We have arrived!
Jul 9th 2006 | 2:48 am
#1
Thread Starter
Forum Regular
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 127
From: Barrie, Ontario
We have arrived!
We landed in Ottawa on the 6th of July. We went to Gatwick on the Wednesday and stayed at the Hilton. There'd been an accident on the M25 so it took nearly 4 hours to get there - so glad we opted to stay at the airport overnight as opposed to having to feel the extra pressure of the travel to Gatwick on the Thursday.
We were also nervous about the baggage allowance as we knew we were 4kg over just on the check-in. We were 15kg over on the hand luggage and really really hoping no one tried to weigh it. It was all the electrical things you're not allowed to put in the check-ins but really want to have with you when you arrive and not weeks later in the shipment (computer, hard-drive, iPods, shavers, etc.) Anyways, we got to the Zoom counter soon after they opened and the man at the counter didn't seem to take any notice of the luggage being over the weight limit. He asked what one piece of hand luggage we had (we had one trolleyed bag and a small back pack each). We showed him the small suitcases and he put them on his conveyer (that also weighs the thing - oh the panic!) but he just put a luggage tie on them and gave them back. He took no notice of the weight - what a relief! We had paid for the premium economy - not sure if that was part of it? We also got to jump the queue and be checked-in before the passengers that were waiting in the economy check-in. It hardly seemed fair to the others waiting as the cost difference was miniscule. The cost was worth it though. The premium economy seats were spacious, the food and service were good as were the in-flight movies. No complaints about Zoom at all. We also had about a 30 minute delay on the runway before take-off but arrived at the airport in Ottawa more or less on time.
We went to the immigration desk at Ottawa and told them we were landing permanent residents. He directed us to the immigration counter where there were two officers. The first one called us over (there was no one waiting) and when we told him why we were there he was very welcoming and told us how happy they were to have us in Canada. He then took us over to the other officer (young woman) who appeared to be doing this for the first time. He said she would be looking after us and that she'd be taking her time and then told her what she needed to do. I don't know who was more nervous. She was very thorough....we needed to show UK bank statements and she counted out all the cash we had in the three denominations we were carrying. After about 20 minutes of looking through our paperwork she gave us the welcome pack (but without any other information like the SIN forms or ROLF refund forms). She stapled our COPR form into our passports and sent us to customs. At customs there were 3 officers - all of them engaged looking through every item of people's luggage. It took about 20 minutes of standing in the queue (and wondering if others had neglected to mention this searching through the luggage stage) before we were seen. The officer was happy with our goods to follow list (wasn't interested in our goods accompanying list apart from the total value in CAD of it- nor made any move to look through it all)
. He took a copy of our form and list for the goods to follow- stamped and signed both and returned one of the copies to us.
We then took a taxi to our apart/hotel. We're a 10 minute walk to our nearest mall with a loblaws so we went and got provisions for cups of tea and breakfast. On Friday we went and applied for our SIN which is taking 7 weeks to be posted apparently. We took the bus (good bus system in Ottawa) downtown and to Byward Market where we had a really nice lunch. We wandered around parliment hill and then decided the heat and the time difference meant we really needed to go back to the apartment. Yesterday we wandered around the mall and discovered Bulk Barn (brilliant for our porridge and cous cous) and the Swiss Patisserie (good for our rosti and maggi habit). Today we're just relaxing in the apartment and using the internet for some researching of local banks and pay as you go SIM packages. We'll go out and about again on Monday and do more of the paperwork. The weather here is gorgeous - warm (29/30) but with a fresh and cool breeze - blue skies.
We're feeling very much at home and happy to be here. People have been very friendly. Andy's scottish accent seems to be a good ice breaker. The whole place appears to be geared towards immigrants. We're amazed at how relaxed and at ease we feel. We'll start looking for jobs in a couple of weeks but for now we're just going to explore and soak up the atmosphere.
Good luck to everyone else, wherever you are in the process.
