COVID-19 impact on express entry

COVID-19 has had a great impact worldwide and the Canadian immigration system is no exception. This pandemic has slowed down immigration.

Recent rounds have been focused on candidates in Canada

Due to COVID, the recent rounds have focused on sending invites to the “Canadian Experience Class” program. These are individuals who have had at least one year of skilled work experience in Canada and of course have the language test results (such as IELTS). However some rounds also had Federal Skilled Trades and PNP. So, it will be a little slow for you if you are outside of Canada and trying to get an invite.

What if you are starting the process now?

There are few considerations if you are starting the process now. Agencies have modified the process to for a low-touch experience during COVID times.

1. Security clearance certificate – Pre-COVID, a visit to the local police station or embassy was needed to procure this certificate. Different embassies have changed their guidelines. For instance the Indian embassy in Toronto has changed its guidelines so that folks can send a copy of the passport and fill out their request form to procure the security clearance. So definitely check out their websites for revised guidelines.

2. Language test exams such as IELTS – For select countries, the “IELTS indicator” site has been launched to be able to take the test online. This is just a temporary measure for COVID. For all other countries, in-person tests are still on. Besides, to minimize impacts due to COVID, not all centers are open for business. In order to enforce physical distancing, at a time, fewer folks are allowed in the center. Masks are required during the tests. Visit the IELTS site for details.

3. Educational degree evaluation – Institutions like WES evaluate your educational degree if you had one outside of Canada. While many of the educational institutions support digital transmissions, others don’t. So if you havent procured your evaluation then there could be some delays.

4. The rest of the process should be online only. We highly recommend you to book your slots accordingly so that you can get the security clearance certificate, educational evalution and get thru the language tests sooner. Age is a factor for the express entry score. The sooner you apply the higher your score is. Your application would be there in the pool and will be picked eventually.

5. The uncertainty around US H1B visas is leading to more and more people move to the north of the border. In fact, last year itself, many people got their PR as a backup in case things got worse in the US. And it did help them. Many of them are making their way to Canada. So definitely take the 1^st step and get thru your application. The process is slow in the interim but will catch up in the coming months because the immigration PR numbers are way behind the target numbers and they ‘d like to make up for it.

6. Since many people are actively applying to Canada, the cut-off scores will increase and the earlier you submit, your chances of getting invites is higher.

7. Many folks whose applications were in progress have got to the final step but due to COVID, applicants outside Canada haven't been asked for their passports. It is just a matter of time before this part picks up.

COVID situation in Nova Scotia

Many folks have asked us this question. So we have been lucky to be in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Until now, as of 6^th Sep 2020, there are only 1085 cases and since the last 2 months there has been 0-1 active case in Nova Scotia. By and large people and the authorities have done great to control this. Masks are mandatory in indoor places like restaurants, stores etc..

Schools are opening too in fall but with obviously a much different experience. Many universities too are online but it would be interesting to see how lab experiments or practical projects which cannot be done online would be conducted. We are lucky to be able to do our jobs online and we should appreciate it more often because in a lot of fields, they don't have that luxury. With employers switching over to online way of working, more remote job opportunities are opening up.

Real estate is booming in Halifax because mortgage lenders are offering better interest rates and more people are moving over to this place from especially Toronto and Vancouver areas.

Same is the case with all our neighboring Atlantic provinces, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Since COVID is in control in these provinces, they opened the borders for the residents of these provinces I.e no 14 day quarantine needed if you reside in these provinces. Although they are tracking every out-of-state visitor. 14 day self-isolation is needed if you are traveling from anywhere else in Canada or internationally. Nova Scotia is a great tourist destination and we get a lot of visitors between April and November. That is usually a huge source of income. Until July the tourism business did take a huge hit due to restrictions. However when they opened up the Atlantic provinces we are seeing folks traveling to support these local businesses and help them cut down their losses.

We will share more info as the situation evolves with COVID. Please take care and continue working on your application!

Disclaimer - This is our experience in Halifax and others may have it differently.  I am just sharing information from my interactions with others. So, take it with a grain of salt.

Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot

In this post, I‘d like to talk about Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP).  As part of this, Canada is trying to attract immigrants to the smaller towns and cities since there are unfilled jobs and more retirees. Besides, they‘d like people to move out of saturated cities such as Toronto and Vancouver. The small cities have a much more affordable cost of living.

It doesn’t fall under the express entry program and so you aren’t competing with thousands of people in that program. As of now the pilot has 3 cities (Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Altona/Rhineland) and 8 more will be participating in it. This is a community based program and ultimately the community makes a recommendation to grant you permanent residence. Every community has its own guidelines and you‘d have to research into the community for making it thru. While you have to meet financial, education and language requirements, meeting community based guidelines is most important. Each of the cities has their own website listing the guidelines. Here is an example for Sault Ste. Marie. If you think you meet these guidelines then you can start looking for a job in that place. The jobs are there on their website. Note that the employer should give you a job offer in a specific format.

This is a great program if you are willing to move to a little-known city or town. The advantage is a small short-term move can give you permanent residency. Remember with permanent residence, you have options to start your own business or switch jobs. If you have applied for permanent residency under RNIP then you also get a one year work permit for that employer so that you can get settled in the community.

Go on to the RNIP website and check out if any of the communities interest you.

Related links - https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/rural-northern-immigration-pilot.html

PO traits

In meeting several wannabe agile enthusiasts and folks transitioning from waterfall to agile methodology, I realized that a blog post might be helpful for you to understand the traits of a product owner better. You might already be doing some pieces of it. These might be handy for you while applying for PO jobs.

The scrum guide describes the top responsibilities of a PO as below -         

• Clearly expressing Product Backlog items
• Ordering the items in the Product Backlog to best achieve goals and missions;
• Optimizing the value of the work the Development Team performs;
• Ensuring that the Product Backlog is visible, transparent, and clear to all, and shows what the Scrum Team will work on next; and
• Ensuring the Development Team understands items in the Product Backlog to the level needed.

