Vancouver, BC!!

We made it! It has been a hectic first week, but I'm finally able to sit down and update you all on what we have been up to and how we have found our first week in our new home.

So, back to last Saturday. We had a minor panic in Seattle when we realised the travelling had finally taken it's toll and we had both sleepily miss read the time of our final coach up to Vancouver and had therefore missed it, but thanks to the lovely lady at Greyhound Seattle we were soon on our way.

Four hours later we arrived at the Samesun Hostel, tired and sick to the back teeth of lugging our bags around!

We chose the Samesun as it seems to be where most Work Canada participants stay, and where almost everyone on the Facebook group that I have mentioned previously were going to be based. We found that it has a lively bar and lots of activities to take part in and serves as a great place to meet people. In fact, less than an hour after we arrived we were sat supping a well deserved beer when I was asked "are you Aimee?" Thank god for that Facebook group! There they were - the faces I had seen online for the last few months, sat in the bar. Some had been there a few months and some had also just arrived - all of them were lovely and made us feel so welcome and calmed our nerves. I look forward to being that friendly face for the next lot of Brits who arrive this weekend.

The Samesun itself is well run and the staff definitely know what they're doing. They were always happy to answer our questions and the rooms themselves were full of plug sockets, clothes hooks,reading lights, large lockers and a handy fan as it was fairly hot when we arrived. It is important to remember however, that it does what it says on the tin. It is a hostel. The bathrooms and showers are generally clean, and I saw them being cleaned often, but there are a lot of people using them. The showers work well and are private - but I would recommend flip flops to step into once you get out. There is some noise late at night and early in the morning, but again - it's a hostel, people are there to enjoy themselves!

Location wise - its great. Right in the heart of downtown, its close to the bars, banks, SWAP office and Service Canada (where you need to go to get your Social Insurance Number). I would definitely recommend a stay here - even if it's just for the people you meet!

Our game plan was work now, play later. We had only booked one week at the hostel and were a little concerned when we heard that it took others up to a month to find somewhere to live. We decided that our best bet was to get out and get our bank accounts, phone line and SIN as quickly as possible and spent every spare minute checking Craigslist, emailing and calling every suitable apartment listing. In 4 days we had a tick next to all four.

Bank account: In Canada you have to pay to have a regular current (or "chequing") account. Crazy! You also get charged for using cash points (or ATM's as I now call them) that aren't run by your bank and can be limited as to how many times you can use your card a month. We went for the TD "unlimited" account, which costs $14.99 a month but means you can use your card as many times as you like online and in shops (or "stores" - I'm getting good at this lingo, eh?!). As I never ever seem to have cash, this was important to me and TD have lots of ATM's around the city.

Telephone: We had bought our unlocked smartphones from the UK, as we had been told we would be able to use a Canadian SIM card in it. Mobile ("cell") phones here are not cheap, and if you want data on your phone - you're going to pay through the nose for it. We found a great deal with Mobilicity, however we found that their SIM will not work with a UK phone and instead ended up going for a $30/pm plan with Fido. This gives us unlimited text to international numbers, unlimited text to Canadian numbers, 200 minutes and free calls after 5pm. Unfortunately in Canada you have to pay for the privilege of actually seeing who is calling ("caller ID"), even if they are a contact in your address book (!), the same goes for a missed call: unless you pay the extra, you will not be told who called! You also have to pay for voicemail. After all this, paying another $25 for 500MB of data (half of what I had with O2 in the UK and the maximum amount of data available) seems more than excessive! I will have to make do with wifi hotspots, at least for now!

SIN: This was actually the easiest thing we had to do. You walk into the Service Canada office, tell them you are here for your SIN, show them your passport with work permit inside and wait for your name to be called. Five minutes and a very, very simple form later (mothers maiden name, are you a twin etc...) and a print out of your SIN is handed to you. The card is then sent 3-4 weeks later to either the office, where you can collect it, or an address you provide. Easy!

Apartment: Before we left the UK we did a lot of research on the kind of areas we would like to live in, the types of accommodation available and the cost. We would watch the listings as they came up and make a note of the areas and buildings we liked. Once we got here, we wrote a standard email telling the advertiser a little about us and asking for a viewing and sent it out to hundreds of potential landlords. The first thing we found is that guys get more replies than girls. We sent the exact same email, but somehow Mr L'amour always got more responses, go figure! The second thing we found was that most of the replies said, "you guys sound great, but sorry - no couples." After a day of emailing we decided to change tactic and use the payphone in the hostel to call the advertisers. This allowed us to set up a day packed full of viewings!

The first apartment we viewed was great - however, as with many Vancouver apartments, we found there were five, yes five other tenants in the 2 bed apartment (one in an office room, two in a single bed storage room and two strangers sharing a double bed.) Thanks, but no thanks. However a second viewing proved more fruitful and we instantly said yes! We moved in two days later. I can't believe after all these months of hard work, I am finally sat here in my "dream apartment". It can be done!

So, what's next? Well this week we start the search for jobs and start to explore our new city! We are off to Granville Island on Thursday and have planned a British get together for Thanksgiving at the weekend.

Things are looking good. No, they're looking great!


Aimée L’amour x

www.twitter.com/aimeelamour

Application heaven!

