Arriving In Canada

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Here I wanted to share a little about our experience arriving in Canada for the first time as a Temporary Resident (Worker).

Flights

We flew into Calgary with a connection to Vancouver. We opted to do this to save on flight costs. We flew with WestJet from London Heathrow which took just over 8 and a half hours. The flight was great, as good as long-haul flights I've done with British Airways and Virgin. Plenty of leg room, comfortable cabin, great entertainment (though I didn't use it, I just looked out the window!), and decent food. The cabin crew were great.

The flight from Calgary to Vancouver was much more what you'd expect from a budget airline like RyanAir or EasyJet, but I would add that it felt a little more upmarket with snacks and drinks included. The flight was a short hop of 58 minutes, no issues at all.

Flights are regular from Calgary to Vancouver, so we opted for a conservative 5 hour wait. This gave us plenty of time to sort our Work Permits, get some food, stretch our legs and have a nap.

Seat Tips

If you want views of Greenland and to increase your chance of seeing the Northern lights (only on a night flight), choose seats on the right and side of the aircraft. Depending on the landing regime of Calgary that day, you may also get to see the Rockies on your final approach too!

Views over Greenland - What was odd with this flight was that we experienced a perpetual sunset. The sun only just dipped below the horizon and it stayed there. This is an effect of traveling West at sunset in winter, you are chasing the sun as it sets. Proof the Earth is spherical!

Calgary Airport

Upon landing at Calgary, we headed to the Customs Declaration kiosks. We both completed our declarations on the ArriveCan app the day before, which was straightforward. When you get to the kiosks (the first thing you have to do on arrival), you have to pop in some details and it will load up your declaration from the app. I had to agree that it was still correct and provide finger prints on the scanner, and a photograph. The machine printed me a declaration form which you need to keep ahold of. Claudia had a different experience. Her kiosk wouldn't find her declaration so she had to do it all again on the screen, it didn't ask for a photo, nor finger prints, and the printed declaration form was blank. We did it again and got the same result so figured we'd push on and go to the immigration counters.

Immigration (Passport Control)

At the immigration counter, a board officer checked our declaration forms and sent us a specific way, we were both sent the same way despite Claudia's form being blank. The immigration counter allowed us to go up together as we were travelling together. We informed the Border Officer that we were here to work and needed to obtain our IEC Work Permit. We passed over our Passports and declaration forms, which she checked. The officer laughed when we informed her that Claudia completed the declaration on the app but the machine didn't find it leading us to believe it's not the first time. The officer checked with Claudia that she had answered the questions on the kiosk and then stamped her declaration form. The officer then explained what we needed to do next.

Work Permit

Both of our declaration forms had a big 'E' written on them by the Border Officer. We were told to exit into the baggage collection hall and go left towards the big 'E' sign. We walked to the left side of the hall, then down into the corner with the 'E' sign. This was the work permit office. We walked into the office and was greeted with tonnes of signage, basically we had to grab a number ticket and go sit down. There were 3 people in there plus us. After 10 mins, we were called up together. We explained we were collecting our IEC work permits. The Immigration Officer asked us for our passports, letters of introduction (also called the point of entry letter), and health insurance documents. This was all she needed despite me asking if she wanted to see any other documents. She sent us off to sit down while she processed the permits. About 5 mins later we were called up and our work permits were issued. She explained the document to us and recommended we take photos of both sides. She advised we must keep the original documents as photocopies or scans will not be accepted anywhere (the photo we took was so we can find the contact numbers and details if we needed to call IIRC).

We checked the work permit had the correct date of expiry, that the Employer was OPEN and the Occupation was OPEN. We noted that the Location said UNKNOWN, yet the gov website said it should say OPEN. We checked with the officer and she advised thats correct as IIRC don't know where we will work, it could be anywhere in Canada. I was reassured this was correct.

After this we headed down the ramp into the baggage hall and towards the exit. Border Officers collected our declarations and allowed us to leave. From here we had to follow signs for Connecting Flights and go back through security into the departure lounge ready for our next flight.

From landing to getting our work permit took about an hour. We found the immigration officers to be firm but friendly, and they were super helpful and no question was too small.

A Moose & A Canada Goose - These were some of the cool art installations at Calgary Airport. We look surprisingly chipper to say we'd been awake for nearly 20 hours at this point!

Vancouver Airport

When we landed in Vancouver we headed straight to baggage collection, then out of the terminal. No border checks as it was a domestic flight. I will note that we stood waiting for about 10 mins for our final case to come off the baggage carousel only to realise it had been brought up the lift at the far end of the baggage hall with the 'Oversized Items'. It was just sat there waiting for us...odd. The total damage to our cases was a missing wheel and smashed corner. Not bad going.

A few things to note:

If you are getting picked up by taxi/uber, you can go straight out of the terminal and they will be there. If its a normal pickup/lift, you have to go down to level 1.
The baggage carousel is brutal to your cases, ours came flying out the top and hit a barrier which smashed the corner. my case was one of many which got damaged!

Art Installations - If you have time definitely check out the art in the Arrivals area of Vancouver Airport before you leave. Here are some First Nations sculptures. Admittedly I didn't find a sign so this could be original or inspired art. Regardless it was great to see!

Summary

So with all that out the way, we are free to explore Canada. We found the travel to be just fine and immigration wasn't anything too stressful. The more organised you are, the easier going the process will be.

I hope this was helpful and as always feel free to get in touch if you have any questions!

Cheers!

Created by Niall Bell (niall@niallbell.com)