God brought you here to prosper you! Welcome... You are favored.

jelmusboy:
BORING LANDING GIST, PART II

So, I spent two weeks and some days in Toronto, trying to see if I can stay back there. During this period, I was consulting with landed seniors about life in Canada provinces and at the same time, I was applying for jobs in Ontario and other provinces. Also, my hosts were wonderful but few days after I landed, the husband started grumbling. He just wanted us to leave as soon as we can, and this is the same person who said they used good six months searching for a house in GTA, until they were able to get a 2 bedroom apartment.

Although, I chose Saskatchewan as my province of destination, I consulted again on my choice from a senior colleague who lives there. At last, I decided to leave for Edmonton, Alberta. The high minimum wage, low tax, relative "ease" of getting something to do and assurance of getting job after getting my certification done were the factors I considered in choosing Edmonton. Also, as someone who spent the last 3.5 years in Manchester, England, I believe Toronto is like London which I hated visiting, while Edmonton/Calgary should be like Manchester which I love 100 times more than London. Through, my 3.5 years stay in England, my visit to London does not count up to 10 times cos I hate "Lagos" life in England.

On Thursday, we left Ontario via Flair air. Our flight was 7am flight and had to leave our house around 4.30am to sort out our baggage. We had 6 checked-in baggage and all were overweight. This was because we got delivery of our food items from Nigeria on Monday. We paid heavily for the cabin baggage and checked-in baggage but this is a decision and move we have to make at the early stage. After boarding, flight was delayed for like an hour cos of the snow and the need to check that the aircraft is fit to fly. The flight time was 4 hours and some minutes to Edmonton from Toronto. Mildly dislocated my shoulder while lifting the overweight baggage, I will visit the Doctor when I get the green signal with my health registration.

A senior colleague of mine doing his PhD at University of Alberta came to pick us up at the airport. We packed our bags in the trunk and the back seat and prayed that we shouldn't meet police on our way cos we also didn't have a car seat for my baby. We got to the house I already paid for which a brand new basement, owned by a Nigeria. Someone from Edmonton WhatsApp group helped me checked it out and they were satisfied with the house. I made the security deposit a day before we flew to Edmonton and when we got to the house, the guy was at work. I called him and he directed me to where to get the key to the apartment. The basement was so lovely, new appliances and large bedrooms.

Immediately we dropped our bags, my senior colleague took us to where we ate poundo yam and efo riro around downtown, went to do some shopping and came back late. The landlord came over to say hi to us and he was happy to have us around, as his country people. We also had to remove nylon from some appliances and he apologized for not doing that before we came in. We liked it like that anyway

I'm happy I chose Edmonton finally and I want to thank Salford for giving me his audience when I was trying to decide where to go, members of Edmonton WhatsApp group who are always listening to me whenever I asked questions about areas to live, and lastly to TheCongo, you are God's sent and a jewel. You exceeded my expectation and it is only God that can reward your good gesture towards me. You showed me that there are people out there who can go out of their way to help fellow human being, you are worthy of emulation I must say. I won't forget my beautiful sister, HappyTBaby, you are too much.

Fellow NLders, I won't mind if you can help me thank TheCongo for what he did for me but please, don't ask me what he did sha

Lastly, we are in Canada to thrive and not to survive, let's cultivate the habit of helping each other. Let's post job adverts and any beneficial programs here. Indians, Pakistanis and Chinese are making it big time in western countries by helping themselves, let's do that for ourselves. Helping me does not mean you will be paid lower and me helping you does not mean I won't be able to pay my Bills.

The job hunt starts... Bye guys and thanks for reading my boring gist

Hhhehehe... Oya do and come back to hubby! Love from Calgary.

Estac:
My stale landing gist. Plz pardon any typos cos I typed this out on my phone.

I've been meaning to write about my landing but work and Lagos traffic no give me time. Let me just rush this one here quick.

We're a family of 5 but hubby and I decided that he should go first without us and try and find his feet before the rest of us join him. But as PA, I had to land with him. So we booked Ethiopian Airways for sat Nov 24. Him one-way and me return. I took just one week off work to make the trip.

The journey was long and uneventful. We had no excess luggage issues seeing as only one person was staying behind. Got to the airport at about 11am for a 1.40pm flight and went Straight to check-in our luggage. I had bought a small pocket size travel scale off Jumia the week before for about 3.5k and the scale was surprisingly accurate. Completed check-in formalities and soon after we started boarding.

The flight from nigeria to Addis Ababa was FULL.(Nigerians Una too like waka) About half of the passengers were Dubai-bound. In-flight entertainment was OK (not great). The flight was for a little over 5hrs and we arrive Addis Ababa at about 9pm (7pm Nigerian time). Layover was about 2 hrs. Addis Ababa airport (and indeed all other airports I've been in) is an improvement from MMIA. Free Wi-Fi available and WORKING. (MMIA had free Wi-Fi too sha, I connected but it was not working.) spent my layover gisting with my kids and other family members via whatsapp.

Shortly after, we boarded next aircraft to Toronto with a one hour stop in Dublin. This flight was about 30% full (thankfully ). We were like one passenger to 3 seats so yours truly just converted the seats to bed and took off with wizkid in my ears to la-la land. We stopped at Dublin 7hrs later and the flight crew changed (maybe also refueled, I don't know ) but we didn't get off the plane.

