Finally, Canadians Eh!

Woohooo, finally, after a super long delay due to this Covid19 global pandemic, we are happy to share that we are now Canadians.

It took us almost 2 years from our application before we received an update and that is to take our Citizenship Tests. We received our invitation to do the test last 29 January 2021 giving us 15 days to do it online. Don't ask me about it coz it is not allowed by IRCC and that bear in mind that each person has a totally different questionnaires.

After our tests was an Interview Invitation online with a Citizenship Officer. Again, not all are invited for interview but I think most Provincial Nominees do receives this. Also, no need to worry about the interview as it is just mostly verification of your documents unlike the test that we really need to review the Discover Canada book to pass it.

A month and a week, we received our Canadian Citizenship Ceremony invitation via Zoom. I wished you have seen us jump with happiness, LOL, coz we are finally becoming Canadians like our little fraternal twin boys.  You read it right. We finally had a Little R, the sole reason why we migrated to Canada and not just 1 but 2 Little Rs. (you can read our beautiful story  HERE)

Today, 30 June 2020, we finally sworn to faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfill our duties as Canadian citizens. And yes, below are the faces of this another great story of faith, hope and blessings that is beaming with happiness and pride coz we now have a little family we can call our own, and an ear to ear smile coz we also received a bonus for our perseverance and that is becoming Canadians.

I actually did not go through the details of our tests, interviews and oath invitations and stuffs coz, hey, I am still in cloud 9 and celebrating with my family. Below, however, is our timeline:

LANDED PR: 3 May 2016

BECOMING CANADIANS:

Physical Presence: 1,104

App Sent: 27 May 2019

App Received: 29 May 2019

AOR: 13 August 2019

ECAS: 15 August 2019

In Process: 9 September 2019

Test Invite: 29 January 2021

Test Completed: 11 & 12 February 2021

Interview Invite: 23 April 2021

Interview Completed: 11 May 2021

Decision Made (ECAS): 25 May 2021

Virtual Oath Ceremony Invite: 16 June 2021

Canadian Citizens: 30 June 2021

 

This is also my last blog post as I am now signing off. I am so delighted that through God's grace, my husband and I achieved our Canada Dream. Reaching this milestone is never an easy journey, there are so many lows, people who brought us down and not so good ones (especially losing our angels) but we chose to dealt on the positive ones and carried on. I think that no matter the negativity we went through, what is important is that God sees us through and blessed us with so much more that we have asked and prayed of Him. Above all, we are now finally complete and contented as a person and, now, as family.

God is so good and He will never leave you. Just walk by faith with good hearts and intentions.

With a grateful heart, we thank you Canada, especially the province of New Brunswick, for making our dream come through, to our parents for all the support and love you have given us since day 1, for all the people who helped us along the way, and most especially to our dear Father God for all the blessings, guidance and for our precious little ones He has given us in this beautiful journey.

At the moment, i am officially signing off from my Canada Dream Diary blog which I documented, together with our TTC BLOG, entirely for our precious little ones to someday read and know how much we have work hard to have them in our lives. We will forever be grateful that in all these journey, God has seen us through. To God be all glory and praise.

This is JustPJ signing off. I hope I have helped and inspired you one way or another.

Canadian Citizenship Application

Just where did the time go? How time flies so fast and yet here we are now applying for our Canadian Citizenship.

I remember starting this blog for my Little R to one day read how we journeyed just to have him/her in our arms. That we can do anything and everything just for him/her even leaving our family and our home country. I documented everything for him/her even if we are still waiting 3 years after we landed and applied for citizenship.

Yes, you read it right, we have already submitted our Canadian Citizenship application in May this year but it is only now that I am blogging because of our busy schedule doing renovations in our home and the house blessing almost 3 weeks ago. Most importantly, I was waiting for our acknowledgment of receipt (AOR) before I post this page, LOL. 

Well, what is really important before trying to apply for Citizenship is knowing your Physical Presence. I used CIC's Physical Presence Calculator to calculate our eligibility to apply for Citizenship especially that we went home to the Philippines last October 2018 for my father's wake. It is easy actually to maneuver said Calculator. You can log in to your old email address on your Express Entry profile, edit and/or save if you must, but once you are ready, you can print it off and use and/or attach this form in lieu of Form CIT 0407. Just remember that the date on the Physical Presence form must be the same as the date of Form CIT 002.

In addition to the Physical Presence, permanent residents must have 1,095 eligible days within the last 5 years before they can apply for Citizenship. For me and my husband, we have 1,104 credited Physical Presence based on the CIC's calculator, see below. Thus, making us eligible to apply for Citizenship. If you go out outside of Canada most of the time, it is stated on the Instruction Guide to give at least 5 days allowance on the 1,095 days just in case you miss a day out. You don't want your application to be returned and I will tell you later on why.😀 (Oh, I like that I can put real smileys now, LOL)

Before actually starting to fill up your forms, open CIC's Instruction Guide on Application for Canadian Citizenship to help you on the filling up process. It is well-explained on the guide what to do and what is not, what document to provide and attachment, if any. Also, consider printing or scanning out the Document Checklist just for heads up on what basic paperwork an applicant needs. We actually need 8 documents only per applicant. How cool is that compared to the bulky documentation we did during our Provincial and Federal applications, LOL.

