Canada 2010-2011?

casey14

hi everybody!

I just thought I'd post this up for everybody as there seems to be lots of confusion around this, and by no fault of ours! my da's friend is a guard( a lovely man!)and he gave me the police cert form (the same one somebody posted a picture of a couple of pages back) and told me to send it to thurles with a cheque for 6e35. But i am currently waiting for my new passport to come through, should take 10days or so(hallejuiah for passport express!) and i need a photocopy of this for the police cert. So being anxious of going over the 40days deadline i decided to do a mini investigation on this! on both citizen information website and gardai website it clearly states that the garda vetting unit in thurles DOES NOT issue police certs. they are two entirely different things. This is what it says on garda website:

Who conducts Garda Vetting? Garda Vetting is carried out by the Garda Central Vetting Unit which is based in Thurles, Co. Tipperary. The Unit primarily deals with requests from organisations that have been registered with it to vet prospective employees.

The Unit also deals with requests from individuals looking for information regarding personal information relating to themselves held by An Garda Síochána subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998/2003.

The Unit does not issue Police Certificates of Character.


And for the record they also say there is no fee for garda vetting ...hmmm...


Anyways they also explain where to get a police cert:


Who issues a Police Certificate? A Police Certificate is issued by the Superintendent in the District where the relevant applicant resides, or formerly resided, in the Republic of Ireland.


So depending on where you live, and where your local station is, everybody has a different superintendent. If you go on to the garda website you can find out who your S.I is and they also give contact details. There is no charge for the police cert and it should take way less time to obtain them, cos it's localised! I'm going to ring the garda vetting unit tomorrow to confirm this but i'm pretty sure I'm right! so i hope this helps and speeds things up for everybody cos I know how stressful it is getting stuff like this sorted!


By the way I am 21 and hoping to head over to toronto in april, flying solo! I have some friends who went over in late december and they love it! woop woop can't wait to go, hoping to get a few gigs in some irish pubs over there!

jasonf

casey14 wrote: »

hi everybody!

I just thought I'd post this up for everybody as there seems to be lots of confusion around this, and by no fault of ours! my da's friend is a guard( a lovely man!)and he gave me the police cert form (the same one somebody posted a picture of a couple of pages back) and told me to send it to thurles with a cheque for 6e35. But i am currently waiting for my new passport to come through, should take 10days or so(hallejuiah for passport express!) and i need a photocopy of this for the police cert. So being anxious of going over the 40days deadline i decided to do a mini investigation on this! on both citizen information website and gardai website it clearly states that the garda vetting unit in thurles DOES NOT issue police certs. they are two entirely different things. This is what it says on garda website:

Who conducts Garda Vetting? Garda Vetting is carried out by the Garda Central Vetting Unit which is based in Thurles, Co. Tipperary. The Unit primarily deals with requests from organisations that have been registered with it to vet prospective employees.

The Unit also deals with requests from individuals looking for information regarding personal information relating to themselves held by An Garda Síochána subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998/2003.

The Unit does not issue Police Certificates of Character.


And for the record they also say there is no fee for garda vetting ...hmmm...


Anyways they also explain where to get a police cert:


Who issues a Police Certificate? A Police Certificate is issued by the Superintendent in the District where the relevant applicant resides, or formerly resided, in the Republic of Ireland.


So depending on where you live, and where your local station is, everybody has a different superintendent. If you go on to the garda website you can find out who your S.I is and they also give contact details. There is no charge for the police cert and it should take way less time to obtain them, cos it's localised! I'm going to ring the garda vetting unit tomorrow to confirm this but i'm pretty sure I'm right! so i hope this helps and speeds things up for everybody cos I know how stressful it is getting stuff like this sorted!


