INFORMATION FOR NON-CANADIANS
(example US citizen seeking entry circa 1991-92, prices and procedures may have changed and the fees have increased)

Working Papers
Immigration
Moving Possesions: Car, Pets, Personal Items, Lab Possessions
Social Insurance Number
Driver's License
Medical Coverage
Bank Accounts
Voting for US citizens
Taxes for US citizens

Working papers - http://www.cic.gc.ca/ These will allow you to enter Canada and work even though you are not a landed immigrant. The restrictions will be that you cannot change jobs. You will not be able to get these until the university (Vice president's Office) processes your appointment and sends the form to Canada employment. Then the application will arrive for you to fill out. It will cost about 100 dollars each to file these. The working papers will arrive in the mail. My spouse, was not a faculty at the time but had a job as a research associate. This was a problem because the university doesn't do those hirings in the same way. We solved the problem by getting working papers at the border when we arrived. This is because a "scientist" is one of the allowed professions for US citizens according to the "Free trade agreement". Working papers must be renewed every year and it costs more money. You have to go down to Hornby street (Immigration Canada) to do this. It is an unpleasant and time consuming task. Try to avoid doing this too many times if possible. For non-US citizens getting working papers for one's spouse will vary depending on the country in which you are from.

Immigration - http://www.cic.gc.ca/ start an application for landed immigrant status ASAP. This process took us 2yrs, I have heard that it can take longer but the most recent hirees in Zoology got theirs in record of time of about 6 months. This will cost over 500 dollars for a "family" application. The department reimbursed me for the cost but did not cover my spouse.

You will have to do the following things

1. choose the consulate you want to deal with- you will eventually have to have a personal interview so pick one that is convenient.
2. get passport style photos (many)
3. get security clearance from FBI, from police departments in every city you have lived in since you were 18, from the countries you have lived in. You will be required to get your fingerprints taken on special forms which you mail in with even more money to get letters of clearance from the various agencies. This takes forever. Some places will send the letters to you and you have to forward them to the consulate, others will mail the letters directly to the consulate. Once you start living in Canada you will be required to be cleared by the RCMP as well. The amount of work you do will depend on the consulate you are working with.
4. physical exam - your own doctor if out of Canada, chosen from a special list if you are living in Canada - exam includes, blood serology, physical exam, chest Xray and tests for pre-existing illnesses if any. No AIDS test in '91-92. You have to pay money for this as well which the dept. reimbursed.
5. documents proving you have a PHD- copies of your diploma's , transcripts etc.
6. copy of birth certificate, marriage license and children's birth certificates
7. application will want addresses of where you were born, where you have lived, details of education, family names etc, and will ask if you have been convicted of war crimes or been in jail. You will also have to list your financial assets and the worth of all your possessions. You will not include copies of the various diplomas, certificates etc. They look at them during the interview.
8. After all the information is compiled at the consulate you have chosen you will be called there for a personal interview. We were asked to bring hard copies of our diploma's, licenses, marriage certificates etc. for them to xerox. This makes the file complete. We did our interview in April of 1992. The landed immigrant papers were official in January of 1993. Total time a little over 2 years...but remember the recent hirees got theirs in less than 6 months.
9. After you are a landed immigrant for 3 years you may apply for Canadian citizenship. Depending on the country you are from, you may be able to hold dual citizenship. This process takes about a year, costs close to $1000 dollars total and involves a number of visits to the Immigration Office in downtown Vancouver.

Moving possessions - http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/menu-e.html As a US citizen you are allowed to bring your entire personal belongings across the border without duties and taxes ONCE. This excludes guns and alcohol. The university covers some of the moving expenses - the department covers other amounts. This all depends on the budget and must be negotiated with the head. It is done by reimbursement so you have to put out the money and wait about a month to get it all back.

• Cars - some models are restricted from entering Canada. Check out your car with the Transportation Office in Ontario and see if it is on the restricted list. One of our cars was "not allowed" so we had to get special permission to bring it over the border. Once in Canada they may ask you to sign a form saying that you agree not to sell the vehicle for one year. Then you have about 30 days to get to an "autoplan" office, which are literally all over the place, and convert your insurance to that sponsored by ICBC. You will give up your old plates and get new ones on the spot. I found the rates comparable to what we were paying in California.
• Pets - we have 2 cats, getting them across was no problem. We just needed a certificate from our vet showing that their shots were up to date.
• Personal possessions - you will require a detailed list of all your stuff complete with prices (ie. ladies shirts, shoes, tableware, appliances, TV, CDs, books, walkman, computer, computer software etc). You will need several copies of the list because one must go in the moving truck, one must be presented at the border when you cross (or enter) and you probably want one yourself. They will ask you to enter the amount of your assets which they will enter on the form. We hired a commercial moving company to carry our stuff from California. We had to go down to the border to do the paperwork when the truck arrived. The truck was sealed and we drove with the truck to a customs office in East Vancouver. They did not open the seal and we were allowed to go immediately to our house. How you move your stuff will depend on how you plan to enter Canada and if you are bringing things from the US or just flying directly from the somewhere else.

