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I am a resident of Toronto for the past 11 years now. I moved here from Calgary because back then I had a better opportunity. I was an aspiring pastry chef. I landed in pretty stable and well paid job. I've already noticed the changes in city a few years before the pandemic. The drug addiction and mental health problem were already quite evident as injection sites were popping up around the cities including public parks. Then the pademic happened, it exposes the cracks in our society, some people are becoming selfish and intolerant. I lost my job due to the pandemic, it was very traumatic, I developed severe anxiety/depression. Luckily, i had some savings when it all happened. Fastforward, I've been working in the last 2 years now but I can no longer find the same job and pay I used to have. Most companies are now more ruthless. They let go employees any minute as soon as they felt the business is slow. There's no more job security. The only reason why I am surviving is because I am living in the same apartment since i moved here. However, my new neighbours who just moved in are paying twice as much. I've been attempting to leave the city but that would mean that i would be paying at least twice of my current rent and there aren't much opportunities elesewhere. I honestly felt trapped in my current situation but I am still grateful that I am still better off than many people who are already living on the edge. Sadly, the situation is only getting worst according to many analysts. I think the country is at a breaking point in many aspects.

Student Visa is not a ticket for PR status that's why it is called student visa to study, these people don't get that. If you want PR status just apply for Permanent residency path plain and simple.

I always knew that the best way to imigrate to the US/CA was coming as a TOURIST, overstay, wait until you find someone and get married to someone and get a permanent residency. There's no other way. It shouldn't be that way... but...

Can couples who are on tourist visa get a residence if they have a child in Canada?

I'm a permanent resident in Canada, and I'm on track to become a citizen in a couple years. My sister is a head doctor at one of the biggest and most well known and well respected hospitals in the US. She's saved countless children. And it took her 10 years to get her green card and additional years to become a citizen. It took me 3+ years to get my permanent residence and it'll have taken me 6-7 years to become a citizen. And I'm just an animator. \n\nCanada's immigration system is expensive and time consuming, but it's fair, has a reasonable time frame, and it's much less arbitrary than the systems in the USA. I have my fair share of complaints but I feel exceptionally lucky that the system doesn't feel like it's actively working against me.

Comments from a Canadian. Homeless people are generally concentrated in the larger cities but in the past few years it has become a real problem. It is a real problem for the people when the temperature drops to -30C. Mental wellness is a huge issue. The racism issue is mainly against the indigenous. The doctor migration to the US is a money thing, not better conditions. Getting a family doctor is easy in some places and difficult in others, generally in rural communities. Getting a reference to a specialist is not an issue and I believe this may be a doctor specific issue. If your GP does not refer you, ER will take care of you. The issue with referrals is the triage system that may result in a longer wait to see the specialist. This is in contrast to the US where one can see a specialist very quickly, if one has insurance. In Canada, every citizen and legal resident has the ability to receive medical care as covered by the provincial medical systems which differs from province to province. Many doctors are now offering online communication with your GP and specialist. Your finance comments are inaccurate. There are 5 nation wide banks but there are also nation wide credit unions and provincial banks which in my opinion these tend to offer better service than the big 5 (exclude National Bank, which is big bank but more investment focused). Cell carrier monopolies is a real issue. Cell carriers are recently offering unlimited data, no long distance to the US, etc. Other countries have a definite advantage here. The government has enabled conditions for a new carrier a few times but eventually, these smaller carriers get swallowed up by the big national carriers. More recently Rogers bought out Shaw which limits our choices further. Sales tax is not always 10-15%. In Alberta the sales tax is 5%. Passing courses and evaluations ensures there are standards which is a good thing. Would you want a Civil Engineer designing a road or bridge that is not suitable for the climate? How about a doctor with questionable credentials? Agree with your recommendations for hiring. It is expensive to hire and train a new employee but can be much more expensive to fire an employee. Agree with the housing crisis comments and the reasons. Getting an absent owner to fix a property? This is crazy inaccurate. Multi-dwelling properties have property managers paid to look after the properties regardless of who owns it. While on the average, foreign investment may not seem to contribute to property prices, this is not the case when looking a the local sectors of the big two - Toronto and Vancouver. There was a case in Vancouver where a property with a shack sold for over $1MM. This is not because the house price was unrealistic, but because of the property location and perceived property value. This is a direct result of foreign investment in houses in the Vancouver area resulting in a lack of properties. Many of these foreign owned single family investment properties remain empty most of the year. Another big issue in many Canadian municipalities is the lack of building code enforcement. The laws are in place but not always enforced.

