Some of our relatives and friends that were in Canada may hide the negative aspects of their lives in the country, which they don't want us to know the real situation.
As always, my style was to give my readers all the positive aspects of a country where I reside in and true when I was in Singapore.
Like
My Singapore Story, it's always focused on the positive side because I thought that showing those were easy than focusing on the darker regions.
This time, I had to lay down the "
negative" cards in Canada because one of my readers (Anna) emailed me and asked about the problems that I had encountered here.
Here's her message...
"We just received the ITA from CIC yesterday so we will have to hand in the documents in 60 days and after 6 months should get the visa.
I just read your wife, Net's writing on your blog that she just resigned from her job. How is your family situation now? Is it difficult to adapt there?...
....Please do share with us about your problems. We hope that we can see you soon in Toronto."
After reading her email, it made me realize that I should be starting to post about my problems that I've encountered here. This is for the benefit of all FSW applicants and new immigrants.
Problems We'd Encountered In Canada
Like you, I was clueless about how Canada look like and how's life inside the country. I got the information only from my relatives, friends and online forums.
Although there are government sites that provide us information to settle, but it's not personal. This time, you will have it straight from me in Toronto, Canada.
I will start from the month before we landed until the present.
1. Budgeting For The Airline Tickets
As we know the fact that the distance between Philippines and Canada is 6,921miles. This means that the airline ticket is not expensive, but
VERY expensive.
The price of our ticket on 2014 was
PHP110,000.00 (USD2,500) for 2 adults and 2 kids, terminal fees and travel taxes are exclusive. Instead of using the amount for my Proof Of Fund, it was diverted to my expenses.
Imagine if we are going for a vacation in Philippines, 4 of us, we might need to save money in 2 or more straight years just for the ticket and I wonder how much would it be then.
2. Permanent Residence Card
As soon as we arrived in Canada, the immigration officer at the airport informed us that we will receive our PR cards 8 to 10 weeks upon landing.
We waited for over that timeframe until I decided to call the CIC customer hotline to follow up our PR cards. I was informed that they had sent a letter 2 months ago to my address and that it was returned to them due to a wrong address.
I can't remember how I mistakenly stated the address, but maybe I did. They added that the reason for the delay in the issuance of our PR cards was because of our photos, which the
Case Processing Center (CPC) was requiring us to submit a new set.
Usually, when CIC requires me to submit something, they'll send me an email in conjunction with a
physical letter. But, I was wondering, for this time, they haven't sent me an email correspondence.
We've been here for more than 5 months without the PR cards. The proof of our status was only our
COPR copies and passports. So, we sent a new set of photos to CPC.
Few days ago, the PR cards came at last, but the bad news is, my card wasn't there. Well, I need to inform them again. The postman may have accidentally dropped it on his way to our mailbox. We'll see how it goes.
3. Effects of Winter in Our Tropical Skin
This is our first time to experience winter with temperatures that reaches -22degC and feels like -30degC. You will know how it feels with these numbers and units once you get here.
The first few weeks and months were a total adjustment for us. We are clueless on the changes, which the cold weather affected our
tropical body and skin. We had experienced nose bleeding, super dry skin, skin pigmentation, clogged nose, and cracked skin that develops into a wound.
4. Time and Schedules
My wife and I were both working
days after we've landed. That was a good start and we're working enthusiastically on the first days and months in our job-site.
Our finances were good, we can buy the groceries we want and need for our daily necessities. Bills are paid on time and the kids can have their
weekend delight and surprises.
Then we realized that TIME was the culprit of us being unhappy with our job and setup.
To give you an idea, agencies hire people who were eager to work anytime and anywhere. The schedules that they provide were the following:
Morning shift - 7:00am to 4:00pm
Afternoon shift - 4:00pm to 11:00pm
Night shift - 11:00pm to 7:00am
Normal shift - 8:00 to 5:00pm
For me, I was working on a normal shift. On the other hand, my wife was given an afternoon shift. This is a good setup if we don't have children. But, it's not the case.
My eldest son, SAM, should be in school at
8:30am to 3:00pm and my youngest stays home the whole day, playing.
I made a chart here to give you a better view of our situation.
The
Yellow color is represented as the time when each of us is
away from home. On the other hand,
Green represents the time that we're at home.
The color that we need to focus our attention is at the
Red line. That means, at this period, me and my wife were both away from home and SAM and TOM's schedules were Green. It was a big issue for us as to where to leave them with while we're away.
I was lucky to have a sister near our place who had an evening shift. We send them both to her during our Yellow time.
5. Doing the Chores
When I arrive home from work, I had to fetch the two at my sister's house. Coming from work, tired and hungry was the worst thing that I don't want to experience at the end of the day. My wife was out to work and the problems were:
* Who prepares our dinner?
* Who prepares the milk and taking our kids to sleep?
* Who cooks our breakfast and prepares lunch?
* Who cleans the house?
So, my wife cleans the house, cooks dinner and breakfast when she's at home. For me, I prepare the milk, clean the house, heat the food in the microwave, wash the dishes and put my kids to bed while I'm craving for food and sleep. *sigh*
It was difficult having this type of setup. Since we are new, we've closed our one eye and moved on with the uneasy setup for a few months...
If you've noticed, the problem of clothing and furniture were not included in the list, it's because I have my sister who happened to have a
network of generous friends who provided us most of our winter, spring clothing and furniture.
If you don't have networks yet, you can buy second-hand clothing or buy at
cheap factory outlets here in Toronto and this will be discussed on my future posts.
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