Leaderboard

Hey everyone! This is a small piece of my landing story that I thought best to share on a separate post. Maybe it can help someone out. I arrived in Toronto in January 2019, knowing that it will take some time to find a job. Maybe I get lucky and I land something quickly? However, I did not want to leave it up to chance so I Googled “odd jobs Toronto” or something like that so see what I could find. I came across dog walking and grocery store packing jobs. But dog walking will require building up a customer base and I did not want to be locked in to a full-time 8-5 at a grocery store. But I did stumble across an app that made my arrival in Toronto a LOT easier. It is a handyman take on the new wave of mobile marketplace apps. Uber for cheap labour in short. TaskRabbit! You set your availability and skills on the app and this allows people to book you based on your profile, skills, hourly rate and availability. Minimum is $15 an hour for very basic stuff like waiting in line (no jokes) to $35 for heavy lifting and help moving. But you set your own rate and you can increase the rate if you have a car or some special skill that makes you stand out. The only category where you have a different pricing model is Ikea furniture assembly. But more on that later. To get started you sign up and go through a security background check before you get an email that runs you through some educational videos of how to use the app and set up your profile. Once the security background check is done and you have completed the training, you are ready to start tasking. Because I didn’t have any ratings or reviews, I kept my availability open on the app 24/7. If a customer wants to hire someone, they specify the date and time they want to do it and select from the people who are available. There is also something called Same Day Tasks for when jobs need to happen on short notice. That is probably how you will get your first job on TaskRabbit. So keep your availability up to date. Depending on the job you can earn anything from $15 for a single job of one hour, to $350 on a good day. It all depends on you. And the good thing is that TaskRabbit does not take a cut. You set your rate and that is what you get. The price they advertise to clients is based on your rate + their hourly percentage markup. And they charge a client a minimum of one hour. Some jobs only required me to help move a couch for 5 minutes and you still get paid a minimum of one hour. Back to the Ikea category. You will quickly learn that Ikea has a monopoly on affordable home furniture in Canada. They keep prices low by making everything self-assembly. But the assemblies require more than just an Allen Key. They therefore decided to buy out TaskRabbit and use them as their in-house furniture assembly team. As mentioned, the pricing model works slightly different. With Ikea you get paid per assembly and it increases based on the complexity of the assembly. The amount of time you get “scheduled” for is also based on the job complexity. But until you get familiar with the assemblies you will take longer than the scheduled time. But don’t fear. Soon you’ll be assembling beds with storage in two hours flat. And then move on to the nightstand and two chests of drawers that the client bought with that. To do the Ikea category you need some basic tools. Invest in a basic set and some fasteners and you will quickly make back your money. Check on the Home Depot website for basic tool and drill combos. You don’t need anything fancy or expensive. Just enough to get the job done. All else that I can say is that I signed up at the end of January and I kept doing it till the end of June. Not sure how many taskers there are but they only started in September 2018 in Toronto and the client base will keep on growing. They are all over the US and have expanded to other cities such as Vancouver, Calgary, Halifax and so on. And if you are not happy with TaskRabbit there are similar apps out there that you can try out. If people like you they often like to use you outside the app because it is cheaper for them. After a couple of months I made enough between the app, private clients and additional odd jobs to cover rent and living expenses. So this helped me not to dig too deep into my South African savings. One last thing; I actually also used the app to network. The app is mostly used by middle class and above because they have some money to throw around. And more often than not they are educated and have contacts in industry. SO, when they hear that you are actually an engineer, accountant or any type of professional, more often they offered help or a reference if you want to apply at the company they work at. And in the end I got a job offer through one of my clients. Didn’t end up taking it but it can happen to you. Hope this helps some people out. Good luck and happy tasking!

I've received the result of my IELTS writing remark and I've moved up to 7.5 (from 6.5). We'll be sending my partner's writing score for a remark now too. The revised result significantly increases my CRS and I get the remark fee back. If you have high scores in the other skills and are confident of your writing, but got a low score, consider requesting a remark for that section.

Hi @Deidre, we have just gotten an excellent quote for one-way tickets to Calgary from Cape Town through the International Organization for Migration (IOM) - they're associated with the UN and assist people migrating with reduced airfares and extra baggage allowance. It's almost a 50% savings! If you want further details, you're welcome to contact me.

That's PPR for me guys 😁 After two ghost updates in the last 3 days, all fingers were crossed, hoping PPR would be around the corner. At 1am this morning, the golden mail was there. And it was extremely difficult to fall back asleep, haha, so I'm feeling more zombie than human this morning. All the best to those still waiting, keeping my fingers crossed for you all.

Kitcat, you were correct it was a good sign. Medicals were passed on 5 September and we received the email this morning that we are "Ready for Visa". Looks like we will be in Canada close to the end of September.

