Hi prospective immigrants from Kolkata,

We are in Toronto for the last 16 months and came from Kolkata.

Writing this post to welcome you all to canada and share our experiences.

Landed in August 04 and experienced pleasant weather. Staff at Toronto Airport was very friendly and the discharge process took around 40 minutes. Stayed with a friend for 3 days and shifted to an apartment in the same building. They had to sign as co-signers in the rental agreement as we did not have jobs. First and Last month rent was given in advance.
Rent for 1 bedroom apartment varies from $700 to $900, depending on location.

SIN Card has to be applied for each member. We applied in the first week and received it within 30 days. Health Card, Bank account, telephone application was done as soon as we shifted to our apartment.
Telephone connection came in 2 days (you have to buy own instrument, ours was $40) , health card took 2 1/2 months.

For transport, we purchase Toronto Transit Commission Monthly Pass at the beginning of each month. It can be used in buses, street cars, underground rail and helps a new immigrant commute throughout Toronto. It costs approx $100 per person per month.

We got our certificates evaluated from the University of Toronto. It took 8 weeks and cost us $100 per person.

In between we received our Permanent Resident Card. At Toronto Airport, we had filled up this application.

We registered ourselves with the nearest Human Resource Development Centre called ACCESS. We did a three-day Job Search Workshop and started preparing resumes as per canadian job market.

This workshop did help us learn a few things --
1) importance of english communication, very very crucial
2) no personal info on resume, ex: age, date of birth, marital status, sex, nationality, etc.
3) hidden job market - most companies recruit from within, the jobs are never advertised for external candidates,
4) importance of networking, cold calling, etc.
5) importance of canadian education and canadian experience(not necessarily in your line of activity)
6) important job sites

We realised immediately that we have to forget about getting jobs in our own field(finance) and at levels we had reached back home. We had to enter the job market at any cost. So in October, my wife and I joined a call center to earn our first wages and gain canadian experience. Our job hours were between 8.30 am & 11.00 pm in shifts of 8 hours.

Two things were ensured;
1) the money we brought from India was stopped from eroding
2) for all subsequent job applications we could give local employer reference

We applied through numerous websites. Response till now on the internet is zero.

However, we attended job fairs. There are 2 types of job fairs -- one organized by the employer, the other organized by agencies.
Both of us got jobs in our field (bank/financial institution) through employer's job fair. Here, we met our respective hirers directly and could impress upon them our merits, though jobs were at the entry level. Our salaries, working hours improved. In addition, we now have access to the internal job postings of our respective companies. Both of us are now doing Canadian courses to upgrade our education.

Hope this post will help you all to get some insight into the process of settlement in Canada. If you want any other info, feel free to contact us.

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Best regards

Lali

Thanks very much indeed Lali... its a very realistic picture you have put across to us.

Couple of facts are coming up prominently
a) A canadian course is a must for all immigrants to be with par with others in the canadian job market
b) A job in your own field is somewhat difficult at the initial stages, where one has to have some crutial canadian experience to procure one.
c) networking is very imp... one of the reasons why i hv started this thread - Indians settled there are in a position to help the would be immigrants
d) A mental preparation to do any job.

we are rich with Lali's experience and advice that he has posted. Other's views and experiences are most welcome

After all its a dream that we are weaving... and setting evrythng right to actualise it.

thanks again pals... inviting other to join me.

warm regards
aditya

Hello,
I am also a Bengali and was working in Mumbai before shifting here as a PR in April '05.

Mentally prepare yourself:

- to work in a factory/warehouse (labour job) initially so that your hard earned money that you bring from India is not wasted. Work involves light packaging to heavy lifting.

-to work in a call center (outbound) where you have to do multiple cold calling to clients (mainly US) to sell something. In this job, English profiency is a must. Also, you will have daily/weekly sales targets to achieve, or else you will be asked to leave.
**experience in outbound CC will help you in getting a job in an inbound CC, which is far more easier than the former. Its very difficult to get an inbound CC job initially without Canadian experience.

-extreme cold temperature & overcast skies (mainly during winter) which might trigger depression.

-Pay huge amount of car insurance every month since your driving record back home in India is not taken into consideration, and you are taken as a new driver, and therefore a high risk driver.....
However, its very important to get a driving lic. and a car, because it does matter for commuting purpose at odd hours....besides, in interviews, you will be asked whether you drive or not, and decision is taken accordingly.

-pay high rate of ITax, and also PST&GST (15%)in everything that you buy.

