Canada Immigration Articles

[Lisafuller]

Not sure how good of an idea it is to move now, with all the wildfires. It's the worst I've ever seen.

[rajagainstthemachine]

Hello Lisa,

I guess it depends on what you want to do in Canada, the salaries are not comparable, the taxes are higher than Singapore, it also depends on where in Canada you want to go and the cold is definitely biting in the winter.
I was visiting Vancouver in Jan 23 and it was full of homeless and druggies everywhere, vape shops at every corner shop and fentanyl users OD'ing.
Not a place that i felt safe or wanted to move to.
That being said several of my friends actually moved there and found it difficult to adjust and are considering moving back.

[Lisafuller]

I didn't start this thread, and have no intention of moving to Canada. Not sure what happened to the original posters post LOL!

That being said, I'm inclined to agree with you. A lot of people have this idea that Canada is the safer, happier America, but it has a lot of its own problems to like you said, there's a lot of homelessness, exploitation of sex workers, and drug use.

[jalanjalan]

I guess the OP thought better of this thread?
Cost of living In Canada is soaring, and home prices and rentals are breaking records, not in a good way. Probably the absolute worst time to move to Canada.
Then there's the fires. Last I heard hundreds of homes in Kelowna have been destroyed. My home province has been hosting evacuees from the Northwest Territories. That's just in the last week.

[Lisafuller]

It's devastating... nearly 40,000,000 acres gone already, 10 times worse than California's most devastating wildfire.

[rajagainstthemachine]

It is also incredibly hard for newbies to rent properties in Canada, landlords ask for character certificates, references plus other red tape that is really frustrating.

[Lisafuller]

It is also incredibly hard for newbies to rent properties in Canada, landlords ask for character certificates, references plus other red tape that is really frustrating.

Character certificates? What does that entail? And how would they verify anything?

[rajagainstthemachine]

It is also incredibly hard for newbies to rent properties in Canada, landlords ask for character certificates, references plus other red tape that is really frustrating.

Character certificates? What does that entail? And how would they verify anything?

They call the references you listed, they enquire about the tenant who's applying. one of the challenges for those moving from overseas into Canada is that all their references will be from the country they are moving from and the Canadian landlords looking to rent don't want to call international or don't honor these references.
I have a relative who moved there recently so speaking from first hand experience.

[Lisafuller]

That's pretty thorough... almost like looking for a job. Seems like this process significantly disadvantages internationals/new renters.

[Wd40]

It is also incredibly hard for newbies to rent properties in Canada, landlords ask for character certificates, references plus other red tape that is really frustrating.

Character certificates? What does that entail? And how would they verify anything?

They call the references you listed, they enquire about the tenant who's applying. one of the challenges for those moving from overseas into Canada is that all their references will be from the country they are moving from and the Canadian landlords looking to rent don't want to call international or don't honor these references.
I have a relative who moved there recently so speaking from first hand experience.

Wow! I have kind of given up on moving to any other country now. Singapore has been really a walk in the park so far in terms of getting visa or housing etc.

I heard most other countries even for a work visa they ask you to apostille your documents get police clearance and I heard from my friend that actually getting police clearance from India is easy. It is getting Singapore police clearance which is very tedious process. That was quite surprising to me.

Anyways, I am not doing any kind of documentation for visa now. Even vacations, I refuse to apply for any visa, it almost feels like we are beggars when we apply for any of the first world countries visas, the amount of documents they ask.

We just travel to India from now on and have extended vacations there.

[jalanjalan]

It is also incredibly hard for newbies to rent properties in Canada, landlords ask for character certificates, references plus other red tape that is really frustrating.

Character certificates? What does that entail? And how would they verify anything?

They call the references you listed, they enquire about the tenant who's applying. one of the challenges for those moving from overseas into Canada is that all their references will be from the country they are moving from and the Canadian landlords looking to rent don't want to call international or don't honor these references.
I have a relative who moved there recently so speaking from first hand experience.

I didn't know that. I remember seeing some programme on The Fifth Estate a while ago about bogus educational institutions and the poor living conditions of foreign students, which was pretty disheartening too. Especially for those whose families sold the farm back home to fund their kid's studies in Canada. Canada really needs to get its act together.

[Lisafuller]

Character certificates? What does that entail? And how would they verify anything?

They call the references you listed, they enquire about the tenant who's applying. one of the challenges for those moving from overseas into Canada is that all their references will be from the country they are moving from and the Canadian landlords looking to rent don't want to call international or don't honor these references.
I have a relative who moved there recently so speaking from first hand experience.

I didn't know that. I remember seeing some programme on The Fifth Estate a while ago about bogus educational institutions and the poor living conditions of foreign students, which was pretty disheartening too. Especially for those whose families sold the farm back home to fund their kid's studies in Canada. Canada really needs to get its act together.

Bogus educational institutions have become common in Australia too. I read about how there are plenty of international universities registered to the same building in Melbourne, that act as a cover for foreigners to obtain visas to work in the country. Apparently it's because education visas are harder to obtain than work visas. Each school could have thousands of students registered to it, but be empty all day.

[Lisafuller]

Character certificates? What does that entail? And how would they verify anything?

They call the references you listed, they enquire about the tenant who's applying. one of the challenges for those moving from overseas into Canada is that all their references will be from the country they are moving from and the Canadian landlords looking to rent don't want to call international or don't honor these references.
I have a relative who moved there recently so speaking from first hand experience.

Wow! I have kind of given up on moving to any other country now. Singapore has been really a walk in the park so far in terms of getting visa or housing etc.

I heard most other countries even for a work visa they ask you to apostille your documents get police clearance and I heard from my friend that actually getting police clearance from India is easy. It is getting Singapore police clearance which is very tedious process. That was quite surprising to me.

Anyways, I am not doing any kind of documentation for visa now. Even vacations, I refuse to apply for any visa, it almost feels like we are beggars when we apply for any of the first world countries visas, the amount of documents they ask.

We just travel to India from now on and have extended vacations there.

I, too, refuse to travel anywhere that requires a visa. Luckily, my options are pretty open coming from the US, but there are still some places like the Middle East that are out of reach. Not that I'd want to go there anyway.