I would like to dive deeper into this from my personal experience. This might help you transition better into the role. -

Backlog management

•  Requirements come from multiple areas; typically from business stakeholders, regulatory, technology upgrades.
• This might sound trivial but is very important. You could get requests via email, chat or meetings. You need to ensure that these get listed in your tool eg: JIRA, TFS etc. so that they don’t fall thru the cracks. If you are organized then this is going to be very helpful.
• Constantly interacting with your stakeholders is key. In your previous roles if you have been interacting with stakeholders then you certainly have one of the important PO skill sets.
• You don’t get requirements cut and dry from the different stakeholders. You have to analyze these and get it to a stage where the team can implement them. You might have to factor in technical factors too and rope in your technical lead or developer to get closure on the final set of requirements. In your previous role, if you were a business/system analyst, then you are perfectly positioned to be product owner.
• Technology upgrades and constantly addressing tech debt is the enabler to faster delivery. This is also a backlog item and the skill is to schedule these items at the right time. In some companies, this is a concept that is understood by business but in others, you have to have a conversation with your business. You are not expected to code but you need to work with your technical lead closely to understand the impact to your product.

Decision making & Stakeholder management

• A well-rounded experience definitely helps you to become a better PO. This is because you can talk to business and technical stakeholders and clearly understand what they mean. So, if you have experience on the business and technical side then that is a huge plus. It helps you connect the dots between business and technical requirements.
• What separates you from all the other roles such as a business analyst/tech lead etc. is the fact you get to decide what the team works on next. You are the one person committee that decides what the most valuable thing is to work on.
• You see the whole picture for your product – Feasibility of implementing each of the projects and the value of each of them determines the order in which you do things. In the past, your inputs could have been crucial to the different decisions made in the project. This is also a trait of a product owner.
• This means that you need to negotiate with the different stakeholders on the delivery dates of their requirements.
• Training users with your product – You are the 1^st point of contact for the product.
• Status reporting to all stakeholders – Many of the times the stakeholders are interested in only their requests and so timely status reporting brings transparency to everyone.

Your team is the biggest asset!

This is a common trait along with the scrum master. As a PO, you have to extract the most value from your team. Talking to your team opens many ideas and helps build their trust with you. It helps to make decisions that the team will support and ultimately a win-win situation. You need to be team-person and if you are not a team person then you might want to rethink your role. (Nothing wrong with that !!)

Hope this helps you plan your foray into being a product owner.

Agile/Digital transformation

You may have heard these terms in your workplace or if you are a newbie scrum master/product owner, you may wonder what this is all about. Having been part of 2 companies that are transforming, I‘d like to share some insight.

History

Let’s take you back 100 years from today! No internet, no seamless collaboration between creative minds across the world. The jobs back then are obsolete today. I don’t have to sell you on that. Specifically talking about computers and mainframes, only big companies could afford them since they used to cost a fortune and occupy space for an entire room. This was the perfect situation for big companies to thrive. Scientific advances were there but not as much to threaten the existence of big giants.

Fast forward to the early 2000s

With the rise of the internet, more creative minds collaborating throughout the world led to rise of startups. Every possible industry is digitizing and thereby information technology and software development is hot. Companies are getting closer to the end-consumer because consumers have choices – national and international. The world is getting smaller in that sense. With artificial intelligence, companies are trying to predict want the consumers want. The line between industries is also blurring. Who would have thought the meteoric rise of a company Uber would pose a threat to taxi industry! In terms of financial services, there are several small startups offering better investments than the big giants – ALL making it easy to manage your investments online. Earlier, the companies knew their competitor. But with the lines blurring, it is hard to even predict who your competitor is.

What are these big/medium companies trying to solve?

As you might have guessed, with the landscape described as above, companies today have a ton of problems. Unless you are a company that just sprung out in the last 5 years, as the COO and CIO of an older company, I would be worried.

First off, the organization structure of older companies has accumulated fat over the years. Previously, your career path looked somewhat like this; team member -> team lead -> manager -> senior manager ->  director -> vice president -> C level.  In other words, your career progression was managing team leads, departments and there were several levels to that. Over time, this has caused teams building the product to move further away from customers. It took months or even years to get features delivered due to inefficient processes of getting work prioritized. Adding several levels within the organization has not added much value. In order to be more nimble, companies have to empower their people. They want to have all the relevant people on the team for faster delivery and proximity to customers.

There are several companies that still follow the waterfall process, where problems are not exposed until the end. The “2019 state of agile” survey still denotes that there is still a significant population of companies that haven’t adopted agile. To play devil’s advocate, it requires the C Level folks to understand the problem to be able to take the risk and also astute planning to transform an organization that was using waterfall to agile. It is a big shift and cannot be done overnight.

Enter agile delivery – Companies that started following agile are in for something else. Be careful what you ask for. J Whether you follow scrum or Kanban, any form of agile exposes the flaws of the system. C-level execs can now see when teams are working on projects that they requested and when they finished. As a result, it exposes the fat in the system. One of the things that management wants to measure is the time taken from the ideation phase to customer delivery. Typically, a significant portion of the time taken is due to the time taken to even get into the team’s backlog. That is why the C level execs are looking for ways to prune that process. In one of the companies I worked, they had all these senior managers in middle management reapply for the new roles because as part of the transformation they are cutting down roles that are redundant.

Managing career progression of employees is also a very big HR and C level problem. Junior folks are concerned about what their next goal should be. They don’t want to work towards something that will be cut off. Middle management folks are frustrated because in the past, they were rewarded for being managers and not being in the trenches. For many of them it would have been years before they were part of an actual delivery and all of a sudden they lost marketable skills! It is a huge change of mindset too for these folks. It is either change or get let go. So, the C level guys have to retrain these folks for new roles.

Finding a scaling solution for the company

To compete with startups in your industry, you have to solve the additional problem of scale. By now, most of you must have heard about the “Spotify model” for agile or even he SAFE model. Many execs treat it like a silver bullet to all their problems. For sure, agile has made teams faster. However, for big/medium companies that have over 5000 employees, you have don’t have a “model” that you can apply as-is for scaling. Communications from top management to the teams needs to be improved. You have to solve the real demons facing you. For example, the “Spotify model” doesn’t really solve the problem of how an idea can get into a team’s backlog for execution. It has to be something that the top management has to figure out. If you are a regulated company, there are several processes and documentation that has to get done. If you want to do weekly or even daily releases like Amazon, Google then you have to solve these problems too. No model can tell you that. Food for thought is depending on your industry, is releasing daily required? J Is this what your customers want truly? You have to inventory the problems that are truly slowing you down and solution those with your employees. There is only so much you get for free!

