Maple Leaf Country: Canada

Once such a booze has gone the topic of emigration (the story of conquest by “our people” of New Zealand and Australia ), I will tell my story.

About me: a programmer (the main language C ++), graduated from the MMF of the NSU in 2003, since August 2007 we have been living with his wife in Ottawa, Canada.
')

Remarks

1) all prices are in Canadian dollars, at the time of writing Google reported that "1 Canadian dollar = 0.850557 US dollars"
2) everything stated is exclusively personal impressions of one of the hundreds and thousands of visitors and in no way claims the ultimate truth
3) it is in no way agitation, but merely a statement of facts (I also enumerated negative points enough)

So let's go!

Brief history of departure

Inspired by the example of the elder brother of his girlfriend (now his wife), who left in 2000, I decided “why not? who's stopping to go, to see, and if anything happens - to return? ”
Moreover, I already had one experience of “global relocation” when I came from Kazakhstan to Russia.

In general, after graduating from Univer, I waited for 2 years of experience (he set this bar for himself), prepared for IELTS, passed it (passed quite well: 7 - 8.5 - 6 - 6), and filed documents. We did it through an agency - I didn’t want to bother with translations / assurances / transfers to the embassy, ​​etc. Agency services cost $ 2,200 (now, they say, is already more expensive). All fees and charges - separately. 4 months after the filing came honey. forms. Passed the commission. After another 8 months, the answer came: “everything is fine, open an account, transfer money, everything will be for you”. Yes, one of the conditions for obtaining a visa is a Canadian bank account and a tidy sum on it (in our case it was 17 with something thousand dollars). At that time, only one bank opened an account for non-residents: Royal Bank of Canada, and its only representative office in Russia is in Moscow. Doubtful pleasure to fly to Moscow from Novosibirsk in order to open an account was avoided: my wife's brother opened an account in my name right there, I just sent him a completed application and a special signature card (I found the forms somewhere on the net). In general, we have received visas and safely delivered.

Job

Now with the work here tugovato, affects the crisis, which affected a fair number of IT-companies (Nortel so all the ends gave, releasing the market a few thousand new applicants), but at the time of arrival, praise the heavens, this was not, and I found a job for 1.5 of the month. In the process of searching, my wife and I went to a special school for immigrants, where we pulled up English. My wife continued to study for a couple of months, then took a couple of specialized courses (marketing, business statistics). Work began 9 months after arrival.
Main job search sites:
monster.ca
www.workopolis.com

Costs

While the wife was not working, my salary (58k per year) had no problems for:
* rent housing (820 per month for a 1-bedroom apartment (2 rooms) with parking + electricity ~ 40 per month)
* food / clothing (vegetables / fruits / delicacies were not denied)
* cellular / home. phone / internet (about 140 per month for everything)
* car maintenance (insurance initially was 215 per month, now 185, with a rise in length of service, it falls well; gasoline reached 1.5 bucks per liter before the crisis, stays around 0.8 in the fall, although for the last week it rose to 0.9 for some reason)
* amusement (every weekend always went somewhere / drove)
When my wife went to work (first at 35k per year, but in six months she increased it to 45k per year) - she became a full lafa :)