Anyway, remember to read the right Form to fill up as almost every year, I think, CIC updates their Forms. Ours was CIT 0002 (02-2019) E. If you used the wrong General Form, your application will be returned. So keep that in mind. The Guide will tell you and the number of the Form is located on the lower left corner of the 8 pages Application for Canadian Citizenship Adults (18 years of age or older).

On said Form above, don't forget to tick important boxes for yourselves and the word N/A on all boxes that has no answer. Mind you, some application/s has been returned just by not ticking 1 box in their application and a blank/s on their Form. Yes, same as Provincial and Federal, no blank spaces.

What is really tricky on the Form which I find confusing (but the Guide will answer it as well) are the following:

1. No. 10.a: where they asked for your addresses for the last five years - if you notice our Physical Presence Form, our eligibility period is from 2014-05-26 to 2019-05-26. Thus, you need to key in your home addresses for the last 5 years including your country of residence before you become permanent residents. and
2. No. 10.b: our answer is "YES" for this reason because in the last 5 years we lived in the Philippines for 365 days before we become permanent residents 3 years ago. And if you went out of Canada for travel or emergency like ours, just 14 days and is no more than 183 days then no need for a Police Clearance. I, however, attached our Police Clearance (NBI) which we submitted during the Federal stage and stated that we submitted it on our Immigration Application in Year 2015. A Police Clearance is only needed if you have a continuous 183 days pf physical absence in Canada.

Moving forward to passport. No need to print all pages. I only printed the biographical pages of our new and old passports.

On photocopy of proof of knowledge on English or French language. For mine, since I am the principal applicant on our Immigration application, I sent a photocopy of my IELTS which I submitted 3 years ago. I hope you still have a copy of yours.😀 For my husband, I made a Letter of Explanation for him and I quote:

             "I am writing this letter to show proof of my English Language.

           I did not take my IELTS General Training when I came to Canada because my wife, _______, is the principal applicant in our permanent residency application. In this connection, I am presenting my diploma in __________ as proof that even though I did not take my IELTS I know how to read and write in English because from Elementary to College we have English subject included in our curriculum. Please see also my attached Transcript of Record with English subjects such as: Grammar Development, Technical Writing, Speech Development and Public Speaking.  

           Gratefully hoping for your favorable consideration. 

          Thank you."

The rest of the document checklist is self explanatory. I must say though that you need to pay your Citizenship upfront and attached the receipt on your application/s. The fee for adult is CAD630, minor I think is CAD100 (if my memory is right), please check.

Again, check, double check, triple check before submitting because Citizenship application is paper base. Once you commit an error your application will be return. We submitted our Citizenship application last 27 May 2019 and was received by "T Allen" on 29 May 2019.

More than 2 months has passed and of course the waiting game is killing me again. This is why I was anxiously nervous since last week waiting for our AOR. In Citizenship application, we wait for a minimum of 2 months for that magic AOR email from CIC. If you received your AOR, this just means that your submitted basic requirements are all good and complete. However, when your document is returned, the applicant must comply with whatsoever error made on the application, then mail "again", and wait for another minimum of 2 months.😏

See, so who will not panic if everyone on the forum is getting AOR except you, LOL, same feeling during Provincial and Federal.😀 So, I called CIC last Monday, 12 August, LOL, as per forum and inquired. I just gave our UCI Nos., I was only waiting for the agent to say, I cannot find your application nor your payment, blah, blah, blah (as per forum applicants' experiences) but nope heard nothing of it. The agent just says everything is good (it's like music to my ear, LOL) and we just need to wait because there is a bunch of applications. Oh, I know, LOL, just waiting for the magic words. But... we did not wait any longer, the following day, we finally received our AOR, see below.

Now, we can really relax and wait "again" but we can, however, go online to check status of our Citizenship application through ECAS. I just have no time yet to do it. What is important is we passed the first stage. Thank you dear Father God for all the guidance.

First-Time Home Buyers

Having a house for us is very important. This is where our proof of fund or settlement fund came from when we were applying to come to Canada in 2015.

Ever since we landed in 2016, it has always been one of our dreams to have a home here in Canada as we are not use to renting. We have been looking forward to it because we believe paying for a home mortgage is way much better than renting an apartment. Having a home is a very large and secure investment any mature individual desires to have.

If you never have a home for the last four (4) years in the maple leaf country then you are considered a first-time home buyer. Income, debt, assets and employment status are important factors to be considered for a home loan. However, credit scores also plays a very important key role on whether or not a person will be approved for the mortgage.

We were told that to have a good credit score or to make it higher at least is to pay off your credit cards on a monthly basis to which we did. And since we are newcomers, debt is a lesser factor for us as we only have our car loan. 

In December 2017, we tried to apply for a home mortgage on a property owned by Colpitts Realty. Almost everything inside of that townhouse is my dream color, stainless steel appliances, kitchen island and so on. It just that it is not a bungalow type. A bungalow house has always been my dream home but my husband has a weak back and he does not want to do the plowing on winter time nor can I do that. Thus, we agreed to settle on a townhouse.

During that time we were pre-approved by CIBC with its cash back program, signed a contract for closing, gave a downpayment but backed out at the end. Why cash back? Because we were hoping to use first our money for our IVF procedure as downpayment but backed out because my husband's aunt told us that the cash back is no good as it will give you higher monthly instalments and interest rate. We also went to our bank, RBC, to inquire or ask an opinion and that is also what they told us and even asked us if what do you prefer, a house or the procedure? Of course, the procedure. That's when we told ourselves, it's not yet time.

