Euro to Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate

I hope that the exchange rate EUR-CAD will go back to the level of the beginning of the year until we have to exchange our savings next year!

We were getting desperate...

During the last days we were preparing ourselves for the worst. As the postal acknowledgement of receipt for our federal application hadn't arrived after over a month we already filed a complaint at our local post office and decided to gather all the documents again to resend the application. That would have meant to get new police certificates and to pay again for their translation... yes we were quite demoralized. But then, this morning someone rang on the door. It was an elderly man living down next street, he handed me the acknowledgement of receipt and said that this might be important for me. I was so happy! Actually the postman delivered the mail to the wrong street. So now we're really relieved that our application is on track.
Since a week or so we have Internet access at home, so I am planning to update this blog a bit more regularly.

By the way...

Back in march I posted about the freezing winter temperatures in Quebec. I have been following the weather reports closely and was very surprised to see that cities like Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto had even hotter weather than the already hot Barcelona during the last 30 days.

Federal application ready to be sent out

Today my wife will go and post our federal application. Yesterday I went through all the paperwork for the gazillionth time making sure that there is not one single tiny mistake... everything OK. That until my dear wife found that I mixed up two birthdates on one form. I rapidly corrected the mistake and now hopefully everything should be complete and to the entire satisfaction of the visa officers at the Canadian embassy in Paris who will have the hard task (or should I say honor?) to evaluate the application.

We were not really in a hurry to post the application since we received the selection certificate from Quebec immigration, we are timing it a bit because we only plan to leave after next year's summer. But now that it's done we'll be happy/anxious to wait for the first signs of life from the embassy's immigration service!

How to start building a credit history before arriving in Canada

Today I applied for an American Express card here in Spain after learning that this could be the easiest way to start building a credit history that you can transfer to another country. Big credit card companies such as Visa and Mastercard don't seem to offer anything similar to the Global Card Transfer by American Express. Theoretically this should be quite a nice possibility to build a credit history that we can take over to Canada once we move.

Ottawa Citizen - Gatineau housing prices on the rise

I am keeping a closer look on what happens in Gatineau as this city is one of those we are considering to settle in. The Ottawa Citizen had this article today commenting the real estate situation in the Ottawa and Gatineau region. Housing prices are rising but still very affordable compared with what we have here in most parts of Europe.

Finally got it!

Yesterday evening, coming back from work I see a big white envelope sticking out of our mailbox. My heart beating faster I rush inside and rip open the envelope… scanning the first lines of the cover letter I quickly understand: we just received our Quebec selection certificate!

Wow! Even though it has only been 56 days since we sent in our application we were kind of impatient to get some news. This is probably the best news we could expect… and we don’t even have to go through a selection interview!

However, I quickly discovered that my name was misspelled on the certificate so I called the Quebec Immigration Office in Paris this morning and they instructed me to send back the certificate along with another photocopy of my passport and that they would correct it.

While waiting for this correction we’ll probably get our federal application ready.

Patience!

This morning I called the BIQ Paris because it has been 50 days since we sent in our selection certificate application and were starting to get worried because we still haven't received the acknowledgement of receipt. The lady I spoke to was very kind and confirmed that they have received our application and were currently reviewing it. She said that the processing times are up to four month for Quebec selection certificates and that we should not worry and will hear from them in time.

CBC News Indepth: Immigration

Some interesting statistics in this article: CBC News Indepth: Immigration

Differences in climate

It will probably be quite hard for us to adapt to the climate in Canada. Today for example we have almost 20°C here in Barcelona and it's something like -10°C in most parts of Quebec. Brrrrrrrrrrr... and that's not even cold for them!

Our DSC has arrived in Paris

Today we received the postal acknowledgement of receipt with a stamp from the BIQ Paris showing that our package arrived on the 2nd of march. Now we're still waiting for the official AOR from the BIQ...

First waiting period begins

My wife just went to the post office and sent out our application for a Quebec selection certificate. The normal processing time for a CSQ is three and a half months but from what I have read in some forums it is sometimes only a month. First I was worried that the whole process would take much longer than I planned and now I start to worry that it will be too fast...

Once we get our permanent resident visas we plan to land in Montréal but lately I have started to look for information about the Gatineau-Hull region which seems to be quite nice.

The trouble with the photocopies

In order to apply for a Quebec selection certificate you have to provide certified photocopies of all the documents. Here in Spain it seemed impossible for us to get them, unless we were ready to spend something between 5 and 14 Euros per page to get them certified at the German or French consulate or at a notary. So finally we decided to drive up to France where, in my parent's hometown's town hall they certified us our stack of about 50 pages within a matter of minutes, for free! Before yesterday I went to my bank office to request a bank cheque in Canadian Dollars to pay the application fees. First they said "no, sorry, we can only make out cheques in USD", but after a short discussion and showing a printout from their website they said I can request the cheque over my online account, which I did that afternoon. I will check at the office today, normally it should be ready to be picked up. Now I still have to translate my resume in french and then I'll make a nice package to post to Paris in the next days.

This looks better!

After about a week of careful reflection my wife and me decided to try our luck in Quebec, not in Ontario like we planned before. The processing times are closer to what we have planned and anyways, Quebec is maybe colder but I love snow and Montreal is a very nice city as well. I think we'll try to establish ourselves in the Montreal area and if we don't like it we can always think of moving elsewhere later.

CIC Canada | Application Processing Times: Applications Processed Outside of Canada

On the 7th of february the processing times were updated again on the CIC site. It seems that they are getting longer and longer... In our case we should now expect between 27 and 40 months for an application in Paris. CIC Canada Application Processing Times: Applications Processed Outside of Canada

Got my translations!

Today I received the translations that I was waiting for. Two work contracts, two police certificates, two residency number certificates and a bank statement, all in all about eight pages that were translated from spanish to english. I paid 190 Euros for 1650 words which is a pretty good price (0.12 Eur/word).
Hopefully by next week my manager will have some time to do the reference letter I still need and then I will be able to send out everything before the end of the month.

Interesting Article

I had read this article some weeks ago and just found it again. Very interesting! TheStar.com - Why Immigrants fare better outside GTA

UPDATE: The original article doesn't seem to be online anymore but I found it as well at: http://www.promptinfo.ca/MediaCSS/Jan9,05StarImmgFareBetter.html

Worries about processing times

Our project is to leave good old Europe somewhen between spring and summer 2006, but lately I am beginning to worry that this might be impossible. I have heard all kinds of different experiences now, people who get their visa in a year and those who wait for two years already. The processing times indicated on the website of the Canadian Embassy in Paris are between 24 and 36 months for federal skilled workers. The service standards on their application kit indicate a span going from 7 to 22 months. It seems that it really depends on every single case. Well, I am trying to get some other opinions now.

Waiting for translations

I just sent out some documents that need to be translated from spanish to english: my work contracts, spanish residence number, our spanish police certificates and an extract of our bank accounts. For these certified translations I found Ibidem Group here in Barcelona, they offer their translation service at a very fair price compared to other companies that sent me quotes.
The translations will be ready next week and I am only missing a reference letter from my current employer to complete our application.
Once I have sorted through all the documents I will give you an overview of what I needed for our application.

Who are we? - Part I

Let's say we are real Europeans. Born in Germany in 1977, I grew up there until my whole family moved to the south of France in 1992. After getting married to my wife Fadéla (24), who is french and of Algerian descent, we decided to move to Barcelona in Spain about 2 years ago.
...to be continued...