This page will tell you my own immi­gra­tion story, and pro­vides resources for all your immi­gra­tion research. Here is the summary:

• Why I Moved To Canada
• My Immi­gra­tion Timeline
• Look­ing For Immi­gra­tion Info…?
• Look­ing For Cana­dian Cit­i­zen­ship Info…?
• Look­ing For A Job In Canada…?
• Immi­gra­tion resources and use­ful websites

Just a few basic rules to start. I’m always happy to answer ques­tions you may have about life in Canada, or immi­grat­ing to Canada. Note that I’m not an immi­gra­tion expert so don’t expect me to have an answer to every­thing! Please note that I only know the Cana­dian immi­gra­tion sys­tem, not the Amer­i­can one. Yes, believe it or not, Canada and the U.S.A are two dif­fer­ent countries.

Since I’m not one of these rich immi­gra­tion con­sul­tant, I answer your ques­tion for free. In fact, I answer any ques­tion for free… the only thing I’m sell­ing on this blog are my pho­tog­ra­phy. I’m a human being, not a very sophis­ti­cated com­puter pro­gram, there­for I appre­ci­ate your thanks. I tend to find it frus­trat­ing when peo­ple ask very detailed ques­tions, get their answer and never email again. To put it sim­ply, it doesn’t encour­age me to be helpful.

Note that I’m not per­fect: a few emails or com­ments occa­sion­ally slip through. Don’t hes­i­tate to con­tact me directly by email, using this form. If I don’t reply within a few days, try again or leave a com­ment below. Emails occa­sion­ally end up being marked as spam (and I know you are not this obnox­ious spammer!).

This page is updated very often with new resources, so check back once in a while. Don’t hes­i­tate to sug­gest me new top­ics or new rel­e­vant resources.

Have fun brows­ing this blog!

Why I Moved To Canada

I first came to Canada in Feb­ru­ary 2002, after a long back­pack­ing trip from Mex­ico to Brazil (yes, by bus). I hadn’t planned it but we got a good deal on a one-way ticket from Rio de Janeiro and Feng had to go back to Canada.

I came back in 2003, before going trav­el­ing again. I picked Feng up in Ottawa and we headed to Mex­ico. We came back early 2004, broke and tired. Time to set­tle… for a while. Thanks to my French pass­port, I got a six-months stay upon enter­ing Canada. I was a “tourist” for that time being.

In Sep­tem­ber 2004, I came back to France for a month. I hated being just a tourist in Canada, with no right to work, study or do any­thing. I wanted to stay there for a while and expe­ri­ence life. I applied for a Work­ing Hol­i­day Visa and obtained it the same day. I came back to Canada on Novem­ber 2004 with the year long work­ing visa. I work small jobs, gained expe­ri­ence, fin­ished my stud­ies. I was ready to immigrate.

I decided to apply in the spon­sor­ship cat­e­gory, since Feng was Cana­dian it made the more sense.

My Immi­gra­tion Timeline

• March to April 2005: Pre­pared the appli­ca­tion, gath­ered all the documents.
• April 19^th 2005: Took the com­pul­sory med­ical exam in Ottawa
• May 19^th 2005: Sent the appli­ca­tion Mis­sis­sauga, ON
• June 13^th 2005: The appli­ca­tion was sent back because it wasn’t clear whether I was liv­ing in Canada or in France. Gee, it wasn’t even clear to me!
• June 18^th 2005: Cor­rected my appli­ca­tion and sent it back.
• July 7^th 2005: Sent addi­tional doc­u­ments to the appli­ca­tion. Our mar­riage cer­tifi­cate was miss­ing, it took four months to get it…
• June 30^th 2005: Received the first acknowl­edg­ment let­ter: Feng is eli­gi­ble to spon­sor me. Yipee!
• August 5^th 2008: My appli­ca­tion is for­warded to the Cana­dian office in Paris.
• Sep­tem­ber 27^th 2005: The Cana­dian embassy in Paris acknowl­edges receipt of my application.
• Octo­ber 20^th 2005: I am approved for per­ma­nent res­i­dence in Canada! Woohoo! Can’t believe it was that fast. I had come back to France in Sep­tem­ber, and since my file wasn’t even opened yet, I thought it would take at least six months. I’m happy but… back in Canada. I send my pass­port to my mother who go pick up my visa in Paris.
• Novem­ber 17^th, 2005: Five days before the expi­ra­tion of my one-year Work­ing Hol­i­day Visa, I become a landed immi­grant. I have to travel to Prescott, USA, and then back to Canada in order to val­i­date my visa. Weird but fun! I’m am now a per­ma­nent res­i­dent in Canada.
• August 5^th 2008: I am eli­gi­ble to apply for cit­i­zen­ship. I sent my appli­ca­tion.
• Novem­ber 12 2008: I receive the acknowl­edg­ment letter.
• June 11 2009: I took the cit­i­zen­ship test in Ottawa.
• July 3^rd 2009: I took the oath of cit­i­zen­ship and became Cana­dian around 12:30.
  

Look­ing For Immi­gra­tion Info…?

If you are look­ing for info on how to immi­grate in Canada, be sure to check the series How To… Immi­grate To Canada. The Immi­gra­tion cat­e­gory also has a lot of first hand infor­ma­tion on how to set­tle in Canada, how to deal with immi­gra­tion prob­lems etc. To know more about Canada in gen­eral, you can read arti­cles in the Cana­dian Life category.

Look­ing For Cana­dian Cit­i­zen­ship Info…?

For info on how to apply for Cana­dian cit­i­zen­ship, check out these arti­cles.

You can read about my expe­ri­ence fill­ing out the cit­i­zen­ship appli­ca­tion, about my cit­i­zen­ship exam in Ottawa and about the oath cer­e­mony.

Look­ing For A Job In Canada…?

I wrote a 10 posts series named How to Look For a Job In Canada, which tells new­com­ers about the hir­ing process in Canada, give you work cul­ture tips and helps you tackle poten­tial challenges.

If you want to read an account of work­ing in Canada, check out the posts tagged Work­ing Girl.

Immi­gra­tion resources and use­ful web­sites about Canada

The fol­low­ing is a list of use­ful resources you may want to check out:

• Set­tle­ment: this web­site aims at help­ing new­com­ers to set­tle in Ontario. It has very use­ful info on the health, hous­ing, employ­ment etc. It also fea­tures a forum where you can ask questions.
• Going to Canada: a Gov­ern­ment of Canada web­site with sev­eral use­ful sec­tions, such as “get to know Canada”, “live in Canada” etc.
• Wel­come to Canada: this is a sec­tion of the CIC web­site that cov­ers all that new­com­ers to Canada need to know.
• We Wel­come the World: a wel­come cen­ter for new­com­ers families.
• Cana­dian cul­ture arti­cles: this Wikipedia page has a lot of arti­cles related to all aspects of Cana­dian culture.
• Canada Kicks Ass: A Cana­dian por­tal of Cana­dian cul­ture, trivia and news.
• Red­dit Canada: Cana­dian news.
• Use­ful blogs that deal with Cana­dian immi­gra­tion sub­ject: The Zieglers Blog (y en español aquí), and How To Live In Canada.

Good luck with your immi­gra­tion project!