We made it to Vancouver!

Day 1

YVR (Vanvouver Airport) is all about waiting in queues.
Queues for the passport self-processing machines, queues after the machines to be checked by a customs officer, queues for the baggage carousels, queues for the immigration office (these queues had chairs though!), queues for the taxi rank...

We both got our work permits without any hassle at all!
We were waiting in a verrrry slow-moving queue, mixed in with people of all immigration statuses, when a brisk Canadian gentleman came past and collected the documents of all the people waiting for work permits.
He directed us to some other seats and just told us to wait for a while. We were kind of worried about what was happening behind the scenes (where were our passports? When were they going to check our insurance status? Did we print the right bank statements?), but then we got called up to the desk and handed our work permits! They didn't check our insurance coverage, bank balances, or Katie's medical report. Ughhh. At least we were prepared.
The guy made a joke about how Australians get 24 months, but New Zealanders only get 23. He assured us it had no reflection on how liked we were =]

We eventually made it into a taxi, and after a hair-raising drive through Vancouver (I have no idea what the speed limit was, and I'm sure our driver didn't either) got to our Airbnb in Kits. Here we met Oscar the cat and Mollie the dog. We ventured out in the rain for a quick victory beer and then crashed at about 6pm.

Day 2

So the plan for today was to do all our life admin so we could relax for the rest of the week. Heh.
I'd like to point out that we'd researched everything we needed to do, and it was all going to be super easy.

Drivers Licenses

First up, we headed out to the Vancouver Driver Licensing centre 10 minutes walk from our house. We walked right past the place without noticing any signage, not a good start. We turned around and walked into the courtyard of the place that Google was directing us to, but still no signs. Not wanting to go up and knock on a totally unmarked office door, I ran another Google search. Turns out this hadn't been a licensing centre for the past 10 years. Thanks Google Maps.

Social Insurance Numbers

Luckily, the ex-licensing-centre was en route to the Service Canada Centre. I'm not sure what purpose this organisation serves other than to issue SINs (Social Insurance Numbers), as that's what the people in front of us were doing, and that's what the guy at the desk immediately asked us about.
We sat down with a guy who read my passport and work permit, asked a few questions, and then produced a printout with my new SIN! Katie was next, and all was going well until he announced that there was a problem with her work permit. Apparently, the immigration officer at the airport hadn't submitted it correctly, and the only way to fix this was to go back to YVR and revisit immigration.

YVR Immigration

This next leg gave us a chance to experience the SkyTrain, a fully automated railway that runs right through Vancouver. We purchased day passes (loaded on Compass cards, similar to Hop/Snapper/Opal/Oyster etc.), and hopped on the train to the airport. At least, we thought we did... One quick line switch later, and we were away!

The encounter with immigration at the airport was actually very easy. We found the immigration office (with no queue!), and a lady took Katie's work permit away to investigate what the problem was. She then went and checked with some more immigration officers, but in the end, the only problem they could find was that there was no problem. The SIN enrollment should have just worked!

SIN Take Two

Back on the SkyTrain, and we headed down town. We found another branch of Service Canada, but the queue wound back on itself several times inside the building and continued out the door. Slightly discouraged at this point, we decided to revisit our first mission.

Drivers Licenses Take Two

We found a non-fictional branch of ICBC (Insurance Corporation of British Columbia), who handle compulsory car insurance, registration, and driver licensing. After checking in at the front desk, we were both assigned numbers and directed to the seating area. Everything in the country is about the queues! We waited about an hour for our numbers to be called. At the desk, Katie asked if the licenses would be sent to us, or if we could pick them up, as we had a temporary address. We were informed that not only do the licenses take 10-60 days to ship (!!!), the address was printed on the license itself so needed to be accurate. Ultimately we couldn't do anything until we had a permanent address. Further discouraged we headed back outside, but were called back and given priority cards so that we didn't have to wait in line next time we tried. Small wins, I guess.

Mobile Phones

Just around the corner was a branch of Bell, one of the big telcos here in Canada. We spoke to the sales rep for a while and eventually worked our an acceptable phone plan. We could each buy a 'line', and then add a data plan on top which we could share. Phones in Canada are not cheap, apparently because the low population density and immense size of the country lends itself to very high network costs. Fair enough I guess.
Katie couldn't sign up for her own plan as she didn't have a SIN yet, but I could add two phone lines to my subscription for basically the same outcome.
Unfortunately, being new to the country, we don't have any credit history. This is a new concept to us but seems to be a big thing here. Ultimately this meant that if I wanted to add a second line, I needed to make a deposit (of $200 per line!). I don't think this often happened, as it took our sales rep 1.5 hours and three calls to their support line to get my account approved.

So at the end of the day, the score is:

  • Drivers licenses: 0/2
  • SINs: 1/2
  • Mobile plans: 2/2
  • Bank accounts: Didn't even get a look in.