Newmum0615:
MY LANDING STORY…a long one.

“Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step” ---Martin Luther King Jr.

…and my journey to the Maple leaf country began.


To be continued...

Blackbuddy:


A very entertaining odyssey! I doff my hat to you, welcome to Canada.

Trusting the next part of your story will be another delight to read

Newmum0615:
MY LANDING STORY…a long one.

“Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step” ---Martin Luther King Jr.

…and my joaurney to the Maple leaf country began.

. The person that cooked up that storm is reading this gist. Thank you sis.
After some small talk, he took my husband to a nearby grocery shop and bought some groceries for us. God bless you o. After he left, another friend and former colleague of my husband living in Milton came and went out with my husband to buy even more groceries. He has been most helpful. Na God go bless all of una for me. I am going to pay it forward, I promise.

To be continued...

Newmum0615:
MY LANDING STORY…a long one.

“Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step” ---Martin Luther King Jr.

…and my journey to the Maple leaf country began.

Newmum0615:
MY LANDING STORY…a long one.

“Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step” ---Martin Luther King Jr.

…and my journey to the Maple leaf country began.

My Express Entry journey ended with receiving COPR in August 2018, but we decided to stay back in Nigeria because I needed to spend what would be my last Christmas with my family for a long while to come. If you are from a very close-knit family like mine, packing up your life and leaving won’t be as easy as it is for some. My parents were happy for us and for the new life ahead of us but the realization that we would be continents away did not make it an easy thing to celebrate. My father and I usually spoke at least 3 times a week but as the time drew near for us to leave, he started calling everyday, sometimes to ask about the most trivial things. Daddy’s girl. Lol.
I continued working till the end of November when I put in my resignation at work. My boss begged me to reconsider, but who wan hear that one? I stayed home with my son whose school ended the term in the first week of December. I used the time to start making final preparations for our departure. My husband didn’t resign from work till January. We decided to sell some of our heavy stuff to my parents who had offered to buy them off to reduce the stress we would have faced in selling them off on our own. The rest we gave away. I sorted out things for cargo, stuff that would accompany us on our trip and other things we were giving away. It was a herculean task for me because I would be updating my moniker to a newer version soon (wink) and also because I had no one to help me out. I took it one day at the time, but it didn’t get any easier. I did all the shopping for stuff we needed to travel with and cargo. The plan was for my mum (the certified luggage packer and sorter) to come over and help me pack all our stuff into bags for our trip and cargo. You see ehn, my mum can fit an aircraft into a big GMG bag. What you will pack in three bags, she’ll find a way to put it into one bag. The packing was done, everything sorted and off my husband went with my brothers to NAHCO on Saturday, the 19th to send our stuff on its way. Our cargo weighed almost 700kg! Don’t ask me what I packed in it, mind your business plix Just know that for a long time to come, I will still be cooking and eating my beloved Nigerian dishes. Who bacon and cereal epp?
On Sunday, the trucks that came to move out our stuff to our parents and other give-aways were there early. With that sorted, I, my mum, cousin and brothers spent the day repacking our bags, cleaning up our house and making last minute preparations. Our bags were packed and weighed with the luggage scale we got at The Game shopping mall. We had nine bags in total between the three of us. Two of the bags were overweight, but I really no send anybody at this point. Everybody at the airport will sha be alright. We had made plans to be done with everything by noon and then move into a hotel to spend the remaining hours of the day, but my mum would have none of it. She insisted that we should save the money and sleep over in our already empty house. My husband refused o. It was a hotel suite or nothing else. Plenty back and forth on the matter sef. In the end, bottom power won. He gave in and we all managed to sleep on one big mattress that we had left in the house. Others slept on duvets. Heat wan kill us sha because IKEDC decided to remind us one last time why we really had to leave Nigeria. The mosquitoes nkor? Hmm. We had also taken out our change-over box and given it away to someone, so no hope of using the generator either. We sha managed to sleep and wake up in the morning without our flesh being roasted.
So, fast-forward to Monday, the 21st of January, we woke up early to leave the house for the airport. Our flight was for 1.40pm, but we wanted to be at the airport early to avoid stories. In the state that I am in now, everyday tasks are usually a big deal for me, so I needed ample time to carry myself around slowly without taking too much of our time. My mum, the certified packer loaded all nine boxes in her SUV and off we went to the airport with her, my brother and cousin. We stopped briefly at a business center to print out our boarding passes and make copies of our goods to follow list which we had written the day before. The battery of my phone where I had downloaded the boarding passes died immediately we printed my husband’s own, so we just carried his own like that and hoped that we won’t get delayed during check-in at the counter.