Hope that this gives you some insight into agile/digital transformation that you might be hearing about.

Disclaimer – Thoughts and opinions are personal and based on the author’s experience only

Should you have technical background as a scrum master/product owner?

Agile delivery has been popular over the last few years. Although it started with software delivery, it is now popular with other industries. Sometimes during interviews for scrum master on a software team or even during conversations, you could be asked if have a technical background. Personally I did have a technical background before I turned scrum master and product owner. There are both pros and cons.

Why are people interested with technical background?

Typically what they mean is, if you have been in any part of software development – For example -Analyst, Developer, Tester. If you were in any part of software delivery, then you would have experienced SDLC i.e. software development lifecycle. More than anything, software development is collaborative work. You cannot operate in isolation. For example, you have to collaborate on design, tests, other teams. If you would have worked in a software delivery team, you would know what it is to work with other people. It is not uncommon that if you were a successful team player, then you would be empathetic towards your team. Scrum ceremonies are important but that’s not the only thing that the scrum master is responsible for. No one wants a “task master” just trying to get statuses. Soft skills are HARD and perhaps harder than learning technical skills. They would want someone that understands the team’s problems.

Organization structure

Every organization is different and form scrum teams differently. Some teams are truly full cycle i.e. extremely less dependency on external teams. In my opinion though, many companies can never truly have full cycle teams because eventually they are too big to be independent. You could be more efficient and even release independently. However, it takes a village to release the final product! In most cases, to truly release a minimum viable product, there are multiple teams involved. Some common examples of the way teams are formed.

·         Technology focus - Some teams do API or UI or database work exclusively.

·         Own part of the flow – Some teams might own specific functionalities. For example, search feature page could be an app by itself and your team could do UI, API, database etc. However, the reality is that you get projects involving multiple features. In other words, you are just part of the project. Although you may be able to release independently, the project cannot be turned “on” unless everyone else is done. In short, in most companies, no matter how you slice and dice the teams, you cannot operate in isolation.

 Understanding the responsibilities of your team & your dependent teams is really important.

Pros of having a technical background

·         Removing impediments is one of the responsibilities of a scrum master. If you understand the organization structure as mentioned above then you will be able to figure out the network required for your team to operate.

·         Champion your team’s pain points – I see this even with the best of tech leads/developers/testers. If you need decisions/clarifications from external teams/senior staff then you need to champion your team’s pain points. A lot of times, your team might not be in the forum (for example - scrum of scrums meeting) to raise these but you as scrum master might be involved. Understanding pain points might help you raise risks appropriately. Knowing the network of people and understanding pain points will lead to faster removal of impediments. You can involve the right people at the right time depending on the situation.

·         Better conversation with the team – Many companies are involved in agile transformation to be able to deliver faster. This means that modernizing the tech stack. Teams will face challenges and need help from outside the team such as from architects, open source companies etc. Supporting your team and understanding when they are truly blocked is important. Talking to your developers and testers can help your understand their problems better.

·         Identifying risks – With an understanding of your team’s ecosystem, you can watch out for risks. For example - Company execs love agile delivery but also still give you deadlines around production delivery! That mindset has still not changed. Sometimes your project might have fundamental questions unanswered. With a technical background, you tend to see RED sooner.

Cons of having a technical background

·         You have to learn to shut up J appropriately – While you will understand your world properly if you have had a technical background, you‘d have to back off when it comes to technical decisions. Software design is an art. There are several ways to accomplish the same thing. The tech lead/developers/testers will figure that out. If you have a different idea, you could ask a leading question but know that it is NOT your call. Your job is to get consensus and figure out if there are blockers. It is hard to do that, I admit and do not take anything to heart! Your role has now changed to a consensus builder and working with tech leads/developers/testers to create the best solution. Using your background for better conversations is a tough skill!

What part of technical background do I really use?

It is long since I coded but as a scrum master/product owner, I use my analytical skills more than anything else. Understanding the flow between major components/applications is the key to several conversations – like who owns different components. The right conversations with the right people move the needle. As a scrum master, you are often in a position to drive this. I try to use my background to have the right conversations!

What can you do if you don’t have a technical experience?

The good news is that you can still be successful without such expertise. Learning basic concepts can help you prepare for your career as scrum master in software delivery. The article describes the training and readings you can do to prepare for the future.

Disclaimer – This blog is just based on the author’s personal experience. Use your own discretion.

How to start as scrum master or product owner in software?

If you have never been a part of software delivery and want to enter this world as a scrum master or product owner then this blog is just for you. As a newbie SM or PO in software delivery, it might be good for you to take a couple of courses to understand basics of software delivery. The goal of these is not for you to learn coding although it is a very good segway should you be intrigued. These courses are not Nirvana! They will set the path though to help you understand where to look. There are many skills that are interchangeably used between scrum master and product owner. These are courses I found online (Not all of it is free) but there is a lot of material on this on the internet. You can go thru the course content and find free articles/content online. Take your pick.

Scrum master and product owner training

There are several avenues to get certified as a scrum master or product owner. Some of them are as below –

• Scrum.org’s PSM or PSPO – These certifications do not expire and are a little more work than CSM. IN my opinion this makes sense because these principles and techniques are not dependent on technology or industry. It is also cheaper than CSM/CSPO at least in North America.
• ScrumAlliance.org’s CSM or CSPO – The certification is valid for 2 years and has to be renewed. The test is relatively easier.

It is best if you can get your company sponsor these certifications. If your company doesn’t sponsor it or you are unemployed and trying to get in – Go for scrum.org.

Software Development Life Cycles

Although as scrum master or product owner, you would be working on agile methodology, it would be useful to learn more about other methodologies. You can employ techniques of different methodologies based on your situation. Every methodology has its pros and cons.  