By the way I am 21 and hoping to head over to toronto in april, flying solo! I have some friends who went over in late december and they love it! woop woop can't wait to go, hoping to get a few gigs in some irish pubs over there!

good on ya mate, all the info we can throw up the better, ya i got my police clearence from local station, took bout a week and a half free of charge.

phizzledizzle

OK I got notification of my place in the queue today, 493? Have I any chance of getting in before September?

karlcox2

murphn24 wrote: »

Bought flights through airtransat. One way into Toronto for approx €250. Its a chartered flight. Bought insurance through www.backpackercover.ie for €190 or so. That blue insurance crowd buy there insurance from the website above. I rang Blue and the guy on the phone said it would be cheaper if I went directly to them! Don't think Blue hire him to do that but I thought he was sound!

murphn24,

thanks alot for info it works out good bit cheaper for insurance, unfortuneatly the airline doesnt go to vancouver when try book although it does say they do on the website weird

celestial

Hey folks,

Does anyone know what it's like going about renting accommodation in Vancouver - heard it's pricey but is it difficult to get a decent place to rent for say 6 months?

ThomasC75

Is it possible to stay in canada for another year. **** know's i don't want to go home

wolrabp

celestial wrote: »

Hey folks,

Does anyone know what it's like going about renting accommodation in Vancouver - heard it's pricey but is it difficult to get a decent place to rent for say 6 months?

Winter Olympics are on in that neck of the woods this year so i'd imagine it's going to be hard finding accommodation and expect the prices of pretty much everything to be higher too...

onemorechance

phizzledizzle wrote: »

OK I got notification of my place in the queue today, 493? Have I any chance of getting in before September?

Your position is quiet high. I was in position 90 - 100 last year and I did get an offer, but I forget when. I have found this email that they sent in May '09 about more places becoming available, but I am not sure if my waitlist offer was before or after this, I would guess it was before, and these were what was left after the waitlist was traversed.

USIT are delighted to give you advance notice that the 2009 Canada under 35 Work programme is re-opening on Tues, 12 May at 10am with a limited amount of additional places!

Places are extremely limited and will be sold on a first come first served basis.

This programme WILL sell out so don’t be disappointed; book at 10am on Tues 12 May 09.

For more information visit http://canada.usit.ie

celestial

wolrabp wrote: »

Winter Olympics are on in that neck of the woods this year so i'd imagine it's going to be hard finding accommodation and expect the prices of pretty much everything to be higher too...

Should have mentioned - plan to go in Jan 2011 so Olympics not a concern.

wolrabp

celestial wrote: »

Should have mentioned - plan to go in Jan 2011 so Olympics not a concern.

I posted a link to a good site for rentals somewhere back up the thread...

For the morbidly lazy amongst you:

http://www.hometrader.ca/

candy chaos

what's the story with finding apartments in Toronto? Is there an equivalent to Daft.ie or anything?

slayer83666

I'm on the waiting list so hope more visas become available soon. Anyone know how soon they became available last year?

bonkers

right ive been here in TO since september and luckily had a friend to stay with.. i hear stories of people stuck in hostels for far too long.. i think it slows you down in terms of fitting in etc.. need to get away from all the irish and realise you are in a new city etc..

what i suggest to you is all is to start looking for jobs now.. a contact made from home will do more for you than one you make here.. so find the small medium big companies in your industry and try to find an irish link there somewhere.. i found a guy who lived up the road from me but i never met before.. he helped me when i got here and got me some work and now ive got a contract in the industry i worked for 7 years in ireland in. it takes a lot of networking to get some good work.

In terms of where to go... theres irish everywhere now.. so its difficult to say.. BC is more like ireland in terms of weather where ONT is very cold but you get used to it and gets very warm in the summers so proper seasons. snowboarding and skiing is available outside toronto too..

my best advice to you is that you need to start networking now and expect to drop a few levels in ur career in order to impress to get where you want.. and get that elusive sponsorship for the next year.

some more advice

1. get a pay monthly phone when you get here.. windmobile and fido are best
2. viewit.ca best place to look at places to rent..
3. blogto.ca and toronto.com are good placed to get a feel for the city
4. dont go thru usit for flights and insurance.. i got them for 1.5 times less than they wanted.


any advice i can give pm me

soundofsounds

gottcha_goin wrote: »

This year USIT have decided to let you choose where you want to buy your flights and insurance. USIT will be dearer by possibly €200+ but offer flexible dates and you can change your flights for free if you want to come back later or earlier. The insurance I think needs to be "approved" by USIT, which could be tricky. May be worthwhile to buy it through them to avoid the hassle and that.