I just hope Canada can fix its housing crisis because that is severe. But if it can get low enough for people to live a comfortable life then it probably would be preferred by many, including United States residents. Like not having a life of excess but one without major worries day in and day out. It also helps that Canada in general is much better at providing public service than the US whether it be healthcare or public transit.

What's the point of getting permanent residency if your education is viewed as worthless by employers?

There's so many negatives to Canada's system and its obvious Canada's insane increase in immigration is only lowering wages, increasing housing prices, importing ethnic tensions and propping up minimum wage jobs. Canada's TFW and foreign student programs don't follow our scoring system. And they're complete scams. Indians come here to study at DeVry college at a strip mall while working full time at Tim Hortons living 6 people to an apartment and they eventually get permanent residency. Canada has a rapidly declining quality of living.

I dont really get it. My father was a farmer from a non-latin 3rd world country and somehow managed to get Spanish citizenship after years of living in Catalonia. Naturally I also received it. I managed to get permanent residency in the UK despite not even being an adult yet, and none of our families being employed by highly skilled labour nor having any connectiond to the UK except from the fact that we have lived there for a few years

When i was getting my Canadian permanent residence around 2015-2016, they didnt just automatically give it to you if you stayed and worked for 3 years after graduating. You had to gain at least one year of work experience in canada at a certain managerial level of seniority in those 3 years in order to qualify for permanent residence, which is very hard to do as a new graduate. I didnt manage to gain that full year in time before my 3 year work permit expired, so had to go through a very stressful experience of getting a temporary work permit for one more year tied to my shitty employer at the time. Only after that was I able to complete that required year as a manager and eventually qualify for PR. If they removed that rule since then, thats awesome

Canada's pretty broken too. Good luck getting your sibling a permanent residence for example. Just as f*cked as the US.

You don't even need to study or work in Canada to get permanent residency, I just filled some forms online, got invited, showed some documents and got mine. I never even visited the country before and the first time I landed was as a PR.\n\nA college in Canada is the long route to get PR, but it's pretty much guaranteed. If you already have work experience outside Canada, 2 diplomas and good english/french you can go straight to PR.

The funny thing is you didn’t even touch on how in Canada you can get permanent residency in just 3 years by going to a college here and working at a Tim Hortons. I really wish that was an exaggeration.

I lived in the US for most of my adult life, so until around 10 years ago. I lived in the South, including Florida (which I loved at the time although the residents there had a crappy attitude). My husband was a refugee in the 70s and is a Canadian, so we moved up here after marrying. I would NOT consider moving back willingly. The politics, the racism, the anti-LGBTQ, anti-women, anti-intelligence, the lack of health care...it all just makes for a really ugly existence. That said, it's also getting tough to stay here due to housing prices.

Umm has no one seen resident evil just get out the mini guns

My advice for Canada:\n1 - obviously LOWER THE TAXES ! ... this is basically a SCAM! ... 30$/h may sounds good while in reality is less than 20$/h because of hidden fees(Taxes) ... YOU ARE SCAMMING PPL!\n\n2 - Its utterly stupid to ask for doctors and architects when you don't have a proper vacancy waiting for them, make the immigration process way easier , as soon as a vacancy represents itself act on it and get the ppl in, don't do all the licensing/registrations ... all that over kill process slow the whole thing down , let them learn by doing !! ... that would get the ball going way easier and way faster! , just make sure immigrants who are willing to do it have a good understanding of english.\n\n3 - Easy up on the registration/licensing process , not everything needs to be perfect , let the doctors, architects and technicians work as Interns Immediately or even Pre-Interns .... that way you would have more doctors and no body needs to wait for 2 years for a fkin CHECK UP! ... that is sooo buzzer and I bit its only getting worse!\n\n 4 - try make organized Social events to allow people to socialize better with each other and make friends or families...\n 5 - for the climate, doing nothing 9 months a year is stupid! and boring! , u must find a way to make inclosed warm facilities for newcomers and residents to enjoy.

