@

jholarharde:

thanks for your detailed write up, I'm seriously considering Guelph, so I want to ask you about the impression you had about Guelph when you got there, also your thoughts about waterloo. thanks

Honestly the few times i have been to guelph,i have seen alot more blacks than Kitchener,in kitchener i have hardly seen a black and a white person sit together and having a drink,i have see. that alot more in guelph,d drug addiction level in kitchner too is very high..u see them on d road,in the park doing drugs so you might want to consider that especially if u have teenagers.Then also for the accomodation thing we spoke to agent in guelph at some point and she said we shld come since we are new immigrants there wld be some consideration but since hubby was bent on staying in Kitchener we didnt go,that offer d agent gave us in guelph we didnt get in Kitchener,i have had more ppl smile and play with my 2 year old in guelph than Kitchener but again accomodation is more expensive in guelph than Kitchener but interms of structure guelph looks more organised.On d job thing d advantage dat kitchener has is dat it has 2 other cities attached to it,waterloo and cambridge so ure chooses for work is cut across those 3 cities,where i stay in kitchener is 4mins drive to enter waterloo infact u wld still think u are in Kitchener.

hotD:
@

Honestly the few times i have been to guelph,i have seen alot more blacks than Kitchener,in kitchener i have hardly seen a black and a white person sit together and having a drink,i have see. that alot more in guelph,d drug addiction level in kitchner too is very high..u see them on d road,in the park doing drugs so you might want to consider that especially if u have teenagers.Then also for the accomodation thing we spoke to agent in guelph at some point and she said we shld come since we are new immigrants there wld be some consideration but since hubby was bent on staying in Kitchener we didnt go,that offer d agent gave us in guelph we didnt get in Kitchener,i have had more ppl smile and play with my 2 year old in guelph than Kitchener but again accomodation is more expensive in guelph than Kitchener but interms of structure guelph looks more organised.On d job thing d advantage dat kitchener has is dat it has 2 other cities attached to it,waterloo and cambridge so ure chooses for work is cut across those 3 cities,where i stay in kitchener is 4mins drive to enter waterloo infact u wld still think u are in Kitchener.

thanks my sister you are God sent. I pray the land yield to you her best, and safe delivery. Is it okay to contact you lerra. Ayam still pre- ITA. lolz.

Zeiya:
@hotD this is the best landing story i have read so far. Thanks so much. I can't ask much questions as I am still waiting for PPR but I will save your contact very well. Please advise me from your experience

I am yet to process a new driving licence since my first one expired in 2012. I didnt do biometrics for it, hence i will get a new licence not renewal when I apply.

Please will it help if i get a new one issued here in Nigeria now ( note: my issue date will be less than a year when I arrive canada next year by God's Grace) or should I wait and start everything over there ?

My sister please get it,if u are in abuja go tot heir headquaters let them help u get it done immediately,i just did my biometric too in april dis year,d previous ones has been fake,i came with that temporary they first give and its expired but the permanent one is not yet out,they rejected the temporary one since it is expired so i got to do only the G1 and i would have to wait for a year before i can do the G2 road test and if u are to drive with the G1 here at every occassion u must have somebody with a G2 liscense by your side.i am just waiting for the permanent naija liscence to be out so they can mail to me,i wld take it to them here it wld enable me to avoid the one year waiting period.

In summary,d earlier u do the biometric the better,it would save u alot of stress when you come down even if the letter frsc does not indicate one year driving experience u are permitted to do an undertaking here that you have more dan one year driving experience so u can proceed with G2..d G2 would save u alot of cost on insurance too.So do it immediately.thank you

