Canada that start sentences with "Why are you guys not blah blah..." or "You Toronto guys are this and that", all the while I am standing there thinking you barely even know me. Then a few minutes into what is often the most illogical conversation, you realize she is partly responsible for her ordeal. When you provide honest answers she gets combative because it isn't soothing. It is just convenient for her to believe it is all our doing. These struggles are not exclusive to women, guys do have challenges in the pool here too. We just seem to be better at quietly rising to the occasion or coming to terms with what is within reach. Some of us do choose to die alone too than get married to what is out there! When a guy is having a hard time with women, it is his fault. When women are having a hard time with men, y'all make it the men's fault. Oh men have low self esteem, they are threatened by women, men are of such poor quality, women don't want to be in unhappy marriage blah blah. Please own your struggles, that's all I ask! Me wey be say I dey see how e dey be for some of my guys wey dey married for here, wey dey even make me thank God say I single. Na only for social media all married man dey happy and seem to have a wife who is a blessing, when you draw body na oppo, and high tension. Cos men no dey wan loud matters, e come be like say na only we bad? Abegi.

There are many reasons why finding your preferred husband/wife or any at all in Canada or the diaspora at large can be challenging (I can write a whole page based on my lived experience here). You either make the necessary concessions and re-adjustments or you hold to your gun and make your peace with the probable outcomes. I actually belong to the latter group but you don't see me blaming not having my pick of the litter on a lack of decent/marriageable Nigerian women.

There are tough conversations to be had in our culture and community that could help our single men and women better get along, and overall yield better outcomes, there is no doubt about that. However, that's never going to happen and if it does we would not change because we are an obstinate bunch. So, let's continue casting aspersions and deluding ourselves, like our men and women are completely different animal species rather than sexes.

SlowlybtSurely:


This is all in your head! The few single ladies in my circle just want decent men and they understand that the aforementioned are just add ons. If you have a good head on your shoulders, have a plan for your future and you work hard, we all know these things are achievable in Canada. In this country, what you put in is what you get.

These women are not asking to be catered for. They are asking to be met half way by the men. What is so wrong with that? I noticed that many Naija men here have low self esteem because the ladies here seem to be doing well for themselves and are not begging you for money to buy cream as that was the bane of y'alls existence in Nigeria. Y'all are threatened by the women's successes instead of working hard to achieve yours.

Again, they've chosen to rather die single than settle for mediocre marriages. And I dare say, they have my utmost respect!

Those few single ladies must be really few or unattractive. Frankly, I have personally met quite a number out there that have me cackling. I wouldnt want to burn my time talking about the obvious but it doesnt even matter who is right or wrong. This is the one thing that I dont advise anyone on. Make every come and live out their convictions. Afterall no be me go help them cope with the outcomes. Life na per head.

It is fine to die single, its not a crime. So long as that is a choice one is happy with. Quite frankly, even some married people today would die single. So me no send who dey lonely or single or not.

What I personally take issue with is folks blackmailing guys with labels. As though we are somehow responsible for the inability of Nigerian ladies finding "decent guys". Last I checked, Nigerians are a minority here. If we are not decent, then they should please marry other nationalities. Afterall, say we come from the same country no mean say we dey betrothed to each other.

Men and women are free to create whatever standards they desire of a partner. Lets forget standards sef. In my experience, the actual problem is does the type of guy you want, want your type of woman? Get past that first. Lord knows there are decent men marrying every now and then in this Canada. I personally have many friends that have in the last 3 years.

You can write up a contract with any terms you fancy but you can not force anyone to sign it. Let alone one that only exploits them esp if they are better served elsewhere. Too many "me, me, all about me" out there and what is astounding is that they dont even notice it. Many atimes, they would rather pass the buck to us. Just like you would never find them ever say any of their past breakup was their fault. It is always somehow men's.

