Our Journey to Another Land: Things to Bring

Before flying, we made a checklist on what to bring. This will ensure that we have all the needed documents before we move out of the country. It’s actually not so hard to research since most web sites and blogs have a section on “things to do/bring before landing”.

My favorite sites for these kind of research are either canadavisa.com forum or settlement.org. Be sure to bring whatever you think you’ll be needing since it will be hard for you to get these documents/things once you’ve landed.

To Bring	Description
Passports	Must not be expiring within 6 months
Confirmation of Permanent Residence Form	This document should be included when they give you your visa, one for you and one per individual coming with you.
B4E – Personal Effects Accounting Documents (Accompanying items) B4A – Personal Effects Accounting Documents (Items to follow)	All items listed here will be tax free. Downloaded here: B4E: http://www.cbsa.gc.ca/publications/forms-formulaires/b4-eng.pdf B4A: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/forms-formulaires/bsf186a.pdf
E677 – CROSS-BORDER CURRENCY OR MONETARY INSTRUMENTS REPORT	If you are bringing more than CAD 10,000 (cash and any other monetary instruments) you need to declare this with the Canadian customs. http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/forms-formulaires/e677.pdf
Foreign Currency and Other Foreign Exchange-Denominated Bearer Monetary Instruments Declaration Form	This is the counterpart of form E677 in the Philippines. http://www.bsp.gov.ph/publications/tables/2012_11/news-11132012a1.pdf
Birth Certificates	Bring at least two copies per person. This can be ordered online now through this site: https://www.ecensus.com.ph/Default.aspx
Marriage Certificates	Bring at least two copies. This can be ordered online now through this site: https://www.ecensus.com.ph/Default.aspx
Medical Records	Bring all medical records, including the one you’ve submitted during your medical exam. This should be typewritten.
Dental Records	Ask your dentist for your dental records. Our dentist used the form from the Philippine Dental Association.
Children’s Vaccination Form	If you have children coming with you, be sure to have their pediatrician list down all the vaccines administered to your children. The form should also be included in your Visa pack but, if it’s missing, you can download it here: http://www.chinacanada.ca/ss/down/immunization.pdf
IELTS	Bring your original IELTS results
ECA	Bring your original Education Credential Assessment document
Transcript of Records	Bring at least two original or certified true copies of Transcript of Records coming from your school
Diploma	Bring the original diploma
COE	Bring original certificates of employment from all the companies that you and your wife worked for
Drivers License	Bring driver’s license and receipt
LTO Certification with Red Ribbon	Bring original document. Note this document has a 6-month expiry.
Bank Draft and Canadian Dollars	Bring all monetary instruments with you, you must declare if more than 10,000
Medicines	Bring medicines, especially if you have maintenance meds

In filling out the personal effects accounting documents, you need not list down everything per piece (although this one is advisable). You can lump it into logical groups such as clothes, gadgets, shoes, food, etc. In our case, the customs officer didn’t ask for this form and told us that the goods to follow form is what matters.

We still have jet lag, thus this post at 6 in the morning EST. Until next post.

Our Journey to Another Land: Bringing Funds to Canada

As our flight date is nearing, we are now busy with the preparations for our departure. One of this is preparing our funds that we will be bringing to Canada. Of course, it will be a lot easier if you will be bringing in cash in CAD but due to security concerns, we looked at other ways to bring in our Funds during our landing.

Of course the fun part of this journey is doing research; this time, on how we can bring in money to Canada. As per settlement.org’s site (http://settlement.org/ontario/immigration-citizenship/landing-and-leaving/landing-in-canada/how-do-i-bring-money-into-canada-proof-of-funds/) , you can bring in money in the following forms:

• Cash
• Securities in bearer form (for example, stocks, bonds, debentures, treasury bills)
• Negotiable instruments in bearer form (for example, bank drafts, cheques, travellers’ cheques, money orders)
• Transfer of funds between your bank and a Canadian bank

Cash is the easiest to carry so we are bringing in funds partly cash, and partly bank draft. Why did we opt for this option? First, we can’t be bringing a minimum of $18,617 (Which is the required proof of fund for a family of 3, and take note that any amount exceeding $10,000 should be declared)in the form of cash; this will definitely be dangerous, so we decided to bring at least $4000 cash for our immediate needs because drafts will take 2-3 weeks clearing, then the rest of the amount needed as a draft.