1. Waterfall – Traditionally companies used waterfall for software development. What this meant was that it took months or years to release software to production, costing business several million dollars. Companies are now mostly switching over to agile because of faster feedback and better transparency.
2.  Agile – In order to shorten the feedback loops, agile came into existence.

a.       Scrum

b.      Kanban

c.       Pair programming

System Analysis skills

In order to understand your ecosystem of teams (dependencies and stakeholders), some level of system analysis skills is needed. The product owner role requires more of your analytical skills. This is just entry level stuff. In a later post, we will talk in depth about that.

There are several technologies like .Net, Java etc. and even open source ones which are springing up daily. RELAX – You are not expected to learn these technologies. You need to learn the concepts so that you can understand the work to be done. For instance you can write an API in Java as well as .Net. As long as you understand the various components you are covered.                                                                                                                                                                     

• https://www.udemy.com/business-analysis-ba/
• https://www.udemy.com/process-mapping-process-flowcharts/
• Basics of Application Programming Interface (API) -  https://www.udemy.com/course/learn-and-understand-apis-and-restful-apis/
• User Interface (UI) - https://www.udemy.com/design-rules/?couponCode=

Agile management tools

Companies use several tools to manage their backlog. These are very easy to use but very powerful. For many companies these are the popular choices. AS a product owner/scrum master, you will have to be proficient with these tools to enable your teams and improve productivity.

•          Atlassian’s JIRA and confluence - https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence 
•          Asana – https://asana.com/   
•      Trello – https://trello.com/en

All of these have similar features and there are several companies that have free/paid plugins on top of these tools. As you advance, you will try out these plugins. These are easy to learn.

Hope that this helps you get started.

Disclaimer - The links provided in this post are based on personal experience only. Please use at your own discretion.

Home renovation in Halifax

Our 1st year in Canada was quite eventful. We were able to purchase our 1st home in Halifax, Canada. This home was structurally good and we loved the home design but there were few things that needed work. This option was way better than purchasing a new home that would have cost us around $100K more with a design that we didn't like. So we purchased an old home and decided to renovate as necessary.

Rome was NOT built in a day!!

When you buy a home there is a mandatory inspection which will report every big and small finding. Besides based on your needs, you might want to change a few things. So, make a list of the things you want fixed and prioritize it.  These things not only take time and money but also the RIGHT approach and people. 

What type of handymen would you need?

Even for us, it was the 1st time we were doing a renovation and we weren't sure. There are YouTube videos for this too. This is also helpful when you have conversations with them.

• If you want to redo walls, redo your bathrooms, convert an open space into a room - You would need a drywall contractor.
• You might also need an electrician if you are moving the wiring. You will have to coordinate with the drywall contractor and electrician.

Finding the right people to do the work

Most people are not handymen and so you would need a firm or a contractor who would do the job. Extremely important - We recommend that you request reviews or find online reviews of the people/firm you are hiring.  This is because you would not just be spending money but also letting them in your house to do the job.  Besides, some of these jobs if left half-done can be dangerous.  So reliability is very important to ensure that the work is completed with quality.

In our friend circle, no one had done a renovation recently and so no one had any leads on handymen. We looked up a few renovation companies and they gave us quotes. These companies are way too expensive. They gave us a quote for 27000 CAD for upgrading the basement! That actually demoralized us for a few days.

So, we started looking for handymen online and decided to do the coordination ourselves between different handymen. We made the mistake of hiring someone from kijiji to do a small job of applying laminate flooring for a small room.We were too excited to start the job and thought that the guy was good enough for the job. But then he didn't turn up on time and delayed the job by 2 weeks. Although the job was done fine, we absolutely didn't like the work ethic of the person and didn't give him any further work.
LESSON learnt - When in doubt, don't go ahead. It is worthwhile to look further.

The walls of our basement had old panels and we wanted to upgrade it to dry walls and redo our bathroom. That was the biggest piece. We decided to visit home improvement stores like Home Depot, Kent and ask around. Our friends also agreed since the folks working there would definitely have recommendations. And that was the best decision ever!!! - Home Depot has a "PRO referral" program, in which they have a list of local professionals such as drywall men, electricians, plumbers etc. These are people for whom Home Depot has done background checks and also have insurance coverage (should they need it). We were able to hire our Drywall and electrician guys with this program.

Halifax is a small city in that sense and you would get your contacts verbally from people. The electrician guy recommended the plumber, who recommended the shower installer and we were happy with all of them.

Trust that once you find the right person for the job, you would be way happier!

Working with them on the job

If you are coordinating with all the contractors then it is important for you to understand the sequence of things. If not, you might waste days. Home Depot was a blessing because we got the materials such as drywall, boards, flooring etc. on financing (0% interest for the 1st 6 months). This will help with expenses. With multiple contractors, you have to make sure that all the materials are available whenever they need it. Some of the items like drywalls are huge and might not fit in your car. You can rent a truck for the same. Home Depot also offers a truck-renting option for your orders. Planning all this is going to be very important.

I had work from home ability but my husband didn't. So we had to adjust work schedules so that we could be around when these folks worked. If you have to buy shower, toilet, bathroom vanity, electrical appliances like fan and lighting then you should look online and in stores. The contractors will help you with the measurements of these things but ultimately you have to choose the model. So that research aspect won't go away. Find the best deal and schedule their deliveries or bring it yourself (based on the vehicle you have)  accordingly.

What did it ultimately cost?

Remember I got a quote of 27K CAD from a renovation company for renovating our basement? Ultimately, we went with contractors and it cost us about 14K CAD for the same thing! Practically half the cost. But it required lots of coordination. Home Depot had all the materials whatever was needed! Materials overall didn't cost more than 4K CAD. Labor is expensive and so make that you get the right people.

Last words

Renovating is fun. Do your research and work with the right people. Take your time!

One year in Canada on PR!!!

Hiya everyone - It is exactly one year since we landed in Canada! It has been an exciting journey in the past year.

