FSW WORLDWIDE

[ImpatientDragon]

It seems like there is a lot of negative news and regrets about immigrating to Canada. What about people who made it in Canada and think it is a great life choice? Can anyone share their successful & inspirational story?

Yeah, please share

 

[imransyed]

I have seen a general trend and I may be absolutely wrong here

There is no way for a single income household (guy like me) to be very comfortable anywhere in Ontario.. And soon the whole Canada probably.
Especially because right now I am making sub65k pretax. If I had the income of a wife for example, I'd be very comfortable right now.. Savings would not have happened though.

At first I tried to stay away from the sad stories and focused on the good ones. But I came to the realization that the good stories, while true and many, pale in comparison to the number of terrible middle class stories.. And this is sad.
Like I don't know any regular job that pays over 80-90k which is not in the field of consulting, IT or pro level finance.

For folks like me, the general options left are immigration consultant or realtor or mortgage broker. I despise these professions and I hate how scummy and smirky the people working in these fields are, especially realtor but they are the ones making bank here and have the easiest access to for general public
.

BTW to all the IT folks here, maybe yall should start a company that digitises and automates the role of realtors. In 2023, these Middle men are absolutely not needed and cost a lot of money for not that much value. I heard about somebody selling their house using some online brokerage and they saved like 30k and were over the moon about the whole experience, especially not having to deal with a realtor.

 

[iSaidGoodDay]

I have seen a general trend and I may be absolutely wrong here

There is no way for a single income household (guy like me) to be very comfortable anywhere in Ontario.. And soon the whole Canada probably.
Especially because right now I am making sub65k pretax. If I had the income of a wife for example, I'd be very comfortable right now.. Savings would not have happened though.

At first I tried to stay away from the sad stories and focused on the good ones. But I came to the realization that the good stories, while true and many, pale in comparison to the number of terrible middle class stories.. And this is sad.
Like I don't know any regular job that pays over 80-90k which is not in the field of consulting, IT or pro level finance.

For folks like me, the general options left are immigration consultant or realtor or mortgage broker. I despise these professions and I hate how scummy and smirky the people working in these fields are, especially realtor but they are the ones making bank here and have the easiest access to for general public
.

BTW to all the IT folks here, maybe yall should start a company that digitises and automates the role of realtors. In 2023, these Middle men are absolutely not needed and cost a lot of money for not that much value. I heard about somebody selling their house using some online brokerage and they saved like 30k and were over the moon about the whole experience, especially not having to deal with a realtor.

I think there are way too many successful stories like Wonderbly. I guess people don't talk about it as much.

Personally - I know someone who is making $500K/year but was offered a $75K comp in 2020 - non-IT. I've other friends who make a good living. One of them was in a design leadership role in a very well know Edtech company of India, she actually was lowballed when she landed last year, but it still was $300k+ in comp. My realtor was a nobody student when they landed, they are now selling 10+ properties each day through their YT channel and own multiple other small businesses. There's a landscape designer making $250K+/yr too who landed last year in Alberta.

At the end, if we take the literal meaning of FSW, "S" is supposed to be "Skilled". Creating businesses, making career transitions, etc should be common for us. It sounds uncomfortable at the start, but failing and hustling is what leads to growth at the end. Sooner or later, we will have to go through this.

 

[jessicajoon]

It seems like there is a lot of negative news and regrets about immigrating to Canada. What about people who made it in Canada and think it is a great life choice? Can anyone share their successful & inspirational story?

I immigrated to Canada and couldn't be happier. I had to choose between the US (3 years for GC) vs Canada (6 months) and I'm glad I chose the later.

I am in Toronto, and it isn't bad as people make it sound like. Food is great, public transportation is awesome and people are generally nice. There are also lots of parks and outdoor activities.

Sure, it is expensive to live here and groceries are unaffordable but that is the tradeoff you have to live with.

I think people expect to come to Canada, have a six figure job and buy a detached house in the first year and get disappointed. Just like marriage, gotta have low expectations and try to be happy with the current situation.

 

[imransyed]

I think there are way too many successful stories like Wonderbly. I guess people don't talk about it as much.

Man.. You're a solid positivity machine.

Part of me not running away from Canada back to my past and very comfortable life is coz of you and folks like you who tell me there's always a way and some (like you) have also showed me how to get there.

I'm supremely glad there are more positive stories than negative ones.

 

[Taran D]

I agree with the positive side as well. Its human nature to keep on whining about things. I feel blessed looking at immigration trend in UK and Australia. I would imagine the plight students with the introduction of a new rule every other day making it hard to survive. The same as of Australia the moment a person fulfil all the requirements and prepare the paperwork, voila overnight rules change. No doubt this is everywhere but it is bit easy in Canada compared to others. Life and inflation is everywhere no doubt.
We keep on saying that Canada needs to be stict but we forgot the immigrants who had lost all hope from other countries to immigrate, Canada is their last hope and they achieve it. One gets PR and say that Canada is getting overcrowded, the govt should make the rules strict now for new immigrants, they should stop passing new rules for easy migration blah blah. Why do you forget that you were once at that stages as well and would have surely prayed hard for a way out to come to Canada.