We also explored other options such as opening an account in Canada and eventually wire transferring our funds there before landing; however, this is only available to HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank’s priority clients. Another option is to get a statement of account (preferably at a date near your departure date) from the bank where your funds are currently stored and show it to the immigration officer in Canada, this is not a fool proof solution and it’s too risky so we didn’t proceed with this one.

Once we have decided to use bank draft and cash, we look at how we can maximize the funds that we have. Since I’m working in Singapore, most of the funds that we have are in SGD. Doing a little bit of forex (not an expert) computation, we have the following options:

• Convert SGD to PHP then buy the draft in USD from the Philippines
• Buy USD Draft
• Buy SGD Draft
• Buy CAD Draft

The best choice is to buy a CAD Draft in Singapore. We did some computations, if we are to convert SGD to PHP then buy USD draft (the only draft available for my bank in the Philippines), we will be losing at least PHP 15,000. Buying USD and SGD drafts, then depositing it to a bank in Canada will also result to lesser CAD overall so we also ditched these options.

Now that we know that what we need is a CAD draft purchased in Singapore, I need to ensure that banks like TD, RBC, Scotia Bank (some of the major banks in Canada) accepts draft coming from banks in Singapore so I messaged each bank one by one through Facebook /Twitter (yes, they answer questions through Facebook/Twitter) and fortunately they do and informed me about the fees and the clearing time it takes which is something we have expected.

I started looking for banks in Singapore that offers Canadian dollar drafts. Surprisingly, only Standard Chartered is offering this service. I went ahead and opened an account with them, then purchased the draft putting my name as the recipient. I will deposit this draft to my chosen bank once I’m in Canada.

In a few days, we will be flying back to the Philippines to spend time with our families and secure the remaining documents before flying to Canada mid-April. I’m getting nervous now, but excited at the same time.

God bless everyone. Until the next post.

Our Journey to Another Land: Booking Our Flight

And so our journey continues. We just purchased our plane tickets from Manila to Toronto from Philippine Airlines after 14 tries! Imagine filling-out the forms for 5 to 10 minutes, but when you try paying through credit/debit card, site will tell you that there’s an error. I did it 14 times; you can imagine how long it took me to book this flight.

We haven’t experienced being in any long haul flights so I really have no idea what it feels like to be inside a plane for 18 hours straight, so again, we have to research to find the best experience at the best (cheapest) price possible.

There are a lot of considerations when choosing your airline; first the duration of the flight (we have our baby with us so this is on top of our list), leg room, the number of stops (transfers), rebooking fee and of course the total price. Since we will be coming from Manila, we limited our search to some of the most prominent airlines within Asia. We narrowed it down to Philippine Airlines, Korean Airlines, ANA, Cathay Pacific and EVA air based on reviews and recommendations by friends. These carriers have almost the same cost ranging from USD1800 to USD2600 and baggage conditions on the day of our flight, so we’re just left with the duration of the flight, leg room and number of stops.

Duration of the flight and the number of stopovers can be viewed from each of the carriers’ online booking platform. Duration of flight ranges from 19 to 22 hours and number of stops from 1 to 3 stops. The Philippine Airlines flight will have a one hour technical stopover in Vancouver. The other airlines have a stopover in their home airports before proceeding directly to Toronto except for ANA which have a stopover in Los Angeles.

For estimating the leg room we used http://www.seatguru.com/ to check the details of the seat pitch and seat width as well as the best seats per plane and carrier based on reviews. In estimating the legroom, we used the seat pitch which is the distance from any point on one seat to the exact same point on the seat in front or behind it. So the rule is the higher the seat pitch, the better. Note though that this doesn’t represent the leg room at all but this could be a basis.

There are other considerations such as stopover/layover time, miles accumulation (most of the airlines have this offering for free, so it will be good to have an account for miles) and food. These factors were not our main concerns so we skipped looking through them.

We ended up with Philippine Airlines although Korean Airlines based on reviews is a really good candidate. We chose PAL because it has the shortest travel time, least number of stopovers and a not so bad seat pitch. We also purchase Choice seats for more legroom since our infant will be sitting on our laps and insurance. Total cost is USD2028 for a one-way ticket.

Below is the comparison table that we created so we can compare the airlines easier.

Flights Comparison

With this, all that’s left is to pack our things; secure documents that will be needed in Canada (birth certificates, TOR, diploma, wedding certificates) attend PDOS and land. Do let me know if you have questions and I’ll try to answer it.

Until next post.