Nice write up, wish you all the best in cannyland

hotD:
Sooooo...
We got out passport back exactly after 3 weeks by then i had put in my resignation happily and we had started selling our stuff,i bot everything buyable in the market that i knew i wld need for the first 3,4 months,got some winter shoes and jacket from Jos and aliexpress,we actually had to go to the US for a wedding so we planned we wld just enter canada from there,so we booked airfrance to the US and aircanada to come down,we sent our things thru lagos down to canada,we paid almost 500k to send 375kg worth but the agent we used cheated us seriously,it was from this forum i learnt we could ship down,as we got there,we didnt have a particular agent so we picked him from the gate,we took our stuff up,it was weighed and a quote was given which was about 367 via delta airline,our goods were wrapped up in our front,we got receipt for the payment and we left,only for the agent to call us the next day dat he was trying our lines as we left but didnt go tru,dat he had to change d shipping company to virgin atlantic as d one in d delta line did not give my husband d correct rate,dat we are to balance him 90k and virgin atlantic removed all my food stuff and our electronics,i was so mad ehn,first our phone was never swtiched off,secondly u didnt ask if we were ok with it u just went ahead and then opened our bags when we were not there to pick out things but somehow we moved on,we got to canada did all the landing formalities,nothing serious,u just hold your COPR,show them the list of goods accompanying and within 40mins we were out,went to try to trace our luggage discovered virgin atlantic doesnt ship to canada,we started making calls o so they told us they wld ship by land from the US we shld go and collect from a shipping agent here...
So we decided we were going to stay in guelph as i read it has low unemployment rate and is gud for raising a family but we cldnt get an airbnb in guelp but we got in kitchener which is about 20-30 mins drive from guelph.we checked into our apartment fortunately it was in downtown so that evening all the roads where blocked for a festival,everybody came out and enjoying themselves,we too joon them abi now!!!
By the next day the shipping company had contacted us to come pick our stuff so we needed a vehicle and it was in toronto which is quite a drive,d uber that brot us from d airport charged us about $120 so if we are to do that again besides d car mite not be able to carry the load,so we went to u-haul with our naija liscense and dat international drivers permit,luckily d permit helped us dats how we rented a truck and went to carry the things ourselves,as we got back struggling to take d things upstairs,i was waiting down dats how a wait lady walked up to me and greeted me and i smiled back,she introduced herself and said she knows i am naija and her assistant pastor is naija dat we shld come to church on sunday,i have read from this forrum dat person need connection,dats how we went to church on sunday and i can boldly say that woman has been a life saver,i call her Emily my angel.So by the 4th day we decided to get a car,went to a dealer and a gud car starts from $11,000 den u pay tax,tax in ontario is 13% hmmm,so i kept checking kjiji and we got someone who wanted to sell his toyota venze for $13,000...d good thing here is that before anyone sells his car to you he has to take it for a test from that result u can tell if the car is gud or not,so nobody can hide anything,so we got the car,pretty smooth deal but insurance became the problem nobody wanted to insure a car with naija liscencei got d link posted on dis forum to practise for d drivers liscence test and we did practice got there and d queue was long ehn,i told oga lets come early d next day d man say nooo,today today we must write it,we waited for almkst 4hours and it it got to us,we both passed got our G1,picked a date for G2 test so eventually we got an insurance company that agreed to do insurance for us online,it was done instanstly but very pricey we had to pay for 2 months since none of us is working,to get phone lines,rogers and bell refused to sign us up,no work history,no canadian passport and no guarantor but we got a line with koodo inside walmart,their internet service is pretty expensive,i wld discard dem as soon as i get my temporary drivers liscence.
We went to the multicultural centre too,registered with them,d major help was with writing our cv to canadian format,which d employment agency helped out with and hubby started submitting and the calls for interviews started,got about 4 interviews in a week and he finally settled for a telecom so within 3 weeks he got a job.
Then the biggest challenge -accomodation hmmm,to get house here na serious war o,as we first landed in Kitchener my hubby fell in love with the place so he didn’t bother going to check guelh out(mistake number 1),so we started house hunting in kitchener,all of them asked for pay stubs,work reference,guarantor bla bla d moment they hear u dont have work yet they are not willing to help,we even offered to pay 6 month cash in one condominium,they rejected d offer,hubby was so pained ehn and d houses are pretty expensive 2 bedroom starts from $1400 here except u want to stay where those indians stay but i have a small kid so i need to watch d environment she stays in..so d accomodation thing was d biggest challenge,we had to extend our airbnb so we cld get a place,and that is how Emily my angel helped us get a place,stood as a guarantor,gave them cheques for d balance of six months...somebody dat just met me on d road,i mean..
So all in all we’ve been here for a month today and most things are pretty much settled,kitchener is not a friendly place to me,hubby is now regretting we didnt check guelph out as it looks alot more friendlier dan kitchener.for me i just registered for CSC as i am expectant so i no wan stress myself at all,hoping by d time i am done with baby matter i wld have my cert to fully enter the job market,hubby is taking a course in project management as they are well paid here so we doing a week in toronto(canada oshodi)...
Feel free to ask anything,i would try to respond.
Thank you

