American living in Canada
I met my Canadian husband in November 2015, in my hometown New York City. We instantly clicked and connected, since the minute I met him I knew he was going to be someone important in my life. He is a former Air Force pilot and still flies as an aerobatic pilot on his own jets now. As our relationship progressed, I never thought anything of moving to Canada, I thought of it as an extension of USA (after all it is part of North America). My son, who was 8 at the time and I; moved to Canada in the beginning of 2017, but to our surprise (my Canadian husband included), when I went to register my son to school, I was told that to acquire a permit to attend, we needed to apply for the Permanent Residency status from within Canada and if we choose this route, we would get permit to attend immediately but we could not travel until we acquire the Permanent Residency status. I immediately knew I would not be OK with that, being that my entire family lived in USA and I knew only my husband in Canada. We thought of going somewhere in the border of US/Canada to rent a place so that my son could attend school there and we would not be so far from my then boyfriend. We settled for Buffalo and moved on one of the North towns of Buffalo, called Amherst (nice place with excellent schools). We got married in August 2017 and immediately submitted our Permanent Resident application. The process lasted almost 2 years although I have NO CRIMINAL RECORD. It was strange that we filed the paperwork at the same time my cousin (who married a Canadian) and was born in Dominican Republic did. He was approved as a Permanent Resident to Canada in 8 months. My son and I lived in Amherst, NY for almost 2 years. After many background checks (from all states I lived prior (2 states to be exact – Florida & New Jersey) and a detailed background check from the FBI) were cleared, I was able to be to come live with my husband in Canada in February 2019. Although, I was happy living in Buffalo because it was different than NYC but still felt like home; I knew as a wife I had to come to Canada to live at my home that my husband built brand new and had been living alone since July 2017. After my son finished that school year, we moved from Amherst, NY (Buffalo) to Canada. It was July 2019. Our house was built in a rural town named Tillsonburg, it is off London, ON (the 5th biggest city in Ontario, with a population of 383,437 as of 2016) and about 1.5 hours away from Toronto, ON (the 1st biggest city with a population of 2.8M as of 2016). We moved there because my husband wanted to live close to his planes that were at a hanger in this town. This town is not truly diverse but to be frank Canada itself (in my opinion) is not diverse, except for the bigger cities like Toronto, Ottawa, and Quebec City. The larger groups of immigrants I have seen here are Indian and Asians. I was working in my field in Buffalo, NY as an Accountant, so I thought, I can just submit my resume and dive right into my field in Canada. After many failed interviews and before I became frustrated, someone was “nice enough” to tell me I had “NO CANADIAN EXPERIENCE”. I could not help but to think: 1) How can a newcomer (as they call immigrants) have Canadian experience? 2) Aren’t numbers the same in every country? 3) Was this a form of prejudice? It was not until I landed an interview in a company that was close to where I lived. That I understood the problem…. The company was interested in my skills and I even landed a second interview, the manager pointed out that he was interested in me and someone else, so he would give us a second interview and decide then. As I arrived at the second interview, a Canadian lady was coming out of the room that the interview was being held, wearing Birkenstocks (Canadians use these often at least where I lived) but I did not think it was appropriate for a business work environment. But remembered I now lived elsewhere and maybe this was OK here in Canada or specifically where I lived. I thought the interview went well and I was happy and hopeful I would get hired for the job, but the job was offered to the Canadian lady instead. I did not think much of it but did think it was awkward that a lady with Birkenstocks landed a job, but I continued my job search. I landed another interview with an American company, but obviously I was interviewed by Canadians because this is Canada. The manager and I clicked, and all went well, he even hired me. I was to start the following Monday. Before I got too overexcited, I received and email from the manager apologizing to me because he needed to back out of the offer, he told me it was an “upper management” decision. Again, there I was jobless (I have never been jobless in all my adult life in America because I was an Accountant, and this field is one where you always have a job). To make the long story short, I eventually stopped looking for a job in Canada. Recently, my friend’s husband who is Canadian told me that they like hiring Americans that live in America. They even offer them more money and relocation expenses to come work here. But ones an American is here in Canada it is harder to secure a job from within the country. Had I known, I would have applied while living in NYC or Buffalo.