My First Day in Canada – Immigrating via Express Entry

My First Day in Canada

When I immigrated to Canada because I was running out of my H1b in United States, I Landed in Toronto in the early week of March. It was quite a memorable experience as I was leaving everything I knew in US to start a life from scratch. I booked a red-eye flight that landed in Toronto early morning of March 4th and as a landed immigrant I had to go through the final processing before I was “approved” as a Canadian Permanent Resident. Since it was past 12 AM, the Service Ontario was closed and as a result I couldn’t get my SIN number right away and was told to make an appointment with the nearest service center and get my SIN.

AirBnB & Uber to the Rescue

One of the biggest advantages that immigrants now have over those 20 years ago is the proliferation of share economy. As a result of AirBnB and Uber, I had very little “shock” of what to expect when you come to a foreign country. Prior to landing in Toronto, I researched a bunch of AirBnBs for a couple of weeks of stay and found one that was conveniently located in Little Italy and the price was quite reasonable. Further, with the address known – all I had to do was go from the airport to my AirBnB’s host place.

With Uber, the fear that you would get price gouged by taxis or would be forced to carry significant amount of cash to pay for all your expenses was also significantly reduced. Be an avid Uber user, it was straightforward to go from the airport to my AirBnB stay. I ended up brining less than $20 CAD to my move to Canada and pretty much lived off of my credit card payments. 

On an interesting note, this was my first real AirBnB experience and I was a bit nervous as I wasn’t sure what the etiquette of living in a stranger’s house was. I have always stayed at places of people I knew very well or hotels, but never strangers. After the initial paranoia of how I would spend the night at a stranger’s place, I settled in my bedroom and got a good sleep before I could start venturing out to the city.

Exploring Downtown Toronto

I had a few in-person interviews lined up the very day I landed so I pretty much woke up, got ready and went off for my interviews. I was pretty much counting how much money I was spending as I was spending my emergency funds and didn’t even know how long it would be before I could get a job. The interview itself went pretty well and I ended up deciding to discover the Toronto and what could be a potential neighborhood I could end up working or even living in. 

It was cold but not too cold, and since I already lived in Michigan and New York, it wasn’t much of a shock. Walking the streets of downtown was no different than walking the streets of New York or Chicago and it gave me a sense of comfort that I wasn’t in too alien of a place. One thing I did notice, and it gave me a vibe was endless constructions of condos without much of a neighborhood feel. If you walk down the streets of New York, you will get a sense of neighborhood, with your local bodegas or shops that make you feel like it is a lively place. The streets that I walked in Toronto made me feel like it was just endless condos without a thought put to how can live or even buy their basic groceries without having to hop into a car.

Returning to my AirBnB

I ended up returning to my AirBnB place pretty late and got burritos for my dinner. One of the things I was really grateful for was having a credit card that had no foreign expenses. As a result, I didn’t have to worry about piling expenses on top of making purchases. One thing I did had to get cognizant was the fact that because my card was American Express, I had to be selective of where and what I can purchase since American express isn’t accepted everywhere.

Overall my first day in Canada via Express Entry immigration was very productive. I had a very smooth landing experience with Canadian Immigration (who were amazing), a good night sleep at my AirBnB place, a very product interview with a potential company that I could work with, and walked around Downtown Toronto aimlessly.