This leaves us in despair on how to have a house and at the same time do our IVF(s) procedure. Then we remember the advise of my husband's aunt and also a little knowledge I learned from my training with H&R Block which is to put more money on your Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP). Annually, there is a required amount an individual can save on his/her RRSPs. What we did, we put 5% contribution each on our RRSPs via our weekly salary deduction. In addition, the Government allows a one-time big amount deposit on our RRSP to which we did but bearing in mind also not to go over your limit for the year. Then unknowingly, after a year of doing this, we finally save more than enough of the 5% downpayment and additional 1.5% for the processing and miscellaneous fees needed in buying a house. The Government allows first-time home buyers to borrow up to $25,000.00 each on our RRSP as downpayment, tax-free. This, however, must be repaid for within 15 years as the amount is only borrowed from your RRSPs. A good deal for us who is undergoing infertility treatments. At least we can do 2 things at once.

On this note, we started looking again for a prospective house. We also talked that it is better we get a house now than spending so much again in our infertility treatments without savings. I mean everything is just going out of our savings and we were thinking when we have a house then at least we have something coming in for us not as a saving but at least an investment. And so, the last quarter of 2018 has been a habit for us both to go house hunting on weekends. And during those trips, we always go back to this new townhouses being built at Mia Circle. Funny but we've entered every unit of the townhouses there, LOL.

Thus, in January this year, we tried applying for a home loan again but were denied at pre-approval stage. Why? Because of my credit score. I only have 611 when we applied and my husband at 660 plus range. How did this happened? As per my last post, my father died in October 2018 and that we went home to the Philippines. I used my credit card to purchase our tickets with a limit of $4,000.00. Our tickets cost is almost $4,000.00 plus other expenses that we need to pay off when we came back in Canada. This put my credit score in a bad situation because according to the bank using almost everything of your credit limit is not a good idea plus the fact that we have not pay the full amount of our tickets for at least 2 months because of course of some "other" expenses. Our bank told us to get rid of my bad credit history first from October cut off and give another 2 or 3 months (from January) before trying to apply for a home loan again.

This has saddened us, especially me, because I really wanted the townhouse at Mia Circle but we are hoping there will still be a unit left for us in 2 or 3 months time even in Cojo Lane (just beside the Mis Circle).

Then came a message from the Realtor of Mia Circle last week of February telling us that a unit on Mia Circle is to be vacated. She explained to us that the unit was offered for rent-to-own basis to a family but because of personal reason they withdraw after 2 months. The Realtor has offered that unit to us because of my husband's persistency on asking if there is/are still unit/s left at Cojo Lane (not Mia Circle because we know it is all filled up), LOL.  We told her that we are still fixing my credit score history and we still have until April, at most, to apply for home mortgage. The Realtor together with the owner told us that if we really want the house, we can give a downpayment for reservation and do a rent-to-own for March until we get approved. To which we did because we don't want to let go of the unit especially that it is in Mia Circle and that the cabinet colours is the one that I really wanted (dark espresso with stainless steel appliances, wink, wink, ooohhh, plus kitchen island). So, by February we sent out our three-month notice to our landlord that we will be vacating our apartment end of April.

We paid our $1,000.00 downpayment and a $1,300.00 rent-to-own fee ($600.00 for rent; $600.00 as additional downpayment and $100.00 as building maintenance fee [required fee for townhouses]) last March while still renting in our apartment. We applied for a home mortgage end of March to which we were finally approved but will not go on the mathematical and bank details for personal reason. Just remember that when you wish to use your RRSP as downpayment, you need to fill up Form T1036 (Request to Withdraw Funds from an RRSP) and send it to your institution where you save your RRSPs for them to process it. Take note that you cannot withdraw all of your RRSPs and that a 90-day period contribution is not deductible as per the Home Buyers' Plan (HBP) regulation. We just added up an amount of roughly $125.00 to our rent of $775.00 for our monthly home mortgage plus building maintenance fee of $100.00 but exclusive of the Property Tax. 

I thought soulmate is only applicable for humans. I never thought it can also be applied in a house. Meant to be, LOL. Imagine always visiting the place almost every Sunday. Planning this and that so we can have it and out of the blue, we did. We are officially homeowners to one of this unit below.

Now, we are done with one of our dreams. Off to the next one, as we just celebrated our third year in Canada yesterday which means Canadian citizenship application is next but of course having our little R is still our main priority. In God's time, just a little more baby steps.

The Wheel of Life

It has been so loooong since I last posted and I'm speechless because my comment section has too many messages. Oh well, most of it are spam, LOL.

I need a lot of cleaning with those unwanted spams which leave me no recourse but to change my comment settings so it will be easier to clean it when I go on hiatus again, LOL.

Anyway, how have we been.

First things first, my sister's NBPNP application was not as successful as ours. Sad but after almost a year of waiting, their application for permanent residency was denied due to an undated Letter or Employment (LOE). It is just strange because LOEs are reviewed on the provincial level and, oh never mind, I believe also that my sister has a fault on it because this was one of her additional document but failed to reply. Or, maybe my fault too because I did not guide her all throughout their Federal stage as I was on social media break (FB, IG and WhatsApp) for so long last year and she did not really dare to bother me because of the below reason. Now that my sister's application was denied, my nephew is now routing the student visa stream. This may be a very long process but for as long as we are here, we will do everything for them to come to Canada too.