So, we come reach airport around 9.55am, carry our bags load for big trolley. We had to stand in a long queue in the one entrance door that was open to passengers. The other one close to our counter was closed because someone was trying to clean out the mess that had been made by rain the day before. They sha allowed only me enter cos “condition”. Lol
Only my mum was allowed to enter with us. My brother and cousin had to stay out and wait. Bag weighing commenced. One checked-in bag was a whooping 28kg, another 26kg. One hand luggage exceeded the 7kg limit by 2 extra kg. The rest were within the 23kg and 7kg limits. An angel was either hovering around us or the guy didn’t just send. My husband and I were using side eyes to look at each other, waiting for the guy to ask us to repack the overweight bags. He tagged the bags in like that and my husband and I held our breaths till we were well on our way to the passport check counter. I was hoping that the same luck would follow us to the counter where our bags would be re-weighed. In those bags, I carried foodstuffs that we were to eat while we await our cargo. Everything from Indomie to beans, to rice, to egusi and dry fish. I was pot of soup and stew ready. I was surprised that our bags weren’t searched. I don’t know if there was a policy change or if we were just lucky because I saw some people whose bags were searched by customs officials. I had reserved some naira to give them if they had issues with the foodstuff because I didn’t have strength for argument. Mumsi stood guard over our son and hand luggage while we completed other formalities. Right there in her presence, they ‘moved’ one woman’s laptop bag sitting on top of the rest of her luggage in a trolley. I was shocked! Inside airport again? The woman was inconsolable. I pitied her gan, but as I no get as I wan take help am, I just waka dey go my own.
At the passport counter, we were asked to get copies of our passport, because it is Ethiopian Airlines policy that customers travelling to Canada are to submit copies of their passports alongside their tickets and original passports. Them no tell us that one before o, but issorai. At that stage, if they wanted a copy of my birth certificate and school records, I was ready to give them. I didn’t want to start looking for copies in my hand luggage, so my hubby went to make copies at one 9mobile stand around. The crazy people charged N100 per copy. Na them sabi.
At the check-in counter, we held our breaths again till our bags were well on their way to be loaded on the aircraft. The guy at the counter refused to collect our son’s stroller sha, because as he said “Your son isn’t an infant anymore and so the stroller doesn’t fit into his allowable luggage”. Mumsi took the stroller home. He didn’t raise an eyebrow at the over-weight bags. Na wa o. This must be God I thought. I submitted my fit to fly papers and we were done with checking in. As we left the counter, I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to bring out the goods-to-follow list from one of our checked-in bags. Na so I begin to worry. What will I present at the immigration desk o? We went back to the counter to try our luck and see if we could retrieve the bag. Ko possible. I left dejected. I didn’t have a copy anywhere, nor did I remember the items I had taken time and effort to list and assign CAD value to. If only I knew I was worrying for nothing.
So, with all bags checked in and my bout of worrying over, we proceeded outside to take pictures with my brother and cousin. My cousin had waited too long and had left for work, so my brother was the only we met outside. Immediately we stepped outside, my mum started shedding tears. I no gree look her face o, because I know how emotional I can get. I pretended I didn’t notice that she was crying. I tried hard to keep a smiling face as my brother took the pictures. We prayed again, shared hugs and off my mum and brother went.
Back into the departure wing, we went in search of food to eat to kill time as we had some to spare. As we were there, they called our flight and we hurried off to change some pounds we had to dollars at the currency exchange counter around. I carried some of the food I bought inside my bag to that point after immigration stamps your passports and where you take off your shoes and other personal belonging. Nobody asked me to remove food or water. I was still wondering if I was invisible because I have never been allowed to carry water past that point before. Maybe na the ‘condition’ sha.