-leave in a basement or pay rent @ $800 PM for a 1 Bedroom Aptt.(unfurnished).

-forget about saving money in the first year. You will be hand to mouth untill & unless you are really lucky.

These are some of the things that came to my mind offhand.

Some more tips later........

Regds
Sumjo

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Orginally posted by Aditya Dey

Thanks very much indeed Lali... its a very realistic picture you have put across to us.

Couple of facts are coming up prominently
a) A canadian course is a must for all immigrants to be with par with others in the canadian job market
b) A job in your own field is somewhat difficult at the initial stages, where one has to have some crutial canadian experience to procure one.
c) networking is very imp... one of the reasons why i hv started this thread - Indians settled there are in a position to help the would be immigrants
d) A mental preparation to do any job.

we are rich with Lali's experience and advice that he has posted. Other's views and experiences are most welcome

After all its a dream that we are weaving... and setting evrythng right to actualise it.

thanks again pals... inviting other to join me.

warm regards
aditya

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sumjo

This reality is very hard to digest indeed. Specially when we have plushy jobs in our hometown, a decent pay packet and a loving family.

Still we keep running towards a dream... What is that dream? To do better than what we are today? The generation next is better off than what we are today?

Gotta start from a scratch again... labour jobs... cold calling and hard selling.. Toiling at odd hours?

Do we get time to nurture our existing skills??? How long does it take to find a good job in one's own profession? What % of Indian immigrants consider themselves as successful after immigration?

With this thread I'll keep requesting successful Indians to lend helping hands to fellow immigrants. I am sure they do. I look forward for some success stories after these hardcore realitites.

Success is all about hard work with a good network.

yeah, even I was working for Capgemini Ernst & Young as a Senior Consultant in Mumbai, but had to scale down once I relocated to Can.

My Version:

-To be successful over here, you should work towards your long term goals, and not get upset by the short term hurdles. Remember, we are brown and our accent is not American, (although we speak better grammatical english than the local people) and this matters, at least in Can.......I dont know about US, though.

-Even after you upgrade yourself by doing courses, I have seen scores of people who are not able to find the right kind of proff. slot for themselves, and has to work much below their capabilities. To be very frank, Canada vs US is like comparing Bangladesh vs India. Compared to US, Canadian economy is like a toddler. Besides, most of the new immigrants tend to settle down in GTA, therefore giving the employers a very good scope of exploiting us (since demand for all kinds of jobs is much more than supply).

-some people just slog it out for the first few years to get a Can passport, and then shift lock, stock & barrel to US. Making 2500/3000 US $ is far more easier in US than in Can. Over here, if you have a take home salary of 3000 PM (after taxes), you are considered to be lucky.

-my reasons of relocating here??
well, I am working towards setting up my own BPO firm, and if it doesnt work out, I can always shift back to India and land up with another good job in a BPO firm.

let me know if you need for information.

Regds

Quote:

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Orginally posted by Aditya Dey

This reality is very hard to digest indeed. Specially when we have plushy jobs in our hometown, a decent pay packet and a loving family.

Still we keep running towards a dream... What is that dream? To do better than what we are today? The generation next is better off than what we are today?

Gotta start from a scratch again... labour jobs... cold calling and hard selling.. Toiling at odd hours?

Do we get time to nurture our existing skills??? How long does it take to find a good job in one's own profession? What % of Indian immigrants consider themselves as successful after immigration?

With this thread I'll keep requesting successful Indians to lend helping hands to fellow immigrants. I am sure they do. I look forward for some success stories after these hardcore realitites.

Success is all about hard work with a good network.

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sumjo

Quote:

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Orginally posted by sumjo
Remember, we are brown and our accent is not American, (although we speak better grammatical english than the local people)

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Quote:

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Orginally posted by sumjo
-Even after you upgrade yourself by doing courses,
snip
and has to work much below their capabilities.

-my reasons of relocating here??
snip
leave in a basement
snip

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yeah, my mistake......i was in a hurry to download my thoughts.......didnt much care for grammer/spelling.....

However, thanks for pointing out the errors.

Quote:

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Orginally posted by crenshaw

Quote:

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Orginally posted by sumjo
Remember, we are brown and our accent is not American, (although we speak better grammatical english than the local people)

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Quote:

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Orginally posted by sumjo
-Even after you upgrade yourself by doing courses,
snip
and has to work much below their capabilities.

-my reasons of relocating here??
snip
leave in a basement
snip

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I don't know about 'speaking proficiency' but the grammar in your posts is certainly far from perfect.

No harm in being delusional, though

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sumjo