₦airaland Forum

sirabbey:
Caution: Long read

From PPR to Citizenship: The Traumas, the Triumphs, and the Testimony

The first time I heard the phrase, “May your road be rough,” was in the late 1990s. Our Chemistry teacher said it to us as graduating students while we celebrated the completion of our WAEC examinations and the end of secondary school. At the time, it sounded almost like a curse. Why would anyone wish a rough road on another person? Life, however, has taught me otherwise.
What appeared to be a curse was, in fact, an unconventional blessing. A rough road develops resilience. It builds character, strengthens resolve, and teaches lessons that smooth paths never can. Looking back on our journey from Permanent Residence (PPR) to Canadian Citizenship, I can confidently say that our road was indeed rough, but it was also transformative.

A New Beginning
After completing our landing formalities in December 2021, I spent the next 4 weeks helping my family settle into our new life in Canada. We moved out of our Airbnb, rented and modestly furnished an apartment, and began adapting to our new environment.
By the last week of January 2022, I returned to Nigeria to tie up unfinished business. I formally resigned from my job, disposed of some of our belongings, and arranged for someone else to take over our apartment. While there, I also attempted to renew my Nigerian passport, which was due to expire later that year.

Unfortunately, I encountered the frustrating realities of Nigerian bureaucracy again. Despite paying ₦70,000 for the renewal process on Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) portal, I was unable to obtain a new passport because I was informed at the point of capturing that my National Identification Number (NIN), which I had obtained more than three years earlier, had not yet appeared on the NIS system. The money was lost, the renewal failed, and I eventually returned to Canada in April 2022 without a renewed passport.

Living on Hope....and Proof of Funds
Upon returning to Canada, my wife and I embarked on what would become a long and exhausting search for employment.
At that point, we were surviving primarily on the Proof of Funds (POF) we had brought from Nigeria, and our savings were steadily shrinking. Although the government had begun paying us Canada Child Care Benefits, we made a deliberate decision not to spend the money. Instead, we invested it in Registered Education Savings Plans (RESP) for our children's education.

The decision proved to be one of the wisest financial choices we made. Not only did it help secure our children's educational future, but it also allowed us to benefit from the accompanying government grants. Today, that RESP portfolio has grown into a substantial education fund.
Meanwhile, we attended newcomer programs, career workshops, and government-sponsored integration initiatives. We applied for countless jobs, but neither of us received an offer.

Then, in June 2022, I was awarded a provincial government scholarship for an Information Technology training program valued at $20,000. The training would have opened the door to a career as a junior Network Administrator. Just as I was preparing to begin the program, one of the many engineering applications I had submitted resulted in an interview invitation.
By God's grace, I passed the interview and received an offer the very next day to work as a Project Engineer on a renewable energy project.

The Importance of Professional Credentials
Let me backtrack a little: earlier in the Japa journey, immediately after receiving my PPR, I had begun the process of obtaining professional engineering recognition in Canada.

As a COREN-registered engineer in Nigeria, I used my portfolios and experience to apply for Professional licensure but was only granted Engineer-in-Training (EIT) status by the regulators. They remarked that I lacked Canadian engineering experience. I was advised to reapply after gaining one year of local experience.
At the time, I viewed the EIT designation as a disappointment. Later, I discovered that it played a significant role in helping me secure my first engineering position in Canada.

A Season of Stability
Although the project site was located two hours away from my city of residence, I gladly accepted the opportunity.
After completing the required drug and alcohol screening, the company provided accommodation near the project site as well as a company-maintained truck for my use. For the first time since arriving in Canada, life felt stable. Income exceeded expenses. We began saving. Hope returned.
Eventually, my wife suggested we explore homeownership. We met with one of Canada's major banks to determine our mortgage eligibility based on my employment and our credit profile. The advisors crunch out the numbers and gave us the amount we qualified for based on our circumstances.
The following week, we visited several builders' show homes. It did not take long to realize that while my job was good, that single income would not qualify us for the type of home we envisioned for our family.
The realization weighed heavily on my wife. She felt frustrated that her inability to secure employment might be holding back our family's aspirations. I encouraged her to remain hopeful and continue applying.

