Our Canadian immigration history - what we did and how we did it!

After 6 weeks in Canada and the purpose that we are no longer on holiday hit with a bang - we would not have "home".

I'd be more than 16 years served in the Royal Air Force (RAF), and then say goodbye to a job 'safe' (and lifestyle) seemed unreal. Last Christmas and New Year, the family's emotional farewell, but a way - it all seemed very unreal! We found it hard to believe that more than two years of planning had actually come to fruition and we started our new lifenear Calgary. Well, it's true. I started my new job the next day and the temperature was a cool - 25 degrees C!

We had discussed living in Canada in the great length of my wife's sister had moved to Edmonton with her husband, Canadian and enjoyed a lifestyle we can only dream of. We tried a couple of assessments "do it yourself to see if we qualify, but we found a point short of the" break ", which was 70 at that time.

We decided that we should take an immigrationprofessional. When we opened the newspaper Immigration News Italy ", the first ad we saw was the access they offered a free migration service evaluation. We spoke with Kerry Martin and discussed our thoughts. We received the assessment by post, completed and returned the next day. Kerry has decided that we had a good chance of qualifying and then offered us a no visa no contract fee, and then the process has begun.

We have been inundated with forms and questionnaires to investigate and setwell what does it all. I assembled my titles and sent them IQAS in Edmonton for a Canadian equivalent. Then I contacted Transport Canada to see if my aircraft maintenance licenses were valid. They were not, but I would be able to sit some exams, my full career history and work to ensure a minimum of 6 months in the Canadian aviation industry. It did not seem so bad considering I was hoping to move continents! We had to send for the police checks in Germany, the British police and theRAF police to prove that he had a criminal record, once again we were able to apply.

He announced that the Canadian immigration visa system was changing, no one knew what would happen or if it would be activated. Kerry kept us informed and was very reassuring in a difficult time. I've had in my 18 months in advance to immigration authorities require a release date by the RAF - February 17, 2003 was the date we chose.

We saw the horror ofSeptember 11 said, the aviation world has collapsed and the rest of the RAF, I was involved in the Afghan war and the unstable world climate that followed.

We managed to get two weeks for the sisters of Andie in Calgary in October 2001, enclosed in quad biking, hiking, traveling to Banff, and also viewing show houses. We had a sense of southern Alberta and its possibilities. On the way back to the airline (Canada 3000) went bankrupt as we flew into Gatwick on it - a bad signfor my future employment.

The police checks complete, we have sent the question out of Kerry, who returned professionally presented documents to document for us to sign and return with the high commissions. The new Canadian immigration system has finally been announced with a score that has been pushed back dated to all applications submitted after December 18, 2001. We had arrived there on December 19! We would not be eligible under the new rules, Kerry reassures usthat if the new system has not yet been ratified by the Parliament was not set in stone.

The authorities down after threats of legal action supported by several Canadian Immigration Lawyers, the deadline of June 1, 2002. Applications will be processed before with the old rules - we are back into a possibility. In February 2002 our dossier has arrived - we were treated, we waited to see if we are invited to an interview, accepted or rejected. The wait was crazy -Kerry has kept us busy with regular information mailings on Canada, the reassuring voice at the end of the phone is worth the cost in itself. Andie's sister was also working in Calgary to call around to get in touch for me. I started looking for another job and began a series of courses in project management. If my aircraft maintenance licenses I soon realized that the qualifications of the United Kingdom is not easily move in the Canadian system. I contacted the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology(SAIT) and found to have an impressive curriculum of various courses including Project Management and offer a wide range of courses in technical pre-employment history of a good candidate to find work in the field of choice was.

The call came from the blue: we had accepted under the Medicals and were not invited for an interview! The nearest clinic was in Oxford, Andie immediately called the first appointment was eight weeks. We put the house onmarket - we need to know that it is sold before you can plan in motion. If not by the doctors, we decided that I would still require the RAF and would like to leave the area. Andie parents would allow us to stay with them when we sold the house.

We put the house on the market at the end of June 2002 - and had a buyer within three days. The date of sale was August 31 and would go on 29. We could not believe our luck, but it was not all plain sailing! The clinic calledFirst, we had double booked and we had to wait an extra two months. Andie has' a bit of chat with them and finally decided to squeeze in an appointment as we add after a heated debate!

All four of us had to have medical research - children do not x-rays or blood tests, but every 40 minutes we had time with the hearing doctor, and tests of blood pressure. Even if there were no health problems, as we found out that I could point out the agreement on everything and did not end the bloodtests. Apart from the embarrassment, I had a cardiograph to make sure I was okay. This has slowed the doctor back a week as the cardiograph was analyzed by a cardiologist. I was not too smart!

We checked the different shipping agencies. Kerry recommended shipping PSS - a family with a good reputation and a good quote. When we called to book, we had almost left too late. They managed to fit us in if we had only a relatively smallloaded on the ship. We have agreed a common container for shipment on a door to door service. They were each package on Aug. 28. We just hope that the Medicals were OK!

