The Cana­dian Par­lia­ment In Ottawa

Wel­come to my new series, “How to immi­grate to Canada“!

I recently received quite a lot of emails, ask­ing me ques­tions about the immi­gra­tion process. So I decided to explain the whole process in 10 posts, which will be pub­lished every Saturday.

I also encour­age you to ask any ques­tion you may have. I’m not an immi­gra­tion con­sul­tant, but from expe­ri­ence, I may be able to point you to the right direction!

In the series, we will see the dif­fer­ent options you have to come to Canada, as well as your rights and duties as a Per­ma­nent Res­i­dent, what hap­pens after you arrive etc.

To end this series, I’d like to pro­vide a list of use­ful links.

Offi­cial websites:

• Cit­i­zen­ship & Immi­gra­tion Canada: this is the offi­cial web­site of the Min­istry of Cit­i­zen­ship and Immi­gra­tion, and the place to learn more about the immi­gra­tion cat­e­gories, down­load your appli­ca­tions etc.
• Immi­gra­tion Que­bec: and this is the offi­cial web­site of the province of Que­bec for immi­gra­tion information.
• Going to Canada: this is another gov­ern­ment web­site to help you plan a tem­po­rary visit to Canada. It also gives you great info about immi­grat­ing to Canada.
• Wel­come to Canada: what you should know. This is a very infor­ma­tive series on the CIC web­site. It cov­ers hous­ing, health care, the tax sys­tem, look­ing for a job etc.

Per­sonal websites

• Los Zieglers in Canada: this Argen­tin­ian fam­ily, based in Ottawa, is a well of infor­ma­tion for Cana­dian life, news, cul­ture etc. Aquí se habla español… pero se puede comen­tar en Inglés!
• How To Live In Canada: the author, Gean, is from Brazil and blogs about all things Cana­dian, from an immigrant’s per­spec­tive. The blog is in Eng­lish (thanks God, my Por­tuguese sucks!).
• A Canada Immigrant’s Blog: writ­ten by a per­ma­nent res­i­dent in Toronto, it deals with all things Canadian.

Gen­eral web­sites about immi­gra­tion to Canada

• The British Expat Wiki: this Wiki aims at British Expats, but its arti­cles on Canada are quite infor­ma­tive and can ben­e­fit every prospec­tive immi­grant. It cov­ers edu­ca­tion, how to find a job, eti­quette in Canada, chal­lenges immi­grants may face etc.

Immi­gra­tion forums

Just a word of advice for forums: immi­gra­tion forums can be incred­i­bly frus­trat­ing. First of all, there are usu­ally more ques­tions than answers. Sec­ond, you may get a lot of unwanted emails or pri­vate mails if you are shown to be already a per­ma­nent res­i­dent or a Cana­dian. And yes, in this case, some peo­ple will ask you to marry them to help them immi­grate to Canada. Just ignore them…

• Settlement.org: this web­site is for peo­ple who will set­tle in Ontario. It has great info about immi­gra­tion but also about local issues, such as hous­ing and the health care sys­tem. The forum is busy enough.
• Canada Immi­gra­tion Forum: this is an immi­gra­tion lawyer’s forum. The forum is quite busy, with a lot of categories.

More web­sites about Canada

• Mov­ing Here, Stay­ing Here: a vir­tual exhi­bi­tion on immi­gra­tion to Canada from the early 19^th cen­tury to the Sec­ond World War.
• Cana­dian Info Col­lec­tion: this old style web­site has great infor­ma­tion about Cana­dian cul­ture, his­tory etc.
• Patri­o­tism Canada: has a sim­i­lar col­lec­tion of Cana­dian facts, humour and articles.
• The Toque: Cana­dian humour.

If you want to sug­gest other use­ful links, use the com­ment form below!

This is the last and 10^th post of the How To…Immigrate To Canada series. Hope you found it useful!

A new series will start soon.

Related posts:

1. The Two Immi­gra­tion Myths (1÷10)
2. How to Avoid… Immi­gra­tion Fraud
3. 5 Immi­gra­tion Mis­takes To Avoid
4. How To Learn More About Canada (10÷10)
5. How Much Does Immi­grat­ing Really Cost? (5÷10)