Canada as it is, without rose-colored glasses

Fortunately, we managed everything well, we didn’t forget anything, and thanks to the time difference, we are in Canada on January 24, 2024 a shortly before 5 PM. For the time being, we have arranged accommodation with a Slovak-Mexican couple (thanks to the facebook group Czech and Slovak friends in Calgary) and they are even kind enough to come to the airport for us. However, none of us knew that we would spend almost 3 hours at immigration, because of a plane full of migrating Ukrainians arrived a moment before us, and even before us Mr. “Zen” took his turn, who was evidently too “honored”. From the beggining, it looks like he doesn’t really want to be there, and a few minutes later we know why – his baggage’s were searched and he was arrested. We finally have an official work permit, but poor Míša and Oscar who were waited for us for about two hours, because they arrived shortly after we landed, we are really grateful that they came, because we are really looking forward to be in the bed.

The next day we plan to arrange all the necessary details such as SIM card, bank and SIN (social insurance number), so we found branches which are close eachother in Downtown. We’re starting with a SIM card, we’ve been around a few companies but some of them only have coverage in Calgary, we’re finally getting a SIM with Virgin Plus (now, we will be changing for new provider becuse they went higher with prices). Subsequently, we wanted to set up a bank account (we chose CIBC as the most suitable – they have account management for 2 years free for newcomers) but we didn’t know that the meeting had to be planned in advance and that probably after the New Year everyone went crazy and the dates were booked until the end of January. Finally, we found two free spots for the following day at the branch located in Southland Park. We have booked a date and we are continuing to arrange the SIN so that we can work (after we get a job). The queue is endless and it will take us about 2.5 hours to process again. We are tired, but we still need to go shopping, we understood incorrectly that Míša and Oscar are going to shopping at the Chinok center, so we went back, towards home and go to the Chinok center to shop, but they say there is no normal grocery shop there and they advise us to go to the real Canadian superstore, but the nearest one is 30 min by public transport, we give up and go to some overpriced “community natural foods” store for some basic things – where we really only take the essentials and plan to go to a superstore the next day and hope that the prices there are really lower, because if not, we will have a lots of fasting days.

The next day we walk for almost an hour to the bank, there is a superstore about 5 minutes from the bank and also the registration to sign up for Alberta Health Care. I have to point out that we have only met pleasant and willing people at all the offices, so far. We have bank accounts open, grocerries in our backpacks, so we’re barely walking, and we still want to solve AHC. But we found out that we need confirmation that we really live somewhere within Alberta – we don’t have a job, no lease agreement either, so only a confirmation from bank account with stamp can work (we signed everything electronically, so I run back to the branch). I come back satisfied, BUT we go to the bulkhead with the filled-in papers and confirmation from the bank – however, we wrote also unit number in the application and we didn’t state it in the bank so the clerk says she cannot arrange it because “THE ADDRESS MUST BE EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE ADDRESS INDICATED ON THE CONFIRMATION”. We’ve had enough for today, we’re giving up and going home.

We are glad that we arrange everything in correct order: 1) SIM card, 2) SIN, 3) bank account and finally AHC, because to get:

• SIN is needed passport, work permit and local phone number.
• A bank account requires a passport, work permit, phone number and SIN.
• AHC requires a passport, work permit, telephone number, SIN and some proof of residence in Alberta (lease agreement, employment contract, check from a bank (including a date stamp), or others, but for newcomers these methods of proof are the easiest )

On the weekend we continue with the job search process, someone tells us that we should go around in person, but when we tried some cafes and restaurants in person, they told us to apply for jobs online through their websites. We started with LinkedIn already in the Czech Republic, but still with a Czech phone number so without any luck. And Trish gave our resumes to her mother, who passed them on with their references, but she also told us, that January is always slow. Unfortunately, we can see this on our own eyes, we have already applied for hundreds of job advertisements from LinkedIn, Indeed, Canadajobbank, craigslist, etc., but either there is no response or we are not suitable candidates. We decide to go around some restaurants in the area personally. They mostly refer us to the fact that it will be better in the following months, for example in April, but that unfortunately they don’t have anything right now.

After the weekend, one of the restaurants finally calls Lu with the offer of FOH position – hostess, so we go to the thrift store to find suitable clothes and solve the AHC – we will try the option of not entering the exact address in the form – however, the insurance card should arrive in the mailbox, so can just hope that we’ll get them. We join various FB groups to look for work in Calgary, but all of them seems to be scams, of course some insurance industry and other “door to door” offers, even though they claim they don’t work like that.

We want to move closer to downtown, ideally the Beltline or find some housing near the train stop, to be as closer as possible to downtown, where there are the most job offers (which no one responds to anyway). We arranged two viewing in SW Calgary, both are shared apartments, where we would have our own room and bathroom, the rest of apartment is common. Both look very nice, but the first one offers a landlord originally from Hong Kong and has quite strict rules, and in the end she doesn’t even contact us, according to the agreement or respond to our messages. Two nice girls about our age live in the second one, the house is very nice, there is a fireplace, a coffee table in the living rooms, the price is also good, but the train is far away and the buses run quite sporadically. For that reason, we decide to try hitchhiking, because after viewing another bus runs in like one hour. We were sucesfull because Derek with his 7-year-old daughter Elaina and 7-month-old baby dog stopped. They told us that they were pretty surprised because the hitchhiking is not standard here in cities, but when Elaina saw us, she wanted her dad to turn around for us. They find out that we are newcomers and so willingly offer us help if we need anything. Elaina is a good, reasonable and responsible girl for her age. During our way we found out that she wants to learn how to snowboard, so I offer that I could be useful and I could teach her, we exchange numbers and tentatively agree that we could go to the mountains the following month.

It was our first hitchhike in Canada and we were nicely surprised so we’ve decided to try hitchhike more often – I’ll write about it later, but we were always lucky that we’ve met amazing people.

We have been here for two weeks and we still don’t have a full time job, everyone is telling us to be patient that it will come. The landlord from Hong Kong told us that it is so difficult to find anything in these winter months. She also said that she helps migrants from Hong Kong with housing and initially with finding a job, and that’s how we learned that one girl who has been living with her since November found a job only now (at the beginning of February). We were also recommended to edit our CVs, or creation of several different resumes according to what we would like to do and for each given position embellish the resume according to needs and then stick to the rule “Fake it till you make it”. Unfortunately, neither of us can lie, so we’ll see what happens.

The status is that we haven’t found a job yet (except Lu part time job), we haven’t earned anything, but they are already trying to rob us here. We’re currently picking up every stranger’s number and hoping it’s someone calling us about work. Apart from the fact that are receiving call only from scamers – the last time some guy from India called, whom I couldn’t really understand, claimed that I ordered something from Amazon and that he would deduct about 800 CAD from my account, after about a quarter of an hour of explanation, he claims that he is connecting me to The Fraud Department and theirs first question was after my SIN number (which everyone should keep an eye on and disclose only when opening a bank account or signing an employment contract, …). After arguing for a while, I end the call and we go to the bank that day – they say these calls are standard and we should ignore them and, above all, not tell anyone anything. At the bank, I am also asking how is it with forwarding money (in Canada it is sent via email or phone number, but as we learn, it is better to use only email), because Lu and I forwarded money to each other via phone number, but it went to someone else- luckily someone sensible who sent a text and sent the money back. The lady at the counter informs me that it happens sometimes and that just the day before it happened to a gentleman who dealt with it at their branch and not everyone is so lucky that the money gets back to him – so it’s the best to use email and enter a password, which must also be entered by the recipient of the funds.