Well, as stated over and over, the only reason why we are here in the maple leaf country is solely for our Canadian dream of having our little R. However, part of trying to reach that dream is to try to gamble between happiness and pain. Armoured by so much faith and hope, we took the chance to do a procedure last year but we were never ready of the outcome of it. Year 2018 brings out the worst in us with our loss. It was unexplainable and unbearable. The pain is still there but month after months we have chosen to pick up the broken pieces of us and chose to stand up again through God's grace.

However, as we were to embark our repeat procedure after gaining the needed strength, I lost my first love too 6 months after we lost them. My dad went into cardiac arrest while undergoing an arteriovenous surgery. I have always been a daddy's girl and when I received those dreaded messages that my dad passed away when I was still mending my broken self ...ah, I was so disoriented. Going home to the Philippines is a bittersweet moment but has given us the courage to stand, especially me, on our own two feet "again". 

Year 2018 really is a very rough time for us both but has taught us so many lessons especially on "some" people around us here in Fredericton which is so much unworthy to even think or talk about it. Just a little note to ourselves:

I know this post is a sad one but this is our journey, it is not always a happy one. That is life, there will always be ups and downs just like a wheel. Sometimes your up, sometimes your down. Last year may have brought us enough trials but through God's grace, we survived. We've learned that sometimes God will put you to your worst so you can become a better person, know your worth, cautiously grow and carry on with a smile despite the struggles. 

Moving forward to 2019, I believe we are more than at peace right now, our hearts and minds are all good and very optimistic for the future especially to our Canada dream.

Now, let me do my spam cleaning, LOL, as more blogs is coming for this year as our Year 3 as permanent residents is drawing closer. Until next blog. Ciao.

NBPNP EELMS (Year 3)

Bonjour mon cher blog.

How I miss updating this blog of mine. I just thought I have no more to share since the day we hit one year here in the maple leaf country but I was wrong.

The New Brunswick Provincial Nominee Program Express Entry Labour Market Stream (NBPNP EELMS) just issued golden ITAs (Invitation to Apply) to applicants who attended Information Sessions for the last 2 years and one of them is my sister, teehee. This is the third year that they have been issuing ITAs under the above program and I couldn't be happier to share this on my blog because a member of my family is one of them.

My husband and I, as everyone knows, came here to Canada through the NBPNP EELMS program which started with New Brunswick's first Information Session in July 2015 in my country, the Philippines (Manila/Cebu). We were under the very first batch of immigrants who were lucky to come to Canada under said program. This program opened in connection with the Canada Immigration and Citizenship (CIC)'s pilot Express Entry program which started in January of 2015. 

Then with the success of the NBPNP EELMS in 2015, New Brunswick Government conducted another information sessions in 2016 to various countries. Dubai, United Arab Emirates is one of them where my older sister lives and works for almost a decade now.

With God's favour and protection, He allowed me and my husband to become permanent residents (PR) and it is just proper for us to share this blessing to our family. Thus, it is our priority to help my sister to also come to Canada with her children. She is a single mother who has been away with her very young kids (since ages 1 and 3) and work abroad to provide them a better living. I really wanted them to be together too. My nephew and niece were my first babies. I have the chance to experienced being a mother because of them. They're grown ups now and in their teenage years.

To make the story short, I told my sister to get her IELTS and WES done for them to follow us here in Fredericton. I am a graduate of NBPNP and CIC but I have been monitoring their websites because of my sister, especially NBPNP. When they posted schedule of information sessions in Dubai. I automatically relayed this to my sister and so she had the chance to attend the July 20, 2016 information session under the National Occupational Classification (NOC) 2174/Computer Programmers and Interactive Media Developers.

She passed her IELTS with a minimum score of 6 in 1/2 of the 4 modules in IELTS. She only have a 2-year post secondary diploma on her WES. These, however, made her eligibility requirement score so low that she did not even made it to 67/100 (NBPNP EELMS Expression of Interest [EOI] minimum required points) making her ineligible to apply under the NBPNP EELMS. She only scored 61/100 because age is one of the factor too and, during that time, she cannot claim 5 points on adaptability because we just landed in New Brunswick barely 2 or 3 months. So I told her to do a (a) repeat IELTS exam and hit a higher score to which I know it is very difficult to do, and (b) we wait for May 2017, our 1 year, to apply so she can claim 5 points more on her scores.

My sister had her repeat IELTS in February 2017 and is still short of the minimum EOI points (62/100) because she had her birthday in December 2016. Still short even if she was not deducted 1 point of her score because of age. Thus, our last resort is the 5 points adaptability score which will be in effect only by May 2017 (our one year in Canada). Sadly, the NBPNP EELMS temporarily closes in March 2017 to give way to another program, the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program (AIPP). I will not go through with this because my sister tried to apply with this program but she was not given the chance to be contacted and have an interview with employers of AIPP.

It is really heartbreaking to have our anniversary in May 2017 but my sister cannot apply with the NBPNP EELMS because it was temporarily closed. But this did not stop me in researching for ways on how my sister and her 2 kids come here to Canada.

