₦airaland Forum

Virt:
Hello everyone!

This is a follow up of my post, the earlier was on visa application.

I arrived Canada in Feb, 2017 though Toronto Pearson International Airport. On arrival, the immigration officer asked why I was in Canada, I told him that I was on vacation and that I would also be having my baby there, he was taken aback when he heard I was planning to have my baby there, that he asked “you came here to have your baby?”, I repeated my earlier response. He stamped my passport and let me in. However, on going to claim my baggage, I was stopped by the border patrol officer when she saw my BIG BUMP and re-directed me to another room for further checks, I joined a line of other such people they re-directed to further interrogate their purpose of visit to Canada.

I have never been interrogated like that in my life. I really don’t know where to start in the questions I was asked cos it will take a whole page, however, I responded honestly especially since I had indicated in my visa application that I intend to have my baby there. I told the officer who questioned me so.

The following are some of the questions I was asked as I can recall.

Why are you here in Canada?
To have your baby? Why Canada?
Who would you be staying with? What does the person do? Was she the one that arranged these whole stuff for you? Where does she live?
Have you made any arrangement with a doctor here? Any medical report? Let me see. When is your appointment?
Do you have travel insurance? Do you have a return ticket? Let me see it.
How much do you have with you? Let me see it?
Is your husband joining you? No.
What do you do (work)? What position?
You have an approved leave from your employer? Etc. can’t recall others cos they were leading questions, and your responses determines what next he would ask (Sorry including my responses above will make the post lengthy).

After about 10mins or so, he approved for me to go. That room is where they return people if your purpose of visit is not satisfactory. He requested for documents from the Dr. in Canada, I told him that I don’t have but that I have that from my Dr. in Nigeria and he asked to see it and I gave him and he read through it same with other documents he requested for. He asked to see the cash after asking how much I was with, when I brought the envelope with the cash from my bag and was about bringing it out, he asked if the money was in the envelope, I told him yes, he said I could put it back (so he did not see the money) but it proved I had enough money to cover my medical bills and period of stay in Canada.

Sourcing for Doctor
I had read through the thread here and got the number of Dr Abou Seido of Brampton Civic hospital, I called his office while in Nigeria but they refused to book an appointment with me telling me they can’t give me an appointment until I arrived Canada, however, she told me the test results to come with including ultra sound scans. My friend in Canada helped me book the appointment cos I did not want delay in seeing the Dr. as I would be 34weeks when I arrive.

On meeting Dr. Abou-seido, he said that for his patients from the 3rd world countries, he usually try to make sure they stay for just one night in the hospital since they would be paying out of pocket, if there are no complications during birth. I was so glad because that was why I chose to use him in the first place. Somebody had earlier posted how the Dr. helped her stay one night even with CS deliver and I decided to go for him. He actually helped me stay just for one night and It was my third CS. On the day of surgery he asked if I wanted to tie my tubes, I told him no (I’ve read about its side effects, so I wasn’t ready for such family planning. Lols)

The following are the breakdown of my costs

Doctor fees including epidural - $3,500 (His epidural Dr. is the best I have seen, I didn’t feel the process at all and it was done in less than 1 min.
Hospital fees - $2000 for me, $600 for the baby per night
Pre-op fees - $200
Circumcision fees (not in the hospital) - $250
Family Dr visit for baby checkup - $50
Birth Certificate (long and short) - $60 (got it in 1 week)
Passport (expedited) - $107 (got it in 2 days)
Nigerian Emergency travel document - $150 (got in 1 day) Hotstepper’s contact was amazing, he processed and posted the document to me same day, and I received it the following day!!!
Total - $7,000 (including other small fees not mentioned above).

I stayed with my friend so no transportation and feeding costs.

I travelled alone, so my husband had to go to the Canadian high commission in Lagos to sign before the baby’s passport could be processed.
Delivery at Brampton Civic hospital was very okay, no issues whatsoever, except that I had to pay 2 nights upfront after which they say they will refund the unutilized one night fee ($2,000). My friend used a her debit card to pay, so they said refund will be through cheque issuance but that if it was credit card, it would have been done immediately. We are expecting to get that back soon.

I arrived Nigeria 2 weeks ago hassle free.

I hope my experience will help somebody cos this thread helped me a lot from visa application to delivery to paper work etc.

God bless you all - (By the way, I had the whole process committed to God in prayer, so don’t overlook this aspect at all, because it has been God’s doing not man).

I have followed this trend and didn't see where the Dr Abou-Seido's no was dropped, kindly drop his contact as I want to enquire if he can handle my perculiar medical issue. Following the trend I am confused on which type of application to go, paper or online, I am 19weeks gone already.