Canada 2010-2011?

somedeed

Thanks for the heads up on the facebook page, Jeanie_Mac, joined the group.

Heading solo to Toronto the end of July for a year, can't wait

Chargerman, would you recommend any hostel in particular?

chargerman

somedeed wrote: »

Thanks for the heads up on the facebook page, Jeanie_Mac, joined the group.

Heading solo to Toronto the end of July for a year, can't wait

Chargerman, would you recommend any hostel in particular?

Hey,
Ya the Canadiana seems to be most popular http://www.canadianalodging.com/ I didnt stay there but I hear it's mostly Irish there. As I said to Jeanie_mac if you want to know anything at all just send me a PM as I dont always check this

somedeed

Thanks for the recommendation, the hostel sounds amazing...too good...why go live somewhere else?

No doubt I'll be firing more than a few questions via pm at you, thanks again for your help.

chargerman

Mr.S wrote: »

I'm heading to Vancouver, but thanks for the offer:)

Cheers for the info too, do you happen to know when you clear immigration, is it at your final destination, or your first entry to Canada? I have a layover in Ottawa for 3hours before my flight to Vancouver, would i clear immigration there, or in Vancouver?

Worried that if the ques are big, i might miss my flight to Vancouver!

im not 100% sure but when i came off the plane there was a seperate walk way for connections so i'd guess that you wouldnt have to do immergration until your final destination. Mayve send usit an email and ask because it is a very busy airport and even though I was not in the main queue It still took about 90 minutes to get the visa and then my luggage.

crushproof

sgdowney wrote: »

Just to let people know this €50 admin fee for passing on your flight details to SWAP in Canada has been cancelled. A friend of mine was onto their course director in SWAP and they pressurised USIT into dropping this fee. I don't know if people who have already paid can get a refund but going forward people should not have to pay it. [/I]

Great to see the Canadian officials stepping and ending this charade! Hopefully they'll now look into giving other operators the chance to enter the market next year to provide a bit of competition to USIT.

Jeanie_Mac

Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone could recommend a good insurer for people going over to Canada?
Cheers
Jean

Kellzer

Jeanie_Mac wrote: »

Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone could recommend a good insurer for people going over to Canada?
Cheers
Jean

i went with backpackertravelinsurance.ie its half the price of usits offer. the one i got was 235euro including winter sports and usit accept it.

ciciray

hey all,
im hopin to head to canada with my boyfriend this year and wil b applying for my visa by the end of this week. could anybody tel me how long after applying does this take to come thru.?and when you get this do you have a certain amount of time to go?

Kellzer

I got mine yesterday and it took 13 weeks but I think 8-10 weeks like it says is a more realistic bet. USIT had mine for a month according to the date on it before they released it to me cos they were lookin for another 50 euro off me for admin which I was refusin to pay. If I had paid it they would have sent it straight on a month ago im guessin.

Danteryu

I just booked my flights today, I'm flying to Toronto on June 25th!
Not actually staying in Toronto, going to go to London, but that's where I'm landing.

gottcha_goin

Jeanie_Mac wrote: »

Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone could recommend a good insurer for people going over to Canada?
Cheers
Jean

I went with http://www.backpackertravelinsurance.ie/ They were pretty reasonable and have been cleared by USIT which is the main thing!

dazgib

there's 3 or 4 of us heading to Vancouver for 10 weeks this summer. We don't have a visa we are just heading over as tourists as we don't intend to work. What sort of money would we need or will we have any trouble at immigration?
We will probably stay with friends over there

Chet Zar

Jeanie_Mac wrote: »

Did you just meet other Irish people through the hostel? I'm not staying there so I don't know where or how I'm going to meet other Irish people.
I've been sending out my resume to agencies willy-nilly in Toronto and haven't even gotten one response.
I don't require a visa and I'm looking for accountancy work if anyone knows about a good job on offer PM me! :-)

Hey Jeanie_Mac,

On sending out your resumé, I haven't heard great things about sending out stuff to agencies all over the place - you will very likely get much better results contacting employers directly. Canadian employers tend to respond well to more direct contact - it seems to be the way things work. Don't forget that agencies are generally bombarded with applications all over the shop!