I found New Brunswick's other Provincial Nominee Program, the Skilled Worker Applicants with Family Support where the requirement for Family Supporter is that she/he has been working in New Brunswick for 12 consecutive months and an interview. We actually started filling up forms on this on my first year anniversary working with UPS in August 2017. I know we can pass the interview since my husband and I are both regular full time Brokerage Rater and is way above minimum salaried per hour employees of UPS Canada so there is nothing to be afraid getting rejected on "Family Supporter" literal meaning. The downfall of this program, however, is that there is too much papers to work on. We need to submit package documents for NBPNP and CIC at the same time and submit these to New Brunswick Government. Once nominated, NB will submit CIC package document directly to them for PR application. I like NBPNP EELMS better because it has step-by-step process and is more faster.

Good thing NBPNP EELMS re-opened last September 7, 2017 so my sister had the chance to apply again. This time with 67/100 EOI points under Priority 1 (Relative) and 2 (July 30, 2016 Information Session). Funny thing is, she got excited when I sent her a message. She emailed NB an old version of her EOI with no amount of POF and Job Seeker Code. So, she had to re-send another EOI by September 8, 2017. And guess what, she received her golden ITA (Invitation to Apply) last Friday the 13th, October 13, 2017. Oh how happy can we be. She was crying with joy over the phone. Who will not be? I cried too when I received ours, LOL. Below is my sister's "very photogenic" golden ITA, wink, wink, wink:

She now also have a timeline, hahaha, I am just so happy and excited but here it is:

EOI: 08/08/2017

ITA: 10/13/2017

Pray, pray and more prayers.
See you next year. :)

My sister has her reason why she wanted to immigrate to Canada with her kids. The same way as we had ours. The only thing that matters is making our dreams come through for that "reason/s" why we wanted to come to Canada. We made it here. Others made it here too. Soon, and in God's grace, my sister, nephew and niece will make it here to Canada. We just need to make it happen and we will do our very best to help them because it is still better to be around families. Above all, we need to continuously pray to our Father God for guidance and trust that He will answer our prayer.

Happy One Year To Us

How time flies so fast. I remember 2 years ago, same month, when I started this blog. We were just merely a dreamer before preparing for our immigration applications. Then with the help from up above, all went well with our papers and successfully landed in our chosen province, New Brunswick, in 2016. And guess what, we are now happily celebrating our amazing one year here in Canada.

So much had happen in the last 12 months. It was like a roller coaster ride. There were ups and downs but we are thankful there are more ups than downs in our settlement. The down side is just a lesson learned and purely noises. God has been very good to us in providing us so much blessings and guidance.

I really like the part where we just go in and out of a clinic and in the hospital with no out of pocket payments to do and we just show our NB medicare. This for me is the best part of being here. Why? It is because my husband and I did so many check ups, procedures and a surgery amounting to roughly half a million Philippine peso in our country but whatever cost in Canadian dollar this is where all covered by our NB medicare. Read my TTC Blog. We did pay a little of our medication since it is an infertility drug but only 20% of it because our UPS manulife health insurance covers 80% of it. I so love it because I know we are closer in realizing our ultimate dream on why we came here in Canada and that is solely for little R.

In terms of career, my husband and I are both doing good with it thereby saving for us and more for our little R, LOL. Actually, little R has more savings than us because we decided to open an account for him/her. We know education is free here from elementary to high school but going to a university is not, thus, the savings.

Coming here also gives us  the chance to send monthly family support for both our parents. Helping our parents is our second priority when we decided to come here especially that they are all in their senior years. And since we are now 1 year, we can now help our siblings to come here also under priority 1 of New Brunwsick's provincial nominee program. So sweet. It just means that as we climb the ladder up so will our respective families.

One dream, one leap of faith and too many relevant result in just taking that dream into reality. You may tell us that we are just lucky but no. Dreaming for our future is not bad it will in fact give you motivation to strive to make that dream possible. The bad comes out when you do not do anything to achieve that dream. We were once a dreamer but look where we are now.

Immigrating to Canada is not easy. It is indeed a very hard process and it entails money but I believe we can do something about the money part. Doing the process is another story because of documentations but for me for as long as you read and join in immigration forum then somehow the process will be easy. Once you landed, always put your feet on the ground and never compare yourselves to other. Also, learn to pay it forward, it is where the blessings comes back to you thousand fold. Most especially, learn to set your goals, you will never go wrong with it.

Of course, above anything else, lots and lots and lots of prayer from up above. We have to do the hard work to make our dream come through and gain mercy from our Father God. After all, He sees every hard work that we do and you will never know He already granted your prayer or dream just like what He did to us. Keep on dreaming and praying and God will do the rest.

Thank you again NBPNP EELMS and New Brunswick for making Canada as our second home. Above all, thank you Father God for helping us come here, for making our dream one step closer to becoming parents to little R. We continue to pray for that one most precious perfect time when you finally bless us with our Canada dream, our little R.

2016 Tax Returns Filed

Bonjour mon cher blog.

It has been a while since I last posted in here (concentrating on my TTC blog now). I miss sharing our Canada journey but since I am already here my posts on this blog will only concentrate on our first time like this and like that.

On this note, I am happy to share that after getting our diploma last year, our PR cards, our journey to the maple leaf has leveled up. We got promoted to filing our respective Income Tax Returns, the Canadian way (smiley), with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Maybe it is just me but the feeling is really amazing especially when coming here to Canada has not completely sink in unto my system even if we are nearing our first year.