hotD:
Sooooo...
Thank you

Thanks for sharing with us. May Canada favour you.

How did you sort out the issues with the removed food items and electronics and the agent?

*Breath of fresh air* I can't believe I finally made it the the current page....it was such a long inspiring and educative read. I've been a silent reader on the IELTS and canada express entry page and I've learnt a lot then curiosity brought me to this thread to see how landed seniors are catching up in the new land. So I wanted to sign up and ask my questions at first then I thought to myself why not start reading from the first page and maybe some or most of the answers would be there then i took the challenge 1st week of last month and I read day/night and it was indeed a satisfying read.
I would like to appreciate the effort of our seniors for providing useful informations and helping with links and dIYS @Blackbuddy @Salford1 @thecongo2 @Ballerz @vcole @maternal @glitteringstar @mummyjaygirls @canadianfly just to mention a few you guys are the best. I've bookmarked and copied and pasted the links of pages that contained informations in a safe place for future references, but I stil, have some questions in mind;

1. I want my sister to come along with me but I'm confused on how to include her in the process P.S she's 16 or will she have to apply herself

2. For single mums, (either those with husbands in naija not willing to join or just single mums with kids alone) how do you cope with kids and jobs. I rad the post from @Canadianfly that shared a point about her friend working from home has any recently landed mum tried it, is the pay good enough to sustain a family?

3. To my Muslim brothers/sisters and anyone who has relevant information, though ive seen pictures if mosques in this thread but my questikn is, are there mosque or Islamic schools where kids go to learn about religion and Islamic lectures or do we have to teach them ourselves?

4. Is there stigma against those that wear hijab or cover their hair?

nnysmuse:


Thanks for sharing with us. May Canada favour you.

How did you sort out the issues with the removed food items and electronics and the agent?

There was really nothing much we cld do about the agent,since he claimed we had to give him additional money,we had to just pet him we didnt do gragra o,dat he shld not worry we wld give him,hubby sent him some money and then we sent someone to go and collect d items for us,they had to send the food items to me in abuja via abc as we had left lagos d next day he called.Two scenerios there,i think the guy is fraudulent because different kind of items have their different shipping cost,food and electonics are more expensive so he removed those things to reduce cost,in removing those items too,d weight of our Luggage wld drop so there was no way it cld have amounted to d cost he was calling or he removed those items to hold us down to make sure he got his balance or we loss them dat was y we decided to just manage him till we got our items back cos they cost more dan dat 90k hia!!!my xbox1 noo with kenetic for dat matter,nooo!!!
So pls ask for gud recommendation for a credible agent before u ship,if he was gud i wld have given his contact on dis forum but...

voguemum:
but I stil, have some questions in mind;

1. I want my sister to come along with me but I'm confused on how to include her in the process P.S she's 16 or will she have to apply herself

2. For single mums, (either those with husbands in naija not willing to join or just single mums with kids alone) how do you cope with kids and jobs. I rad the post from @Canadianfly that shared a point about her friend working from home has any recently landed mum tried it, is the pay good enough to sustain a family?