RayCarley

sgdowney wrote: »

Just to let people know this €50 admin fee for passing on your flight details to SWAP in Canada has been cancelled. A friend of mine was onto their course director in SWAP and they pressurised USIT into dropping this fee. I don't know if people who have already paid can get a refund but going forward people should not have to pay it.

This is a piece of correspondance from a SWAP's course representative.
Good news... Usit has dropped the 50 Euro fee. A large number of
applicants have opted to organize their own flights so Usit does not
automatically have the information on arrival dates. This is
information that we in Canada must have as there are a few thousand
Irish participants coming to us and we need to know when so as to
better marshall our resources. So although there will be no further
outlay of funds on your part, you will have to provide Usit with your
arrival information so they can pass that on to us. All we need to
know is which city in Canada and which date.

That's brilliant news they've finally decided to scrap that bull**** fee! Unfortunately I already paid it: bastards. So I'm thinking of sending a strongly worded email into them demanding it back. Any advice for what I should say? I've already got my Visa thankfully, so I suppose I can say whatever I want with no fear of no getting the Visa!

dceire

RayCarley wrote: »

That's brilliant news they've finally decided to scrap that bull**** fee! Unfortunately I already paid it: bastards. So I'm thinking of sending a strongly worded email into them demanding it back. Any advice for what I should say? I've already got my Visa thankfully, so I suppose I can say whatever I want with no fear of no getting the Visa!

I emailed the guy handling my account on Tuesday demanding a refund & said that if they didnt give me one that I would "be exploring all possible avenues in order to right this gross oversight on the part of USIT".

Anyway, I got a very short email back from them today saying that the €50 would be refunded to my account. So get those emails off to the bastards people.

RayCarley

dceire wrote: »

I emailed the guy handling my account on Tuesday demanding a refund & said that if they didnt give me one that I would "be exploring all possible avenues in order to right this gross oversight on the part of USIT".

Anyway, I got a very short email back from them today saying that the €50 would be refunded to my account. So get those emails off to the bastards people.

Nice one! I'm going to get that email off to them today and get this sorted!

petroltimer

hi,

just wondering if booking your own flights what is the best way to handle the return flight, as most airlines only go 10 months in advance. Has anybody entered Canada with only a one way ticket and sorted out the return date later?

RayCarley

I just got an email back from USIT (they were actually quick for once!) saying they would send me the €50 refund in a cheque.

Thanks to everyone for that! Especially "sgdowney", I used that piece from SWAP that you posted, in my email!

petroltimer wrote: »

hi,

just wondering if booking your own flights what is the best way to handle the return flight, as most airlines only go 10 months in advance. Has anybody entered Canada with only a one way ticket and sorted out the return date later?

You can do that if you want, but I think if you don't have a return flight you have to have $3000 with you at customs on entry instead of $1000 if you had a flight. Check the USIT site though, it has all the info.

Offside

My return flight is through the States in August, doing a bit of travelling. Will immigration want me to have 1000 or 3000 when I arrive?

chargerman

petroltimer wrote: »

hi,

just wondering if booking your own flights what is the best way to handle the return flight, as most airlines only go 10 months in advance. Has anybody entered Canada with only a one way ticket and sorted out the return date later?

The best way is to book for as far ahead as you can (the 10 months) and closer to the time, go onto that airlines website and change your return date i.e. extend it by 2 months.) My airline allows me one free date change and charge $50 for each additional date change so Its worth it

lil_lisa

When I was booking my 1 year visa for the US I was told one-way tickets were fine. They can't expect you to know exactly when you'll be coming home in a year from now and most airlines won't let you book past a certain time so they can't expect you to go searching and probably book crazy prices. I would check up with USIT but its very unlikely that you have to book them at all.

RayCarley

Offside wrote: »

My return flight is through the States in August, doing a bit of travelling. Will immigration want me to have 1000 or 3000 when I arrive?

I'm not actually sure. You'd have to ask USIT. I'd imagine it's only $1000 though.