Anyway, on my previous posts, I have talked about me studying Level I of Canada's Federal Income Tax Return with H&R Block last year and, since January this year, I started working with them on a seasonal contract at their Sears kiosk. Meaning only for tax season which is from January to May 1, 2017. This also entitles me to file my return and that of my husband for free. See my smiley ID below, LOL, this also gives me 10-15% discount when we purchase with Sears (smiley).

Thus, 2 weeks ago, after receiving our Statement of Remuneration Paid (T4) slips, I eagerly entered our details on H&R Block's system and it says we both have a refund which totals to more than a thousand dollar. It usually is the case when you file the first time. Also, as immigrants and first time filers, you need to know your world income and your date of landing so you will know what to fill up under the "Non-residents, immigrants and emigrants" portion. In our case, and this is for 2016 purposes only, there is a portion there where you will be ask for your income in Canada (this will be dependent on your T4s) and world income (your 2016 income outside Canada during your non-residency period). I made sure that what is entered in our GST/HST application is the same to that of our return, so keep a file of the GST/HST form or Child Care Benefit for those with kids.

In addition, the Federal Government (including Provincial Government) has allotted personal tax credits that is allowed as a deduction in calculating your federal tax liability. I will not go through with this detail but when it is your time to file tax, you will know. I just want to point out that, being an immigrant and first time filer, our personal tax credits will be pro rated depending on your date of landing. In our case, for example, the basic personal amount for each taxpayer for 2016 is at $11,474.00 regardless of your income/tax bracket but ours is at a pro rated amount of $7,618.00 because we landed in Canada on 3 May 2016. This will apply to other personal tax credits but like I have said I will not go through with the details so as not to confuse anyone.

Anyway, going back to T4, you will receive this slip when you work here in Canada and is given to you by your employer on or before every 28th day of February each year regardless if you are still working with them or not. They usually come in your mailbox. Below is a sample of the slip:

One tip I wanted to share, especially if you are working part time, see to it that you have an income tax deducted on your payslips. Employers will usually deduct only on your Canada Pension Plan (CPP) contribution and Employment Insurance (EI) premium but little to nothing on your income tax. This will help you when you are ready to file your return. Take for example some of our clients who are filing their return, they will usually ask "why I have little refund" or the worst question "why do I owe CRA", then you go to their T4, you will see that their employer deducted a small amount or nothing at all on their income tax (this is just one factor). In my case, I am a permanent part time with UPS, my income tax deduction is so small compared to the income I received, thus, I called our HR to request for an increase of $10.00 per pay on my income tax. Your HR will know what form they will give you and you can choose to have your income tax deduction increase to $5.00, $10.00, $15.00 or $20.00. For full time employees, just see to it that you are properly deducted with your income tax. It is better to pay more income tax every payday than be surprised with a one time, big time balance owing in the tax season. I am okay with little refund  or even zero but with a balance owing, oh no, that is a different story.

In addition, keep with you any medical expense receipts (meaning not covered by insurance and is an out-of-pocket expenses by you), a month bus pass transit, donations, fitness receipts (soccer, swimming, etc. of your child) and arts receipts (music lesson, etc. of your child), these will all help in your taxes. Also, tuition fees, like mine, with H&R Block. Note, though, that they are planning to abolish fitness and arts amount but I added them on the list for the purpose of this 2016 tax return.

Okay, so much so with the tips. I hope I did not confuse anyone. Anyway, going back on our return, I was told that since we are new immigrants here, the filing will be on paper base (meaning for mailing to CRA) to which we did 2 weeks ago via H&R. This will also mean we have to wait for 6-8 weeks wait before we receive our refund. However, just last week when I reported for work, H&R e-filed our tax returns, awesome, meaning electronically delivered directly to CRA. Thus, waiting game will only be in 7 days to 2 weeks and we have registered for a direct deposit on our bank account. This means that CRA will directly deposit our refund to our bank account rather than waiting for a check in the mailbox. This is what happen in our GST/HST as posted in my previous blog.

With our tax returns already filed, we can now open a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) with our bank. It is good to save money on our RRSP so we can use them once we retire and, also, it will help on our tax. Adding to the filed return, I also cannot wait to register with CRA soon. In Canada, whatever slips you receive, CRA is very good in their filing system and take note, all is online. We just need to register an account with them, and viola, you can all view slips, statements, even notice of assessments (they do randomly assess taxpayers, so keep your receipts with you and other important documents) and others.

You really cannot escape with your tax here, I hope they do this to in my home country, LOL. Don't get me wrong fellow Filipinos but I know you know what I mean. In here, I am okay to pay my taxes because I know I am benefiting with it. Take for example on our infertility medication, my husband and I has been going in and out the hospital and clinic since September 2016. My husband underwent a surgery in January and I, myself, has been through so many procedures (in fact, I have 2 procedures next week) but we paid nothing, as in zero, with all of them. Our NB medicare covered them all. We still did not use our employer's health insurance except with my medicines (Manulife pays 80% of it and we pay the remaining 20%). Unbelievable it may seem but this is one of the so many benefits Canada through our taxes.

Until my next blog. For now, the journey continues until we achieve our Canadian dream...our little R.

All About Lugan

Happy 2017 everyone.