For me, I live in Vancouver, but when I'm done college, I'm hoping to find a job in Seattle and immigrate there. They recently opened up a Pokemon HQ there, Nintendo's hiring, Seattle's the HQ of Bungie, the maker of the Destiny games and much more! I feel like it's easier to find a job in the US than in Canada. In fact, my college instructor said so. There's more jobs there than in this small town. I'm heading towards SFU and I'm hoping to land a few coops, including one in Seattle to see if I like it there. And no, I do not care about healthcare, mass shootings or politics. The chances of you randomly being shot is about the same as getting ran over by a car. For healthcare, it's usually provided by your employer. But otherwise, you can buy it yourself as there's many options to choose from. Some of them are really good, but people are just overgeneralizing everything. My hope is that employment will eventually lead to permanent residency. Then, I can go buy a house in Texas, Florida or Colorado where it's much cheaper than Vancouver

What did he think was gonna happen? You were already in the US, which comparatively speaking to Central America, is much safer by every metric. Why would you then leave the US to come to Canada? Of course you can’t seek asylum because you’re not a refugee. \n\nDon’t get me wrong, I believe that if people follow the legal procedures for the country they wish to reside in, they should at least have a chance at residency. However, this guy is an economic migrant, and if he wishes to live in Canada then you shouldn’t be filing for asylum, you need to apply for residency. But the fact that he was already undocumented in the US means that he risks deportation if he re-enters. Congrats, you played yourself and you’ve put your family in jeopardy. \n\nAbusing the asylum claims system is going to ruin it for those who actually need help. Get it right or go back home.

These days people are flooding to Canada choosing Student Visa however their main intention is to get Permanent Resident. However, Canada needs to take actions on those fraudulent students and their fake intention as it would spoil the canadian society.

Imagine being a black indigenous people here for over 400+ years they don't acknowledge us as indigenous and being black just as bad as the US but they're very silent about it. This is all over Canada sadly. Even in Toronto Ontario there's a lot of discrimination as well even in Nova Scotia where a lot of black indigenous people reside... Or the largest group of black folks but sadly we've done it to ourselves when you look at this history.. 2023 and we still have no solid change at being looked at as an equal... When we get our resources together and start practicing nepatism perhaps things may change but we still have a long ways to go... And it's overwhelmingly sickening.. especially when we gaslighting situations.

Holy...Mother of God! At this rate, we either have to terraform the Mid-Western desert into a liveable environment or face the problem of hospitable living space shortage. If we also ignore that shortage, then several decades later, the USA, being the tendency to act humanitarian, policies will require architecting new land expansion outwards to the sea, prior historic example is Hong Kong being a small crowded island. That solution or build vertical. Going underground or expanding upwards on sky scrapers multi-story apartments. Or to the Moon or Mars.\n\nWhy does the physical composition of these Central Americans and South-Americans people drive their sex-drive outrageously out of control? Is the cause the high protein meat diet? Or their inherently healthy tropical nature born of the sun's vitalizing energy? Whichever the cause, America will sooner or later face the biggest population crisis eventually in the future. \nThere are two choices of action at the moment. Either control this type of uncontrollable surge or plan huge architectural civil projects in order to meet the future need of population boom accompanionship. Dear God almightly, help us all. I presently also have a mouse problem and cockroach problem at my residence! Gasp! Sigh...?\nI wish I have an alien ship capeable of interstellar travel, so I can get the FUCK off this planet.

Hello,pls want to ask are u the one to choose the city to reside also in terms of work is it wen u get to Canada u start looking for work or u get from home country before anything\nPls can I chat u up cos we need a guide..thank u

US border should be shut down till we can take care of our own and those legal residents that have jumped through legal hoops to stay here legally. Not those who just decide to run across. and don't get me started on those terriost that have already gotten through.

That's the importance of America's involvement in other countries. The places these people are fleeing is where the answer to this problem resides. Nothing and no one will stop people from trying to get to a better place, it's human nature. Mexico has everything to do with this which creates new avenues for long term changes that would demand their participation, failure to do so would have...consequences. After all, that's where they're coming from prior to crossing into the U.S. This can be corrected.

