After receiving an immigration visa, you must enter Canada before its validity expires. The principal applicant must enter without fail. All dependent family members may enter either together with the principal applicant or after him/her (provided that the issued visas have not expired). If the principal applicant does not enter Canada, all dependent family members lose the right to enter. If you do not enter Canada before the expiry of the visas, they become invalid. To obtain immigration visas again, you will need to go through the immigration process anew.
After you have entered Canada, at the point of entry immigration services will reissue your immigration visa. From that moment, you become a person with the status of a permanent resident of Canada.
As a new immigrant, the state provides you with support. Three months after entering the country, you receive the right to free medical care. You will be assisted in enrolling in free English or French language courses. You will have the same rights as Canadian citizens, except for the right to participate in elections. Among the rights you will acquire is the right to work.
It is especially important to note that the profession for which you went through the immigration process plays absolutely no role - after entering Canada you are free to do anything. You may work in any specialty, run a business, or not work at all (provided, of course, that your means allow it).
The majority of immigrants from the former Soviet Union settle in Toronto, Canada's largest city. Half of Toronto's residents are first- and second-generation immigrants. Another popular city, which has recently been receiving an increasing flow of immigrants from former USSR countries, is Vancouver. It is a beautiful and rapidly developing city, but finding a job there is more difficult.
When seeking employment, insufficient knowledge of English is not an obstacle - in Toronto, the share of people for whom English is not their native language is more than 50%. Therefore, the main criterion for getting a job is your education and experience. Although, undoubtedly, a good command of English will help you find a job faster. Since mid-1997, due to the economic upswing, conditions for finding employment in Toronto have noticeably improved, and especially for running your own business. They were not even significantly affected by the events of 2001 in the United States, which many called a prelude to the "Great Depression."
After three years of living in Canada, you can apply for Canadian citizenship. Once you obtain it, you acquire the right to visa-free entry for up to 90 days to most countries of the world - such as the United States, Great Britain, France, Australia, etc. In those countries where you will still need a visa, the procedure for obtaining it takes no more than one day. It is safe to say that having Canadian citizenship opens up the whole world to you. However, before you obtain it, you nevertheless have the opportunity to travel around the world without any restrictions. As a permanent resident of Canada, although you will require visas for entry into various countries, obtaining them will not be difficult.