Some of our key highlights 

• International travel has been hassle free. With PR card, travel to other countries has been easy. We were able to travel to US and India without having to worry about immigration. 
• We were able to create this blog and help out a lot of express entry aspirants with their application.
• We survived the winter in Halifax! This was not as bad as it was made out to be. It has milder winters than most parts of Canada.  The city is well connected even in winter. There is infrastructure to clean the snow, ice and sleet during winter. Obviously there are days when it is advisable to not venture outside but we have it better than most cities. We also have a lot of sunlight during winter.
• Public transportation is good. We use it to commute to work. It can save you $$.
• While taxes are high in Nova Scotia (15% sales tax), it forces you to optimize your expenses. If you were used to a lot of spending (whether it is restaurants/shopping etc.), then you would experience a huge impact. You would have to either cut down on spending or experience a decline in savings.
• We noticed that some of the services in Canada even with taxes seemed cheaper than in US. For example, dental services such as root canal or cavity filling were cheaper in Canada than in North Carolina, USA. Even beauty services such as laser treatment were cheaper and better than in US.
• House purchase process is easy but can get expensive soon. So you have to be careful and watch your expenses. It is all about your priorities and you can build your life accordingly.
• Home renovation too is a tedious process and requires research. But you have many resources for the same. More in a later post.
• Financial services websites and apps are little less matured as compared to the US. Some features like portfolio analysis which was automatically provided by US Fidelity Investments are not available on Questrade. But they are definitely catching up. Not a deal breaker!!!
• Nova Scotia is truly blessed with natural beauty. Proximity to the ocean has bought us a lot of peace. Running alongside Halifax harbor is truly relaxing! There are so many places that are not famous but truly worth your money. Several tourists visit Halifax every summer and fall for the same. We will also blog about our travels in future.

Overall, we have been happier and looking forward to sharing the same with you all!

Top 15 Canadian immigration channels

Our Canada Dock YouTube channel has been selected as the top 15 immigration channels on the web by Feedspot. Check out the link below. This definitely came out of the blue for us!

The site is definitely gold for mostly everyone who plans to immigrate to Canada, especially express entry aspirants. When you plan to immigrate every dollar counts. Although Canadian immigration process is relatively easier than other countries, you still face the challenges below -
1. IRCC is not accessible to people outside Canada.  So if you want clarification you have to rely on other sources.
2. Lawyers and immigration consultants are expensive.  Not everyone can afford them. Some of them might just swindle you. For example, we see a lot of consultants who "offer" free ielts certificates without you giving exams. Such people are fraud and you should be weary on who you choose if you want help from a lawyer/immigration consultant. Even if you choose a consultant/lawyer, our suggestion would be to verify the steps/documents with IRCC website and these blog sites.

What is good about the selection of these 15 sites?

1. Great mix of professional legal experience and personal experience.
2. Some channels like Our Canada Dock are geared towards personal experience with express entry, moving and final post-landing experiences.
3. Others are geared for students who are moving to Canada for studies.
4. Some of them are channels owned by law firms and immigration consultants.
5. You get to connect with people who have undergone a similar experience.

What you can gain from these sites?

1. If you are filing the application by yourself, then these sites could advise you on some edge cases i.e. small queries that you may have. This is because mostly everyone doesn't have the perfect documents for experience or education etc. You could get suggestions on the same.
2. You will be surprised to know that many people also face similar problems (whether it is likes or comments on blogs or youtube channel) and will give you confidence on your application.
3. The thing with express entry application is that it is completely online. While this is great, the downside is that if anything is missing from your application depending on the severity IRCC could ask more information from you or even reject your application. That means more delay and stress (You will have to resubmit your application if rejected with new information/documents as needed). A little bit of digging into these channels can go a long way.

Overall, great work by the Feedspot team to compile these for immigration to Canada. Thank you for recognizing our YouTube channel. Good luck to all the aspirants for Canadian immigration!

Useful links -

1. Feedspot blog 
2. Our Canada Dock YouTube channel

Buying a home in Halifax - Process

Buying a new home is a big decision. We were home-owners in the States and we wanted to buy a house if we liked the place in Canada. We are now close to a year in Halifax in 2019, Canada and recently began our hunt. Now, there are a lot of similarities in the process if you bought a house in the States but if you didn't then this is a blog for you!

Learn more about different house types 

Owning a house isn't a one-time deal. You gotta nurture it because should you decide to sell it down the line, all the missteps will haunt you. (Trust me, buyers get that microscopic vision to detect every tiny thing.). The process outlined below will give you an idea of what to expect when selling as well. So think of what you would go thru. Bottom line is that you need to go with the house that you will enjoy and maintain. Go thru the links below for single family and condo homes (will also write about townhomesand semi-detached houses in future) so that you can learn about the pros and cons of different house types.

Find a good realtor/real-estate agent

Couple of reasons why you would want to do this -

1. Tons of paper work when you buy a house. The agent will guide you thru the same.
2. It takes a village to get to the point where you are an actual home owner. A good agent has a network - mortgage company, lawyer, accountant, inspection agents, other agents, handymen and a lot more.
3. S/he educates you in the process. You look at multiple houses before you zero in on one. If you are especially not from the civil engineering type of background, you probably wouldn't notice or even know about structural deficits in the house. For example, the roof of a house has a life span of about 15 years. It is important to know how old the roof is!
4. Since the agents are part of a network, your realtor has better access to listings even before they are online. A really good agent would be privy to such listings.
5. They know the laws and it is useful during negotiations! 

Our advice is to really invest time to find a good agent. Preferably recommended to you by family, friends, co-workers because then you could trust them. Conversely, if you get stuck with a bad agent, you would be stuck and have a bad experience. So, research the agent properly before you go with them. Privately going about this might not be a good idea if you are purchasing a home for the 1st time.

Find out what you can afford

You will save yourself a lot of time, money & perhaps even some heartbreak if you know what you can afford. If you have an agent they would have a mortgage company associate who can guide you here. We recommend that you wait a few months after coming to Canada before you buy a house. Now, we had over a decade in US and so they can request for your US credit report to give you the best rate. Initially even before you begin the process, the agent will ask your source of income (salary/self-employed) and then based on the same determine the price you can afford. They come up with a number and typically also tell you the estimated mortgage payment for that amount. Based on your life goals, your family can decide the maximum price you want to spend on the house. For example, the agent could tell you that you can afford a $500K house but you decide to spend at most $250K because you might want to invest in say mutual funds. That is your personal decision. Make it after factoring in everything.