3. To my Muslim brothers/sisters and anyone who has relevant information, though ive seen pictures if mosques in this thread but my questikn is, are there mosque or Islamic schools where kids go to learn about religion and Islamic lectures or do we have to teach them ourselves?

4. Is there stigma against those that wear hijab or cover their hair?

I can't answer question 1.

Using Calgary as benchmark.

Question 2: it would be tough but doable . Those with husband here are not also finding it easy due to cost of day care/baby sitter depending on age of kid(s). You might be able to get a subsidy for daycare which could bring your total cost down to $500 per child. Child benefit would be around that range as well. If you have family here, you can help each other by helping take care of kids. Note "family" as outsiders (e.g neighbours or friend) would most likely decline to help. Your income after tax would depend on your type of job, hours of work, PT or fulltime. e.t.c. Are there lots of women in Canada with husband overseas or working in a different provinces? Yes. Lots. I had two neighbours whose husband were in Nigeria working for oil companies. They live in their own houses in a nice area of Calgary and husband visits once in a while. They are doing very well. It is still best that family be together imo, raising kids alone is tough in this environment. Kids quickly learn and are aware of their new privileges in a developed country. These could lead to behavioural issues and the fear of dad being around could help correct any behavioural issues that may arise.

Question 3.
There are mosques everywhere in big cities. They are present in small cities too. An islamic school would usually be private and would cost a bit. There are islamic private school just as there are christian private schools. The neigbours I mentioned above have kids in private schools (Islamic and Christian). There may be some places or private tutors offering after school hrs lessons in religious studies. Kijiji might help here.

Question4: No discrimation against those wearing hijab. One might encounter a bigot or prejudice person but such encounters are rare.

My 2cents

.

hotD:


There was really nothing much we cld do about the agent,since he claimed we had to give him additional money,we had to just pet him we didnt do gragra o,dat he shld not worry we wld give him,hubby sent him some money and then we sent someone to go and collect d items for us,they had to send the food items to me in abuja via abc as we had left lagos d next day he called.Two scenerios there,i think the guy is fraudulent because different kind of items have their different shipping cost,food and electonics are more expensive so he removed those things to reduce cost,in removing those items too,d weight of our Luggage wld drop so there was no way it cld have amounted to d cost he was calling or he removed those items to hold us down to make sure he got his balance or we loss them dat was y we decided to just manage him till we got our items back cos they cost more dan dat 90k hia!!!my xbox1 noo with kenetic for dat matter,nooo!!!
So pls ask for gud recommendation for a credible agent before u ship,if he was gud i wld have given his contact on dis forum but...

Wow! That's too bad of him.
Thank God you were able to salvage the situation.
Thanks for the advice

hotD:
@

Honestly the few times i have been to guelph,i have seen alot more blacks than Kitchener,in kitchener i have hardly seen a black and a white person sit together and having a drink,i have see. that alot more in guelph,d drug addiction level in kitchner too is very high..u see them on d road,in the park doing drugs so you might want to consider that especially if u have teenagers.Then also for the accomodation thing we spoke to agent in guelph at some point and she said we shld come since we are new immigrants there wld be some consideration but since hubby was bent on staying in Kitchener we didnt go,that offer d agent gave us in guelph we didnt get in Kitchener,i have had more ppl smile and play with my 2 year old in guelph than Kitchener but again accomodation is more expensive in guelph than Kitchener but interms of structure guelph looks more organised.On d job thing d advantage dat kitchener has is dat it has 2 other cities attached to it,waterloo and cambridge so ure chooses for work is cut across those 3 cities,where i stay in kitchener is 4mins drive to enter waterloo infact u wld still think u are in Kitchener.