Hey....do you know if this is the same for the student programme? That'd be great, thanks!

NAPdy

Hello, I'm on the wait list for the U35 work holiday visa for Canada. I received an email saying the same thing happened last year and everyone on the wait list was offered a visa. Was anyone on the wait list for 2009? When were ye offered visas? I plan on travelling late in the year but it'd be handy to know how soon/late we'll be notified so I can get my police certs etc in order. Any info at all would be great . thanks

achbons

bonkers wrote: »

right ive been here in TO since september and luckily had a friend to stay with.. i hear stories of people stuck in hostels for far too long.. i think it slows you down in terms of fitting in etc.. need to get away from all the irish and realise you are in a new city etc..

what i suggest to you is all is to start looking for jobs now.. a contact made from home will do more for you than one you make here.. so find the small medium big companies in your industry and try to find an irish link there somewhere.. i found a guy who lived up the road from me but i never met before.. he helped me when i got here and got me some work and now ive got a contract in the industry i worked for 7 years in ireland in. it takes a lot of networking to get some good work.

In terms of where to go... theres irish everywhere now.. so its difficult to say.. BC is more like ireland in terms of weather where ONT is very cold but you get used to it and gets very warm in the summers so proper seasons. snowboarding and skiing is available outside toronto too..

my best advice to you is that you need to start networking now and expect to drop a few levels in ur career in order to impress to get where you want.. and get that elusive sponsorship for the next year.

some more advice

1. get a pay monthly phone when you get here.. windmobile and fido are best
2. viewit.ca best place to look at places to rent..
3. blogto.ca and toronto.com are good placed to get a feel for the city
4. dont go thru usit for flights and insurance.. i got them for 1.5 times less than they wanted.


any advice i can give pm me

Hey thanks bonkers, nice to get some advice from someone who is actually over there! I'm planning to head towards Calgary, not Toronto, but I'll take your advice and start looking for jobs before I leave Ireland.

gottcha_goin

bonkers wrote: »

right ive been here in TO since september and luckily had a friend to stay with.. i hear stories of people stuck in hostels for far too long.. i think it slows you down in terms of fitting in etc.. need to get away from all the irish and realise you are in a new city etc..

what i suggest to you is all is to start looking for jobs now.. a contact made from home will do more for you than one you make here.. so find the small medium big companies in your industry and try to find an irish link there somewhere.. i found a guy who lived up the road from me but i never met before.. he helped me when i got here and got me some work and now ive got a contract in the industry i worked for 7 years in ireland in. it takes a lot of networking to get some good work.

In terms of where to go... theres irish everywhere now.. so its difficult to say.. BC is more like ireland in terms of weather where ONT is very cold but you get used to it and gets very warm in the summers so proper seasons. snowboarding and skiing is available outside toronto too..

my best advice to you is that you need to start networking now and expect to drop a few levels in ur career in order to impress to get where you want.. and get that elusive sponsorship for the next year.

some more advice

1. get a pay monthly phone when you get here.. windmobile and fido are best
2. viewit.ca best place to look at places to rent..
3. blogto.ca and toronto.com are good placed to get a feel for the city
4. dont go thru usit for flights and insurance.. i got them for 1.5 times less than they wanted.


any advice i can give pm me

I was just wondering where you went for flights and insurance??

readytotravel

kod137 wrote: »

Hey Graham, in toronto at the moment, got here about a month ago. Lived in vancouver for the 6 months priort to that. Travelling on my own, but got work here so not too bad.