House hunt

This is the fun and anxiety filled part. Now you have your max limit you want to spend, you can search houses in that range. Sites like viewPoint, remax, thinkHalifax etc. have listings. Your agent will also get also suggest different listings. Typically you would be able to get all the information online about the specifications such as number of rooms, bathrooms, yard, square footage and much more. You would also find information about the area such as schools, neighborhood. This will help you compare and contrast listings in the journey. Enjoy this process but don't compromise. Personally, I get ideas when I see houses and use them in mine.

Place an offer

Once you have zeroed down a home, you place an offer. Based on your assessment, you can decide on the price you are willing to pay and the terms. Your realtor should help with this. You also need to put in the closing date. This is the last day for the sellers and you will own the house from the next day. If you are renting then consider your lease end date before deciding the closing date. Usually it is within 3 months from the time you decide to place the offer. You might have to pay the mortgage as well as the rent for few months if you don't pay attention on this. Having an approval from the mortgage company makes it a strong case. You also send the token amount of about 1000-2000 CAD typically (varies on the price of the house) to signal the seller agent/seller that you are truly interested.

The seller would also have other offers and so they would revert back to you if they are interested. Once they express their interest, both parties sign a document stating that they are ready for the next stage i.e. inspection.

Inspection & Due-diligence process

Once you sign the document the next 10 days constitute the due-diligence period. This is the time when inspection is conducted. In this period you could decide to renegotiate the price or if the inspection bought out serious defects then you could back out. 

Exterior inspection

They review the roof, yard, the walls from the outside, patio (as applicable to your type of house). They look for leakages, cracks, structural deficits. They also inspect the sewer and do a radon test. They would tell you all the big and small findings.

Interior inspection 

Every inch of the house is inspected. All rooms, attics are checked for cracks, infestation and such. The house in the US didn't come with appliances.  But here they do - they inspect the stove (all burners), dishwasher,  washer and dryer. Most important of all they inspect the heating.

They prepare the report listing all the findings and send it to both parties.  You review it with your agent and even some of your experienced friends. You would then decide if you want to keep your offer as is, change it or worst case back out of it. So look thru it carefully. 

Closing

The closing date is the last day when the seller owns the home. You can move in after that AND your mortgage begins typically latest within a month. If you are renting in Canada then look at the lease agreement. You might land up paying mortgage and rent for a month or two depending on your leasing situation.

If you plan on doing some renovation or finishing before you move in, then you might want to make arrangements of your stay (i.e. make sure you have your apartment or arrange an AirBnB until you can move into your home).

Final thoughts

For us, it took less than 2 months to visit about 12-15 houses and visit several online before we zeroed down on our house. We were able to negotiate a date so that we just have a month where we were paying mortgage and rent. We had a similar experience in the US in terms of timeline. A lot depends on your requirements and your flexibility. So estimate accordingly so that you can plan on buying and moving in your home.

Hope the blog gives you various considerations before buying your home. Good luck!!!

Useful links 

• Learn more about Condo
• Learn more about Single family home

Types of homes - Single family home

This is another post in the series of buying a home in Canada.  One of the options is to buy a single family home.  As someone who bought such a home, even in the US, I find a lot of similarities between the States and Canada.

What is a single family home?

It is an independent house like a bungalow often with a yard and garage. The important thing is that you are not paying Home owners association fee because you will not be getting their services. So you own the complete upkeep of the house. They are typically bigger than condos, townhouses,  semi-detached houses. That is why they tend to be more expensive as well.

Few things to consider

1. Most of them will have storeys i.e. have few rooms on one storey and rest on the others. Some of them will have just one storey and a basement. You 'd consider that style if you don't like stairs.

2. Most houses have a basement and it is interesting to see how people use it. This is a pro, which you don't get in a condo and you might not get it or have smaller version of it in a townhouse.

• An entertaining room - Lot of people use it as home theater with TV, games, books. They use it as a way to have their parties and hang out with family and friends.
• Rent it out as an AirBnb - You can generate additional income. We recommend to do some research before pursuing this option. Your room/basement should satisfy certain safety requirements (eg: good size window for a firefighter to enter) otherwise should any untoward incident, you could be liable to pay back the rent to the tenant. 
• Gym - People furnish it with treadmills and weights and use it as a fitness area. Conversely, it can be turned into a yoga/pilates room. 
• Storage space - For the many houses we saw, it provides ample space for you to store your things.

3. You would have invest in a few accessories, which you otherwise wouldn't have to do for a condo/townhouse. Depending on how you see it, it may be a pro/con. 

• Lawnmower and other tools to maintain your lawn. This is definitely a cost you would incur but if you are someone who loves to do yard work then it is a pro for you. You can get really creative and build urban gardens in your lawn. You definitely have this benefit if you love gardening.
• Snow removing equipment - Winter definitely brings more work for this type of a home. The stairs to your house and driveway will have snow during those days. When you look at buying a house, look at how big the driveway and stairs into the house.
• If you at least have a garage, you could have an alternate entry to the house but you would still have to clean up the driveway.
• You will have to take care of pest control too. There are companies that offer packages to do the same.

4. Garage is one of the things to consider. Most single family homes might have it but if they don't have it then during winters you will spend time every morning cleaning up the snow/ice/sleet on your car, if you use one for traveling. Some people use their garage as storage too. Garage is a big pro.

5. No HOA fees - While you don't pay fees, you will be responsible for every aspect of your house.
Some of the biggest considerations are as below. Take note of it during the inspection that will be done.

• Roof - Know in how much time the roof will have to be replaced. New roof can cost about $15K CAD.
• Heating - In older houses, you will have oil furnace heating. Heat pumps are efficient. No problem if you buy an older house but consider replacing it with heat pump. It will definitely get you a lesser heat bill.

6. Many DIY projects can be done for your home. You can add new cabinets, do work around your yard and do some interior designing work. Depending on your preference, it can cost a couple hundred or thousands. But it will get your a lot of satisfaction!

