₦airaland Forum

Hi brethren (this matter don turn ministry) please I'd like to know if anyone here that landed in Canada in september 2017 has received his/her PR card? In november They sent me an email and letters requesting us to send fresh passport photographs cos they couldn't use the one
I sent when I was in naija (same pictures they used to issue COPR! the matter tire me!) And we've sent those. I heard from 2 other guys, one of them an Indian who has been here for a while, that they had d same experience. Have been waiting for the PR cards in the mail since but no news. Just curious to know if any one here that landed around the same time has received theirs

Happy New Year to My naija people ooo. Waiting for mine to arrive here in BC. 2017 has been a year of great change in my life and it wouldnt have been possible without the support, advice, guidance, inspiration and FREE information I got from you guys in this group, the express entry group where I successfully graduated from, And the entire nairaland family. I want to use this opportunity to say a BIG THANK YOU to you all. You are all amazing and lovely people. May God bless you all in all your endeavors. Na una help me enter Canada so. At the start of 2017, this would have seemed like a daydream. The type u have when u have malaria. I'm at home doing some chores (which I wouldn't ever have had to do if I stayed back in Naija ooo. Wetin my nanny dey collect all dat salary for nw?), my wife is at work (cos she has a Sunday shift. She even has a new yr day shift sef. Wahala!) And im thinking back to this time last yr and it seems like ages away. Landed in September and a lot has happened since then. Now I value a lot of things I used to take for granted in Abuja. Especially the cheap labour and childcare. Thank God I'm a handy man sha. Now I understand why people abroad appear stingy sometimes. Chai. God forgive me for those misconceptions I had back when I was in Naija. Here the hustle is real... And chilled. No sentiments attached. It takes some adjusting, But we r fitting in gradually. God bless all of u who I answered my private messages when I needed help. God bless u all. I'm presently in BC, and will be glad to answer any questions I can answer to the best of my ability. I plan to start a movement for the owner of Nairaland to get a National award from the federal govt. He is our own mark zukerberg and he deserves to be celebrated. God bless you bro for creating this forum. You are a living legend. Make I go back to my house cleaning duties. Wish us all a more successful and prosperous 2018. May all your Good dreams come true this new year

Lol at car shopping. I don buy car register am sef. All with my naija dl. Been driving for like 2 weeks now sef. How i for take manage all the daycare and shopping moves? Will do the knowledge test next month sha. (quote author=Ballerz post=61632847]

Salford Salford.... You did not give me the specific info I asked via email. I have madam's contact o, don't get it twisted. That Kitchen strike is looming. you will chop your poundo yam in powder (Wa je iyen e ni isu)

@Car shopping... Me wey don buy car, collect insurance quote before DriveTest. Iyen lo n pe ni "I must pass this test at once by faith."
I reached out to the instructor on a Saturday and told him we are going for testing on Thursday. (He did the booking becos I wasn't getting any date b4 19th.) He asked, have you driven in CDN before I said No. He said you can't pass this test. I looked him in the eye and said "I am passing" and we are going for it in 5 days. (That 19th was key becos car seller don dey disturb my voicemail say make I come commot the car from them showroom, and I said give me till 19th. They had said I cannot take delivery of the car becos I don't have a G).

After Day 1, instructor now had confidence in me that your driving is very good, You just need to learn the instructions. Come see MSB Rhythm. Me I changed it to MSTH = Mirror Signal Turn your Head

You know they said once examiner match brake for you, that is the end of testing. My examiner matched brake o. I said It was still orange so I could still go. I asked "have I failed the test" She said "Sir, please continue with the drive test" So test continue o. We got to carpark, did all the maneuvers, reverse packing, straight line parking.... When I hear that word congratulation, omo.... that was a solid nice birthday gift. Everyone had said they won't give you from G1 to G (Since you have never driven in Canada before). I kept rebuking allllllllllllllll of them say I must collect this thing. It was God jare.

Kwasi took four of us there. He picked me up at 4.15am in Brampton, We drove down to Toronto to pick the other 3 candidates before heading to test location. Omo... the place far die. 3 went for G, one went for G2. I was the only obote among the G testers. Other two don dey drive for Canada on G2. I passed, Jamaican Passed, but the other Nigerian lady did not make it.

Those instructors are making stupid money. 30 dollars per session and they can have like 5 sessions in a day. On drive test date, He took four of us there, that is 200*4 = 800 Dollars. cool cash. Nontaxable becos na cash transactions. The first day they told me I was going to pay 200 dollars for test date for him to take me there and use his car, I wanted to have a heart attack. 200 ginni for what? why wasn't I told before we started this whole thing?. I just said, I must not pay this 200 twice. Okay... continue with the process. I will bring you your money tomorrow.

