Hi friends,

I am darren from Singapore, i will be attending university of winnipeg next january and i have some questions.

1. I plan to get a driving license in Canada, does anyone know if i have to stay in Canada for a period of time first or can i sign up for lessons straight away?

2. Airline tickets. Can i have some advice on how should i go about buying my airticket? Im kinda like super poor student so im like looking to save as much money as possible.

3. I need to know if it is possible to open a canadian bank account in singapore before i go over there. If it is not possible, can i have some advice on how should i get my money tranferred over (bank draft, tt?)?

4. Lastly, is it possible to find some kinda part-time work as a international student? I know it is illegal to work outside campus but....

Will be really grateful for any advice

I would think you can sign up for driving lessons right away.

Don't know about the plane fares.

You can work under the table under a restaurant - but be aware that if you get found out you will be thrown out of Canada and will never get back again!

Kind of a stupid risk if you ask me.

Getting driving a license straight away shouldn't be a problem although I think if you're a temporary visitor you can get away with using an international license.

I've just found this from the following website http://www.gov.mb.ca/tgs/ddvl/driver...a_drv.html#QL4

What do I do if I am an out-of-province student in Manitoba?
If you are a full-time student you may use your valid driver's licence. If you decide to stay in Manitoba after finishing your education, you will need to replace your current licence with a Manitoba licence within three months.

If your licence is not from Canada or the U.S., you will need to go to one of our Driver and Vehicle Licencing Service Outlet. You must produce:

a valid driver's licence;
a letter from your Manitoba school or university confirming your student status; and
your passport or immigration papers.
You will be given an offshore student exemption letter to carry with your licence. This letter authorizes you to drive using your home country licence.
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Re: banks - HSBC may be a good place to approach. They have branches all over the world so they'll probably have one near your current home town and they also have a branch in Winnipeg so you'll be able to do a transfer between the two branches. Also they do online banking so it's really easy to arrange transfers over the internet. The internet site for Singapore is http://www.hsbc.com.sg/sg/
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Re: plane fares - have you tried expedia.com? I don't know if there's a Singapore equivalent but they're usually good at comparing different air carriers so you can get the best deal. Ah - sorry, I've just checked on expedia and they only take bookings from certain countries and Singapore isn't one of them so not sure what to advise there!