Final take

Investing in such a home in the correct area can prove to be very beneficial if you were to sell it. But you should take note of different elements as mentioned above for you to balance cost vs. benefit.

Disclaimer - We are not real-estate agents but are sharing our research with you. Please do your own research before you proceed forward. This blog post is to be able to point you in the right direction.


Useful links -
1. Want to consider a condo?

Types of homes in Canada - Condo

Buying your 1st home in Canada sounds exciting! We had bought a home in North Carolina,  USA and sold it when we immigrated to Canada.  It was a good investment because we had bought it in a good area at a good price. So, we have been researching real estate. Lots of similarities to what we saw in the US.

Condominium or Condo

This is an apartment that you own. You 'd be sharing the building and the facilities with others. Usually these are under 1500 sq ft. You would have all rooms on 1 floor and so no stairs. With shared facilities the condo is usually managed by house owners association i.e. HOA. They help you if there is anything that needs to be fixed.

Pros 

1) No backyard/lawn/driveway - It is a lot of work to maintain a lawn. No need to clean the driveway during winter.
2) Gym/other recreation facilities - A gym membership can be really costly. Having it in your building is a real benefit.
3) Low maintenance - Ultimately it is less work for you personally if you own a condo. The HOA fees you pay enables you to have service should you need anything fixed around the house.
4) Garage - Many of them offer parking garages.
5) These are usually cheaper in price than townhouses,  semi-detached,  or individual family homes.

Cons 

1) HOA fees - You typically pay a monthly fee since condo is part of the association.  It is by and large at least over 100 CAD. Depending on the construction you may incur a much higher monthly fee. Keep an eye on that when you buy it.
2) You are sharing the building with many families and so might sometimes have to adjust. ( Adjust your television volume, might hear kids if any etc. )

Regardless of the type of home you want to buy, it is a huge investment.  Please research all the home types before you start looking. We will write more blogs for the same and even on the process. Stay tuned!

Disclaimer - We are not real-estate agents but are sharing our research with you. Please do your own research before you proceed forward. This blog post is to be able to point you in the right direction.

Do you really need a job to immigrate to Canada?

One of the things that we are asked frequently from folks outside Canada is if you need a job for express entry or does it really aid your express entry process. And we are not surprised because it was one of the questions we also had when we did our express entry application. Many people including us were sent on a work permit to US etc. and have an employment based permanent residency. It is difficult to get permanent residency in the US without a sponsor. As a result, the question as to whether a job is essential to gain permanent residency in Canada. Based on our experience, here are some of the facts we gathered.

Will I get an edge for my application if I have a job?

The invites in the express entry application are sent based on the cut-off. Let us consider an application (say application 1) with a couple with skilled experience and qualifications but neither of them has a job. If there is another application (say application 2) with a couple with skilled experience and qualifications but say one of them has a job. Express entry score is calculated based on a number of factors. So, if application 2 has a lesser score than application 1 then application 1 would get an invite sooner. Remember that you have all your family members are there in your application and multiple factors are at play.

Conclusion - Job is not mandatory and ultimately your CRS score determines if you will get an invite. Applications with higher score will get the invite sooner.

Will it be easier to find a job before coming to Canada?

It is the chicken and egg situation. However you will be prepared better if you know facts better. If you don't have permanent residency then you need a work permit to work in Canada. Not all employers hire people on work permit. The reason being filing a work permit is a legal process and companies usually hire attorneys to ensure that they are compliant. Attorneys are expensive and not every company can afford them. An employer must file what's called a LMIA (Labor market impact assessment) to prove that the skills they are hiring for are not available locally. Even the job offer should have specific details like NOC code etc. for which they are hiring you. With all of these technicalities, without PR, you lose out on at least half the employers.

What about PNP nomination?

All provinces of Canada except Quebec and Nunavut have a provincial nomination program by which they can specially recruit foreign workers for an indefinite time. Now these programs are targeted towards filling specific jobs. Each of these provinces have the list of in-demand skills. You can find the NOCs of these in-demand skills on their websites. Simply google search for example "Ontario PNP" to know more about the program.
If you look at the stream that applies to foreign workers for each of the PNPs, there are 2 common themes -

• The primary requirement is for the applicant to have a full-time job offer from the province.
• Most provinces require you to have 1 or 2 years of experience in the last 5 years in that province.

If you are able to secure the PNP nomination and you accept it then you automatically get 600 points. This should be enough for you to get an invite for the next express entry draw. Some provinces also require you to work in that province for a few years after you get PR. So please take note of that.

What about Canadian experience class?

If you are already in Canada and have at least one year of work experience in your NOC in Canada, you would qualify for this. This is ideal for folks who are already having Canadian work permit. Note that this program is not tied to any province. It is slightly less demanding than federal skilled worker because it doesn't have education requirements and the language test scores are slightly relaxed.

What was our experience?

Our experience was really smooth. Both of us didn't have jobs when we applied for express entry. After we submitted documents in the final stage of express entry, we started applying for jobs. We attached cover letters explaining our situation. Half of the companies responded back saying that they don't sponsor visas and return when we had PR. However, one of the companies happened to not be in a hurry for me to start immediately. However they interviewed me and gave me the luxury to wait to receive my PR. Fortunately a month after I submitted my documents in the final stage we got PR. Once I told the company I had my PR they gave me the offer letter the same day. We were lucky that both of us got jobs exactly when we needed it.

What is our recommendation?

With all of this, we recommend you to first calculate your CRS score. In 2018, we saw that the cut-off scores ranged from 440 - 456. So, depending on when you are reading this blog, check the cut-offs for recent draws at that time. If your score falls within the range, go for it! Apply for express entry then. You would get an invite via the federal skilled worker stream or Canadian Experience Class stream. Likely groups that would get the invite -

• Couples under 40 who have masters and skilled experience over 6 years. Since your spouse also has education, language tests and experience, you get additional points that comfortably lets you get thru the cut-off.
• Couples under 30 who have masters and skilled experience of over 3 years. You have the age factor on your side. Here again, due to spouse you get additional points that comfortably allows you to get thru the cut-off.
• If you are single and have Canadian masters (or above) and Canadian skilled experience of over 6 years then you get extra points. That might help you bridge the gap and meet the cut-off

If you are outside Canada and are unfortunately not getting quite the score to get an invite based on recent draws, that is when you will have to find an employer who complies with the requirement of PNP. It is a longer path because PNP means you will have to get a work permit and work for 1-2 years depending on the province and then apply. You will have to research the PNP websites extensively and find employers who are participate in those programs and plan accordingly. 