trying to decide between vancouver and toronto any advise

cocopop11

Bonkers thanks for taking the time to give a detailed response to a previous query, sounds like a great place to live and am looking forward to arriving greatly. I may have a few more queries which you may be able to help me with, i will be in touch if something comes to mind. I am also interested in where you went to get insurance? i have tracked flights to toronto via airtransat and the prices are incredibly cheap.

bonkers

got flights with aircanada on their website..

got insurance from getcover.ie or getcover.com

all in all cost me 400 for flight and insurance for 2 people was 317 minus winter sports which im about to add on now

murphn24

cocopop11 wrote: »

Bonkers thanks for taking the time to give a detailed response to a previous query, sounds like a great place to live and am looking forward to arriving greatly. I may have a few more queries which you may be able to help me with, i will be in touch if something comes to mind. I am also interested in where you went to get insurance? i have tracked flights to toronto via airtransat and the prices are incredibly cheap.

Hi Cocopop,

I booked my flights through airtransat a couple of weeks ago for approx €250. Seemed very good value. I got my insurance through www.backpackercover.ie for €190. I compared it to USITs cover from last year and rang them about it before I purchased it. It ticked all the boxes. USIT said to make sure it covered €2.5m in medical expenses and the one I bought covered €3m. You can spend an extra €40 for a really comprehensive insurance package with them also.

murphn24

karlcox2 wrote: »

murphn24,

thanks alot for info it works out good bit cheaper for insurance, unfortuneatly the airline doesnt go to vancouver when try book although it does say they do on the website weird

Hi, I wasn't checking out Vancouver so I'm not sure but I have a feeling airtransat don't fly there. Think I might have read that somewhere along the line.

cocopop11

murphn24 thanks for the link, it seems great value, i will buy my insurance from them in the next few days.
So basically once you have your visa, insurance and flights sorted all u gotta do is worry about saving a few bob.

GrahamThomas

travel fan wrote: »

Im heading to Vancouver in summer with my boyfriend and a few friends. My friends can only stay til end of summer then its just me and my boyfiend. The two of us alone sounds a bit boring and i want the time of my life:D so hoping to make loads of friends!hopefully find some dedly room mates to share a place!Give me a shout if anyone in same boat!wel have to have drinks over in Vancouver!:)

There's a Facebook group for USIT/SWAP travellers in Vancouver. Joining it might be a good place to start! And keep an eye out here on Boards, there will probably be a few meet-ups in the coming months.

candy chaos wrote: »

what's the story with finding apartments in Toronto? Is there an equivalent to Daft.ie or anything?

Craigslist.org is a great resource for finding a place to live.

readytotravel wrote: »

trying to decide between vancouver and toronto any advise

I'll make the case for Vancouver -

I've been here for almost 5 months, and I can certainly recommend it! Its a cracking city, friendly and laid-back, with some very cool things to see & do, especially if you like the outdoors.

From an Irish perspective the night life here in Van seems pretty tame, there isn't the greatest choice of pubs/clubs for a city of its size. It just means you need to look a little harder to find out where the good places to hang out are.

Weather wise, Van is one of the mildest cities in Canada so you are unlikely to get the extreme cold snaps or massive snowstorms which are often an issue in places like Toronto and Montreal. But winter here can be very wet so bring a brolly!

gottcha_goin

murphn24 wrote: »

Hi Cocopop,

I booked my flights through airtransat a couple of weeks ago for approx €250. Seemed very good value. I got my insurance through www.backpackercover.ie for €190. I compared it to USITs cover from last year and rang them about it before I purchased it. It ticked all the boxes. USIT said to make sure it covered €2.5m in medical expenses and the one I bought covered €3m. You can spend an extra €40 for a really comprehensive insurance package with them also.

Hi, is that the only restriction that USIT place in regard to insurance, i.e. that it must cover €2.5 medical??

juno2009

gottcha_goin wrote: »

Hi does anyone now the average wait time on police certificates. I handed in my documentation today to Clondalkin but the guard didnt really know what to do with it. I explained that it should be sent to the district super. Just a bit anxious that it may be thrown to the side as they dont know what to do with it.