Jen
We were also nervous about the baggage allowance as we knew we were 4kg over just on the check-in. We were 15kg over on the hand luggage and really really hoping no one tried to weigh it. It was all the electrical things you're not allowed to put in the check-ins but really want to have with you when you arrive and not weeks later in the shipment (computer, hard-drive, iPods, shavers, etc.) Anyways, we got to the Zoom counter soon after they opened and the man at the counter didn't seem to take any notice of the luggage being over the weight limit. He asked what one piece of hand luggage we had (we had one trolleyed bag and a small back pack each). We showed him the small suitcases and he put them on his conveyer (that also weighs the thing - oh the panic!) but he just put a luggage tie on them and gave them back. He took no notice of the weight - what a relief! We had paid for the premium economy - not sure if that was part of it? We also got to jump the queue and be checked-in before the passengers that were waiting in the economy check-in. It hardly seemed fair to the others waiting as the cost difference was miniscule. The cost was worth it though. The premium economy seats were spacious, the food and service were good as were the in-flight movies. No complaints about Zoom at all. We also had about a 30 minute delay on the runway before take-off but arrived at the airport in Ottawa more or less on time.
We went to the immigration desk at Ottawa and told them we were landing permanent residents. He directed us to the immigration counter where there were two officers. The first one called us over (there was no one waiting) and when we told him why we were there he was very welcoming and told us how happy they were to have us in Canada. He then took us over to the other officer (young woman) who appeared to be doing this for the first time. He said she would be looking after us and that she'd be taking her time and then told her what she needed to do. I don't know who was more nervous. She was very thorough....we needed to show UK bank statements and she counted out all the cash we had in the three denominations we were carrying. After about 20 minutes of looking through our paperwork she gave us the welcome pack (but without any other information like the SIN forms or ROLF refund forms). She stapled our COPR form into our passports and sent us to customs. At customs there were 3 officers - all of them engaged looking through every item of people's luggage. It took about 20 minutes of standing in the queue (and wondering if others had neglected to mention this searching through the luggage stage) before we were seen. The officer was happy with our goods to follow list (wasn't interested in our goods accompanying list apart from the total value in CAD of it- nor made any move to look through it all)
. He took a copy of our form and list for the goods to follow- stamped and signed both and returned one of the copies to us. We then took a taxi to our apart/hotel. We're a 10 minute walk to our nearest mall with a loblaws so we went and got provisions for cups of tea and breakfast. On Friday we went and applied for our SIN which is taking 7 weeks to be posted apparently. We took the bus (good bus system in Ottawa) downtown and to Byward Market where we had a really nice lunch. We wandered around parliment hill and then decided the heat and the time difference meant we really needed to go back to the apartment. Yesterday we wandered around the mall and discovered Bulk Barn (brilliant for our porridge and cous cous) and the Swiss Patisserie (good for our rosti and maggi habit). Today we're just relaxing in the apartment and using the internet for some researching of local banks and pay as you go SIM packages. We'll go out and about again on Monday and do more of the paperwork. The weather here is gorgeous - warm (29/30) but with a fresh and cool breeze - blue skies.
We're feeling very much at home and happy to be here. People have been very friendly. Andy's scottish accent seems to be a good ice breaker. The whole place appears to be geared towards immigrants. We're amazed at how relaxed and at ease we feel. We'll start looking for jobs in a couple of weeks but for now we're just going to explore and soak up the atmosphere.
Good luck to everyone else, wherever you are in the process.
Jen
Jul 9th 2006 | 3:07 am
#2
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 888
From: 100 mile house BC (tiz a long way away from devon)
Re: We have arrived!
Hi
Glad to hear it all went OK,
We land next week ( 17th ) Vancouver , hope things for us are as easy as your experience.
good luck
jerry
Glad to hear it all went OK,
We land next week ( 17th ) Vancouver , hope things for us are as easy as your experience.
good luck
jerry
Originally Posted by Andy_Jen
We landed in Ottawa on the 6th of July. We went to Gatwick on the Wednesday and stayed at the Hilton. There'd been an accident on the M25 so it took nearly 4 hours to get there - so glad we opted to stay at the airport overnight as opposed to having to feel the extra pressure of the travel to Gatwick on the Thursday.
