Immigrating to Canada turned out to not entirely be what I expected.Part 1:I landed in Toronto-Pearson International Airport (YYZ) this past Monday afternoon, excited to begin my yearlong journey as an AI Resident at Uber ATG. Everything mostly went according to plan initially - I got off the plane, filled out the customs form, told the border officer I was applying for a temporary work permit, and went into the immigration room. Here the wait time was longer, but I waited ~40 min and got called up by an officer. Then I gave him all the necessary materials to process. After ~10 more minutes, he told me to go to the cashier to pay the work permit fee.The cashier and I had a short conversation. Then he asked me what Iu2019ll be doing. u201cIu2019ll be doing AI research on self-driving cars,u201d I said.u201cDidnu2019t those self-driving cars kill someone a while back? And youu2019re bringing them into Canada?u201du201cWellu2026u201du201cI swear to god, if one of these self-driving cars comes and hits my houseu2026my caru2026my familyu2026my catu2026.Iu2019m coming after you.u201dHe also said some other things that Iu2019d rather not repeat. He said all of this in a laughing manner so I laughed along but in the back of my mind I was thinking u201cDoes he actually know where I live I just got here I donu2019t wanna die.u201dI took the receipt and went back to the immigration officer processing my application. As Iu2019m standing there I see the cashier come out of his office, around the corner to where the immigration officer is sitting, and then point to me: u201cDo you see this fucking guy? This fucking guy is working on self-driving cars - heu2019s gonna kill us all.u201d They both laughed. u201cRemember, if you hit anybody in Canada, Iu2019m coming after you,u201d the cashier repeated.Iu2019m not the type of person whou2019s easily offended and to be honest the whole situation was pretty funny (I donu2019t actually feel threatened), but still that conversation was a bit strange. It was not a conversation I expected to have with Canadian immigration. Anyways, I got my work permit and headed out to the arrivals floor, and that was that! Right?Nope. While weird, my interactions with the officers didnu2019t cause me any actual inconvenience. But my immigration experience wasnu2019t over.Part 2:I woke up bright and early the next morning at my Airbnb and went down to the nearest Service Canada center at 8:45am to apply for my Social Insurance Number (SIN), which is similar to the SSN in the US. I need to have a SIN for basically everything involved with a long-term stay in Canada: getting paid, opening a bank account, signing a lease, paying taxes. I waited half an hour until my number was called, and then I went to the desk of the service rep and gave my work permit and passport.Within 30 seconds she told me that the country of birth on my work permit was incorrect. I double checked my permit and indeed it was. Somehow the immigration officer had filled it in wrong, even though the country of birth was listed right there on my passport. u201cUnfortunately youu2019ll have to get your work permit revised, and we canu2019t give you a SIN right now,u201d she said. Jesus.There was a number that I could call in the back of my permit for more information. I tried to call with my cell phone and got an automated message saying something like, u201cYour number is blocked because itu2019s not from a recognized area.u201d My phone plan had free roaming in Canada, but my number was still a US number. So I went back to the Service Canada center and asked if I could borrow the landline. Luckily they had one available. I sat in the chair and called the number again. After spending a bunch of time navigating through the phone menu, I finally found the number to speak to a human. u201cThere are too many calls in the queue right now, please call back at a later time.u201d I waited 5 minutes and called again. u201cThere are too many calls in the queue right now, please call back at a later time.u201du201cDo you need any help?u201d The lady who assisted me asked. She picked up the phone and called the number for the third time. Somehow this time it finally got through, and she handed the phone back to me. Estimated wait time: 30 minutes. I sat for 30 minutes in this cramped chair, clutching the landline in the Service Canada office, waiting for a human to respond.Finally someone picked up. I explained to him my situation.u201cThe only way you can make a change to your work permit is by mailing it in,u201d he said gruffly.u201cUm ok. How long would that take to process?u201du201c1 month.u201du201c1 month?? Are you serious (are you fucking kidding me)?? Can I not just go back to the airport?u201du201cIt wonu2019t work.u201du201cAre you sure?u201du201cThey canu2019t fix the work permits there. You can try, but it wonu2019t work.u201dI hung up the phone. I was starting to panic. It was now 10:45u201311am, and I had planned to open a bank account / start viewing apartments later that day, all those plans had vaporized. I double checked the