Has anyone else dealt with Ronanstown Garda Station and what the general waiting time would be??

Hey, I had the same kinda run around in waterford, they tried to tell us we had to send it to Thurles which we know is not the case so we ended up sending in a letter to the Super with all relevant details and copy of passport page etc. Still haven't heard anything back and that was about 2 weeks ago now. Have the same concern that it got thrown to the wayside seeing as they don't seem to know what to do with it, you'd think they'd be used to people applying for these police certs. Not sure how much longer to wait...GGGRRRR

gottcha_goin

juno2009 wrote: »

Hey, I had the same kinda run around in waterford, they tried to tell us we had to send it to Thurles which we know is not the case so we ended up sending in a letter to the Super with all relevant details and copy of passport page etc. Still haven't heard anything back and that was about 2 weeks ago now. Have the same concern that it got thrown to the wayside seeing as they don't seem to know what to do with it, you'd think they'd be used to people applying for these police certs. Not sure how much longer to wait...GGGRRRR

I dont mean to **** you up but 2 years ago i went looking for a police certificate in ballyfermot..took all my details etc said they would sort it and that. Never got the police certificate to this day. Lucky I had a contact in social welfare who was able to print me some sort of form saying i had no criminal record. If it wasnt for that i wouldnt of been able to go. Just shows how inconsiderate and unknowledgeable our garda force is.

If its taking longer than 3 weeks id follow it up. I took a name of a guard and his number so if anything goes wrong i have some sort of accountability. This chap seemed a bit more genuine than my last encounter but still worried. To me its a bit of a stupid process. Why cant the guard at the local station just print out the cert and stamp it there and then, theyre all looking at the same system??!

readytotravel

GrahamThomas wrote: »

There's a Facebook group for USIT/SWAP travellers in Vancouver. Joining it might be a good place to start! And keep an eye out here on Boards, there will probably be a few meet-ups in the coming months.



Craigslist.org is a great resource for finding a place to live.



I'll make the case for Vancouver -

I've been here for almost 5 months, and I can certainly recommend it! Its a cracking city, friendly and laid-back, with some very cool things to see & do, especially if you like the outdoors.

From an Irish perspective the night life here in Van seems pretty tame, there isn't the greatest choice of pubs/clubs for a city of its size. It just means you need to look a little harder to find out where the good places to hang out are.

Weather wise, Van is one of the mildest cities in Canada so you are unlikely to get the extreme cold snaps or massive snowstorms which are often an issue in places like Toronto and Montreal. But winter here can be very wet so bring a brolly!

cool thanks ya it looks like we will hit vancouver is there many good irish bars for meeting up with people and getting a pint bottle of bulmers also in general is food and drink expensive

Skum

NAPdy wrote: »

Hello, I'm on the wait list for the U35 work holiday visa for Canada. I received an email saying the same thing happened last year and everyone on the wait list was offered a visa. Was anyone on the wait list for 2009? When were ye offered visas? I plan on travelling late in the year but it'd be handy to know how soon/late we'll be notified so I can get my police certs etc in order. Any info at all would be great . thanks

Me too!!! The waiting list hasn't moved in over a week..

colin29

readytotravel wrote: »

cool thanks ya it looks like we will hit vancouver is there many good irish bars for meeting up with people and getting a pint bottle of bulmers also in general is food and drink expensive

Don't think you'll be finding any pint bottles of Bulmers here in Vancouver, they have the Strongbow Bulmers but that's rotten stuff, I think Rock Creek cider is the nearest tasting.
Food if bought at the right place can be inexpensive, The Real Canadian Superstore are fairly cheap, buying drink in a liquor store isn't too bad, six pack of beer can cost between $8.50 and $13 I think, buying a litre of Vodka can cost $35-$40 maybe even more.
Regarding Bars, Doolins is grand, across the street is Johnny Foxes Irish Snug, there's Ceilis, never been so can't comment, bars in general aren't the greatest but I'm sure you'll find something you'll like.