{"id":44100,"date":"2017-06-15T11:03:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-15T15:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/groupeagf.com\/en\/the-network\/uncategorized\/a-longer-stay-than-expected"},"modified":"2024-05-07T15:28:21","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T19:28:21","slug":"a-longer-stay-than-expected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/groupeagf.com\/en\/the-network\/team-members\/a-longer-stay-than-expected","title":{"rendered":"A longer stay than expected"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This time last year, I was working at AGF Costa Rica and preparing to come to AGF Ottawa for a short stay. I felt it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. <\/p>\n

In December, I was preparing to return to Costa Rica. I had enjoyed my time in Ottawa but life had different plans for me: I received an offer to work permanently in Ottawa. I was surprised, as I had never imagined living in another country, but it was a great opportunity and I accepted. <\/p>\n

It was a huge change for me. I was coming to live to a new country, with different weather and unfamiliar customs. Friends in Costa Rica poked fun at me because I was going to live in a freezer. You can imagine all their jokes about Canadian weather, but even if I was nervous about the change, I was ready to face a new challenge.<\/p>\n

And so I embarked on the long process of moving to Canada. With help from AGF’s Human Resources, I obtained my work visa. Three months later, I received the offer to come to Ottawa. Once I had the visa, I thought the hardest part was over. I then obtained my work permit. I thought the only thing left was to find an apartment in a few weeks and start my new life. How wrong I was! <\/p>\n

When I arrived, I was assigned a social insurance number. It felt almost too easy, and then I encountered an unexpected hitch. As a foreign worker, I have legal status but a working visa is a temporary residence. This was an inconvenience, because to get a credit card, I needed to make a secure deposit. The banks viewed me as a temporary resident, so without the deposit I could not establish a credit history. <\/p>\n

At first, not having a credit card didn’t bother me, even if the banks have special packages for newcomers to Canada. I’ll save money and get one later, I thought, but little did I know. I soon realized that without a credit history, finding an apartment was impossible, since landlords prefer tenants with a good credit record. They viewed me as a foreigner who might pack up and leave at a moment’s notice, or thought I wouldn’t be able to afford the rent.<\/p>\n

In the end, with support from the staff at the Ottawa office, I found a place to live and made a deposit on a credit card so I could start becoming someone in Canada. I learned that moving to a new country is hard, even with support from AGF. I thought the tough part would have been getting the visa, but in the end, it was the easiest step.<\/p>\n

I’m grateful to AGF Ottawa for this opportunity and for supporting me when I was feeling down about the problems I was encountering. I now know that while I’ll face other challenges because of my temporary resident status, I’m happy to be here and to work with AGF Ottawa. I’m glad they saw something in me and helped me become a member of their team.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Una estancia más larga de lo esperado<\/strong><\/h2>\n

En esta época del año pasado estaba trabajando en AGF Costa Rica y estaba preparándome para venir a AGF Ottawa por un periodo corto. En ese momento pensé que era una oportunidad única.<\/p>\n

El diciembre pasado, estaba preparándome para regresar. Había disfrutado hasta entonces mi tiempo en Ottawa, pero la vida tenía planes diferentes para mí. Antes de regresar, recibí una oferta de trabajo permanente en Ottawa. Me sorprendió. Nunca soñé vivir mucho tiempo en otro país, pero era una gran oportunidad y acepté.<\/p>\n

Fue un gran cambio para mí. Me venía a vivir a un país nuevo, con un clima y costumbres diferentes. Algunos amigos de Costa Rica se burlaban de mí porque me venía a vivir a un congelador. Ya se imaginarán todas las bromas de mis amigos por el clima canadiense, pero, aunque tenía miedo de este gran cambio, estaba listo para enfrentar este nuevo desafío.<\/p>\n

Empecé un proceso largo para venir a Canadá. Gracias a la ayuda de Recursos Humanos, obtuve mi visa laboral. Tres meses después, recibí la oferta de venir a Ottawa. Después de la visa, pensé que la parte difícil había terminado: obtuve mi permiso de trabajo. Así que pensaba que cuando llegara iba a encontrar un departamento en un par de semanas y empezar mi nueva vida. ¡Qué equivocado estaba!<\/p>\n

Cuando llegué, obtuve mi número de seguridad social. Pensé que era demasiado fácil y después me enfrenté con un detalle que nadie considera: como trabajador extranjero, mi estatus es legal pero una visa de trabajo significa residencia temporal. Esto me causó un inconveniente, porque para obtener una tarjeta de crédito necesito dejar un depósito seguro porque para los bancos soy un residente temporal, así que sin eso no puedo empezar un historial crediticio.<\/p>\n

Al principio, no me importaba no tener una tarjeta de crédito, incluso si los bancos tienen paquetes especiales para los recién llegados a Canadá. Pensé que me ahorraba dinero y podía hacerlo después, pero fui muy inocente. Me di cuenta de que sin historial crediticio encontrar un departamento era una misión imposible. El problema era que sin historial crediticio, como residente temporal los propietarios prefieren darle el departamento a alguien que tenga un buen historial crediticio porque para ellos yo solamente soy un extranjero que en cualquier momento se va o que no puede pagar el lugar. Mi situación era difícil. No pensé lo difícil que es para alguien que no es residente encontrar un lugar o empezar un historial crediticio, pero gracias al apoyo del personal de Ottawa, pude soportar mi difícil situación.<\/p>\n

Al final encontré un lugar y realicé el depósito para obtener una tarjeta de crédito y empezar a ser alguien en Canadá. Aprendí que mudarse a un lugar nuevo es difícil y que incluso con el apoyo de AGF es muy difícil. Pensé que la parte difícil era obtener mi visa, pero al final esa fue la parte fácil.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This time last year, I was working at AGF Costa Rica and preparing to come […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":44095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[231],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-team-members"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/groupeagf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/groupeagf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/groupeagf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groupeagf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44100"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/groupeagf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56939,"href":"https:\/\/groupeagf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44100\/revisions\/56939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groupeagf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/groupeagf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groupeagf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groupeagf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}