For two months, Carranza and her husband slept on a couch in a small, one-bathroom apartment in downtown Toronto that they shared with two other couples as they searched for a home.
The real estate agents Carranza was working with said the reason they were rejected was because they were newcomers with no credit scores, no reference letters and — at the time — no jobs. So the agents suggested they offer up to a year of rent up front.
Desperate, Carranza started looking for options on Kijiji. There, she found a one-bedroom-one-den apartment near Kipling Station for $2,250. The landlords were willing to meet with Carranza and her husband in person.
They ended up handing over $28,300 — their life savings — to prove their reliability to the landlords and, finally, secure a home. (CBC News has seen emails that confirm the transaction.)
When you are moving with a PR from Express Entry that’s basically what happens. You get accepted for being skilled labor and after getting into the Country you can get a job, not the other way around. That’s why you have to show proof you can sustain yourself for a year unemployed.