The past year has been very good for me and my husband and we are nearing 1 year here in the maple leaf country. I still cannot comprehend the fact that we are now living the world which we once dreamed off. God is really good and works in mysterious ways. And guess what, we already recovered our settlement fund amounting to almost a Family of 4 from our salaries in just 7 months. I am the Ms. Record type woman even when I am still single. I always have a yearly spreadsheet of all the inflows and outflows of my/our money. I really am my mother's daughter, LOL, that is why I know where we spend this and that and the money comes from here and there. But it is a good thing. So, I am recommending, especially us newcomers, to make a spreadsheet of the ins and outs of our money. It will at some point help you in decision making just like buying your own car.  

Anyway, as promised, I am now blogging about driving lesson, driver's license, car financing and its insurance for a first time driver and newcomer like us but before anything else, meet this handsome 2013 Ford Escape model below:

Hello. My name is Lugan. Born 15 December 2016 at Fredericton, New Brunswick.

I call Lugan our soulmate and it is really meant for us. Yes, we are scouting for a car because we know, even back in the Philippines, that it is a necessity here in Canada but we are not really in a rush about it. Why? We wanted a car that is age 2012 or higher because honestly I do not want us to spend too much on cars because I wanted us to have a house for Little R so I told my husband that I wanted a car that we can use not for a short time but until 5 years or more to which we both agreed. I wanted also a small car only but my husband convince me that it is better we have a bigger one like ours now in preparation (1) for little R and his/her stuffs; (2) for our family who are next in line from migrating here; and (3) for adventure purposes. So, SUV it is. We both also wanted a black car, as in black only. Then came this post from KIJIJI. When I first saw Lugan, it was love at first sight. I was stubbornly asking my husband to call the dealer, schedule a day where we can go visit, etc., etc. During that time, my husband is already enrolled in driving school, working full time at UPS and part time at KFC and me the hard headed wife just keep on pushing him to come let's go see Lugan, blah, blah, blah and my poor husband with little to no sleep at all can't do nothing, LOL.

I honestly do not know anything about cars but through my husband he told me that Ford is one of the good brand of cars here in North America. Lugan is a second hand car but its mileage is only at 46,843 and if you see the history it started as a for lease car. Why? We were also offered a brand new 2017 Ford Escape (we actually had a chance to ride on it even a 2017 Rogue Nissan, LOL, we're actually choosing on these 2 cars) but it is for lease (we don't want to lease only). If it is for lease, maintenance is free for 5 years and Lugan was well taken cared off by the previous owner where you can see in its history that it always has check ups. Like a baby, LOL. Lugan also traveled only in Fredericton. I am guessing that the previous owner is a senior citizen which explains why he/she uses Lugan in Fredericton only. Thus, the explanation why we bought our car earlier instead of waiting for my husband's 7-2 driver's license. Lugan is a very good deal for the both of us.

DRIVER's LICENSE and DRIVING SCHOOL

In New Brunswick, if you wanted to have a driver's license, may you be a newbie or a newcomer with your international license, you are both required to take an exam. A booklet, like the one below, is being sold at Service New Brunswick (SNB) for $5.00 plus tax and it is a reviewer. You can take the written test anytime you want for a fee of $25.00 plus tax. See NEW BRUNSWICK FEES HERE. Once you passed, you will be given a 7-1 driver's license or what they call a beginner's license.

My husband took his written test in August 2016. He passed it on his first try (If you fail, see the fees on the link I shared above). If you have been reading my blog, you will know that we both secured a Government ID in lieu of a driver's license because both of us does not have a license back home and does not know how to drive. Thus, my husband surrendered the Government ID and SNB changed it to a 7-1 driver's license for a fee of $90.00 plus tax.

Since we are Filipinos, we will be dealing only on Philippine driver's license to be used here in NB.  Okay, the thing is, you can directly drive using your Philippine driver's license for a period of 6 months. During said period you must convert your Philippine license to that of NB by taking a road test provided by SNB for a fee of $25.00 plus tax. Once you pass, you will have your class 5 driver's license or an equivalent to a Philippine professional driver's license.

In our case, since my husband is new to driving and has a 7-1 license, he can drive but (1) he has to be with someone who has a class 5 license, (2) he cannot drive from 12 midnight to 5:00 in the morning even with someone who has a class 5 license, and (3) he has to convert his 7-1 to 7-2 license, or an equivalent to a Philippine non-professional driver's license, by passing a road test. In order to do all these and he being a newbie to driving, the driving school comes up in the picture. A 7-2 license is convertible to a class 5 license after 2 years. Note that the difference only of a 7-2 and class 5 licenses is the number of passengers allowed in a car, 2 for 7-2 (the driver and a passenger) and 2 or more for class 5.

My equally stubborn husband enrolled in a driving school very late from where he passed his written test. He can be as hard headed as me, LOL. So he passed his exam in August last year but enrolled only in November and started his driving lessons only in December, grrrr, LOL. I was actually complaining of me waiting for a bus, freezing cold and my fractured arm in pain almost everyday since Fall started and have to pressure him more when winter came, LOL.

Anyway, my husband took his driving school with First Rate Driver, see above or the website, for a fee of $631.00, inclusive of tax. This amount includes 4 consecutive whole day Saturday classes starting from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM and 11 hours actual driving. The 1-hour of it is allotted on the day of his actual road test with SNB. However, because of the onset of the holiday season, his schedule for actual driving lesson were moved this month starting from 20th January to 21st April 2017. Thus, we literally cannot use Lugan yet in our everyday routine because my husband has yet to convert his driver's license to 7-2. There is a new rule now for newbie drivers which gives them 8 months from getting a 7-1 license to convert to 7-2 license. Thus, we have until April 2017 for him to fully convert his driver's license to 7-2 by passing a road test with SNB. We are just so thankful with our fellow PNP, Vince, for patiently riding with us (even if he has his own car) to and from UPS and for being my husband's teacher in driving. At least, I am no longer frozen in the bus stop, LOL, and we can cross Priestman Street going to Abbott Court, hahaha, when there is a get together with Filipino NBPNPers.