The Breaking Point
By December 2022, after nearly a year in Canada without any employment, my wife had reached her limit.
She told me she was tired of submitting applications without success and wanted to return to Nigeria with the children. The prospect of family separation devastated me, but I understood the emotional and psychological toll she had endured.
I asked her for one final extension, 3 more months. If nothing changed by the end of March 2023, I promised I would support whatever decision she made. Unwilling to remain idle while waiting, she got her Class 4 driving license and began driving for UBER using our family vehicle.
Then, on March 16, 2023, 2 weeks before the deadline, everything changed. She received a job offer.
What could have become a family separated by circumstances instead became a family strengthened by perseverance.

Chasing the Canadian Dream
Two weeks after she started work, we returned to the bank for a mortgage reassessment. This time, with two incomes, the numbers worked.
We obtained a 12-month mortgage pre-approval and proceeded to sign a pre-construction home purchase agreement. The plan was straightforward: make an initial 10% down payment from savings, accumulate another 10% during construction, and finance the remaining 80% with a mortgage while avoiding mortgage insurance costs.
By April 2023, the dream was in motion, but life had other plans.

Employment Earthquake: When the Ground Shifted Beneath Us
House construction began in June 2023 and was expected to be completed by April 2024.
As we diligently saved toward the second portion of the down payment, a major policy shift occurred.
In October 2023, the provincial government suspended approvals for new renewable energy projects. The impact on the renewable industry was immediate and severe. By December 2023, after the company's project I was on got completed, my employer laid off approximately 80% of project personnel, including me.
In an instant, the foundation of our carefully crafted plan disappeared. The future of our home purchase suddenly seemed impossible, but God’s Mercy says no!

Grace in Difficult Seasons
In the midst of this uncertainty, once again, God showed up and made a way.
My wife secured an even better job, while Employment Insurance (EI) payments kicked in for me and helped bridged the gap. Although the EI payments represented only a small fraction of my previous income, it was enough to keep us afloat.
Together, we pushed through. By April 2024, we successfully completed the home purchase and moved into our new house. The victory, however, came with new realities.
Our expenses exploded. Mortgage payments, property taxes, utilities, homeowners' fees, garbage collection charges, and allied costs quickly replaced the simplicity of apartment living.
The financial pressure was intense; still, I continued applying for engineering roles.

The Wilderness Long Wait
September 2024 arrived, and my EI benefits expired; still, no job was in sight. I remained unemployed.
To prevent financial hardship from overwhelming our family, I accepted a survival job. It helped pay bills, but the physical demands eventually became too strenuous and difficult to sustain.
Seeking an alternative, I enrolled in security training, passed the examinations, and qualified as a licensed security guard.
Then, just as I was preparing to pivot and begin a new chapter by seeking job roles as a security guard, another engineering opportunity emerged.
One of the many applications I had submitted months earlier resulted in an interview invitation. I attended the interview, and I got the job.
The offer came almost 18 months after being laid off from my first engineering position and 9 months after my EI benefits had ended.
The journey had been emotionally draining, financially exhausting, and mentally challenging, but it ended in testimony.

Lessons from the Storm
The hardships taught me lessons I could never have learned from success alone.
They deepened my appreciation for my wife and her unwavering support. They showed me the importance of partnership during adversity and helped me understand why many marriages struggle, and some crumble under the pressures of immigration and resettlement.
Challenges do not destroy relationships; often, they reveal whether two people are willing to carry life's burdens together. When vicissitudes of life come, couples can either grow together or fall apart.
I count myself very fortunate to be married to a good woman who chose perseverance over surrender.

The Final Milestone
In December 2024, my wife and children became eligible to apply for Canadian citizenship.
They submitted their applications and became Canadian citizens in May 2025.
I became eligible in March 2025, submitted my own application, and proudly became a Canadian citizen in October 2025.
The journey from PPR to Citizenship was anything but easy.
The road was rough, but that rough road built resilience. It strengthened our family. It deepened our faith. It taught us patience, perseverance, and gratitude.

Today, we are not yet where we ultimately hope to be. However, we are far ahead of where we stood when we arrived in Canada nearly five years ago. There are still dreams to pursue, goals to accomplish, and mountains yet to climb, but when I look back at where we started in December 2021, I am overwhelmed by gratitude.

If you're somewhere on your own rough road today, don't give up. The chapter you're in is not the whole story. Sometimes, the roughest roads lead to the most beautiful destinations.

The journey continues…………..Aluta Continua, Victoria Ascerta.

Thank you so much for sharing your story. It has encouraged me greatly.

.