Great News! No sooner had I clicked 'publish' on my last post than my phone started flashing like an old man at a bus stop. My other half has received his Letter of Introduction today - only two weeks after his application was forwarded to immigration (the expected wait is anything from 6 weeks up!)

This means that he could get a flight tomorrow, receive his work permit at immigration and start working straight away! Of course, this isn't our plan - but it's nice to know its in the bag. You have a year from the date of issue to enter Canada and receive your work permit so we have plenty of time to get everything in order.

I am still waiting for my LOI. As my application was forwarded to Immigration at the London Office a few days after his I am hopeful I wont be waiting too long!

Next job....flights and medical insurance.

Aimée L’amour x

www.twitter.com/aimeelamour

Application hell...

So today I find myself six weeks on from my last post and the pangs of guilt for not keeping it up to date have finally had effect. The last six weeks have been hectic for all kinds of reasons (nothing new there) and the next six dont seem to be slowing down either!

So whats been going on since my last post? Well the first thing that happened was that we recieved our police certificates back (no shaddy pasts here!) and I finaly got NatWest to sign my proof of funds form. That meant that all we had left to do was to make sure our application forms were complete and signed and send them off. Incomplete or incorrect applications are automatically denied - which meant an evening of obsesively checking applications for us. It didn't help that the IEC changed the forms mid way through us filling them in either! But such is life.

One Application

So we sent our applications of to the Canadian Embassy in Paris via Airsure at the Post Office which, we were assured, meant we could track our applications all the way to their destination. WRONG!

The estimated delivery time to France is 2-3 working days. By day 4, I was nervous. The online tracking on the Royal Mail website only told me that the package had been handed over to the French Postal Service and there was no other information. So I called Royal Mail to ask where my package was. The guy I spoke to told me that once it had been handed over to the French it couldnt be tracked at all and Royal Mail had no responsibility for it being delivered, the best I could do was put on my best French accent and pettit-pois my way through a conversation with La Poste.

Needless to say, I was less than impressed. Why did I just pay you £10 to track my item to Greater London, Royal Mail?hhhhhhmmmmmmmmm?
Luckily on 24th April, I recieved an email stating that my application had been received and I stopped harrassing Royal Mail.

Then on 3rd May I recieved another email stating that I had been accepted on the condition that I wire the visa fee of £90 into their French bank account within 10 days. Once again, NatWest failed me. I dont know why I was surprised, but surfice it to say that I am looking forward to taking my business and substantial overdraft elsewhere! Thank the Lord then for the lovely man in Barclays who rescued me with only a few days left to upload my proof of payment and not only asked why I was transfering the money and went through it all with me to make sure that I had included all of the mandatroy information on my reciept, but also waived the £25 fee because of the stress caused by other banks! What a lovely guy!

My proof of payment was recieved on 10th May and my application forwarded to the London High Commission for immigration to look at on 11th May. While all this has been going on my other half has been studying for exams and I have recently found out that I face redundancy. Although the last few weeks have shaken us up, made us question our initial plans and prompted me to start playing the lottery (so far I have won £5.70 - begginers luck) we are determined that we will make it on to that plane!

Aimée L’amour x

www.twitter.com/aimeelamour

Print, complete, post, repeat...

Print, complete, post, repeat.
Since my last post this is pretty much how I've been spending my time. The International Experience Canada visa is a bit of a minefield to get your head around at first, but when it comes down to it the form itself isn't that hard to complete, it's the additional forms that go with it.

The first thing we needed to do was to each complete an ACPO Police Certificate form, which takes 10 days to be processed and the certificate to be returned to you, confirming your good character (naturally). The cost of the certificate is £35, but BUNAC recommends that you obtain a copy to show any potential employers once you arrive in Canada which is an extra £5 per copy. Again, the form itself was straight forward and self explanatory, with the only time consuming part being that you need to have a passport photo certified by a professional (from a list of occupations) who has known you for more than 2 years. More information on ACPO Police certificates can be found here.

While we're waiting for our police certificate we've got on with completing the other necessary parts of our visa - and therefore spent most of Saturday having passport photos taken (these need attaching to the visa application) and visiting both of our banks in order to get our all important 'Proof of funds' form signed. I was already a bit apprehensive about this as I had read on both the Work Canada facebook page and also the BUNAC twitter feed that it was notoriously hard to get your banking establishment to sign anything , and judging by my past experiences with banks - I knew that they are not renowned for their helpful nature!

The proof of funds form looks like this:

All that it requires a bank employee to do is check my bank balance before adding their name, my name, a signature and a bank stamp - taking all of 5 minutes. Unfortunately it took me 2 separate visits, a bit of a fuss and a 30 minute wait before my bank would consider signing my form! I, like many others I suspect, was told that "banks don't do things like this anymore" and that they were not permitted to put the banks stamp on any documents whatsoever. My argument that thousands of people take part in this scheme every year, therefore it must  be possible to complete the form fell on deaf ears...twice. Third time lucky and I managed to convince the lady who was helping me to seek advice. 5 minutes later I had a completed form in my hand. Simple when you know how, eh?!

So now my completed visa is sitting waiting for my Police Certificate so that it can be sent off. The Canadian High Commission reserves the right to implement a cut off date for applications at any point, so I hope it hurries up!

Aimée L’amour x

www.twitter.com/aimeelamour