Newcomers. First and next steps.

Find a Place to Stay
In contrast with late 1990s; this is easy task today. Most rental building display sign ‘Available 1,2,3 bedroom apartments’. The landlord will ask you for deposit. Usually you have to pay for the first and for the last month of yours one year rental term. Sometimes, you have to pay for electricity, heating, water and parking separate from the monthly rent. Remember to ask.

Open a Bank Account
To open an account, you will need at least two pieces of identification, preferably with your photo. You can use your passport, permanent resident card or driver licence.

Make sure that you have been helped to open cheapest chequing account with minimal monthly fee. When account is opened, you may deposit all money that you brought in Canada. Just remember: banking account paying very little or no interest on your money. One of our volunteer consultants will provide you with information about high interest account.

Get a Social Insurance Number

 Every person in Canada has a card with a Social Insurance Number (SIN). Employers will ask for this number. It is your private number and should be kept safely.

  •      You also need a Social Insurance Number to apply for the Child Tax Credit and other benefits from the government such as employment insurance and the Canada Pension
  •       Fund. Ask your reception centre counselor to help you apply for Child Tax Credit and GST/HST.
  •      You can fill out a form to apply for your Social Insurance Number at a Human Resources Centre in your city.
  •      You will receive the card with your name and number through the mail in a few weeks.

Get Medical Insurance

You must apply for  Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) within three months of arrival. North York office of the Health ministry located at:

4400 Dufferin Street, Unit A4-A5
M3H 6A6
(first light south of Finch)

REMEMBER: First 3 months after arrival you are not covered with provincial medical insurance. Only admittance to hospital’s emergency room costs about $300 today. Medial treatment will be billed separately and may cost tens thousands of dollars.

In order to escape potential financial disaster, you need to buy 90 days medical insurance for newcomers. One of our volunteer consultants will provide you with information about cheapest insurance available on the Canadian market.

Where to look for work

  •       Many jobs are advertised in newspapers, especially on Saturdays and Wednesdays.
  •       Use the Internet. This is most popular way to look for job. Website www.workopolis.com is a good way to start from.
  •      Talk to as many people as you can about your job search. Many jobs are not advertised. People are hired because somebody told them about the job.
  •       There are placement agencies that help you find temporary and permanent jobs of different kinds. For example, there are agencies for secretarial work, restaurant work, housekeeping, construction, computer programming.
  •       You can find employment agencies listed in the telephone book.
  •       Visit your local Human Resources Centre.
  •       While you are looking for a job you may consider volunteering for an organization. Being a volunteer is a good way to get experience, increase your skills and improve your English or French.

When you have a job

Congratulations!!!   You successfully completed first part of the immigration process. Now you can focus on the same problems, like most Canadians focused on:

  •       well, I have an income, but I’m paying too much taxes
  •       what kind of financial help I can get from Government in order to increase my retirement savings, and get some money for children education.
  •       How to get cheapest Life Insurance in order to secure my family’s finances.
  •        How to get mortgage rates lower then the best rates offered by Canadian banks, and how to pay your mortgage faster without increasing monthly payments.

We do our best to keep this article up to date. However, we cannot guarantee that the information provided is always current or complete. 

Please send us a consultation request  russian.house.toronto@gmail.com. Specify your name, phone number, area of interest/concerns and one of our volunteer consultants will be happy to help you.