Congrats on your landing. I would assume your experience with seeing drug abuse on the streets is because you live around the downtown. There are lots of very quiet and family oriented areas in Kitchener or you could consider Cambridge. Consider areas like doon south, huron park, hidden valley. You may be shocked to find same thing in Guelph if you visit downtown.

salford1:


My 2cents

Thanks @Salford1 for taking your time to answer my questions. There's one more question I forgot to include, is it possible for a PR to start a baking business from home and what are the procedures?
Will the tax rate on such business be high and as such should the idea be scrapped?

hotD:


There was really nothing much we cld do about the agent,since he claimed we had to give him additional money,we had to just pet him we didnt do gragra o,dat he shld not worry we wld give him,hubby sent him some money and then we sent someone to go and collect d items for us,they had to send the food items to me in abuja via abc as we had left lagos d next day he called.Two scenerios there,i think the guy is fraudulent because different kind of items have their different shipping cost,food and electonics are more expensive so he removed those things to reduce cost,in removing those items too,d weight of our Luggage wld drop so there was no way it cld have amounted to d cost he was calling or he removed those items to hold us down to make sure he got his balance or we loss them dat was y we decided to just manage him till we got our items back cos they cost more dan dat 90k hia!!!my xbox1 noo with kenetic for dat matter,nooo!!!
So pls ask for gud recommendation for a credible agent before u ship,if he was gud i wld have given his contact on dis forum but...

Great stuff. Congratulations on your landing. Wish you the best.

Please keep us updated with your experiences so we too can learn.

Also feel like this is an opportunity to call on those who know Shipping Agents with integrity to please drop their contacts so that nobody will be scammed in the future. Every one of us needs as much money as we can gather for this journey. Having some fraudulent Shipping Agent cheat us out of it is definitely not good.

HotD thanks again for sharing your experience.

Newmum0615:
If I ever wanted to change my mind about landing in Ontario, I'm sorry. I ain't doing any such thing.

If the temperature is like this in August, what hope is there for me to avoid freezing in October?

behati:


Congrats on your landing. I would assume your experience with seeing drug abuse on the streets is because you live around the downtown. There are lots of very quiet and family oriented areas in Kitchener or you could consider Cambridge. Consider areas like doon south, huron park, hidden valley. You may be shocked to find same thing in Guelph if you visit downtown.

I actually thought so too but as i started going to guelph and its downtown,it is not as pronounced as kitchener at all,one of this sundays we went for a church picnic in d victoria park and i wanted to use the rest room,as i got in,dis lady was so high on drugs she was hitting her head on d wall,wooo both me and my urine took off from the rest room before she brings out gun and shoot person they wld know say she is mentality unstable,may God not allow person see wahala .so i brot up d issue with some church members and they all complained dat d drug thing is d major challenge of Kitchener youths.

Dont worry, you will be fine. There is heater everywhere.

Ethelia:


If the temperature is like this in August, what hope is there for me to avoid freezing in October?

Don't worry, you'll be fine. I am landing in the thick of winter and I think I have enough winter jackets for an army. Na God go help us las las .

Ethelia:


If the temperature is like this in August, what hope is there for me to avoid freezing in October?

voguemum:


Thanks @Salford1 for taking your time to answer my questions. There's one more question I forgot to include, is it possible for a PR to start a baking business from home and what are the procedures?
Will the tax rate on such business be high and as such should the idea be scrapped?

I know immigrants get lots of support from government when they decide to start a business, but I don't know about bakery business and tax involved. You would probably need some permits. Check the sites below for more information.

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/ca/resources/business-license/obtaining-licence-home-bakery/

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-to-calculate-the-home-business-tax-deduction-2947097

Today that i am in the mood,let me just address some more issues...
BANKS-so hubby and i decided not to use same bank so we can have shared experiences,d first bank we went to was TD bank,accounts were opened immediately,got his debit card then his credit card came in 3 days-the credit card is extremely important here,u need it to start building credit history,before u can get a house they ask for dat,to even get a phone line in rogers and bell they asked for credit history,so d earlier u get d card to start building credit history the better and TD has new immigrant package.
I walked into BMO did not like their service so i left,then tried scotia bank,process was fast too in but credit card took almost 3 weeks.So i personall wld liken TD bank to our GTB/Zenith,Scotia bank-Access bank(d service is there but d process can be one kind like dat).
On bringing cash,its best your first landing you hold your money,if u are worried about declaring $10,000 u can hold $9990 in dat case u did not lie and you dont have to declare.On transferring cash,i wired about $10,000 using gtb and the charges came to about 46k or so..the thing is with d gtb dollar card u can be doing withdrawals here of maximum $1200 in a day and you are charged about 1k for each withdrawal,so if i am doing dat everyday in ten days i wld have withdrew my $10,000 and just paid 10k as charges so that saves alot of cost then your dollar card also works well here.
Bank charges-they are pretty much the same across all d banks,not much difference except TD dat gives new immigrants free banking for the year.I hope dis helps