A life

The people are very friendly, no disregard for the emigrants (at least open :)). Yes, it is understandable - there are probably no less than half of the emigrants here, if you count 1-2 generations ago. And if you count more, then there will generally be an overwhelming majority :)
People pay a lot of attention to health. On the bicycle lanes a lot of people on bicycles, roller skates, just running around. And of all ages, up to 60 years inclusive.
Bureaucracy is kept to a minimum. Example: moved to another place. It is necessary to change the documents: medical insurance card, driver's license. Actions: we look at the site Service Canada for the location of special "kiosks", we go to the nearest one. In general, the procedure is not more difficult than withdrawing money from an ATM: put the current document in, stumbled on what should be on the menu - after a week or two you take out a new document from the mailbox.
I pay bills for cellular / Internet / electricity through online-banking. In general, communication with the state machine is simply reduced to zero.
Getting a driver's license: read a book, came, paid $ 10 for the exam, immediately took a picture of you, immediately checked your eyesight, passed the exam - after a couple of weeks you take out the rights from the mailbox (and at this time they give temporary ones).
With rights, the system is special: after the theoretical exam, they are given the rights of category G1, which gives the right to drive only on the condition that a person sits next to you who has the rights of category G for more than 4 years, but cannot be driven along high-speed routes. One year after receiving the G1, you can take a driving test. Upon successful delivery, rights of category G2 are issued, which give the right to drive independently, but the blood alcohol content must be full 0. One year after receiving G2, you can take an exam for G, after which you can manage even if you have alcohol <0.08 (FIG knows in which parrots it is, but in general it is quite normal to drink a couple of beers in a couple of hours). In general, if someone is going to go - take care of getting rights back in Russia. If the experience is more than 1 year, then you can assign an exam for G2 immediately after receiving G1. And if the experience is more than 2 years, then G can be obtained without waiting.
Draconian fines, plus points system, which affects the amount of insurance (points taken in the last 2 years). Those. Not only will you pay $ 95 for exceeding 20 km / h, you will also pay for it for 2 years on a monthly basis. And if you get a lot of trouble (depending on the category), it can be deprived.
Punishment, of course, inevitably, no “commander, but can we agree on the spot?” :)

miscellanea

Salaries here are always indicated before taxes (tax progressive, plus depends on the province, exact figures here: www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/fq/txrts-eng.html , you can estimate about 30% - will be close to truth).
All prices in stores do not include sales tax (federal + provincial in Ontario is 13%), i.e. at the checkout will take on 13% more than indicated on the price tag (except for certain categories of goods, starting with products). At first enrages, then you get used to it.
In the province of Ontario, alcohol is sold only in specialized stores. Who work on weekdays to 21, on weekends to 17, so you need to stock up in advance.
For smokers - a complete f * pa: cigarettes are expensive (6-8 bucks for a pack, it seems, I don’t smoke myself), plus they are far from being sold everywhere, and where they are sold - they aren’t there in the shop windows. It is forbidden to smoke in all public places (bars, discos, restaurants, cafes). Only on the street. Frost, rain, wind - no one cares.
Drinking alcohol on the streets is also prohibited (well, except maybe secretly pouring into a plastic cup;))
Driving culture depends heavily on the city (only personal impressions): in Montreal almost no signal of turning, in Quebec, the only way to cut, in Toronto, horseradish will be missed if you need to turn. Ottawa compared to this - a paradise. Pedestrians are missed, stop signs are stopped, they are even occasionally missed if you are driving from somewhere to the side (although, according to the rules, they should not). What I really like is that you can turn right to red if there is no interference.
Homeless people on the streets come across, begging, but here you need to clearly know that they are not begging for food, but for booze / drugs, because they are provided with roof and food in the so-called shelter-ah - just come.
But they ask, which is characteristic, politely “won't you spare any change?”, And even in the case of a negative answer “ok, thank you, have a good day” :)

House prices, of course, fluctuate depending on many factors. But to give a rough estimate: a townhouse (one block in such a long house à la “sausage”, chopped into chunks :)) in 2 floors + basement with a total area of ​​~ 2000 sq. M. feet in a fairly remote (but decent contingent) area (20 km from the center, which is not particularly problematic in the presence of a highway) will cost about 300 thousand. More information can be found at www.ottawa-homes.ca or on any other request google "ottawa real estate".

Yes, and finally: Canada is very different from the United States, and Canadians are very sensitive to the fact that they are Canadians , and not Americans :) Even in advertising on the radio sometimes slips. For example, advertising a chain of stores - "proudly Canadian since ...." and so on :)

It seems to have told everything that came to mind. Have questions - ask.

Upd:
Some pictures here .
I left the house and at first I rode a little on a bicycle, then I drove by car (I did not reach the center, the next time).
A separate album gathered IT-companies that came across along the way (from known ones).

For cropping / horizon / sharpness, please do not kick the pain: Fota on the move out of the car, speed from 50 to 120 km / h :)