My eBook, How To Immigrate To Canada For Skilled Workers: The Authoritative Guide To Federal And Provincial Opportunities is available now on Amazon and other online retailers. Get your copy of the essential guide to Skilled Worker class applications today!

For Kindle
For iPad/iPhone
For Nook
For Kobo
For Sony eReader

Also available is my new eBook, "How To Immigrate To Canada In The Family Class: The Authoritative Guide Including Québec And Super Visa Opportunities". Get it at Amazon or the other e-retailers noted above.

Sunday, May 08, 2011

He only arrived with one suitcase

One of the big issues I'm facing as I prepare to immigrate is what to bring into Canada with me to start and what to follow later. Upon landing, a new immigrant is required to present:

  • Two (2) copies of a detailed list of all the personal or household items you are bringing with you

  • Two (2) copies of a list of items that are arriving later and their money value


  • These must be items that you already own and not things you bought just prior to moving to Canada. You account for these items on Forms B4 and B4A.

    So I've got my lists together now and I'm looking at them and the question comes - do I really need to take all this stuff? Where are we going to put it? Should I sell what I'm not taking? Will I want it later? These are not decisions free of stress. I'm finding most of what I really want to take with me isn't stuff like blenders and TV's and such - most of it is like my history - photos and archives and all that. The other stuff, if my love doesn't already have it for her (our) place, it would be fun to get it together, rather than have her inherit my old things.

    So tonight I'm feeling like I'm leaving this land and I can't take much with me, so I'm asking myself, what's really important? It's a tough question. It's part of the adjustment.

    You know how you read about the classic immigrants tale - "he only arrived with one suitcase...." Well, there's a reason for that. It's near impossible to bring your life with you. What you can pack in a suitcase may be all that fits. I'm going to have to pack carefully.

    1 comment:

    1. I recently left my job and finally shifted to Canada. As my wife stayed back in Canada during our first landing, I did most of the packing; we asked ourselves the same question. So we decided to sell off most of the things and pack clothes & books only. Its really not worth to go through the whole process of taking all the materialistic things with you. One just ends up spending more money managing the logistics of it.

      ReplyDelete