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Posted by Tara If I could do it, you can too. I left home (Cape Town) about a month after my 21st birthday. All I had was $600 and a 6 month working visa. I wanted to join my fiance (also from Cape Town) who had immigrated to Canada with his parents about 1 year prior. I had no idea what to do and how to do it...so I got on the web and started searching for work. I had heard through talking to other folks, that Banff was a great place to work....so after I arrived in Winnipeg, I grabbed my fiance and we started there. I had studied Marketing Management and Hotel Management (both only for one year) and my fiance studied Hotel Management (also only a one year course), but we ended up with a job as housekeepers at the Rimrock Hotel, where we were also given staff accomodation (which we had to pay for). This was less than impressive, but I kept encouraging my fiance and told him that WORK IS WORK at this point and he kept encouraging me by saying "If we want to be together, we have to do what it takes". Just before our 3 month "summer" contract was over, we went to the Canadian Embassy in Calgary and asked them what I could do to extend my working visa. The answer was: NOTHING. I was able to get another 6 month holiday visa and was told that afterwards I might be able to extend that for another 3 months, but afterward I would either have to leave the country or GET MARRIED to my 'Permenant Resident' fiance. Since we were engaged anyway, we decided to take the big step and GET MARRIED. We left Banff and moved back to Winnipeg. With no place to go, we crammed into a side-by-side with my fiance's parents, sister as well as his other Ex-South African family who had also just immigrated. 8 Adults in one home. We applied for Permenant Residency for me, but in this time, I was not allowed to work and my funds were exhausted. We had also moved out of my mother-in-laws home and into an apartment. My husband had to take on two jobs and extra shifts. I remember times when he slept over at work for four days at a time as he only had about 5 hours sleep between shifts. Later that same year 31 December 2001, TIME WAS RUNNING OUT, so we tied the knot. We had a small wedding with 11 people. We could not afford much, so I had no elaborate wedding gown, no beautiful flowers, no expensive bridal shower, no flower girls or even bridesmaids, ect. All I had was a simple white skirt and tank top, a commissioner of oaths (even though I would have loved to have been married by a priest, that did not happen) and a lunch afterward. In total, my wedding cost a little under $1000 AND NO HONEYMOON. However, to achieve my goal of living in Canada with my fiance, I had to make sacrifices. Thankfully I had a GREAT mother who was my rock during this very depressing time. (I still do not look at my shoddy wedding photo's, nor do I wear a ring....) FINALLY, after applying from WITHIN Canada for my Permenant Residency visa (which enabled me to stay here longer), the letter came. I HAD BEEN ACCEPTED!!! BRAVO!!! It certainly took long enough. 18 months to be exact. I could now work again. So I took up a job at the local Pizza Hut. MY BATTLE NOT OVER YET. My husband and I had no established credit. This meant NO CAR or NO CREDIT CARDS. Unless we had enough money to put down a huge deposit or unless we could invest $1000 in a GIC to open a "secured" credit card, we were skrewed. So we had to save!!! Eventually, we managed to convince KIA MOTORS to sell us a car on lease. We only needed about 4 Co-signers and had to take the cheapest car with the highest interest rate....but hey....it was a car none-the-less. After two years of living in a smelly apartment, we managed to save enough money in a RRSP to buy our first house. WHAT A NIGHTMARE. The only house we could afford in a semi-decent neighbourhood, was the only house that was falling apart and had a HORRIBLE rock garden in the front and back of the house. Well, we had come this far and was not about to give up, so we rolled up our sleeves and started working our butts off. With the help of our FANTASTIC father-(in-law) and a $10 000 loan, we bought the Home Depot "Bible" and got to work. We have now been in our home for a little over two years. With constant work every day through the winter and summer, we have totally renovated the whole top floor of our home and have removed the rock garden in the front of the house and now have beautiful green grass. This year we are working on the backyard and the basement. It will probably take us another two years to complete this, but the reward for all our hard work is already starting to pay off. Just the other day I had a realtor come and evaluate our home. For the house we payed $84 500 for a little over two years ago, is now valued at $140 000. It goes to show, TIME + EFFORT + PATIENCE + HARD WORK = RESULTS. I am now 26 years old, I have just had a baby girl and is currently in the process of sponsoring my parents to immigrate. I DID IT. YOU CAN TO!! Thank you for reading my story. Stop listening to everyone's bull crap. Get inspired, not de-motivated. It is people who want everything served to them on a GOLDEN PLATTER without having to work for it, that create stupid websites like 8 REASONS NOT TO COME TO CANADA. Today I am worth more than all my freinds STILL LIVING WITH MOM AND DAD IN SOUTH AFRICA. I have since upgraded to a better car and have been overseas twice. Life is good and will only get better. GAURANTEED! --Previous Message--
on 4/25/2006, 8:29:06, in reply to "TOP EIGHT REASONS NOT TO IMMIGRATE TO CANADA"
24.78.231.40
Hi there everyone,
If you need motivation or have a story similar to mine...I'd love to hear from you. What we need are more people who are positive and less people who are negetive. Contact me at: taracanning@gmail.com
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: TOP EIGHT REASONS NOT TO IMMIGRATE TO CANADA
: http://www.NotCanada.com
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