I got a good deal on insurance as a member of HRPA.

Where is Maternal. I don miss my padi of life.[/quote]

Ballerz:
Guess who just got the word "Congratulations! You have met the Ministry's minimum requirements"
I just passed my G test.
Yippppe
All in all, From Nigeria Licence to G license in 4 weeks cost 500 Dollars.
So put that in the budget.
I dey go celebrate.
Na Baba God do am o

Ballerz I salut ur excellent "drivemanship" lol. Congrats bro. U have encouraged me greatly. Have been driving here for like 2 weeks but with my Nigerian drivers license. Still scared of the actual driving test But I will draw courage from you now. I sent you an email request...pls reply ur country man abeg. Gracias

honey86:
Child benefit is for all children in Canada and it's calculated based on the age of the child and family income. You don't have a choice as long as you file your taxes.Daycare subsidy is to help with the cost of daycare, you have to apply for that one and it's also based on income.

Thanks for the explanation. One more question abeg: whose name should we use to apply for the daycare subsidy? Husband or wife? Please advise abeg

Good evening house (it's 6.25pm here ). I trust that we are all having a great weekend. Please Oga BlackBuddy, CanaDian fly, ballerz et AL abeg I need some clarification. What is the difference between the child care benefits and child care subsidy (on day care and stuff). Can one family apply for both? I would like to know.

Nairaland pipo ekenemunu. Biko who can borrow me or direct me to a good source of "free" study material for the red seal exams. Heavy Duty equipment mechanic specifically. God bless.

yokus:
Na wa o. This una Canada no be beans oo. Im in Halifax for a short Vacation & my sis' car started making this wierd sound- we went to the Mechanic and mhen, i almost fainted on her behalf when the Man said $900cad to change 2 brake pads... jesu- my chwest.
It is beautiful here though.

LWKMD . Jesu! . The bad part is that cos I'm not too used to the rate, when I see prices I will b eager, until I check Google for d naira rate... then I go humble... lolz. Meanwhile my first kid started school. He's the only black kid in the entire school, so when I go and drop him off in the morning I feel "different". Fortunately he made a friend in about 3 seconds...lol. the white kid follows him everywhere.. meanwhile d younger one who is 3 11/12 yrs old and can already read and write, is seriously asking to b taken to his own school. For now no job yet so me and madam take turns at babysitting him at home when anyone needs to go out. When I went to rbc to open an account the guy I met was telling me the new comers account package was only free for 6months. I immediately corrected him ooo. After checking the website the guy agreed to do the 6 months first (according to him that's the max on the system) then after 3 months he would renew it to 6 months again to gimme 9 months. I said we shall see. Na to read for the drivers license important pass now. Cos the cabs here Don open office for my head. Lol. Cos the town is small a 10 minute cab ride can take 1hr by bus cos they are so few and the waiting time is long. abc mouse has been a great help keeping the Lil man peaceful sha. But all he seems concerned about is getting enought tickets to buy pets...lol. all training is good abi? Let me get ready to go pick up d one in school joor. I hear that they will not hesitate to call child services if they close and you don't come and pick up your kid on time. I no get power to speak English abeg. It is well

Please I have a question for my landed seniors here. How do I go about registering my kids for child care benefits? As an FSW PR are my kids eligible? Please advise. With the high costs of living here and all the taxes I will be paying I don't want to lose any benefits of these taxes oo

yokus:
Watching this Nigerian illegal border jumpers made me so Sad sha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CArjX-gzi5o

I watched this video on cbc in my hosts house when it aired. See the way all men dey cringe! And to top it up all the people who were interviewed claimed to be "nigerian" and we had white guests. In fact when one woman said her kids were being forced to attend Islamic school only in Nigeria I almost fell off my seat. May God help our country

impish:
Lovely pictures. The weather in Ottawa has been sooooo amazing! I've been telling people that we brought the good weather with us oh! Lmao! We were told that the weather would drop next week. Just when we were about to start panicking, the guy said, "into the 20s." We looked at ourselves like, "shuo! So 20s is now drop. Please dont use 20s and drop in same sentence." Lmao! After all the gist about -20C, 20C sounds like a cake walk. After all, in Lagos, we put our air conditioners to 16C.