Feel free to PM me, I am an Industrial Engineer and my husband is a CA.

Hi @LouiseV36 I’m so glad for you guys, congrats, that is great news. I would take advice from @MaryJane as that sounds like the best way of motivating your application. From our personal experience, we don’t have any family or other connections there so that was my biggest concern when submitting our application. I had a very short explanation for our intention to reside and it was: - It’s the financial hub of the country with lots of jobs available in a wide range of sectors; and - My wife’s previous employer has a big office in Toronto and she would very much like to work for them again. That really was it, but good luck with IELTS today I’m sure you guys will ace it. Cheers

Hi everyone, I have finally arrived in Canada, and it is AMAZING! I thought I'd share my step by step guide to bringing your dogs with, I know there have been several posts about this, but perhaps things change a bit with time, or I add some useful information. Anyhow, below is my step by step guide :-) Having my dogs with me is the best thing ever :-) and they absolutely love PEI as well! (I have shared this on another platform as well, and have not adapted it) This guide is 100% effective in getting your pet to Canada, and may point you in the right directions for New Zealand or Australia. It is basically step by step the process I used to take my 2 large dogs to Canada on 1 September 2019 – so the information is current. 1) Start looking for kennels a few months in advance if you want to try and get secondhand over gumtree.co.za or a similar site. I bought 1 like this, and the other via PetWorld. Takealot also sell a good variety, but didn’t have a large enough one in stock at the time. A good size for a large dog (ie Husky or German Shepherd type of size) is the Karlie XXL. I paid around R3400 per kennel. They are a lot cheaper for smaller dogs and cats, even below R1000. The dimensions of my kennels as roughly measured by myself were as below (in cm): Width Height Length Karlie XXL - 66 75 96 SkyKennel Giant 84 94 118 (this one is enormous, and was logistically a bit impractical for airport trolleys and didn’t have wheels) My advice is basically for a large dog the KarlieXXL type of size. The IATA standard says the dog must be able to stand up and turn around in the kennel and the XXL was more than sufficient for a husky or german shepherd sized dog. The SkyKennel’s width of 84cm meant it couldn’t fit on the airport trolley at Montreal airport and I had to push the kennel along the floor, which was hard work! 2) The easiest airline to book flights for your pets on the same flight as you is KLM. So this is what I did. Try book your own flight about 2 months in advance, the prices go up closer to 1 month quite drastically. I used eSky.com to book all the way from Cape Town – Amsterdam – Montreal – Charlottetown (in Prince Edward Island). The flights from Cape Town to Montreal were with KLM, and the last 1 hour domestic flight was with AirCanada. You will get the usual 6 alphanumeric booking number, for example JLO6A4. You will need this number to book your pets on the same flight as you with KLM. 3) Next you want to book your pets’ flight. To do this you can either call KLM Call Centre in South Africa, or some people have phoned Amsterdam. I spoke to a consultant in SA named JP and he was brilliant. The number is 010 205 0101. They will need the dimensions of the kennel, the weight of the kennel (I estimated mine at 8kg for the Karlie – the dog and the kennel must just be less than 45kg!) and the weight of your dog or cat. Pets under 8kg can go on the actual flight with you and not be booked in the luggage hold, but this route obviously wasn’t available to me so the call centre will be best able to advise you on this if applicable. There is also a ruling on what time of the year short or flat snouted dogs like pugs etc can fly, once again, check with the call centre, they will ask you about your dog’s snout ;-) So first they take all these details, and then in 24 to 48 hours once they have confirmed the space, and availability on your connecting flights they will do the payment with a credit card over the phone. I did my confirmation booking about 1 month in advance and there was space. The cost of the flights for my 2 dogs was R5 596 – or 200USD per dog I think, so the price varies a bit with the exchange rate. Its also much less if it’s a pet under 8kg. I had a 4 hour layover in Amsterdam, which meant that my dogs had to go to the Schipol airport pet hotel in Amsterdam. This was quite expensive in retrospect, and this is where you could save money if you only had 1 more flight to Montreal or Toronto for example. Because I had another 4.5 hour layover in Montreal, I wanted my dogs to get taken out of the kennel and walked and watered etc in Amsterdam. This was R5 600 for both dogs, so it is quite steep. So depending on your budget, this is where you could save, just make sure your layover is under 2 hours in Amsterdam. 4) If you have another domestic flight within Canada with another airline which is not partnered with KLM you will have to phone them to make a separate booking and payment for the last flight. I phoned AirCanada on +1 888 247 2262 and made a confirmation with the same info as for KLM. The cost for this flight was CAD105 per large dog. If you are going to have another domestic flight within Canada, I really would suggest a 4+hour layover as you will have to get your bags and pets and transfer to the other airline and go through immigration. My flight from Amsterdam was delayed by 1 hour, and then I had a bit of a circus with the Giant SkyKennel because it couldn’t fit on a trolley… The 4.5 hours was just enough. (All in all this was the only hiccup in my whole pet emigration so I was pretty chuffed anyhow.) You will make the payment for the dogs when you check in for the flight, so have your credit card ready. 5) THERE IS NO QUARANTINE FOR CANADA. So all you need to do in terms of vet checks is make sure their rabies vaccination is done within 10 days of departure, and during this vet check, the vet must complete and stamp the top half of the form for the link to Canada http://www.elsenburg.com/services/3rd-level/basic/veterinary-services-export-control Which you then take to your nearest state vet office where they complete and stamp the bottom half and print it on a colour official looking page. The cost is R173 per certificate. I went to the Milnerton state vet at 22 Lobelia Street. They are only open Mon – Fri from 9am to 12pm. They don’t take appointments, you just pitch and it took about 20 minutes. They just take your copy from your vet, and return with the new one and you pay. When completing the form at your vet, make sure the details correspond with that in your vaccination booklet, although I wasn’t asked for this at the state vet or any of the customs, but carried it with me just in case. I was asked to show my pet’s customs papers which is just this 1 page. The link will take you to Elsenburg.com which has the addresses and contact details of all the state vet offices in SA. Please note your pet does not go there, so if it’s far from you make a plan with a courier. 6) In preparation for the flight I started giving my dogs CalmEeze every night for a week in advance. You can’t sedate them with medication as this inhibits their ability to control their body temperature, so only CalmEeze or Rescue Remedy. I tried to take a bottle of CalmEeze (about R240 for 250ml from your vet shop) in my hand luggage to give to my dogs in Montreal, but it got confiscated as it was over 100ml, so if you have a domestic flight and you feel you want to give them something during the layover take a small bottle of Rescue remedy. 7) Getting the dogs and kennels to the airport was interesting. We took ours apart, and tied it on to the car’s roof with a blanket between the roof and the kennels. We loaded this onto a trolley and walked the dogs on their leashes to the check in counter. For my 11pm flight, the latest we could check the dogs in was 9:30pm. You check them in where you check your normal luggage in, but after check in you take them down to the bottom floor with the elevator at Cape Town international and ring the bell at a small window with an aluminium roll up door. The people who open will be expecting you and will take the kennels and load them. From here on you don’t see them until Canada, but mine did so well I was astonished. They were definitely very happy to see me though. 8) Good idea to pack some tinned food for the first day or so, preferably tins you don’t need an opener for. 9) I stuck copies of all their receipts and permits on top of their cages, can’t say if it helped, but it helped for my OCD ;-) 10) Very important – attach a 2litre ice cream tub to the inside of the kennel door with cable ties so that they can be easily watered through the kennel door if they are not getting out of the kennel. 11) At the beginning of each flight before take-off I asked the air hostess to please check with the CAPTAIN if my dogs were aboard, once again this may have been more for my OCD than anything else. 12) Flight from Cape Town to first airport in Canada (~R2 800) + kennel (~R 3 400) + pet export paper (~R173)+ vet visit and vaccine (~R1000) = ~R7 300 per large dog, all DIY :-) Cheerios Rene