 

[seadrag0n]

I immigrated to Canada and couldn't be happier. I had to choose between the US (3 years for GC) vs Canada (6 months) and I'm glad I chose the later.

I am in Toronto, and it isn't bad as people make it sound like. Food is great, public transportation is awesome and people are generally nice. There are also lots of parks and outdoor activities.

Sure, it is expensive to live here and groceries are unaffordable but that is the tradeoff you have to live with.

I think people expect to come to Canada, have a six figure job and buy a detached house in the first year and get disappointed. Just like marriage, gotta have low expectations and try to be happy with the current situation.

I agree with your every point and I am also having same experiences but living here long term means you have take on a lot of debt. Having a bunch of credit cards, buying a car on loan, buying a phone on loan, paying insurance on every little thing, paying high amount of property tax on top of your mortgage if you buy a house etc., etc,. Maybe some people are are okay in dealing with all this which seems to be the norm here but I can't, if citizenship was not guaranteed after PR, I would be making plans to leave in a year or two, just my opinion.

 

[ImpatientDragon]

Hope someone can answer, in the TEER 21231 Have noticed this addition in the employment requirements -

• Licensing by a provincial or territorial association of professional engineers is required to approve engineering drawings and reports and to practise as a Professional Engineer (P.Eng.).

Does that mean now we would need to get a license to practice or is that just like a good to have thing. Will it affect those who do not have a license ?

 

[seadrag0n]

I agree with the positive side as well. Its human nature to keep on whining about things. I feel blessed looking at immigration trend in UK and Australia. I would imagine the plight students with the introduction of a new rule every other day making it hard to survive. The same as of Australia the moment a person fulfil all the requirements and prepare the paperwork, voila overnight rules change. No doubt this is everywhere but it is bit easy in Canada compared to others. Life and inflation is everywhere no doubt.
We keep on saying that Canada needs to be stict but we forgot the immigrants who had lost all hope from other countries to immigrate, Canada is their last hope and they achieve it. One gets PR and say that Canada is getting overcrowded, the govt should make the rules strict now for new immigrants, they should stop passing new rules for easy migration blah blah. Why do you forget that you were once at that stages as well and would have surely prayed hard for a way out to come to Canada.

I think what others are talking about is living in Canada after immigrating and not how to immigrate.

As to your point, IRCC just introduced category based draws which I heard is similar to immigration system of Australia and the cut off of regular draws is remaining very high so immigrating to Canada is also becoming very difficult nowadays.

 

[jessicajoon]

I agree with your every point and I am also having same experiences but living here long term means you have take on a lot of debt. Having a bunch of credit cards, buying a car on loan, buying a phone on loan, paying insurance on every little thing, paying high amount of property tax on top of your mortgage if you buy a house etc., etc,. Maybe some people are are okay in dealing with all this which seems to be the norm here but I can't, if citizenship was not guaranteed after PR, I would be making plans to leave in a year or two, just my opinion.

My month 1 goal was to try to find a job. Now I will keep improving and also interviewing for better pay. I have some credit cards, they are to maintain/increase credit score, not to spend money on outrageous things.

I bought a Iphone 12 for $700 cash in kijjii, will use it for next 2-3 years. I got a nice 1.5 bedroom for $1900, 5 minutes from a subway station.

I don't need to buy a house for the next 5 years. I am debt free and just investing every bits i have in boring mutual funds (bogleheads style).

 

[ImpatientDragon]

My month 1 goal was to try to find a job. Now I will keep improving and also interviewing for better pay. I have some credit cards, they are to maintain/increase credit score, not to spend money on outrageous things.

I bought a Iphone 12 for $700 cash in kijjii, will use it for next 2-3 years. I got a nice 1.5 bedroom for $1900, 5 minutes from a subway station.

I don't need to buy a house for the next 5 years. I am debt free and just investing every bits i have in boring mutual funds (bogleheads style).

Good for you.

 

[navinball]

Got my passport and moved to the usa on TN. Will probably come back to canada close to retirement age and enjoy the peaceful suburbia. It's a no brainer for IT folks.

 

[imransyed]

Got my passport and moved to the usa on TN. Will probably come back to canada close to retirement age and enjoy the peaceful suburbia. It's a no brainer for IT folks.

Living the Canadian dream!

 

[dankboi]

I like Canada. Lots of good food, parks and decent people. No complaints!

I like Canada. Lots of wide roads, lots of land and provincial parks. I am seeing a lots of racist pos here, fortunate me never encountered myself except witnessed 2 incidents of racism in a public place in UK. There is a racist pos at my workplace. some coworkers had bad experience. In canada i lived in northern ontario prior to moving to London township (SW ON) and it's been an year. I hope to move to very NW of BC next.
for reference i lived in 5 countries before moving here.

 

[dankboi]

I heard he got bored of girls here. They were not intellectual and fun and too easy for him.

true that! In canada i came across pretty mexican chicas, latinas, some asians but zero canadians.

yeah Zero