Mrs. O
www.mycanadianfling.com

Abi ooo. My host was showing me the heater setting's in our room. After the first night I switched it off abeg. The absence of airconditioners in their buildings still baffles me... but I've been told to beware of the cold. They say it creeps up on u...lolz

Greetings fellow Canadians (and wannabes... lol na play I dey ooo)

I finally departed lagos via Ethiopian airways last friday (22 sept). Had 8 bags for a family of 4 and 6 hand luggages. All this stuff after repeatedly warning the packing crew (madam and family) to limit the weight to recommended levels. Well we made it tru without much hassle. All the official's didn't give us any hassle after they saw my little terror squad (kids) already terrorising us. Nobody checked our food stuff. At Toronto customs they just collected the declaration card and asked us to proceed. Got me wishing that I had brought more stuff. The food served on the Ethiopian airline flights was just there. Na only d rice make sense joor. And please try to eat if u have time to before joining a connecting flight in canada. On my connecting flight within Canada they were only accepting credit cards as payment for food (air canada). well I made it to a warm bed by 11pm, Vancouver time on saturday, but it was around 9 am on Sunday in nigeria. We thank God for his grace. On Monday we went out to look at some apartments and get sin numbers. We also registered for medical insurance. We couldn't get service BC Identity cards because we needed our pr cards as part of the two id''s to present. They wanted our passports and our pr cards. So we will need to visit again for that. Have found the town we r in to b nice and quiet. Well that's all for now. Lemme face my daddying duties. Omo na now I appreciate my kids nanny!!!!! I ALSO MISS SPANKING THE KIDSS!!! ARGHHHH! lol. This tough daddy has been humbled by laws. It seem's my kids (4 & 6) were just waiting to come here ooo. They have become "AWARE" like skynet. Thank God the Lil one has a yr to wait before he starts school. God will help us to adjust.

Thanks Mazi. One odeku for u. Will calm down

Canadianfly:
Oh lol

And you wrote POF like person wey still dey apply. I think you can go ahead if your guy is reliable and accountable. I believe Vcole did this too with her family prior to arriving Calgary. Search for her post on this thread.

I thought you were asking if you could touch your POF before your application is approved. You are fine to touch away jare....some folks wey borrow money complete POF, return the money after approval, talk more of you wey the money na your own.

Lolz... just had to ask abeg. I heard that at the point of entry you will have to show evidence of the funds u said u have in pof. One of my friends said he wa asked to count the money in front of the immigration guys at the point of entry into canada. That's y I'm asking if I can use the receipt to explain the shortfall

Canadianfly:
Please we need to remember at all times that VOs are not Naija people. They'll most likely refer to what they say on the CIC website if they're looking at your file and find any issues. They assume you have read the site and is familiar with what is required of you. No where does it say on the POF page that you can use receipt for paid accommodation or car or any property in Canada to present as POF.

Let's not twist or try to mould the information on there to another thing. Keep it simple. Moreover, paying for an apartment you haven't seen is A MASSIVE RISK on your part, which is more than the hotel fees you are trying to save. You also have the option of Airbnb. They're cheaper than hotels and help you settle and know the area before going to commit to an apartment.

Thanks for your input madam. I already have my visa and I'm arriving Canada before the end of the month. The person getting the apartment is reliable. I just don't want to bother him that's why i'm keen to avoid staying too long at his place. I'll check the air bnb option though. Still hope to hear other opinions

HI guys (and babes), I would like to know if I can send money from my pof to someone in canada to pay for an apartment for me and still show the receipt for the funds sent (i.e the bank transfer reciept) as part of my proof of funds on arrival? There's a place I want to pay for and I'm considering sending the funds ahead or holding on till I arrive canada. Want to avoid extra expenses on hotels but also don't want to take the risk of reducing my funds before arrival. What to do?

On a more serious note. .. I'm trying to draw up a budget, for the first few months after we arrive canada, and I would like some advice from the seniors. What's the most realistic estimate for monthly expenses (just the basics ie food and clothing) for a family of 4 in canada/bc. Please those that understand where I'm coming from should answer. I know from the time when we land funds are precious and should be held as long as possible. I believe knowing what to expect helps me brace myself better for the shock. . Waiting for your responses

Chisos is Lord! All these cos of one hapless post? My wife must not see this thread mbok! I

toyogirl:
The seniors have given us pointers so let's follow the lead

Very important ooo do your research and land where you can have a "soft" landing... relocation is allowed

Alikote:
who are a replica of me in some way ...i like to learn through other people experience it the best way ...in 5 years time i will be netting 800 k monthly as senior management staff but am not finding fulfillment living in Nigeria ,also fear for the future of my kids ..they might not be rugged as me

lolz. that is one big issue with our generation... we are unintentionally raising a generation of soft kids... too much pampering