A quick update on the continuing IELTS adventure for myself and my partner. After my writing remark moved my score from 6.5 to 7.5 I had them use my refundable remark fee for a remark on my partner's writing section (instead of having it refunded). His score also went up (from 6.0 to 7.5). Now we'll apply for the refund. Based on our experience if you are confident your writing met the IELTS requirements and you get a poor score opt for a remark.

Hi BobbyV I'd also agree that it's best to open your bank account during the soft landing. We completed our soft landing during July and opened RBC accounts at the same time. We were really impressed with the service and their offering, although I see we are being charged fees and the "no-fee account". In additional to establishing credit history it also gives you a destination to transfer funds. Just be aware that it takes them ten days or so to send the cards via post and that you'll need to provide a delivery address inside Canada. A mistake we made is that we should have opened the bank accounts at the start of our trip, rather than at the end.

Thank you very much @Nelline! Apologies for the late reply!

Entrance requirements would be set by the university, so you would need to check the rules of the institution you wish to study at. But the short answer is that it is possible to enrol for a masters degree here at some schools for some masters programs if you have a 3-year BA degree. And there are programs that will require you to complete a few more courses so that you have enough credit hours which would be the equivalent of a 4-year degree. Unfortunately there’s no standard answer for this question.

I would say open an account with credit card if you are planning to move within a year. The most being that it helps build some credit history and also most banks have a new comers program where you pay no fees for a year

I included both our envelopes into the courier envelope and it was fine.