HOUSING-so accomodation is just somehow here,very different from our naija experience,foror someone like me dat lived in so much space in naija,5 bedroom duplex,i had to do a serious self talk here,my one year rent back home is one month rent here for a 2 bedroom...so bring plenty money and pls dont borrow your POF,u need dat money to actually settle if not one can easily start regretting his move quickly.In choosing apartment u need to consider d utilities involved,most houses offer heating and water some have hydro inclusive(electricity)..for parking space too,we pay $50 for parking by the time it get to 2 cars d extra spot cost $90 so if u have 2 cars u pay $140 per month.
For buying house as a new immigrant-its quite difficult if u dont have a job,scotia bank agreed to the mortgage but on d ground dat we contribute 35% equity but if u have a job u contribute 10% but we were also advised to have up to 20% equity as it wld save us cost in insurance in d long run.I hope this helpsss,this is all o can remmeber for now.

hotD:
Today that i am in the mood,let me just address some more issues...
BANKS-
On bringing cash,its best your first landing you hold your money,if u are worried about declaring $10,000 u can hold $9990 in dat case u did not lie and you dont have to declare..

Love this..Thanks

Remember there is difference between USD and CAD. IF you are bringing 9990 USD (about 13,000 CAD), that will exceed the limit and trust me, the customs guys will convert it if you're selected for a check. Just FYI. I would say declare if you are not sure. Nobody will hurt you for declaring.

hotD:
Today that i am in the mood,let me just address some more issues...
BANKS-so hubby and i decided not to use same bank so we can have shared experiences,d first bank we went to was TD bank,accounts were opened immediately,got his debit card then his credit card came in 3 days-the credit card is extremely important here,u need it to start building credit history,before u can get a house they ask for dat,to even get a phone line in rogers and bell they asked for credit history,so d earlier u get d card to start building credit history the better and TD has new immigrant package.
I walked into BMO did not like their service so i left,then tried scotia bank,process was fast too in but credit card took almost 3 weeks.So i personall wld liken TD bank to our GTB/Zenith,Scotia bank-Access bank(d service is there but d process can be one kind like dat).
On bringing cash,its best your first landing you hold your money,if u are worried about declaring $10,000 u can hold [b]$9990 [/b]in dat case u did not lie and you dont have to declare.

hotD:
the thing is with d gtb dollar card u can be doing withdrawals here of maximum $1200 in a day and you are charged about 1k for each withdrawal,so if i am doing dat everyday in ten days i wld have withdrew my $10,000 and just paid 10k as charges so that saves alot of cost then your dollar card also works well here.
Bank charges-they are pretty much the same across all d banks,not much difference except TD dat gives new immigrants free banking for the year.I hope dis helps

How true is the assertion above? Here's the response I just got from GTB online rep:

Withdrawal limit per day is $1,000 . Charge on withdrawing any amount whether $1,000 or $100 or $450 is $3.5USD

The Daily ATM withdrawal limit for the dollar card is $1,000 , POS and WEB transactions has no limit.

blessings2017:


How true is the assertion above? Here's the response I just got from GTB online rep:

Withdrawal limit per day is $1,000 . Charge on withdrawing any amount whether $1,000 or $100 or $450 is $3.5USD

The Daily ATM withdrawal limit for the dollar card is $1,000 , POS and WEB transactions has no limit.

