Citizens 4 Years In
 

Last week my wife and I became Canadian Citizens capping off a long journey that started 7 years ago when we first submitted our PR application to the Sydney (Australia) consulate.

Our story in shorthand:

- applied for PR in late 2004 from Sydney, Australia.
- landed in Vancouver mid 2007.
- moved to Calgary in mid 2008 following a job offer.
- made our own Canadian Citizen in mid 2010 (baby daughter).
- purchased our own home in early 2011.
- became Canadian Citizens in October 2011.

Some of the highlights and lowlights of the journey have been:

Lowlights:

- Being told to expect our PR VISAs in 12 months, only to receive a letter 1 year later saying to expect them in another 12 months...
- Looking for work in Vancouver for months while watching our savings dwindle.
- Renting the top half of a house in Calgary for 3 years above eccentric and/or loud tenants while waiting to establish a good credit rating and build savings to buy a home.

Highlights:

- Renting our first residence (basement suite) in Vancouver from a lovely Indian family who themselves immigrated a few years before and considered it their duty to help us out.
- Being offered 3 jobs in 2 days in Calgary finally breaking the great Vancouver driven employment drought.
- Working for a fantastic company in Calgary doing work that I really enjoy.
- Making great friends in both Vancouver and Calgary.
- Being blessed with a lovely baby daughter.
- Being able to purchase a home outside the city limits in peace and quiet.
- Canadians on the whole have proven to be warm, welcoming and yes polite. I consider it a privilege to now be counted among them.

As you can probably tell by the highlights doubling the lowlights we have really enjoyed our time in Canada and expect to call it home for many years to come.

Takeaways from our experience would be:

- Focus your initial move to where the best job opportunities for you are, not where you would like to holiday etc. Getting that first job can be tough but once gained should open opportunities to move to more attractive locations later should you wish.
- Don't be afraid to move to another city/province if things are not working out at your current location, Canada is a big and diverse country.
- Make the most of the "honeymoon period" by ensuring you asap join sports clubs, church community etc so that by the time your Canadian life becomes more routine and homesickness starts to raise its head you have a social network in place.
- Start building a Canadian Credit History asap.
- Being an immigrant is hard work and requires lots of patience - things rarely work the first time as the systems for pretty much everything here assume you are Canadian and often don't cope well with trying to place round pegs in square holes so to speak.

The one thing that has been consistent throughout this journey however has been Britishexpats.com. It is a fantastic community and a treasuretrove of information through each stage of the journey, thankyou all!

Re: Citizens 4 Years In
 

Nice post. Unfortunately I think your story will only encourage that idiot who keeps posting that a happily employed immigrant is a happy immigrant.

For us it was Vancouver or bust. I was fortunate enough to get work more or less as soon as I started looking. I don't know how long I would have hung on without a decent job. I am glad it has worked out for you.

Re: Citizens 4 Years In
 

Sorry I have no idea who the OP is you are talking about as I only drop in now and then to the forum. Am certainly not trying to walk into an ongoing debate!

Vancouver is a lovely, lovely place to live (especially during summer) and just before the move I was finally offered some casual work but most of that was for small consulting firm whose biggest client was in Calgary!

But in the end it really was too little too late on the job front, though admittedly the work I do does typically focus on large listed corporations which Vancouver doesn't really have many of and I had no luck breaking into Government work which was my other area of opportunity.

In my case the saying I have heard on here now and again "you can't eat the scenery" certainly applied to us in Vancouver, but again my work specialization didn't help I'm sure.

Re: Citizens 4 Years In
 

I was just having a gentle joke at the expenses of our illustrious moderator. It wasn't meant as a comment about you. Sorry if it came across that way.

Re: Citizens 4 Years In
 

I dont recall Christmasoompa ever saying anything like that:confused:

To the original poster, congratulations, and thanks for sharing your wisdom:)