VanCity

It's actually from your 'Acknowledgement Reciept' email that you will have received when Paris got your application form, so one of the first emails, this is the date that it states your estmated wait time.

Your conditional acceptance is passed this stage and this stage is when they have received your form in Paris and have a visa on hold for you until you pay your participation fee.

Once you pay, then you should get another email saying that your application has been received in the High Commission in London, then if everything os ok there you get a 'First Evaluation Phase Completed' email which says you have passed this stage and now all is left is the seond phase and if you pass that your next and last email is your Letter of Introduction.

kc85

thats awesome your very lucky- i hope to stop messing about with random stuff now methinks lol rele want to wake up wanting that passion of going into work lol

i hear btw toronto is very good for media related industry malark!

Galacticos

Well they have a film school if that is any connection to media..... I have a friend who teaches there.... A regular Joey trippiani

Mr. Numbers

Yeah, should be nothing to stop you just withdrawing the cash from your account and taking it with you - what better proof of having access to £2,000 than showing them £2,000 in cash right there! Just don't shout about it on the plane

Yep, you can take any amount of up to $10,000 into Canada without having to declare anything to customs. Anything over $10,000 you have to declare - you don't have to pay any charges/tax on it, and it's completely legal to take more than $10,000 in, you just have to declare it to them when you enter.

stizzyb

Thanks, are you in account management? I'm a producer in the tv department so (having knowledge of the industry over there) do you think the fact I'm currently London based might actually work in my favour? What is the industry like out there?

Galacticos

Oh i wont be telling a soul, but i will be looking paranoid as anything in case anyone tries to pick my pockets.......

Its not a good look for me to look paranoid wen im already a British born Pakistani, and already expecting extra questions at immigration (I get it everytime) LOL.

Canuckinuk

Just a thought that you usually lose out a lot by taking cash. If you take out pounds and exchange them in to dollars when you get there you lose a lot because the exchange rate you get will be really bad. If you order Canadian Dollars from a bank here you will also lose out. I work at a bank in the uk and for instance today our rate for customers to buy CAD was 1.47 and to return CAD was 1.70. You would lose out on a couple hundred dollars at least doing it this way. If you take it out at a cashpoint in canada you won't lose out so much but I would suggest doing an international transfer. It will cost you up to 20 pounds (depending on who you bank with here) to do a transfer but the exchange is much better than the cash one. For example the exchange rate today for international transfer was 1.5450 as opposed to 1.47 for cash. If you were transferring 2000 pounds you would have 150 dollars more if you do an international transfer.

Galacticos

Interesting..... Thanks for tht info matey

Third6

haha, that's kinda funny you say that cause I travelled to Toronto with my British born Pakistani friend who never even got a second look. My white friend on the other hand...on the way in and on the way out got a full body scan, his luggage searched, was even taken aside for extra questioning at immigration haha. I had to go over and bail him out cause he's an idiot!

lenny86

the industry is fairly small. i would say there are only really 20-ish agencies over here that are of any decent size.

i do love it though, everyone knows everyone, and if you get one contact, you will surely get loads from there.

did you hear anything today??

lenny86

and of course, i would happily give you any contacts i have as well.

Galacticos

True it can happen the other way. I just expect the worst, better to be prepared right.

wolstie

Not necessarily true. Have you thought about UK cheques? I regularly pay UK cheques into my RBC account, and get a rate of between 1.51 and 1.55. No commission or additional fees either, just a straight conversion into dollars.

I wish I'd known about that before transferring my savings by international transfer last April - I'd have saved around $400.

Third6

You mean write a cheque for all your money using your UK account and pay it into your Canadian bank?? Sorry if I'm being retarded but so they accept UK cheques ok? Like if I write a cheque from Nationwide, President's Choice will accept it?

Galacticos

Yeah i was thinking the same thing, or would it have to be a banks cheque??

I mite pop into my branch and discuss it all with them. I still have to get them to give me a card that works in any cash machine...