Canada is stupidly cold ? and boring! Canada will make you depressed... After getting the permanent residence and so? Canada is over hyped nothing special about Canada...After 5years you will get depressed and start considering a relocation to America....I relocated back to Nigeria, now I am looking all fresh n healthy

@Suleeha, for permanent resident studying nursing in Ontario, do they get any student benefit like how the NHS give £5000 and Government give some money to mental health student nurses as support? This is aside the school fee… please, I need your response on this. Thanks

Latin here, I came here legally but I can tell you that it was difficult as hell for my mom to bring me here, it took money and years for that, but I want you as a fellow citizen to understand their situation first, in Latin America you could be graduation from college and even with that having a good job it’s difficult sometimes, unlike here education in Latin America is not always something that all people can get and every time they vote for someone it becomes more trashier, housing for the poor doesn’t even exist, half of the country is corrupt and going outside you don’t who you may find, my brother needs to wait 7 years to become a resident (not citizen) he will be 30 something at that point, what the government should do is make the residency easier and I can tell you something like this wouldn’t occur that easily, my mom is a lawyer in my country and I can tell you the situation wasn’t easy, every three times a week there would be shooting outside my house, drug dealer was my neighbor, and at the age of 15 there would parents of two kids the sad part all this is normal, stopping it is imposible because it gets you kill, the police will kill you for doing a peaceful protest just to stop feminicide, wanting your kid to go outside without being scare something would happen to them, this people want peace and a job that is it and when your own country doesn’t even give you the right for that how could you live? Latin America is like living in the worst state in U.S multiply by 1000 and happening the same thing every day, riots or protest are imposible there because you know the police will never go the peaceful way, what this people are doing is wrong but they just want to live, it even surprise how much people hate their president here when in Latin America there hasn’t been any good president in decades. Before someone tells me something, like I say what they are doing is wrong and it’s painful to watch, something should not be happening in the first place but it is happening and I hope the situation gets better but like I say before saying something disrespectful or out of place to these people, understand their situation first

Folks, I need to educate many for a second. When you immigrate to this country you DO NOT become a citizen when you get legal clearance. You can become a permanent resident at best which means you can live, work and do most other things here legally. You DO NOT get to vote or work in government agencies as a lawful permanent resident. To become a citizen you have to wait a minimum of 3 years, or more depending on your permanent resident status, to then apply for citizenship. You then apply for the citizenship application and if accepted the process requires you to take a test and go through a series of questions about U.S. history and government knowledge in an interview that you need to pass, before you are awarded citizenship. Through this process you are SUPPOSED to be committing yourself to the United States of America as someone who denounces your allegiance to your old country and is now pledging your allegiance to the U.S. This is now your home country and you treat it as such. You are now an AMERICAN, not a whatever from wherever that just lives in America. It should be a big deal and one to be proud of. I know people that have been here for 25 years as a permanent resident and they still have no desire to become a citizen. They have lived off of this country, raised families in this country, worked and benefitted from this country and still align with their old country and are completely amiss to what it means to become a U.S. citizen. There is a reason that only citizens are allowed to vote! Because you should have an allegiance to America and should vote accordingly and not be allowed to work in our governmental agencies for the same reason. Legal status and citizenship are NOT the same.

Why you seeing this? Because your states drink coffee & eat chocolate, sugar all has to come up if you wont go in to pick it up then your states has no kinder gentler gratuity for their putting up With the demands coming from your states chef's and schools for tropical fruits and all the stuff everyone has to stand aside to get to you up there north if the border States. We ture of putting up with your demands up there, too, from California. We lose a ton to the far North and northeast of California, then you send residebts down here to take space so People feel underpraised by the tax of it which is SSi - less than minimum wage to move for your accomodations we would've been happy to fill the job seats of had you chosen to speak up for us as survivors of the northernmost demands. \n\nThat sentiment has been sent around. Yes we di feel the pressure to survive the deaf ears we're being turned when the fix is as easy as dare to Try an old idea that People up high keep trying to shove down. \n\n\nI said DEMAND SACRAMENTO GIVE MINIMUM WAGE TO POOR CALIFORNIA BORN RESIDENTS ON 501C3 SERVICES OR YOU ARE BUYING THESE CROWDS IN AGAINST THEIR WILL.

Chinese and Indian contribute immensely to the US economy, specially Indians who are mostly active in STEM fields, yet they have to wait the longest to get permanent residency.

