Check List | Journey | Moving to Canada | My Story

Wishing Everyone A Very Happy Easter !

I moved to Canada from India in February 2021 on PR. I am sharing the my checklist for the journey which will be helpful to many of you while planning your trip.

1. Get a Forex Card

Getting a Forex card is very important. It is also very easy to get one. Forex Card has many advantages. One is that you don’t need to carry cash in hand. The plastic card will have all your money. It is very convenient to carry. Also, due to Covid19 restrictions, most places are encouraging only contact less payment. So Forex Card is the apt choice.

Moreover, Forex Cards are mostly multi currency cards. So we can use the same card while we go to other countries as well.

I took two Forex Cards. One from ICICI Bank and one from HDFC Bank. I was having my accounts with these banks, hence I chose them. You just need to fill an application, give your passport, visa copy and flight tickets. You will get the Forex Card within an hour. Forex Cards can be recharged from our Savings Account as well as from our Credit Card.

One caution to take is that if you are loading the Forex Card equivalent to more than 7 lakhs Indian rupees, it is liable for 5% TCS ( Tax Collection at Source)

2. Buy A Universal Adaptor

The plug points in Canada are different from that of India. It is therefore imperative to buy couple of Universal Adaptors before you move to Canada. This is if you plan to use your gadgets that were bought from India including mobile phones and laptops.

3. Carry all the documents viz Passport / PR Visa / AL Copy / Old CoPR

It is obvious that we will carry our Passport and PR Visa. But don’t forget to carry your Authorisation Letter (AL) copy and old CoPR. It is to be noted that, while we check in, the airline staff will take our AL letter & old CoPR and will ask us to wait for sometime to validate the authenticity of the AL from the Canadian embassy.

4. Buy few Winter Clothes

Canada is quite cold during winter. Also even if there is quite sunlight during the day, the feels like temperature can be -3 degree celsius (from what I have experienced so far. It can be even colder). So don’t forget to buy few thermal wears, jackets, socks, winter gloves etc. I bought these items from Decathlon. However, don’t buy too much stuff as it is better to buy winter clothes from Canada.

5. Activate International Roaming on your Mobile

This is a very important thing to do. Especially to do net banking activities, you will need the OTPs that will come to your registered mobile number with the bank. Also, in case if there are any technical issues with the Forex Card, again the SMSs/OTPs etc have to come to the registered mobile number. Moreover, to get a sim from major service providers in Canada, SIN number, other documentation is required. So for initial days, international roaming will be a hassle free option.

My sim was Airtel, I chose the Rs 3997/- plan which gave 500 minutes each of incoming & outgoing and also 5 GB data. In the second month, since I took a Canadian sim, I changed my plan to Rs 799/- which gives 100 minutes incoming & outgoing. The incoming & outgoing in both the plans are applicable for both the countries (India & Canada). Reliance Jio also have International roaming plans which are similar.

6. Currency Exchange

If you want to carry some cash with you, then you have to convert the rupees with you to Canadian Dollars (CAD). It can be done through banks as well as from Money Exchange centres (Both inside airport and outside). When I enquired with banks, they said it will take couple of days for them to arrange CAD and we will have to inform them in advance. I also enquired at Kochi Airport Money exchange centre. They said cash upto Rs 50000/- can be converted to CAD but if I am planning to convert more than Rs 50000/- I have use debit card and also provide my PAN number.

I decided to use my debit card and convert rupees to CAD from the airport. However, I made a mistake because of which I was not able to carry any cash in hand. The mistake was I moved into emigration counter before converting cash and after the Emigration counter there weren’t any currency exchange centres. However, since I had Forex Card, I never had an issue even though I didn’t carry any cash. So important point to remember is to do the currency exchange before moving into the emigration counter.

7. Accommodation & Quarantine Plan

It is important to have an accommodation with a quarantine plan for self isolation. We will be asked for our quarantine plan at multiple counters during immigration. Booking an Airbnb long stay is the option I chose for quarantine. The stay was very comfortable. Since I booked for more than 30 days, I got the discount for long stay as well. In Airbnb we will have multiple choices to select from. We have to choose based on our requirements. However, we have to make sure that, the particular booking place allows us to quarantine there. I came just before the 3 day Government quarantine plan was in place, hence I came to Airbnb directly.

8. Utensils & Groceries

The quarantine period is tough. Even though we had friends who brought us lot of groceries and food, we had decided to carry some utensils and groceries including packed food such as sooji, rice powder etc. If you plan to cook food during the quarantine, it is better to carry some utensils and groceries along with you for urgent use. But it is worth to mention, many home delivery apps are available for grocery delivery. Instacart is one of the popular app which I also used to get some grocery.

9. Proof of Fund

The immigration officer will ask for the proof of fund amount while they print the new CoPR. The same will be recorded in the new CoPR. In my case, I showed the Fixed Deposit Receipt which was converted to CAD and was recorded in the new CoPR

10. RT-PCR Test Report

A Covid negative test certificate is required all along the checking counters. So we have to make sure we have the certificate with test done within 72 hours of departure time of the flight. Also, the RT-PCR test has to be done from ICMR approved labs.

Many people also take travel insurance, medical insurance etc. But I didn’t take any. It was mainly because the 3 month waiting period for OHIP is no more in place these days. However, depending upon your personal choices, you may choose to take a travel, medical insurance as required. 

I hope the article was useful. If you have any further queries, please feel free to reach out to me. I will be more than happy to answer your queries.