You will also need a separate list if your material is separated. For example you are shipping a bunch of stuff from the US by truck but you have in your car a subset of the material. Alternatively, you ship stuff from the US but you fly directly to Canada from the UK with the rest of your things in suitcases.You are allowed, this one time, to declare material that will be coming at a later date. For example, what if your parents are planning on giving you their old bedroom set...you can declare it when you cross the border and state that it will arrive at Christmas. When we came, we declared our pets, which arrived 1 week later, this meant you did not have to pay duties for material arriving at a later date.

Lab possessions -

• frozen biological samples for research purposes can be easily sent to you after you arrive by FED EXP. The customs broker in Canada was "Milne & Craighead" phone 273-5585 (airport), 270-3500 (Vancouver office).
• DNA and other noninfectious, non toxic material can be easily sent to you by courier
• Live organisms (fruit flies), need a permit from Agriculture Canada for fruit flies (Drosophila) for mailing and for courier. It's not a problem getting the permit it just takes time.
• unofficially: mailing Drosophila isn't a problem without a permit if the number of vials is small. I got the permit for sending hundreds of stocks at once which was pretty obvious

Social Insurance Number: Go to an employment Canada office and apply for a social insurance number (SIN#). You need the working papers for this. In the meantime everyone will ask you for this number. In a few weeks you will get a card with a number beginning with a "9". This lets everyone know you are not a citizen or a landed immigrant. When you become a landed immigrant you will have to return to the employment Canada office and reapply for a real number which should arrive within a month or so. If you do not change your SIN# at every important place it will eventually catch up with you and something important will get cancelled or denied.

Driver's license - You can convert your drivers license to BC version anytime within 6 months. Just go to a Driver's License bureau and hand it in, pay a fee, answer a few questions, have your picture taken. California licenses are easy to convert.

Medical coverage - You will not be covered for the first 3 months. You should get something temporary to cover yourself. At the end of 3 months you will receive a temporary medical services card which entitles you to full benefits. After you become a landed immigrant you should let the university and the medical services know....your card changes after they process this information. In the end you will have full medical, dental and some vision insurance.

Bank accounts - UBC branch of the Bank of Montreal gives the most latitude in the beginning because they can easily check that you are a UBC employee. In general I find this branch an unpleasant place to do business many of the other banks required a long time to clear our transferred US funds. When we first came to Canada we needed to have access to money immediately to be used for house hunting (for example). Some of the other banks may be better in the long run Bank of Montreal at UBC allowed us to bring in a cashier's check and draw off of it almost immediately. There are many other options that can be used once you have arrived in Vancouver you can change your accounts.

Voting for US citizens - you can still vote by absentee ballot for the US president. You have to write away to the district where you last voted. You will not be able to vote in Canada until you become a citizen. It is now possible to be a dual US/Canadian citizen. You must wait approximately 4 years to do this. The citizenship fee is now greater than $200 dollars per person. This process takes about a year to complete. The first step is to apply for an appt. at the citizenship office in Sinclair Centre, located in downtown Vancouver. After about 6-8 weeks you will be called to a mass appt where you must bring documentation to prove you have been in Canada for the allotted time, fill out another application, bring "citizenship photos" and pay the fee. You will receive a booklet of material to study and instructions saying that an exam will be arranged for some time 4-5 months later. Copies of the questions used for the exam are available at the Vancouver public library.

Taxes for US citizens - you will be required to file US taxes as long as you are a US citizen. You do not pay anything unless your Canadian income is above $70,000 US. If you have not lived abroad for the 365 days prior to coming to Canada you can apply for an extension. In order to exclude your Canadian income from US taxes you have to be out of the US for a full calendar year. The extension allows you that extra time. Now the new tax forms come conveniently in a booklet with clear instructions. Make sure you write away early for these forms otherwise you will have to drive down to Seattle and get them yourself at the last minute. If you receive any honoraria or write book chapters for US companies, you will get double taxed UNLESS you apply for an exemption. This is easily done by writing a letter and getting a special certificate to include in your taxes.