That $1000 is the equivalent of 1200 canadian dollars here.

Hope this clarifies

Lalaska:

Remember there is difference between USD and CAD. IF you are bringing 9990 USD (about 13,000 CAD), that will exceed the limit and trust me, the customs guys will convert it if you're selected for a check. Just FYI. I would say declare if you are not sure. Nobody will hurt you for declaring.

Yea i agree with you about declaring as there is no harm in that but the fear i believe most ppl have is declaring it at naija customs,oh my God i had a terrible experience once just because of declaring $10,000 but once u cross over there is pretty no big deal in declaring,so d custome guy only asked us how much we had on us and we said $9865 and dat was it...so i kind of believe dat d 10,000 in the usd is d standard but i might be wrong...

[quote author=hotD post=70722073]

That $1000 is the equivalent of 1200 canadian dollars here.

Hope this clarifies[/quote

Pardon my ignorance but can one withdraw $1000(C$1200) in one tranch or does the ATM give a cumulative of $1000(C$1200) in several tranches?

If the latter, going by GTB's response, the charge would be way more than $3.5 (N1,260).

[quote author=blessings2017 post=70722521][/quote]

TD bank allows me to do the $1200 at once but scotia bank only permits $1000 at once on there machines so of course i use TDB often then the charge fluctuates depends on the rate for d day but the $3.50 is constant,i worked with gtb for over 7yrs so i sabi dem well well.

hotD:
Today that i am in the mood,let me just address some more issues...
BANKS-so hubby and i decided not to use same bank so we can have shared experiences,d first bank we went to was TD bank,accounts were opened immediately,got his debit card then his credit card came in 3 days-the credit card is extremely important here,u need it to start building credit history,before u can get a house they ask for dat,to even get a phone line in rogers and bell they asked for credit history,so d earlier u get d card to start building credit history the better and TD has new immigrant package.
I walked into BMO did not like their service so i left,then tried scotia bank,process was fast too in but credit card took almost 3 weeks.So i personall wld liken TD bank to our GTB/Zenith,Scotia bank-Access bank(d service is there but d process can be one kind like dat).
On bringing cash,its best your first landing you hold your money,if u are worried about declaring $10,000 u can hold $9990 in dat case u did not lie and you dont have to declare.On transferring cash,i wired about $10,000 using gtb and the charges came to about 46k or so..the thing is with d gtb dollar card u can be doing withdrawals here of maximum $1200 in a day and you are charged about 1k for each withdrawal,so if i am doing dat everyday in ten days i wld have withdrew my $10,000 and just paid 10k as charges so that saves alot of cost then your dollar card also works well here.
Bank charges-they are pretty much the same across all d banks,not much difference except TD dat gives new immigrants free banking for the year.I hope dis helps

Do you need to have a dorm account to get a GTB dollar card?

hotD:


TD bank allows me to do the $1200 at once but scotia bank only permits $1000 at once on there machines so of course i use TDB often then the charge fluctuates depends on the rate for d day but the $3.50 is constant,i worked with gtb for over 7yrs so i sabi dem well well.

Thanks for the clarification. I'm landing next week . I guess I'll go with TD bank then!

Yes u do,although they have this prepaid that wld say they can give without u having an account but back then it hardly worked for most ppl when they travelled out but i dont know if they have worked on it or modified it now...

So the best bet is for u to open a dom account,shldnt take time and request for ure card,card is N1000 to produce and $20 maintenance charge yearly.

Good day people,

I Will be doing a short landing in Toronto for 12 days and i would like to rent a car for easy commute.

1. Can i use my Nigerian driver's license?
2. What organization provides best car hire rate?
3. Is the google map description okay?

As much as i would like to be very comfortable, i would like to know if this is a good choice.

Thank you.

Safe landing then and please dont convert any of your dollar at the airport,those exchange guys are arm robbers without guns,exchange rate is horrible,u can use d cash machine at d airport incase u just want to hold small canadian money.always exchange ure money in d bank.