My parents immigrated to this country LEGALLY. It took them years to get permanent residency. These people are not above the law. They should fight for their country with the same passion they’re trying to cross the border illegally. It’s NOT fair to those who waited in line to enter this country LEGALLY.

OMG did Alejandro Myorkas finally get the message from 300m residents ?

What about the people who have legally arrived here and have been waiting for permanent residents for years and years? People who just cross the border will get PR in a year.

My journey to permanent citizenship took 5 long hard years of hard work, impeccable record of residency with no issues with any law or law enforcement, slogged through employment at the company who sponsored (much lesser pay). Citizenship took another 5 years of impeccable record. \nPaid taxes since day 1 to Uncle Sam.\n\nOne more thing … People born here have no housing, food or they live in projects.\n\nNow these people walk over the border in Mass and will get free everything. TX is getting inundated with illegal immigrants by the hoards. Shame on Dems for letting this get worse like this.

Canada is soo weird. University students who spend 100k+ on education and are in the Canadian system are having problems getting residency, whereas shady people who get here illegally or get residency by immoral do it without much problem. I mean not even illegals but some south asians who are literally scamming and exploiting the system, have no problem and then when you take people from very low income class enter your country and who do uncivilized things you are astonished what else you are expecting a lot of them are uneducated who are not civilized, make your screening process better, if you want immigrants due to labour shortages and slow population increase, try to incorporate students and potential people who have more chances to fit your society. This trend will lead to an anti-immigrant narrative. We have seen a similar trend in Europe. They took the worst people in who were problematic in their countries to begin with

My dad came here undocumented at 15 and he was working at a Cadillac dealership for a year. He saved up and got his first car a Datsun 240z. He ended up getting granted amnesty. He kept working hard and eventually married my mom and brought her over here as a permanent resident. My dad didn't over run the border and he wasn't asking for welfare. My fiances dad has been here 20 years and he hadn't been able to get his permanent residency despite his wife being a permanent resident. He pays his taxes with his itin and does the right thing besides being here undocumented. I think they won't legalize him because he pays his taxes. If he stopped they'll probably legalize him because to the government all they care about is your money.

There is no system in place or functional process. There used to be that you had an employer sponsor a foreign worker and he/ she would get a work permit and later apply for a legal residency status that would later qualify them for a 3 year residency green card that they would renew and after a time they can go for a US citizen status. That stoped when all the US factories left and tech came in. Now many, business, tech, or science and finance educated people get that option. ?

I mean, isn't this clear cut in most countries? Illegal migrants should be sent back right away. To deter this, second time maybe 2 weeks in jail, then deport.\nI'm sorry but we spent about 7 years getting to be residents and then citizens. We had to go through interviews, in depth medical tests/hostory, financial and education or skilled trade scrutiny, so we are a net benefit to Canadian society. Some also spend tens of thousands, sometimes their life savings, on the fees and paperwork, which also takes years.\nRefugees from war, etc are different, but if you just feel like it's a better life and opportunity, there are official channels to apply to be a permanent resident.

It's funny they try to migrate to countries with immense taxes for their citizens and legal workers, and with social programs paid by these tax dollars. All they have to do is get there somehow and illegally OfCourse, and then give birth to couple of dozens of kids then and bingo. They work for cash, doesn't pay taxes and make use of social programs paid by legal residents who pay taxes. So unfair and people who have sympathy for them should at least accommodate one or two families in their own homes after preaching about others being accommodating.

Send them back. I came to canada in 2017 as an international student, paid shit tons of money for housing, tuition fees. Worked full time after graduation,yet my immigration process is taking long. Evey step I took went through proper screening, and yet it's taking forever. Send them back. At this point theres no gurantee for people like me to get permanent residence over here. With all the back logs etc. So why should they be granted status, while my work permit expires in 6 months and immigration officers wont bother to answer my phone calls for extension. I have paid my taxes, I have obeyed the law. I'm a law abiding citizen. At this point, I'm even thinking of going back. This country wants new talents and more people to add to their workforce. But if they treat people like me like this. Then we might as well go back.

