The flight was exhausting, but finally I arrived! I’ll explain the whole process so if anyone is looking in doing the Working Holiday Visa for Canada, they will know a little about how the whole thing works.

I arrived in Vancouver airport, I had to proceed to customs, I told them I was on the Working Holiday Visa and they asked me a few simple questions (how long do you plan to stay, do I have a place to stay, etc). The guy then wrote something on my arrival card and directed me to the baggage area, once the your bags are collected you need to go through the immigration section, you show them your arrival card and they will take you off to a little area. I arrived at about 10 pm and there was practically no one there. The immigration officer asked me a few more questions, practically the same ones, I was surprised I wasn’t asked for proof of funds or anything like that, anyway he was happy with the information I provided and went away for 10 minutes to check it all out on the computer, came back with my visa and sent me on my way.

First of all I’m basically writing this to give people an idea about the B1/B2 visa if they are going on a Canadian Working Holiday. I’m not an expert when it comes to American visas so you should always check the American Consulate website to ensure that you have the correct information.

The above image has been sourced from the US Consulate website

I got my Canadian visa a number of months ago which allows me to work in Canada, however it gets a little bit complicated if I want to visit the US after I’ve been in North America for 90 days. Essentially the rule is your only allowed to spend up to 90 days in the US on the visa waiver program, however time you spend in Mexico and Canada counts towards this 90 day limit. Since my Canadian visa allows me to work in Canada for 2 years and it’s likely that at some point after 90 days I will want to visit America, I won’t be eligible to visit the US on the visa waiver program which means I have to apply for a B1/B2 visa if I want to visit for tourist reasons. Read more…

The Vancouver Winter Olympics caused much controversy even before the opening ceremony, there were massive cost blow outs, poor weather conditions on Cypress Mountain and most tragically  the death of an athlete, however on Monday at the closing ceremony despite all the problems that plagued the first few days, the Winter Olympics were a great success for Canada as a nation even though Canada didn’t set a record for the most medals, they did earn 14 gold medals, the most gold medals won by any single nation in the winter olympics but more importantly Canada won the gold medal in ice hockey, which from all accounts I’ve heard, will send the country into a party frenzy for at least the next week or so.

Video below shows a group of Canadians celebrating… I think ice hockey might be a big deal two a ‘few’ of them…

The closing ceremony was at some points a bit tacky with mounties dressed in the usual bright red and whom could be seen almost everywhere, but overall I thought Canada put on a good show and there were some particularly funny parts to enjoy.

I hope the winter olympics makes more people interested in visiting Canada as much as I am.