At the boarding gate, I was allowed to go in with my son to sit while my husband went through the checks. We were also allowed to be among the first the board as usual. We took off at 1.58pm. The flight was ok, in-flight entertainment not so good. Nothing interesting for my son to watch either. My husband was the only one who watched three movies before we arrived in Canada. I wasn’t even interested. My concern was the fact that the flight was full! No empty seats anywhere for me to even lay down and stretch my legs. I was so uncomfortable. The food nkor? They kept bringing it but it didn’t take away the fact that it was tasteless the most part. I sha managed to swallow it in bits and pieces. I kept gulping orange juice and eating that round bread that accompanied each tray of food. My son ate very little and slept for most of the flight. We landed in Addis Ababa in good time, spent 2 hours resting and stretching our legs in the airport before we took off for Dublin. Refueling took another 50 mins or so in Dublin and then Toronto bound we were. During the flight to Toronto, my emotions got the best of me and I started sobbing. Everything became so real at that point. The life I left behind, the parents I would only get to speak with via WhatsApp video calls, even the fact that I was uncomfortable and needed to lie down all seem to crack that tough demeanor I was trying to put up in the days leading to our departure. My son noticed the tears and woke his dad up. Na so them take readjust themselves. I stretched my legs on both of them and padded my back with plenty pillows. E no easy sha, but anything for this Canada. The last meal they gave us before we landed in Toronto was quite like our Naija rice and stew, so I ate that one well and even asked for an extra plate abeg.
One hour to touch down, I recreated the goods-to-follow list as much as I could with plain A4 paper I had collected from the 9mobile guys who ran copies for us at MMIA. We filled our declaration cards and before long, we landed in Toronto at 7.55am. Canada here we were. Transcripts, ECA, IELTS, POF, medicals, document gathering and here we were. It was -17° that morning when we landed as announced by the captain. We completed the immigration formalities with a “Welcome to Canada” from the officer and proceeded to register for our SIN. The immigration queue was not so long. I presume it was because only our flight landed at the time. I was only able to change my own passport photo on my COPR. The lady officer said it didn’t matter and didn’t bother to collect my husband and son’s. Me sef, I was too tired to care. The officer had told us that since we had goods to follow, we were to proceed to baggage claim, collect our bags and then head to Customs to sort out the paperwork. So much for worrying about our previous goods-to-follow list. Shebi, we still ended up having access to it before Customs. I even ended up not using it. The new one I created was more detailed and neater sef even though it was on plain paper unlike the one I wrote on the BSF186 form.
As we approached the baggage carousels, a man approached us and offered to carry our bags on a big push cart or something. He was going to charge us about 20 dollars which my husband agreed to. As the man followed us, something in my head just clicked and I asked my husband “Did our hands break ni? Why do we have to pay that much just to push cart from here to customs?” The man still dey look me when I turned and told the trolley guy that we were no longer interested. I half expected the man to insult me, as I dey think say na Nigeria I still dey. The man just smiled and said, “That’s alright” and walked back. Na wa o. Una polite sha. Our bags were the only ones left there because we were the last people to get off the aircraft and we had spent so much time waiting at immigration, registering for our SIN and taking toilet breaks. I was too tired to be in a hurry. We don reach be say we don reach and we no get connecting flight. We just jejely loaded our bags on two trolleys, put my son somewhere on the top cart and rolled away to Customs.
We chatted with the customs officer for a while. A handsome jovial fellow who told us that two days prior to our arrival, they had witnessed freezing weather with temperature as low as -42°. Kilode? No be me and una. Na permanent residence I come claim, I no kill person. He did a sum of the CAD value of our goods and stamped the goods-to-follow form. Because I was the one that dealt with him, he registered my name on the form as the importer. When I pointed out that the cargo was sent in my husband’s name, he told me not to worry, that my husband would have no issues picking the cargo up. Ok o, I thought in my head. No strength to argue.
We found our way to the exit lounge and called an airport taxi to take us to our Airbnb in Milton. As we stepped outside, we got a feel of our Canadian weather. The cold no be here. It took us about 30 mins or less to get to our Airbnb accommodation. Lovely place we got. I just enter kitchen arrange Indomie noodles with dry fish make man pikin chop hold body. By 3pm Canadian time and 9pm Nigerian time, we dozed off. Our body clock refused to adapt for another 4 days or so. Sometime in the evening of our arrival, my husband’s friend and former colleague woke us up with a phone call saying that he was outside our Airbnb. Na so the guy waltz in from Mississauga with correct jollof rice, several pieces of fried chicken and a big bowl of red stew. Hallelujah! I almost cried out. The person that cooked up that storm is reading this gist. Thank you sis.
After some small talk, he took my husband to a nearby grocery shop and bought some groceries for us. God bless you o. After he left, another friend and former colleague of my husband living in Milton came and went out with my husband to buy even more groceries. He has been most helpful. Na God go bless all of una for me. I am going to pay it forward, I promise.

