ADHD notes:
- At the first customs point show them the Letter of Introduction they emailed to you and you printed out, plus your customs form. They’ll note on the customs form what you are up to, then give it back to you.
- Grab your baggage.
- At the next customs point show them your customs for and they’ll direct you into a separate area to get your work permit. Here you’ll have to wait a while and give them all the documentation required.
- They’ll process it, staple a document into your passport, then you should be free to go!
If you haven’t done so yet, you should have read the post on how to get your work permit.
Landing in Vancouver
You’ve made it this far, that’s awesome! You’re probably feeling pretty buggered after flying for a day or so if you’ve come directly from Australia to Canada. You’re also most likely landing in Vancouver airport too, as that’s the closest port to Australia.
The first step is to drag your sorry carcass off the airplane, making sure you’ve got everything, and then head towards the first Customs line, where you’ll have to wait for a while. The time you spend will depend on the time of day, the amount of customs folks they have on, and the amount of planes that have just landed. Suffice to say, it’ll be a while. I remember when I came here in 1995 as a tourist, we waited in this line for about an hour and a half, but since then I’ve never really been in the line longer than 20 minutes or so.
At this Customs check they’ll look at your passport and make sure that you are legal, as well as checking out the Customs declaration form that you will have filled out whilst on board the plane. It’s on this form that you’ll flag that you are there to work rather than just play – show them the Letter of Introduction you were emailed that you printed out and brought with you. This Customs person will have put a note on the Customs form that you’ll keep a hold of. Make sure you keep it handy as you’ll need it at the next step.
After you pass through this stage of Customs you’ll have to collect all your luggage prior to going through the next stage. There should be carts available, so if you have bike boxes or ski’s or heavy luggage without wheels don’t stress, particularly if you’ve maxed out your baggage restrictions.
Getting your Canadian Working Holiday Permit
Once you have your baggage, you’ll head towards what looks like the final gate. The guy that’s gathering the Customs forms at this next gate will see the note the first Customs person wrote and then usher you off to a side room. In this room you’ll have to wait your turn, and it may take a while as this is where they deal with all of the people that fall outside of the usual funnel. Here they may deal with a Chinese family trying to get in to live, randoms they’ve pulled off for answering questions wrongly, and the average Ocker who’s looking to work in Canada.
Eventually when you are called, they’ll take your Letter of Introduction, a fixed address which you'll be at while in Canada (first hotel will probably do), passport and Customs form and disappear off into the back room for a while. They’ll then come out, ask you a couple of extra questions do a bit more paperwork and staple a print out into your passport – make sure you don’t lose this! You’ll need it for exit and re-entry into Canada, plus wherever you end up working will ask for a photocopy of it just to make sure you are legit and for their records in case the officials start asking sticky questions.
Once they’ve stapled your work permit into your passport, you are home free! You’ll make your way towards the exit and out into the city you landed in. From here there should be either an Airporter bus to downtown and hotels/hostels in the area, a regular bus service to the surrounding areas, taxis, and from early 2009 the Sky Train line to the Vancouver Airport should be running too, which will take you to downtown and surrounds for less than $10.
Congratulations!
Please discuss this article in the CanAussie Forum
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