We were also nervous about the baggage allowance as we knew we were 4kg over just on the check-in. We were 15kg over on the hand luggage and really really hoping no one tried to weigh it. It was all the electrical things you're not allowed to put in the check-ins but really want to have with you when you arrive and not weeks later in the shipment (computer, hard-drive, iPods, shavers, etc.) Anyways, we got to the Zoom counter soon after they opened and the man at the counter didn't seem to take any notice of the luggage being over the weight limit. He asked what one piece of hand luggage we had (we had one trolleyed bag and a small back pack each). We showed him the small suitcases and he put them on his conveyer (that also weighs the thing - oh the panic!) but he just put a luggage tie on them and gave them back. He took no notice of the weight - what a relief! We had paid for the premium economy - not sure if that was part of it? We also got to jump the queue and be checked-in before the passengers that were waiting in the economy check-in. It hardly seemed fair to the others waiting as the cost difference was miniscule. The cost was worth it though. The premium economy seats were spacious, the food and service were good as were the in-flight movies. No complaints about Zoom at all. We also had about a 30 minute delay on the runway before take-off but arrived at the airport in Ottawa more or less on time.
We went to the immigration desk at Ottawa and told them we were landing permanent residents. He directed us to the immigration counter where there were two officers. The first one called us over (there was no one waiting) and when we told him why we were there he was very welcoming and told us how happy they were to have us in Canada. He then took us over to the other officer (young woman) who appeared to be doing this for the first time. He said she would be looking after us and that she'd be taking her time and then told her what she needed to do. I don't know who was more nervous. She was very thorough....we needed to show UK bank statements and she counted out all the cash we had in the three denominations we were carrying. After about 20 minutes of looking through our paperwork she gave us the welcome pack (but without any other information like the SIN forms or ROLF refund forms). She stapled our COPR form into our passports and sent us to customs. At customs there were 3 officers - all of them engaged looking through every item of people's luggage. It took about 20 minutes of standing in the queue (and wondering if others had neglected to mention this searching through the luggage stage) before we were seen. The officer was happy with our goods to follow list (wasn't interested in our goods accompanying list apart from the total value in CAD of it- nor made any move to look through it all) . He took a copy of our form and list for the goods to follow- stamped and signed both and returned one of the copies to us.
We then took a taxi to our apart/hotel. We're a 10 minute walk to our nearest mall with a loblaws so we went and got provisions for cups of tea and breakfast. On Friday we went and applied for our SIN which is taking 7 weeks to be posted apparently. We took the bus (good bus system in Ottawa) downtown and to Byward Market where we had a really nice lunch. We wandered around parliment hill and then decided the heat and the time difference meant we really needed to go back to the apartment. Yesterday we wandered around the mall and discovered Bulk Barn (brilliant for our porridge and cous cous) and the Swiss Patisserie (good for our rosti and maggi habit). Today we're just relaxing in the apartment and using the internet for some researching of local banks and pay as you go SIM packages. We'll go out and about again on Monday and do more of the paperwork. The weather here is gorgeous - warm (29/30) but with a fresh and cool breeze - blue skies.
We're feeling very much at home and happy to be here. People have been very friendly. Andy's scottish accent seems to be a good ice breaker. The whole place appears to be geared towards immigrants. We're amazed at how relaxed and at ease we feel. We'll start looking for jobs in a couple of weeks but for now we're just going to explore and soak up the atmosphere.
Good luck to everyone else, wherever you are in the process.
Jen
We were also nervous about the baggage allowance as we knew we were 4kg over just on the check-in. We were 15kg over on the hand luggage and really really hoping no one tried to weigh it. It was all the electrical things you're not allowed to put in the check-ins but really want to have with you when you arrive and not weeks later in the shipment (computer, hard-drive, iPods, shavers, etc.) Anyways, we got to the Zoom counter soon after they opened and the man at the counter didn't seem to take any notice of the luggage being over the weight limit. He asked what one piece of hand luggage we had (we had one trolleyed bag and a small back pack each). We showed him the small suitcases and he put them on his conveyer (that also weighs the thing - oh the panic!) but he just put a luggage tie on them and gave them back. He took no notice of the weight - what a relief! We had paid for the premium economy - not sure if that was part of it? We also got to jump the queue and be checked-in before the passengers that were waiting in the economy check-in. It hardly seemed fair to the others waiting as the cost difference was miniscule. The cost was worth it though. The premium economy seats were spacious, the food and service were good as were the in-flight movies. No complaints about Zoom at all. We also had about a 30 minute delay on the runway before take-off but arrived at the airport in Ottawa more or less on time.