To be continued....





Good day all, please I need to know as I'm having a conflicting information right now. Would I need to send all my certificates ranging from SSCE, OND, HND and PGD to WES or only SSCE and the highest certificate (PGD)?

amdman:
TESTIMONY TIME

So I have been 6weeks in Canada and I can say that God has been so faithful, so much so that my greatest challenge many a times is making the best choice amongst many good options. Here are a few highlights:

Starting a Business
Participating in Acces' Entrepreneurship Connections has been very helpful in getting to understand how things work here. My business' niche is highly regulated, so there is a lot of work to be done. Lots of useful contacts made. Looking forward to Business Day 1.

Finding Work
First week of February, I decided to start job-hunting so that bills will be getting paid. Before the week was out, I got and resumed at this interesting job at an Airline Servicing Company. Also got an RBC invite for an info session and interview. Aced it and got an offer to resume at RBC this February as a fulltime staff. They will be bearing the cost of obtaining some certification that I require. Today, I got another offer from TD Bank...but RBC's offer appears better, and I love the atmosphere at RBC's head office where I will be working.

Finding Accommodation
This has remarkably been easy. When I needed to move from Airbnb to a more permanent accommodation, I found a lovely place in Toronto where the Landlady didn't care about my newness to Canada. No job reference, credit check or guarantor required and rent is paid month to month (not first and last as is usually required). Now because of my new job at RBC, I need to move to Mississauga. Guess what? A Canadian friend connected me to a couple in Brampton that have a furnished 1-bedroom basement apartment for rent and we agreed on a month to month rent of $625 CAD! For a 1-bed apartment within GTA! Amazing!

There are so many other things to be thankful for in this new place called HOME, and it can only get better.

TIP: Doing as much research as possible before landing is important to hit the ground running.

joo2018:
Bonne chance, bros.

Please update us on your progress so we can add to the body of knowledge on page 1.

amdman:
TESTIMONY TIME

So I have been 6weeks in Canada and I can say that God has been so faithful, so much so that my greatest challenge many a times is making the best choice amongst many good options. Here are a few highlights:

TIP: Doing as much research as possible before landing is important to hit the ground running.

Newmum0615:
MY LANDING STORY…a long one.

“Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step” ---Martin Luther King Jr.

…and my journey to the Maple leaf country began.

To be continued...

amdman:
TESTIMONY TIME

So I have been 6weeks in Canada and I can say that God has been so faithful, so much so that my greatest challenge many a times is making the best choice amongst many good options. Here are a few highlights:

Newmum0615:
Part 2:

Our life in Canada thus began.

Catch ya guys later.

sammyengr:
LANDING GIST....
The journey started on the 28th of December, 2018 where families and friends gathered to see us off to the airport. We had alot of people that followed us to the airport because we just got married on the 15th of December. Our flight was scheduled for 2:15pm via Egypt air, we left home very early in the morning and got to the airport by 10am.

Thank you for the time spent in reading my landing gist!!!!

Newmum0615:
Oga number 13, I am sorry.

Newmum0615:
Part 2:

Catch ya guys later.

Newmum0615:
Part 2:

Newmum0615:
Part 2:

Our life in Canada thus began. In the first one week, we did quite a lot. Opened bank accounts, got phone lines, spoke with employment advisors, visited my registered midwife and other things here and there. We even attended service at the church my midwife invited us to. The pastor and everyone we met were so accommodating. They prayed for us and welcomed us to Canada.
The second week saw us begin our house search. This part of my landing gist will require its own section because it is really a story for another day. Suffice it to say that it is a story worth telling. It ended well though but the story behind it nkor? As I said, story for another day. Anyway, we had the house thing finally sorted out, so we went ahead and registered my son in the Catholic school nearby, registered for our health cards and did some other things that depended on us getting a permanent address. Job search is underway for my hubby. I am putting a hold on that one for now. I will work the work sometime later. We are just past our third week here and while we get lonely sometimes, we are adjusting nicely. The cold is crazy, but you will be fine. Just dress appropriately and don’t stay outside for extended periods of time. I am surprised at the way my son enjoys the cold even when it seems that it would freeze our blood when we are outside.

Newmum0615:
Oga number 13, I am sorry.

Newmum0615:
'(

Newmum0615:
Oga number 13, I am sorry.

Newmum0615:
Oga number 13, I am sorry.

Newmum0615:
Oga number 13, I am sorry.

Oeasy:
.
Good day all, please I need to know as I'm having a conflicting information right now. Would I need to send all my certificates ranging from SSCE, OND, HND and PGD to WES or only SSCE and the highest certificate (PGD)?

Newmum0615:
Part 2:

Our life in Canada thus began. In the first one week, we did quite a lot. Opened bank accounts, got phone lines, spoke with employment advisors, visited my registered midwife and other things here and there. We even attended service at the church my midwife invited us to.

Sthill5:


Who issues fit to fly papers please

sconp:

Na because of this question you quote the whole of that post?

Where is that my beating meme