web instructions for mailing the work permit in. In order to even mail in the work permit, I had to print and fill out two other forms and send everything in an envelope. How did postage even work in Canada? Also if it took 1 month for me to get the work permit fixed, I wasnu2019t even sure if Iu2019d be allowed to be employed at that point. The research program was only supposed to last 1 year, and this 1-month delay would cut into that substantially. How was I going to live in this country? Was I going to be shipped back to the US?I frantically emailed my recruiters telling them about my situation. I then remembered that the immigration firm Uber partnered with, who helped me apply for the work permit, left the contact info of one of the lawyers, so I immediately called the number. Both times he didnu2019t pick up, and the second time I left a voicemail. In the meantime, I was pondering my backup options. One option was to actually mail in the work permit, but that was less than ideal. Moreover I didnu2019t entirely trust what the human operator said, it seemed ridiculous to me that the border agents couldnu2019t give me a revised work permit, given that they created the initial copy for me. I was contemplating going back to the airport to speak to the border agents anyways.5 minutes later, the lawyer called me back.u201cGo back to the airport to get your work permit fixed,u201d he said. u201cWeu2019ll work everything out.u201dOh my god. Something in his calm, assured voice told me everything was going to be alright.I walked out of Service Canada and took an Uber straight to YYZ (these Ubers arenu2019t cheap either, theyu2019re about $50 CAD each) to the departures hall of Terminal 1. I followed the lawyeru2019s instructions on the phone to go to the back of the terminal, behind the bathroom, around a few corners, and finally to a metal door with a buzzer. I called the buzzer and said I needed to get my work permit fixed. The immigration agent let me in and told me to take the elevator down one floor.While the departures hall was bright, modern, and lit with sunshine, this room I stepped into was dim, cramped, and small. I told the border agent behind the glass barrier that I needed to get the country of birth on my work permit fixed.u201cIu2019m not sure this is possible to fix here,u201d he said. u201cHave you tried calling the number in the back?u201du201cYes I did.u201du201cWell I donu2019t know if we can help.u201du201cBut I was on the phone with our immigration firm and they told me I could come here. Would you be able to take a look and just see if itu2019s possible? Please?u201dI was practically begging at this point. He took my work permit somewhat reluctantly and went into a back room. I waited. And waited for about 40 minutes.Finally, a separate border agent came up to the glass window. u201cWeu2019re on the phone with [the immigration firm],u201d she told me. u201cWeu2019ll try and get it fixed.u201dThank god. I waited another 30u201340 minutes and finally the agent came back with a new work permit. u201cYouu2019re all set now.u201d I checked the new permit and indeed, the country of birth field was now correct. I then spent some time looking over every other detail so I didnu2019t have to go through the same experience again. I breathed a giant sigh of relief.By the time I got back to the Service Canada office, it was around 2pm. I immediately booked another appointment and managed to get my SIN that same day, though I didnu2019t have enough time afterwards to make an appointment to open a bank account before the bank closed. But that wasnu2019t a big deal. I was just incredibly relieved and happy that I would actually be able to work in this country.There are a few people that I wanted to thank. Thank you, Uberu2019s immigration firm, for helping me get my work permit revised in a timely fashion. They essentially helped me bypass a ton of official government bureaucracy, Iu2019m honestly not sure what the border agents would have done if I had just shown up at the airport without the firmu2019s help. Thank you border agents for actually helping to revise my permit on the spot. Thank you Uber HR for responding quickly and helping to loop the relevant people in. Thank you to the service Canada rep who asked how I was doing and helped to give me advice. And thank you to the two Uber drivers to/from the airport who I was venting to.Moral of the story? Iu2019m not sure, but maybe double check that your papers are correct right after you get them from immigration, because getting them fixed is a huge pain. I was incredibly fortunate that I was able to work with an immigration firm, and I understand that many others are not so lucky. I was also fortunate that I had not yet started work, and so had ample time to get set up - figuring that out while working would have created an additional mental burden and taken much longer. Iu2019m still befuddled that a small mistake by an immigration officer can seriously affect your ability to live and work here if you donu2019t have the right means to tackle it.
