My Arrival Story to Canada with a Working Holiday Visa.

The day had finally arrived for my flight from Perth to Vancouver, marking the start of a long-awaited adventure.

Before I dig in, I wanted to shout out to THE BEST group on Facebook. The O Canada! IEC Working Holiday Discussion & Support was one of the best tools for organising, tips, planning and more. They are actual life savers. From how to apply for a working Holiday Visa, to which banks to go with, and everything else to do with moving to Canada with an IEC visa.

If you would prefer to skip to the part where I cover what I did to set up my sim card, bank & SIN please scroll down to PART 2.

PART 1

 I’d booked my ticket months prior which only cost me $167 (& 65,000 Qantas points). I may write a post about how I accumulate points via Qantas at a later date. Now, bear in mind that when booking with points, the airline will generally find the cheapest flight available to the company. For me this was a 5:30am departure from Perth - Adelaide - Fiji - Vancouver. I was totally fine with this, as it was going to be the first time in my life I wold have all the time in world. However, a couple of months later I received notification that my Perth - Adelaide flight was rescheduled 4 hours later which meant I was going to miss all my connections. After some frustrating back-and-forth with Qantas customer service, they offered me an alternative route with one stopover in Sydney. I had to confirm with the agent, was it with Qantas for both flights? Would there be a fee? Because I knew the flight they offered was an expensive one. So I got everything confirmed and my booking was updated. I was stoked because this meant I was getting access to the Qantas International Business Lounge in Sydney thanks to my American Express card. Yes there are a few benefits to having a credit card, something I might cover on a different blog post.

Fast forward to January 27th. The day has finally arrived! I said my goodbyes to my family. “I’ll only be gone 6 months, stop crying maman!” It was super sweet, but it was now time to go.

My flights & I faced a few delays. My departure from Perth was delayed by 40 minutes, and since there was originally only a 2 hour transit in Sydney, this meant little to no time in the Lounge, but I suppose that was fine. I just wanted to experience the high life! But then, about 30 minutes before we were due to land, the pilot announced that due to weather conditions we had to stay in the air for a little while longer. Thus began the loops.

I have no idea how many loops we did. Ugh…

About 30 minutes later I just had to ask about my flight. The air hostess apologised and advised they do not have the information. 15 minutes later she came back and advised that unfortunately I would be missing my flight. While I was initially disappointed & annoyed, I remembered that I’d given myself a week’s buffer in Vancouver to account for any hiccups, including moments like these. So I wasn’t too stressed. Instead, I found myself oddly excited to see what would happen next.

Finally about to land it was approximately 8:30pm. I get advised to check my Qantas app for a flight update, and to head straight to the service desk when we land. Once I got reception I checked the app and I saw I was rebooked on a flight the next day, with Air Canada for a 11:20am departure.  “Alright” I told myself. So what next? When I arrived at the service desk, there was a crowd. From my observations, there were 3 separate flights that were being affected. There was very, and I mean very minimal communication between staff and customers. After 20 minutes of waiting around, I received a text & email confirmation of a hotel booking. I was confused, did this mean I was good to go? Luckily I found a staff member walking by, who confirmed I was a-okay. I waited a ridiculously long time for my suitcase to the point where I had to go to the baggage claims desk, only to find out it was rolling on the wrong carousel the whole time. Nevertheless I headed to the shuttle bus station (since they had included this in the hotel booking)

I arrived at Ibis Sydney Airport. Honestly not too shabby. By the time I checked in of course the restaurant was closed. Which was annoying since we were given a $50 voucher to use at the hotel. At least I knew this would cover a drink this evening & breakfast the next day. I woke up and knew I had to get my steps in before a 14 hour flight. Headed back to the hotel and turns out my good friend Jessie literally works next door so he joined me at breakfast. I’m slowly making friends in different cities, which I love!  

Arrived at the Ibis hotel in Sydney.

I checked out and arrived back at the airport. I rush to the lounge. PLEASE let me in. Since i wasn't flying Qantas anymore, I wasn't sure if they would have allowed me in, but i explained i was bumped from last night, showed my lounge invitation redemption on the app, and off I was. I enjoyed a well deserved coffee, glass of champagne and some treats. Fabulous.

PART 2

14 HOURS LATER.

Hello Vancouver! Oh my god she’s finally here. It was about 8am.

Getting out of the plane and feeling the crisp air, followed by the air Canada planes with the snow capped mountains and the colours of the sunrise in the background.. It was so picturesque it made me emotional. I also had the worst sleep ever, so maybe that explains it. After going through customs I went to the immigration office to activate my work permit. I was so ready with all my documents; Bank statements, insurance confirmation, my POE Letter and more. I gave the immigration officer my passport & ticket (the one that gets printed at the eGate) and he literally asked me no questions, he just printed my work permit, asked me if my details were correct such as name & birthday (I also checked that my permit was approved for the full 2 years) and off I was!!!!! That was too easy, but please note that they are technically meant to check ALL your documents, and to be so careful with your insurance because they will only approve your work permit for as long as your insurance is covered for.

Once I made it to my Airbnb I brushed my teeth and crashed for 4 hours. I knew not to sleep for long because I did NOT want to be jet lagged but I was also struggling to stay awake.

A very tired me at my Airbnb in Vancouver, after a long journey crossing the Pacific ocean.

Woke up and thankfully there was a café about a 6 minute walk away. Did a quick grocery run, and when I got back I knew I needed to organise my sim card, bank account and SIN. For some reason I had thought to wait and do it all in person but this is WRONG. The only thing required to do in person is your SIN number! I’ll touch on that a little later on.

I looked through the files on the IEC Facebook group and found some referrals. I decided to go with Phonebox as they seemed cheap enough whilst still offering heaps of data! I opted for an eSim, $35 for 75gb per month. Yes, this is considered cheap in Canada. The sign up process was super easy,  literally took me 5 minutes. I just had to wait for the activation email which arrived the next day. So if you are also keen for an easy sim card, you can use my referral link to Phonebox here. They offer both short term and long term (no contract) sim cards.

Next was Banking & Money transfers. Turns out I could have done this before arriving. It was all done online and also very easy to set up. I went with CIBC, as they seemed to be the most popular & reliable. I was able to set the card to my apple pay instantly. Now the next step was to deposit money to this account. Again, using a referral code I decided to set up a WISE account as they offer some of the best rates for sending money abroad. By using a referral I was able to transfer money of up to £500 with no fee! I will update my WISE referral link as soon as I have reception. I’m currently only on wifi!

Last but not least is getting your SIN number. This is basically your Tax File number. You cannot legally work in Canada if you do not have a SIN number. This was a very easy process for me. 

You will need to go to any Service Canada office with all your ID’s & work permit. I have read other people mention that they waited a very long time, but in my case I was in & out within 15 minutes. Now maybe I was lucky but with this said I did go to a service office out in the suburbs, so as long as you don’t go to a service Canada office that is right in the heart of the city you should be sweet!

And that concludes my arrival story. After having my SIN confirmed I took the bus into downtown Vancouver and explored by foot. I went to Science World, which was kinda fun, but spoiler: it is too child friendly. I felt out of place as a solo adult, but I still enjoyed my time.

For any questions or comments please feel free to get in touch!

Happy Travels!

Bron x