Hope this helps you understand the role that a job offer has in getting the PR. All the best!

Next steps -
1. Understand CRS score better.
2. All set with the explanation? Get started with express entry today!

Affidavit template

                                                               

Affidavit is a legal document by which you are making some information about yourself legal. In the context of express entry application, if you have had different name formats on different documents due to any reason then you can create an affidavit that declares you as the owner of those documents. On popular request, I have shared an example below of an affidavit template. In the example below, I have used John Doe as an example of a person’s name. Shawn and Marie are first names of parents in the example. Look thru your documents and where ever there is a deviation from the name in the passport list it in the affidavit. In the example below, there are different variations. Depending on your case, put in all variations (see examples below). If you want to state any other fact legally you can do so. Remember that affidavit is just a statement of facts and you sign it only in front of a notary. It becomes legal ONLY when you sign in front of a notary and the notary also signs, seals and dates the document in front of you. 

Disclaimer – I am not a lawyer but I have used the affidavit template below for my own application. Please use good judgement while using this.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Affidavit

<Place>

<Your name as in Passport>, appearing before the undersigned notary and being duly sworn, says that:

1. Different organizations have different conventions to write my full name.
2. Some organizations use my first name in combination with my father’s first name (<Father’s first name>) and my mother’s first name (<Mother’s first name>).
3. Some organizations use my first name in combination with my father’s first name (<Father’s first name>) and call it a given name.
4. So, the following names refer to one and the same person and should not be considered as name changes

a.       John Doe

b.      John Shawn Doe

c.       John S. Doe

d.      John Shawn Marie Doe

e.      Doe John

f.        Doe John S.

________________

<Your signature that you sign in front of notary>

Sworn to (or affirmed) and subscribed before me <date> day of <month> <year>

(Official Seal) 

<Seal of the notary>                                                    

                                                                                                                      ______________________

                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                      Official signature of notary

                                                                                                

                                                                                                _____________________, Notary Public

                                                                                                Notary’s printed or typed name                               

                                                                                                My commission expires on : <date>       

Common mistakes during express entry application

Express entry is one of the easiest ways for skilled immigrants to attain permanent residency in Canada. In 2017, around 109K applications were received and ultimately 93K applications were approved for permanent residency. Think of the express entry application like your history subject examination in high school. You cannot change history and it is what it is. That is what you gotta remember for each aspect of your application. You can avoid a lot of heartache if you avoid few of the common mistakes.

Not attempting the correct version of the language test 

IELTS is one of the popular tests for permanent residency.  IELTS has two versions of the test - General and Academic.  For Express entry, the general version should be attempted and NOT academic. Academic version is acceptable only for higher studies and not acceptable for immigration.

Dates are everything!

Your application requires you to put dates around education, language tests, work experience, proof of funds, medical tests, address history, travel history etc. Your application is looked at holistically and making a mistake with dates changes your story.  Pay close attention to dates.

Name on documents and affidavits

You are uploading documents for everything. Name on the document is important because IRCC wants to ensure that those documents belong to you. If the name is not the same as that on your passport then work on an affidavit that states the different names and says that it is the same person.

Not getting someone to proofread 

This is very important because if you think of it, ultimately you are telling IRCC your story. You know it very well but it should make sense to the officer reviewing your application. Proofreading can be done by anyone who has an attention to detail and someone who you trust. This is because it would contain all your personal and confidential information. So, you don't want them misusing your information. Have them verify dates on everything (education,  work, personal information,  address history,  personal & travel history etc.). Let them review your letter of explanation, if you are explaining anything. Check for grammar and spelling mistakes in your application.

Not adding supporting documents 

The guidelines for express entry are very clear. However, you might not be able to get the ideal letter eg - from your employer or financial institution. That is something IRCC is aware of but expects you to substantiate the gaps with supporting documents. For example, if your employer doesn't specify your salary in the proof of work letter then you can attach your tax form to prove that you were paid.

Security is very important!

Your address history and country of residence determine the countries from which you need police clearance certificates. Similarly, your travel history (trips not between country of residence & birth should be reported) is important. The IRCC runs security checks for those durations and that's why skipping those trips is a mistake. For every country the processes are clearly mentioned. Reach out to the embassies of the countries if anything is not clear. As an permanent resident, you need to have a clean record. That's why this is the 2nd thing IRCC verifies after medical.

Medical exam is very important 

Canada's health care system is free and in order to prevent misuse of their resources, they want you to have a medical test from a certified physician. So, unless there is a very good reason,  please undergo the medical exam.  It is the very 1st thing that is checked.  If you can't get the exam due to any reason, please consult an attorney.

Not checking your passport expiry dates

Now, in our case, our passports had validity for multiple years. So, it was a non-issue. But after many people contacted us with their problemsvia this blog, we realized that not checking your family's passport(s) validity can cause hassle. We highly recommend that you have a year's validity when you apply for Express entry. If it is about to expire, please consider renewing it before applying for express entry.  More details in another post!

Photographs requested during the process

When you submit your post ITA express entry application, one of the requirements is to submit a digital photo for each of the applicants. Follow the dimension requirements that are mentioned else they may contact you. Similarly after you get the golden email, you have to send photographs for getting your CoPR. Again check the dimensions and specifications for photograph. We went to a photographer who does Canadian passport photos and had got it. Note that specifications of American passport photos is not the same as that of Canada. CIC will revert back to you and ask you to resend photos if you don't send the correct photos. Now if you are a citizen of one of the countries that need a visa to enter Canada then your passport would be held longer. It might cause you anxiety. It might be better especially post PR to work with a professional photographer who does Canadian passport photos for CoPR.


Hope that helps you with your application!!

Next steps -
1. Submit your final application for permanent residency. 
2. Plan your move to Canada

3. Want further details on passport?