We resumed the 8hr journey to Toronto afterwards. We were served meals at least 3x, maybe 4x on this flight by the time we got to Toronto. Arrived Toronto at about 7am Sunday (thanks to timezone), filled one landing card and went to join the queue to submit our COPR. there were just 3 officers on duty at the time, 2 female and a male. An Indian family of 4 before us was grilled by one of the female officers and asked to show POF. Abeg make una keep una POF just in case. The male officer turned down an asylum seeker, an African lady but I don't know weda she naija babe. She cried and begged but Na lie. He felt bad about it afterwards and his female colleagues castigated him for being a softie and being moved by her tears. They firmly assured him that he did the right thing. I also witnessed airport security arrest one guy, it's like he presented false papers. Anyway enuf amebo.

Soon it got to our turn. I had prayed to be sent to the male officer as he seemed to have a "heart". I Kukuma got him. He looked at our copr,asked if we had kids (before then, I didn't realize that our kids were noted on our copr sef), I quickly said yes, he asked why they're not with us, I told him I still have commitments in Nigeria and will be returning. He asked when are they coming and I told him. He seemed satisfied and asked us to take a seat. 10mins later he called us to sign our copr and gave us a form for changing our address for PR card cos we told him we had a temporary address (airbnb ). He dinor now say Welcome to Canada (when his mates were receiving training on how to receive new immigrants, he was playing candy crush, nonsense). Spent about an hour and half here.

Anyways, we left him and proceeded to baggage claim. By this time, our bags were one of the very few left there. We picked them up and went to check them into our last flight to Edmonton which departs at 10am. Got to Edmonton and was picked up by a family friend who took us to her house and welcomed us with poundo yam and correct ogbono soup. She also prepared rice and stew for us as takeaway to our airbnb.

So we had booked an airbnb for 5 nights ahead of the trip. The location of the airbnb was just awesome, the host was great and helpful. It was a two bedroom flat shared with the host who is a bachelor. Our room was ensuite with a walk-in closet. The house was really clean with a great view of the city. The location of the airbnb was so good that we spent Monday to Wednesday walking everywhere to get stuff done. Got SIN, SIM, Registered for health card, library card, discounted bus pass etc.

We were also house hunting for a one bedroom shared or bachelor apartment for hubby during this time knowing that we needed to exit our airbnb by Friday noon. The options were either too far from downtown or above our budget. On Thursday, we strolled to a new immigrant center located 10mins walk away from our airbnb. We were attended to by a nice Cameroonian who gave us lots of information and hooked hubby up with a contact at Breding. When we mentioned our house hunting challenges, he just put a call to a cousin of his who owns houses and rent rooms to people and just like that, problem solved. Viewed the available room that day, paid the landlord (he doesn't live there but comes around) and moved in the next day Friday.

My return flight was scheduled for 12.20am Saturday which meant I was to leave the house on Friday night. But ya girl carry Saturday for head as departure date and rocked Friday night away. Only to wake up on Saturday morning to google reminder of my trip. Trip that has since taken off while I was enjoying snow. I spent the whole of Saturday morning booking for another flight (Chai I suffered o). I finally secured a flight for Saturday evening but Na hubby survival money suffer am. That's how I lost my almost N300k becos Canada sweet me.

I arrived Lagos on Monday afternoon, instead of Sunday which was my original itinery. But thank God I arrived safely. I landed Lagos and somewhat regretted our decision to stagger our landing. After living the easy life for just one week, I no wan do Lagos again. I sat thru last night's episode of Lagos traffic for over 3 hours telling myself "you could have been in Edmonton now but just Lukatiu". Anyway, now I can't wait to go back home.

I feel u bro! Welldone!!!

Esughusughu:
It's been a little over a year I landed. God bless those who are keeping the thread running with their advice. So, I had a lot of stuff to tidy in naija, my immigrant visa was just stored in one envelope for months!!! My flight was just few weeks to the expiration of the visa and the irony of everything was I didn't accomplish my mission back home.

Flight was OK! for the 16hours long flight, I was the only one seated in my row; so I had a my own special first class and slept well on all seats.

I came with the mind of being on my own since I didn't have family or friends here. In reality, I had siblings who are citizens here but I was not relating with them due to.... . When things hooked me ehn, I had to swallow pride and run to my brother's house. My major fear was spending money when I'm not earning any.

The Job hunt was something else, even menial jobs I did not see..lol (for a short while though, especially the holiday period). Worked temp jobs, and oh! that feeling when you're told your services are no longer needed after 2weeks (not to talk of back ache and hand injuries). It took a while before I finally got a job in my field since my profession is a a licensed regulated one. Pay wasn't great but, that job in my resume paved way for me in getting interviews and other job offers. I've lived and worked in 5 different cities (my Canadian nomadic lifestyle)

The struggle is not all the same - so there's been this place I'd been applying to because of their competitive pay. I have two colleagues who got jobs in same place same month they landed. Some may have it easy as my colleagues; while others would have to struggle.

In all, be relentless. If you're not where you want to be, don't give up, it's just a matter of time. Never be scared to explore different options. I had that fear of the metropolitan cities especially the number one, but that was were a breakthrough came for me. I wasn't scared of changing jobs after all, I did not come to Canada to count the number of skyscrapers. I still have a very long way to go, but I'm in a far much better state than I was a year ago.

The government jobs here are competitive. And yes you can gwt a job with a PR, based on ur experience.

Bro dont overthink this... Any studio is good enough. I took mine in a studio in the slums of Agege. And now i am a Permanent Resident in Canada.