LUGAN's COST and INSURANCE

As described above, Lugan is a second hand car. It just look like it's new because our dealer company were just so excited for me and my husband because we are newcomers in Canada and we are getting our very first ever car with them. This explains why Lugan is displayed inside the building, it has ribbon too, LOL, but I prefer to post the picture above. So, to take Lugan home, we are required to put a down payment of $5,000.00 and finance it for 6 years at a monthly rate of $246.50. A very good deal indeed. See, even the price is at minimal because our priority is really to have a house 1-2-3 years from now. Lugan's dealer is Riverview Ford at Hanwell, Fredericton which is very near our workplace. You must imagine how excited we are during those days that we are closing our deal with Riverview Ford, LOL.

Our dealer were the ones who recommended an insurance company for Lugan but the insurance company do not accept newcomers but they still endorsed us to another one, D.W. Olts & Sons. My husband told D.W. that he is still in driving school and have yet to get a 7-2 driver's license. D.W. explained that since he is totally new in driving and have yet to get a certificate from his driving school then Lugan's insurance will be much higher compared to those who have a certificate. Note also to those with Philippine driver's license who are planning to have a car that even if you have a class 5 license but no certificate from a driving school, your car insurance will most likely cost just like ours. Thus, it is advisable to enroll in a driving school just for the purpose of getting your insurance lower, if preferred only.

So, Lugan's monthly full insurance cost for the both of us is $240.77 until we have not presented a driving school certificate. We already paid for December and a security deposit totaling $481.00 after tax last month. Once a certificate is in order, Lugan's insurance will drop down to $186.00 monthly. It will still drop if I prefer to do my driving school but I am not yet into driving. I'll change my mind if Little R comes, LOL. Okay, so what we did to lessen our monthly costs was we kept a budget for Lugan's insurance on our bank. Once we get the certificate, we plan to pay Lugan's insurance for the whole year so I will not have problem doing the math for it, LOL. Note that insurance cost lowers every year, so, we have to deal with high insurances for the meantime, LOL. Perks of being a newcomer and a newbie one.

There goes the post about buying your own car. The husband is literally reviewing my blog post because he is actually the one involved on most of it. I just do the writing, teehee. P.S. I will update this post once the driving road test is in order.

GST/HST Credit

Back in the Philippines, we were told so many times that if we have a child or children, they are entitled to Child Care Benefit (CCB) per child. What if a couple do not have one or is single, what are they entitled for?

Okay, so if you have children, you must see to it that you fill up a form for CCB and mail them (This I cannot deal too much because you all know that we are only family of 2 so read about this if you have a child/ren). This will automatically entitles a couple with their combined Goods and Service Tax / Harmonized Sales Tax (GST/HST) credit so no need to fill up a form. I am sharing this based on my fellow PNPs experience who received their CCB and GST/HST at the same time.

What is a GST/HST Credit? It is a tax-free quarterly payment that helps individuals and families with low or modest incomes offset all or part of the GST or HST that they pay. In New Brunswick, we always pay 15% of HST on top of our bill. The 15% composes 5% of Federal GST and the remaining 10% is the provincial component. Read this NB HST because the tax per province varies.

Going back to benefits for couples and single individuals. What I did? I asked my friend google about GST/HST newcomer and guess what, google redirected me to Canada Revenue Canada (CRA) where a form is provided for us, newcomers, to fill up and mail to CRA. Still, unconvinced, LOL, I also called CRA to make sure that what I understand based on the link above is true and the customer service concurred to all what is in the website. The mailing address is provided in the form. Download the fillable/saveable pdf file then just fill it out, print, sign and viola, seal and mail to CRA. This is FORM RC151.

We mailed ours last September and after 3 months we finally received our check from CRA. The form will ask for your 2015 income so you just need to convert your income from whatever country you are coming from to Canadian Dollar. Your income in 2015 will be the basis for the computation of your GST/HST credit. For a couple you will received only 1 check for the both of you and I quote:

If you have a spouse or common-law partner, only one of you can receive the credit. The credit will be paid to the person whose return is assessed first. The amount will be the same, regardless of who (in the couple) receives it.

In the form, I gave the details for me and my husband. I also write there the details of our bank account in the form (so CRA can deposit it directly to our account) but according to customer service, when I inquired if they received our application, CRA will just send a check and the computation of our GST/HST credit. The credit is not as big as CCB but is still is a benefit for any permanent residents and citizen here in the Maple Leaf Country. Amazing right? Below is the check we received.

For newcomers, the GST/HST credit is computed retroactively and is based on when you landed here in Canada.  The check we received is for 2 quarters but I will not share the computation for privacy purposes and for CRA as well. It also varies depending on your income so I believe the amount we received now will change next year considering that we came from a third world country where the Philippine Peso is so low compared to that of the Canadian Dollar. Let's wait and see next year.

For now, let's continue to learn and integrate on the Canadian way so always read and be informed. This will bring us far in every dream that we want to achieve.