This is from Paragraph 17 of their T&C
"All participants agree to abide by the programme conditions, including financial requirements and to return to Ireland at the end of the programme. All applicants are required to furnish proof of financial status to Canadian Immigration upon entry, for applicants that have return flights this should be a minimum of CAD$1000. Applicants whom wish to enter Canada on a one-way ticket should have proof of a minimum of CAD$3000."

http://canada.usit.ie/student-programme/terms-and-conditions/

jb82

Just have a bit of a query. I have been accepted for a place for the under 35 visa. my 40 day deadline for getting documents in is coming up in the next week. I got my police cert sorted a few weeks ago but havn't submitted my forms as may not be going to Canada now (work in my field is hard to get so considering Australia). Think I only get 100 euro back of my 409 euro for this so will lose a lot.

Anyway I'm thinking I'm as well to submit my forms anyway as there is a chance I may still go. However, I do not want this to render me ineligible for future 1 year visas to Canada. Is it when the Canadian high Commission send out your Work Authorisation that they deem you to have taken part?

How long do you think this gives me before I would cancel my application when I decide I'm definitely not going? Therefore allowing me to participate in future 1 year visas.

It states on their website that 'the total process for a normal application will take approximately 8 to 10 weeks from the day you submit your COMPLETE application to USIT, including all required Police Certificates' so I'm guessing they send out your Work Authorisation after about 4-6 weeks.

Zapp Brannigan

Once they authorize the visa, whether you use it or not, you're counted as taking part. So I'd cancel your application before sending off the forms.

petroltimer

hi,

have got the canada visa, but usit wants me to submit insurance and flight details by tomorrow or they say i can't go before september 1, they say this is due to canadian requirments, is this another usit scam to get me to book overpriced flights with them or genuine? anybody delt with this situation?

mark dollard

you definetely don't have to book flights or insurance with Usit, you can do that elsewhere (for cheaper) and give them the details. Not sure about that deadline, best get onto the embassy or SWAP for that

jb82

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

Once they authorize the visa, whether you use it or not, you're counted as taking part. So I'd cancel your application before sending off the forms.

Well, from what I understand I could send them off and cancel as long as the Canadian High Commision do not send out the Work Authorisation document which happens after 8-10 (I think) weeks.



Bit confused by the whole thing now. Usit told me after I emailed them today that ' If you apply for the programme, and then cancel, you can apply again once you do not validate your Work Authorisation document by entering Canada. You must also officially cancel your place on the programme so we can notify the Canadian High Commission.'

Fair enough, though I remember reading a couple of days ago that full participation was deemed to have taken place when the Work Authorisation documents were sent out though could not find this when I searched today. However I did a cached search (which will bing up the website in previous weeks and months) and it seems they have changed this since from what was up yesterday.

On http://canada.usit.ie/under-35-programme/faq/ it now states

'I cancelled from the Programme last year after my Work Authorisation was issued. Can I apply again this year?
Yes. Provided that you didn't go to Canada and officially cancelled your application with USIT, you should be able to apply again for this year's Programme.'


However, when I did a cached search it states:

(http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:cmNVtm_XyfgJ:canada.usit.ie/under-35-programme/faq/+canada+usit+full+participation+authorised&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ie)

'I cancelled from the Programme last year after my Work Authorisation was issued. Can I apply again this year?
Yes. Provided that you didn't go to Canada and officially cancelled your application with USIT, you should be able to apply again for this year's Programme. Please also be aware that effective as and from the 2010 programme applicants once your documents are issued by the Canadian High Commission it is considered as full participation in the programme. If you are unable to travel or choose to cancel from the Under 35 you will not be able to re-apply for future Under 35 programmes to Canada.'



This seems to have changed overnight as I only checked it yesterday and remember it being different. Don't know if it was changed because of the e-mail I sent to them today asking them about the cancellations and future participation but seems a bit strange.

jb82

does anyone know why we need to submit a cv?

Sheebs

tellastory wrote: »

link to blog would be helpful


http://youremovingtovancouver.blogspot.com/

Great blog! Looking forward to future posts

GrahamThomas

Chet Zar wrote: »

Hey Jeanie_Mac,

On sending out your resumé, I haven't heard great things about sending out stuff to agencies all over the place - you will very likely get much better results contacting employers directly. Canadian employers tend to respond well to more direct contact - it seems to be the way things work. Don't forget that agencies are generally bombarded with applications all over the shop!

+ 1 to this. Also I have found that a lot of bigger companies have Jobs/Careers sections on their website, and you can submit your application & resume to them online.