We went to the immigration desk at Ottawa and told them we were landing permanent residents. He directed us to the immigration counter where there were two officers. The first one called us over (there was no one waiting) and when we told him why we were there he was very welcoming and told us how happy they were to have us in Canada. He then took us over to the other officer (young woman) who appeared to be doing this for the first time. He said she would be looking after us and that she'd be taking her time and then told her what she needed to do. I don't know who was more nervous. She was very thorough....we needed to show UK bank statements and she counted out all the cash we had in the three denominations we were carrying. After about 20 minutes of looking through our paperwork she gave us the welcome pack (but without any other information like the SIN forms or ROLF refund forms). She stapled our COPR form into our passports and sent us to customs. At customs there were 3 officers - all of them engaged looking through every item of people's luggage. It took about 20 minutes of standing in the queue (and wondering if others had neglected to mention this searching through the luggage stage) before we were seen. The officer was happy with our goods to follow list (wasn't interested in our goods accompanying list apart from the total value in CAD of it- nor made any move to look through it all)
. He took a copy of our form and list for the goods to follow- stamped and signed both and returned one of the copies to us. We then took a taxi to our apart/hotel. We're a 10 minute walk to our nearest mall with a loblaws so we went and got provisions for cups of tea and breakfast. On Friday we went and applied for our SIN which is taking 7 weeks to be posted apparently. We took the bus (good bus system in Ottawa) downtown and to Byward Market where we had a really nice lunch. We wandered around parliment hill and then decided the heat and the time difference meant we really needed to go back to the apartment. Yesterday we wandered around the mall and discovered Bulk Barn (brilliant for our porridge and cous cous) and the Swiss Patisserie (good for our rosti and maggi habit). Today we're just relaxing in the apartment and using the internet for some researching of local banks and pay as you go SIM packages. We'll go out and about again on Monday and do more of the paperwork. The weather here is gorgeous - warm (29/30) but with a fresh and cool breeze - blue skies.
We're feeling very much at home and happy to be here. People have been very friendly. Andy's scottish accent seems to be a good ice breaker. The whole place appears to be geared towards immigrants. We're amazed at how relaxed and at ease we feel. We'll start looking for jobs in a couple of weeks but for now we're just going to explore and soak up the atmosphere.
Good luck to everyone else, wherever you are in the process.
Jen
Jul 9th 2006 | 4:08 am
#3
sticky beaking
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,156
From: Sherwood Park,Alberta
Re: We have arrived!
Good luck to all of you due to land very soon. Canada is a wonderful place and its yours to explore. We are having a blast !
Jul 9th 2006 | 9:00 am
#4
little snowy owl
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 6,921
Re: We have arrived!
Welcome to Canada!! 
Jul 9th 2006 | 10:58 am
#5
Chilled out Cheshire Cat
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 497
From: Cheshire, UK
Re: We have arrived!
Well done to you and Good Luck. You seem to fairly well organised and know what you need to do which is Good. I guess you wrote this post from an Internet Cafe ?
Sounds like its pretty hot out there, it's cooled off somewhat over here now since you left but that's the UK for you.
Explore and Enjoy and keep us posted with your progress
Sounds like its pretty hot out there, it's cooled off somewhat over here now since you left but that's the UK for you.
Explore and Enjoy and keep us posted with your progress
Jul 9th 2006 | 12:32 pm
#6
Thread Starter
Forum Regular
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 127
From: Barrie, Ontario
Re: We have arrived!
Thanks everyone!! If I'm organised it's in part because this group and others were so very helpful. We were lucky enough to organise a short-term let from the UK (over the net) that's all inclusive, including the internet access. It's been brilliant, because we've been able to keep in touch with people back home as well as to continue to use it as a resource.
Good luck on your landing Jerry, I'm sure it'll go well. I suspect Vancouver is more geared up for landing than Ottawa.
Take care,
Jen
Good luck on your landing Jerry, I'm sure it'll go well. I suspect Vancouver is more geared up for landing than Ottawa.
Take care,
Jen
Jul 9th 2006 | 1:05 pm
#7
I'm a girl, dagnabbit! :)
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,120
From: Ottawa, ON.
Re: We have arrived!
Congrats, and welcome to Ottawa!
Life's good here - but I don't have to tell you that, you'll soon find out for yourselves. Enjoy "setting up shop", and let me know if there's anything I can do - I've only been here 6 months, but you never know, I might have the answer to what you're asking for! 
Life's good here - but I don't have to tell you that, you'll soon find out for yourselves.
Enjoy "setting up shop", and let me know if there's anything I can do - I've only been here 6 months, but you never know, I might have the answer to what you're asking for!