We need to stop this. Too many illegals are stealing jobs from Canadians. They come here and get hired for cash under the table by their friends friends and avoid paying taxes which hurts our economy. Those jobs can be given to Canadians that need jobs and are willing to pay taxes. If we locked this country down for a couple weeks while the army did a full sweep of all the residents, it would benefit the lower class Canadians

Haha, you gotta see the swiss - they sell themselves as the paradise on earth and everyone who works there will tell you the truth - it has nothing to do with paradise...\nChauvinistic country with extremely high staff turnover rates due to bad working conditions and if you have to use some social welfare - your residence permit / visa gets cancelled, so you have to leave.

These people should of known getting arrested means having a criminal record you will never get a resident visa, citizenship, nor permit there and after jail time it's eventually deportation.

There are some things about our healthcare system that are annoying, but I'm ok with it overall. I'm Canadian born and haven't had a family doctor since mine passed away years ago, but clinics and emergency rooms are good enough for me. I was never a sickly sort. Crossing my fingers and hoping that these post COVID symptoms will eventually go away without all kinds of prodding by annoying doctors. I also plan to make use of these cancer screening appointments the province mailed to me last month. Not sure if they do that for everybody, or if there's a switch that gets flipped when Canadian residents reach a certain age.

Another question. I have trouble getting past the Contact information of the applicant. The Countries or territories of residence. It keeps asking me to redo the Countries or territories of residence section. I fill there current address which is China and they have citizenship there From 2019 (I check This is where I currently Live). Then I add Canada date from 2018 to 2019, fill status as visitor because they visited us then. And it never lets me Save and Continue. or Should I be filling from their birthdate(1950) for how long there have been living there and Add Canada dates? I thought it only wanted last 5 years...

Funny how the Media takes what is real And twists the story to the people .......This guy was NOT an Immigrant This is an Illegal Alien that lied and smuggled him And others into the USA and was there for many years And left the USA by Smuggling once again himself and others into a 2nd country So he has lied Im sure has false documents And one of the reasons he was denied How was he able to work with an expired permit? Taxes? so there is a few more broken laws And if he hurts himself ..The tax payer flips the bill ........And while you might think I'm racist His country has not less that 15 other countries around his ...Any yet they flock to the USA And Canada ...It has nothing to do with how nice And proud it would be to be an American Or Canadian They want our way of life They want to be Equal Untill They are required to lose something like a turban riding a motorcycle instead of a hulmult Then gets into a crash And yup You pay the brain injury bills ...There is a counsel trying to slowly get Punjab words on city street names And products in an Ontario city that has more Indian residents than any other culture While complaining to the city of overcrowded parks And the garbage in them..Overcrowded and polluted Now where have i heard that before....

Full time and part time employees are entitled to 4 weeks vacation here in Australia, I don’t know anyone who only gets 4 tho, most get 5 to 6. Also, theres Medicare for all permanent residents and citizens; 18 weeks maternity leave— 3 months paid. There are 12 public holidays and just Far Less Crime. When people ask me if I miss “home”… I share that I miss good and easy access to stuff… but friends can visit me here, and I’ll pay extra for the things I enjoy to be mailed. The only major thing is as a black girl getting my hair done… lordddd ?. \n\nI’ve lived in Cambodia, Thailand, Spain and Gibraltar traveling solo. The more I traveled safer I felt despite never feeling too unsafe in the states when I lived there, I did when I traveled across country at times. It took me some time to feel into this new level of “ahhhhh this is what safety feels like!! Mom, come feel this! U can go for a walk at 2am!”\n\nWould never move back, but I’m grateful my roots are from there.

Canada does not want nor need any South Asian immigrants. These people are just trying to get into Canada to become residents....and it won't work.

Hi Anna,\n I was wondering if you could recommend an agency I could approach to find work in involving duel composite repairs (fibre glass and epoxy repairs).\n I've been working in this field of work for 5 years now in the UK and I would like to move to Victoria BC. The hole process of getting a visa and finding work in another country is very daunting to me and would like to use an agency to remove a lot of the stress and confusion of the application process. \nThe reason behind wanting to go to Victoria is because my partner has moved there on a working holiday visa and found a job already. I'm 32 and can't get the same visa unfortunately, so I have to find a job before getting a visa (I think). \nIs an agency the easiest route to getting over there and being able to work?\nWe also aim towards permanent residency if we like it there.\n\nAny help and advice will be much appreciated. \n\nThank you in advance ?