Again, if there are no decent Nigerian men, are Nigerian men the only men in Canada? Or are all the men of other nationalities also not decent? When Nigerian men(esp newly landed guys or guys yet to get a professional job) cant get a nigerian girl to take them seriously, they bite the bullet and go date/marry non Nigerians. No noise, no passing the buck. Same way when folks feel the pool here is too small to give them the exact type of lady they fancy, they go home to marry. Is it not the same permanent resident card that the guys have, our ladies have? Or does the pr card of women forbid them from going home to marry someone?

Dont even act like its a convenient choice for men. The total cost of going home to marry someone and sponsoring her pr, supporting her to find her foot here is downpayment foe a house in some Canadian cities. Mind you its also men that stand a greater risk of being ruined by marriage in Canada(Heck even Canadian men rarely marry these days). Yet, nigerian men take the more torturous route rather than have the ready made here, rather than label the women here. You really think all the men choosing to do that are not decent and do it for no reason?

Them no exile anybody come Canada, if e tire pesin make e go Naija or any country wey e feel say decent men/women dey in abundance.

Afolavid:


Don't bother using that online portal, you'll just pay and your money will enter voicemail... I tried using it, I paid and since like 4 weeks now, I never hear "pim". Not even confirmation of order processing.

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience. I will take the web address out of my earlier comment.

sapien5:

Lol, I even paid for extra luggage because of food.
I can't be caught not packing enough food.

That's fine. When I arrived Canada, I had only 2 luggages on me: 1 was a bag of clothes and other personal items; the other was a bag of just food. If I were to go back in time, I will do it again.

Food was all that was right in my life, in my first year here. The argument about why not buy chinese noodles instead of indomie must presume that food is only to quell hunger. If one really can't tell the difference between chinese noodles and indomie, then my taste bud is very different from theirs. I have often wondered how some restaurants are still in business, it makes sense now. Anyways, I digress. Food is the way some of us treat ourselves to take on the burden of living, or give life a meaning. I can be going through a shitty day and have all of that turn around when I eat food whose taste demands I orient myself to see the brighter side of life.

As much as trying new food is a fad, and indulging in that have led me to pleasant discoveries; there are times when I haven't the mental allowance to gamble with taste. In those times I am not down for an adventure that could go sore. I just want to have what I eat taste exactly how I expect it to. Not just it's taste, even its feel and look (Afterall, the eyes must eat before the mouth). All of that starts with getting the right foodstuff/ingredients. I once had to trash a week's worth of soup because the palm oil I used turned out to be of poor taste. I am not down to nickel and dime when it comes to what I eat. Why am I even slaving away at work if I have to tolerate food? If that is a luxury, so be it. It doesn't seem like those savings would afford me other luxuries of life either. Maybe I would be convinced to choose the less expensive option when I see a lambo parked on the driveway of folks who go for the box of noodles that is just a few bucks cheaper.

Oh by the way, y'all bring some real foodstuff that can be used to make something worthy of calling food. Noodles/Indomie is hardly one.

tracy0803409:





Thanks alot Sir/Madam,please do you have an idea on how to get it here in Nigeria?

It could be got from FRSC office, same place as your driver license.

tracy0803409:







Good day Family, as regards to this,what Do i Need to bring along that will enable me drive in Canada,my destination is Ontario

You will need a Driver's License Letter or what some call Driver's extract. You can get this from the Nigeria Embassy at Ottawa or better yet, from Nigeria.

deepwater:
Obi is going back to pdp
Call me when that is done

I believe so too.

themankelechi:
Good day Boss @einsteino
Please if you don't mind did u later write on "the few more parts that would help with tips on chasing the dream job?" If yes kindly help share the link or section/page where it can be found. Thank you.

I am sorry, its been such a long time. I do not remember if I did. I think using the search bar is the best way out at this point.

Happy new year to you and everyone on this thread. May the odds be in our favour, ise!

ModestGal:

Hi, I'd love you to add me to the group

I think I have replied you.

kayuseful:

Sent you a pm

I replied.

intrinsicniyi:


Appreciate your 2cents Einsteino.
Please drop me an e-mail on
o a a 2 x “at” virginia dot edu
Sorry for this conundrum. �
Regards.

