2. Just for A While

Table of Contents

Coming to Visit and Reconnoiter

Do come and visit. Ontario used to describe itself as “friendly, foreign and near”, and that’s a good description. There are even a few programs that allow you to work while you’re vacationing.

Canada is a nice place to visit. You can do everything from summer water-skiing to winter polar-bear watching in Churchill, Manitoba.
Canadians joke a lot about it being cold. In reality, most Canadians live in the part that’s below the top of France. Indeed, even the western provinces overlap heavily with France. About the lower 140 miles of Manitoba, for example.

Read the federal and provincial tourist guides above and in Chapter 1, and plan a vacation that takes you to the areas you want to know more about.

Make a list of things you want to find out about in Canada.

If you prearrange visitor visas, you could visit Canada, then France, then Germany, and then perhaps Canada again, for six months to a year in each country.

The term refers to the old British custom of sending their sons (always sons) for a tour of Europe after university, with meaningful stays in multiple countries.

Canadians also have a tradition of being “snowbirds”. Those are people who live in Canada in the summer, then fly south for the winter.

Be careful not to tell fibs to customs. Those can mess you up later.

For example, don’t say you’re working unless you have preregistered into one of three specific programs:

Don’t bring all your prescriptions, university degrees, resumes, or the like on what is supposed to be a visit.  Similarly, don’t bring a year’s supply of a prescription if you’re only going to be here for two weeks.

Instead, tell customs the truth. If you’re coming here on vacation, the federal and Ontario guides will help you make a list of destinations. Come and visit Canadian friends if you have some, or have some other real reason, like a campus visit with a prospective student.

The criteria customs use include:

• •genuine visitor intent  –  you aren’t obviously lying about going home, 

• •sufficient financial resources – you have enough money or credit to pay for yourself, and a 

• •clear exit plan – you are going home, or if you’re going to another country afterwards, you have a ticket. 

Resources

As a “Digital Nomad”

Officially, there is no “digital nomad” visa, but really that just a more meaningful name for a formal visitor visa, called a Temporary Resident Visa (TRV).

You are required to work for an international employer, not a Canadian one.

If you just show up, you will be considered to be doing so under a visitor visa, but you really need to preapply for a TRV if you plan to be doing anything other than just touring.  In particular, having a written TRV will make you look less suspicions when you show up at the border.  See the “Considerations and Tips for Avoiding Refusals” page, mentioned above

  All this is described in Chapter 4, Digital Nomads..

On a Working Holiday

Canada has an “International Experience Canada (IEC) Working Holiday Program”. It is aimed at young professionals to work and travel, to gain Canadian experience

Typically, the program allows one to work in Canada for up to two years at  “temporary work”. It is described in more detail in Chapter 5, International Experience Canada Programs, with the caveat that the program is aimed at countries other than the US.

Many countries have programs like these first two variants, so either or both can be used as a part of a “grand tour”.

Resources

Come as a visitor and have a look. Use that to help you decide what your next steps will be.