Hi everyone. My name is Jade Calver. I own and operate Calver and Associates
Canadian Immigration Services. We're a full-service immigration firm. We offer
advice on all immigration matters. Today we're doing a question and answer
session with Kelly Makhoul. She is an Australian soon-to-be Canadian who has
gone through the immigration process. So we're going to go through
some questions with Kelly and just discuss her application process to
Canada and kind of what that looks like from the applicant's side because it's always
me talking. So we'll talk to an applicant and hear from that and what that process
is like. So Kelly thank you so much for coming on today and talking to us about
your experience and I will start right into our questions. Hi thank you for
having me I'm excited to talk about my experiences on the various phases that
I've been on while living in Canada that's an Australian. So my first
question, Kelly is: how did you decide to apply for the IEC so the international
experience class program. What were the deciding factors that really pushed you
to apply for the visa - so this working holiday visa to come to Canada to work
and travel. Well for a while, I've been toying with the idea of living in the
United States so I looked into doing one of the summer camp or going and working
in the ski resorts such as Colorado and I looked into some in Canada as well
like Whistler, Banff, but I kind of didn't really follow through with that and then
a few years later I went on a trip to Europe and I met some Canadians on the
trip that I was on and go along really well and I became friends with them and I
visited them a couple of times and then I came across the international
experience Canada visa. So that's when I decided to apply, which was in 2011.
Great. Thanks so much, Kelly. Another question I had was what was the
application process like in terms of forms, documentation, length of time, how
long did it take you from when you first decided to apply to the end. What was the
cost? Lots of people ask us about cost and finally, the processing time for
the visa after you've applied. So I know the application process has changed but
at the time it was actually on paper not online like it is now so I had to
download some forms from their website and then fill them out and send them in
via mail and wait for a response. I eventually received a letter saying
that I had been accepted. The application process was fairly straightforward. It
was basically filling out that form, providing a lot of information for them
to do like a background check so where I've lived the last five to ten years,
where I've travelled. I had to do a police check. I think I had to provide a
driver's check - I know like a check of all if you had any driving fines or
anything like that and I believe that was all and then it cost two hundred and
fifty dollars at the time and I submitted all that in November of 2011
and I was approved by January of 2012. So I left Australia in March and I came to
Canada and I started my IEC visa on March 22nd 2012.
Great. A lot of people ask us: what should I do
when I first live in Canada so if you want to talk to us a little
bit about what that looked like - where did you first work, how did you get a
driver's license, how did you decide where to live, and everything about first
settling in Canada when you arrived. When I first came to Canada
luckily I was able to live with one of the friends I'd made which was in
Scarborough and then I looked for a job while I was living there so I didn't
have to worry about finding accommodation right away. I had planned
to. I told them I was gonna be there for about a week while I adjusted to the new
time zone and then I'd be off in a hostel but they refused to let me so I
focused on looking for a job. I firstly went to service Canada and got a SIN
which is a social insurance number so that I could apply for a bank account
and then I did that next. So I went and applied with TD Bank because that's what
my friends recommended. It was pretty easy once I had a SIN and was able to
show some identification like my Australian driver's license, my
Australian passport was accepted they let me open a bank account just a
savings account I wasn't able to get a credit card because I didn't have any
credit history in Canada. I think now they have newcomers credit cards in
certain banks so you can go and get like a special package for newcomers with a
credit card and a savings account and also a checking checking account to call
them savings in Australia. Thanks, Kelly and my last question, which lots of my
clients ask is where did you first find work and what type of work did you
perform. So did you work in hospitality, education, health care, and how did you
find that process? Since I had the accommodation all taken care of I
started looking for jobs right away pretty much. I sent out a bunch of
applications, I went on monster.ca, I went on indeed.ca, I went on all
the online websites. I didn't do any networking or job fairs or anything like
that. Actually no, I went to a job fair I remember I went to a job fair but I
don't think I applied for anything. So I sent out a bunch of applications
probably like 50 or so I didn't hear from anyone except for Porter Airlines
which is where I ended up getting a job but that's how I found a job.
Thank you for watching. If you're interested in coming to Canada through
the IEC program like Kelly, you can visit our website at Calverimmigrationservices.com
Here you will find helpful information about the IEC program along
with various other Canadian immigration programs such as study permits, Express
Entry, and family class sponsorship. If you have questions about your case, do
not hesitate to contact us. You can reach us on our social media platforms, linked
below or by email at jade@calverandassociates.com