Alikote:
u haven't said any thing

I'm just trying to say that after considering all the pros and cons, deciding to immigrate depends on your own view of your personal circumstances..... basically I faced the same dilemma when I got the passport request email. I totally freaked out. I actually called my friends in Canada and complained bitterly...lol... how was I going to drop everything and just "gbapu" like dat? truth be told I was just "trying my hand" at the express entry thingy and I was almost hoping the application would be refused so I could be free to spend funds on certain ongoing projects that were paused because I needed to build my pof. well now I have my visa, have resigned my job, wifey just resigned too, im set to arrive Vancouver next month, and im basically one step away from the leap of faith....

am I scared? hell yeah!... am I worried that things will change a lot (especially financially)? hell yeah! in fact as soon as some customers of my former employer heard I resigned they started pushing business my way.. without me asking for it. I still work everyday, have barely had the time to even do some prearrival stuff I would love to do... even closed some deals i've been chasing since early this year within the last week... there is suddenly so much incentive to stay... but i've got my mind made up..... after a lot of soul searching i've found the inner peace to make the move.. the landed seniors here have done a lot to build my confidence, and I am eternally grateful to them... i'm about the same age as you are, and i've decided to reinvent myself.... lets see how it goes

Alikote:
which of the move is best express entry or post study work visa am 35 years old am very careful not to derail (if i was 27 i woudnt even think twice)

35! 35! Well life is for living bro. For me the best way of looking at it is this; "considering every other thing being equal, and with the experience I have now, if my dad had the same opportunity/ choice when he was my age, what would I have advised him to do?" Even Jesus had to die to ascend...

Wonderful points made on both sides regarding the to buy or not to buy a house debacle! Made for excellent reading I must say. Now for those jjc's (like me) that want to simply rent and are being confronted with new meanings for the word HYDRO and stuff instead of phcn and lawma, please can we have an extensive beginners guide to renting a house in canada. Preferrably customised to suit a family with kids... Before person go mis-rent oo

TheCongo2:
I strongly disagree with the bolded part. Having a property is the best investment and the sooner someone buys a house, the better.
In addition to that, you will still pay rent if you don't own a house. So, why not to invest your money in your own mortgage than paying someone's else mortgage in the form of rent?
And if you want to move, you can still sell the house and get your money back whereas if you have been renting you will never got the rent money back.
In my opinion, the money you put into rent is money that you have thrown at the window.

would really love to get the honest perspective of other landed seniors here on this... these are the main issues we should be addressing

hi.. please i'll appreciate any advice on how to get affordable furniture and the basic essentials to make a 2 bedroom apartment live-able for a family of 4 in the Vancouver area. we plan on landing before mid October. Gracias

Hello house. God bless you all for your insightful questions and responses. Please can anyone advice on the kind of jobs a person with marketing experience from a nigerian bank and a science first degree can search for in canada

happy sunday my lovely people. please i'm getting conflicting views on carrying above 10k dollars on the flight to Canada. we would like to carry all our funds with us when leaving to avoid delays in transferring them from Nigeria. what is the standard procedure? do we have to declare the actual amount here in Nigeria? hope they wont start stressing us if we do? how about over in Canada, will therenot be money laundering concerns? please the experienced folks should advice this jjc abeg. don't wanna use my own hand to put myself in trouble o

Happy sunday folks. Would like to hear from the experienced folks their experiences flying any of the African airlines (ethiopian, egypt air, royal air maroc, rwandair, etc) to canada. What are the unique upsides/ downsides of each carrier? Please share your experiences so we jjc's can make an informed choice. The rates I'm seeing on travelstart for some of them compared to the general average rates seem a bit too good to b true

God bless us all and grant us our hearts legitimate desires. I was informed by my account officer that I wI'll be given my BTA in a dollar card instead of cash. Is that going to be acceptable POF at d point of entry when I land in canada or should I insist on cash?

Abeg na chinchum I mean oo

chinchum:
www.travelstart.com.ng

@chinch if I book with them online should I pay online or go to their office?

Thanks for all the responses so far... pls my madam just told me that a friend of hers in canada told her that if a kid doesn't get to canada in time to register for the begining of school term in september, that the kid can't join midway and will have to wait till the start of another school year. I told her that was hogwash though.. never heard of a school system like that anywhere in the world.... but I'd like to hear the actual fact cos I know a lot of us are looking at arriving later than september... especially those of us that just got the copr... please enlighten a jjc abeg