Hi Nykster, I've been living in Edmonton, Alberta for almost 2 years now, so I can only give you the Edmonton view. I'm a Chartered Management Accountant and it took me 2 months to find a good job in my field. My husband is a bookstore manager and it took him 2 months too. It makes life easier if you have a fair bit of cash to fall back on while looking for work, then you're not that desperate and can wait that extra week or two to find the right job. The Canadian government is well aware that skilled people sometimes find it hard to get a job, and there are many initiatives to assist you. I signed up with an organization called ERIEC that specializes in assisting professionals with permanent residency to fit into the job market. They offer assistance in tweaking your CV, cultural training, training in interview skills, transferrable skills, etc. all free of charge. If accepted into the program, they also match you with a mentor. This is a professional in your field that can give you advise and help you to network. Good luck with this huge decision!

Hi everyone, I had a re-mark done on my written test and my result went from 6.5 to 7. Yay! How does the british council send the new test result from to you? Do you still need to send back your previous test result form?

I have a friend who is an Emergency Physician and said exactly what you are saying. The hoops they make you jump through is incredible... Having said that, if you wanted to amend your destination to PEI, I will personally go and pound the pavement to PEI Health, on your behalf, as and when needed We need great medical specialists

Thank you for the info 🙂 - I did notice there is little or no difference fee wise

Oh my that is amazing @JdB! I got 6.5 AGAIN for my second try but this time I actually practiced and studied. So I'm wondering if its worth sending for a remark again for this one?? I mean if I can get a 7.5 I would have a chance! Right now I'm looking at being a mail order bride to get over there😂

Great thanks @MaryJane and @Nelline I love how the both of you always seem to answer my questions. Once we have submitted our EE profile we will also be going the PNP route so hopefully the second cousin will help somewhere along the line. 🙂

Agreed with @MaryJane Only other thought I have is for those Provinces which have PNP requirements where they ask that you prove "ties" or "intention to settle" (not sure if Alberta is one of those) having relatives residing in the Province might be seen as a "tie" which could help you.

Yes you do get points for having relatives in Canada. But as best I know, second cousins are too far a relation to count. Here’s the list of family members that you can gain points on if they are in Canada: This relative must be a: - parent - grandparent - child - grandchild - your or your spouse’s sibling (child of your or your spouse’s parent) - your or your spouse’s aunt or uncle (by blood or marriage) - your or your spouse’s niece or nephew (grandchild of your or your spouse’s parent) https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/eligibility/federal-skilled-workers/six-selection-factors-federal-skilled-workers.html#adaptability

Don't know how I missed your update @Maple Dreams, but many congrats on your PPR 😀 When are you planning to leave for Toronto?

So finally after much silence...PPR Email received!! Here's my timeline below: AOR - 14 Feb 2019 Biometrics - 11 April 2019 18 July -Decided to call CIC - no new notes on file, no red flags and VO - Ottawa 29 July - Logged onto my account -saw the notorious "Ghost update" 29 July 2019 at 23:38pm - Golden email 5.5 months of waiting. Now the big move to Toronto Wishing all that are still waiting a speedy PPR.

For AIPP, how do we obtain Job offer's, do we need to engage recruiter's in Canada who can help us get the job offer from designated employers.

Hi @novascot, I should have said "you have to determine" instead of "you have to decide". If you closely study the conditions of the treaty you will see that they try to make it obvious to which country you should be paying tax depending on your residency and other specific circumstances. Your decision on where to pay tax is not based on what is more convenient to you but rather based on what the treaty says. According to the treaty, for personal services (including a salary) you can only be taxed in both countries if you work in both and spend a certain amount of time in both. If you only physically work in Canada and is considered a resident for tax purposes in Canada then you will only pay tax to Canada (even if you receive a salary from SA, like we did for a while). This might be different for other types of income. I haven't studied the new proposed ex-pat law in great detail, but there are no changes that the government can make to South African domestic laws that can change or override the conditions of the double taxation treaty. They will have to change the actual double tax treaty and get Canada to agree before this will affect someone who is considered a resident of Canada for tax purposes. Your status as citizen, permanent resident, work permit etc. is something different and separate from your status as resident for tax purposes. I know it might be tedious but if this affects you I would really recommend starting with Article 4 of the double taxation treaty and closely looking at the definition of a resident and determining whether South Africa or Canada sees you as a resident for tax purposes (it is obvious that the treaty tries to word it in such a way that it has to be one or the other, not both). If you have homes in both SA and Canada and your "centre of vital interests" is somehow in both then you will pay tax to SA if you are a national of SA only, regardless of whether you are on a work permit or have permanent residence in Canada (that is, unless you physically work in both countries in which case you might pay tax to both). After submitting our 2017 tax returns we were assessed and asked for additional proof for some of the claims we made so the CRA does look at this closely.