While I was away on duty with the Air Force, the house sale was blocked because of a dispute between the lawyers! We could lay off as then the whole process will start again and there would be no chance of making us a deadline for the transfer of currency that we had booked. There are significant penalties forthe date is missing. We were unable to demonstrate moves so quickly, as it would incur large penalties. So we were faced with moving to Andie's parents and leaving the empty house, while they continue to pay taxes, mortgages and utility bills. On top of that the insurance was only valid for 30 days after it was empty and we were booked on flights to Calgary house hunting!

In the end, Kerry called with the news that had just been accepted and a number of documents and signsend our passports and photographs to assert our visas. Finally, the relief of knowing the nightmare has taken away home for a day or two. The date was set - January 11, 2003. There is only a window of three months in which the forms were valid so we decided to send the documents, once they returned home from Canada as the tragedy began to become serious. We were about to travel to Canada for a month by selling the house is still in limbo. We were able to obtain assurances that things were moving to get backscreens and that everything would be finalized in time for us to transfer money, all we could do was aboard the plane and hope for the best!

In Canada, we recommended a local broker (broker). It helped us to find common ground and reputable builder to build the house of our dreams. We arranged a mortgage (with 35% down you do not need a job for recognition) and decided the deal - The only thing missing is the money! Eventually the house sale went through, the money came inour Canadian bank in 72 hours. I was surprised (and grateful) at how the transfer went smoothly. It was time to spend! We went home with the agent to sign and said the home purchase. The broker handles all the negotiations on our behalf, but always ensured that we have agreed to everything. We put the 10% deposit required for the operation (the rest is paid on the property) and construction work to convert home.

The day after we returned, wetook our documents and photos and sent them recorded delivery to the High Commission in London. It would take about 3 weeks for processing and then on our way.

We researched and chose the company for our Golden Retriever that would cost us more than shipping our one-way ticket! Here are some flights have been booked for January 11, 2003 and it seemed strange to pay more to ship a dog from a family of four! The rest they say, is history!

WeHere for 18 months and can honestly say that it worked better than we expected. The first 8 months has had more stress that I have ever had and times were very difficult, but now we have seen that it is difficult to imagine that back in the UK. The air is clean, beautiful scenery and much to do no more free time! The beer is not too smart, but you can not have everything!

I hope that this understanding of the Canadian Immigration and inspire rather thanshocked! If you decide to give it a go - good luck!

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History Does Not Favor Greatwide

The outlook for Greatwide Logistics does not look good. It pains me to say that because I know several very talented managers who work there. Yes, I know Greatwide has over 5,000 owner operators. And I know it generates a billion plus in revenue. And I also know that Greatwide last ranked 23rd on the Transport Topics list of top 100 carriers. Still as truckload carriers go Greatwide is no J B Hunt or Schneider. Those companies became behemoths through incremental growth achieved over much time. In contrast, Greatwide Logistics rose onto the trucking scene like a pre-fabricated phoenix. The company is actually an amalgamation of several trucking companies glued together with debt and re-packaged under a new name. There's nothing incremental about it.

The lure of creating the next J B Hunt or Schneider National in a fraction of the time must have a very strong appeal. We see deals like Greatwide Logistics come along every couple of years. The investors in these companies generally do not drive trucks or run trucking companies. They come from the financial community - a savvy lot - but apparently less so when it comes to grasping the economics of trucking. The theory behind Greatwide goes something like this: buy a bunch of companies on debt, consolidate their revenues, and let everything else fall magically into place. After all, consolidation also means cost savings, extra cash and the ability to service debt. No doubt, the Power Point presentation made it all look very logical - particularly the mouth watering last slide highlighting the IPO. Unfortunately, there is nothing logical about the economics of the trucking business.

In trucking no amount of revenue guarantees a profit - especially if a company holds a lot of debt. Think back to AmeriTruck, Trism and Transit Group to cite just a few of the forerunners to Greatwide. We've seen this movie before. It never ends pleasantly. Consolidation in other industries might yield cost savings, but trucking has never enjoyed noteworthy economies of scale. Sure, a company like Greatwide might save a few bucks by combining functions such as personnel, marketing and risk management across its subsidiaries. Still the two biggest costs for every trucking company are fuel and driver wages. (In Greatwide's case payments to owner operators essentially encompass these items.) These costs do not decline with size. Diesel costs X amount per gallon whether you fill-up one truck or a thousand. The same goes for driver wages. In fact trucking arguably suffers from diseconomies of scale. Does a large trucking company with an elaborate home office, huge corporate staff and multi-state terminal network enjoy a cost advantage over the guy who eats and sleeps in his truck? Likely not, unless it has a very talented management team, which of course is always the first thing cut in deals like Greatwide.

Greatwide Logistics is less a trucking company than a financial transaction. The investors behind this deal never set out to haul freight. They set out to get rich. But no one gets rich in the trucking business without paying major dues. Now in the midst of arguably the worse freight hauling environment in thirty years, the debt that fueled Greatwide's meteoric rise has turned into a life threatening avalanche. The margins in the trucking business have never accommodated excessive debt service. History shows that almost every highly leveraged deal in trucking has failed.

Sadly for the employees, suppliers and other stakeholders, all the perfunctory efforts in bankruptcy to trade out Greatwide's debt for equity will surely prove too little too late.

Thanks for checking in...

Ed, III

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