Okay boss.

intrinsicniyi:


How else can I contact you bro. Can’t remember my nairaland email login details.

Hello, I am not sure how else. To avoid web crawlers and scrapers, I do not advise posting your contact details on a public forum. However, if you feel comfortable doing that then you may drop your email in a mention and I'd get in touch. Everyone else should please send a pm, thanks.

MyRace:
Hi @einsteino, is there a group like this for Finance Professionals?

I believe so. I'd ask my friends in Finance and get back to you.

Hello Guys, it has been a while. Anyways, just to let landed Engineers know, there is a Nigerian Engineers in Canada whatsapp group. If you would like to be among peers, you may shoot me a pm.

flgd:
Please I'd like to have more information from those in the field of power engineering. currently have an offer for the Power Engineering 4th class and another for Energy Management. Anyone working in these fields should please assist. cc Oga Salford, Einsteino, Pauloverdi & others who can help.. thanks

I am sorry, I know nothing about power engineering. My discipline is Civil Engineering.

Setf:
PPR AND LANDING GIST

To God be the glory, praise and adoration!!!

I have read so many PPR stories and landing gist’s and I promised myself, I will give mine as a way of giving back because the stories I read were so helpful and inspiring.

Timeline:
CRS: 469
ITA: 19th September 2019
AOR: 21st September 2019

2nd PPR: 8th January 2021
Profile Approved: 22nd January 2021
Passports /CORP received: 9th February 2021
Landed: 16th February 2021
VO: ACCRA

Congrats

ednut1:
lol. Till they date the so called white babes. Na them go run last last come back naija babes .

Quite a number of Naija guys and babes start out thinking the grass is greener on the other side. However, depending on one's orientation and priorities, one may come to realize that it simply isn't for him/her. In most cases, it is a win some to lose some.

It is alright to go with whatever one fancies. No doubt, there are oyibo people that make lovely partners, just as there are Nigerians that do too. I guess what I take an issue with is stereotypically talking down on our own. We have all these standards when it comes to our own people, that we often discard when it involves oyibo. I know that there are some of our ladies & men that would be the death of one but other nationalities are not an exception to this. If one is unbiased and have sampled the experiences and happenings of relationships/marriages involving oyibos, you will come to the realization that it is more a question of the individual than the nationality. Generally speaking, once your head is out of the clouds, you appreciate your own a bit more.

I could have shared stories of nigerian guys and nigerian ladies that dated/married oyibo, just to give a contrast. However, I think anyone who lives in Canada that looks closely enough has enough information to decide what is best for them. Afterall, it is a personal decision. Last last, everybody go dey alright. Even if pesin own no turn out alright, that one dey too, e follow for the production. For every large batch of production, defect must dey one unit .

.

ovielistic:


why should we when there are far better options..I dey mad! I no see better white girl or other African girls

Haba! You mean to say your fellow nigerians are inferior to other nationalities? Make we dey calm down o. No be everybody eye dey up. Na for this same Canny some naija babes dey marry who even still dey Naija, let alone who don dey here but still dey come up.

daks02:
2 Bedroom/1bath Edmonton Condo for Immediate Rent at $1150 (Including Parking + Utilities).
- Short term lease from January 1st {I'm moving out}
It's a highrise condo very close to the transit center, with superstore at the back and within 2mins walk to the Recreational centre, Edmonton Library and Walmart.
* The Condo has two rooms, closet, balcony and one bath.
* One allocated underground parking + visitor parking pass.
* Insuite Laundry
* All utilities included in the rent

Torontians see your mate o! God dey sha.

LordAA:

Where please?

Toronto

Kekereekun123:
since October snow has been there. Alberta, sask manitoba

lol, may the Lord be with them. We are still above zero down here. As a matter of fact, last week was a beautiful +15 degrees.