Settlement

We came to Canada on August 13, 2010. My husband and I came in a ship with 492 people. It was an adventure to come to this country after going through so many struggles in our home country.

We left Thailand and arrived in Victoria after 98 days at sea. We traveled in a cargo ship. It was a very tough journey! After we arrived in Victoria, the government took us to a detention centre and kept us there for about 6 months as we had entered the country illegally. The Canadian government welcomed us and treated us well. They provided all the necessary things and fulfilled our needs. We were able to get out of the detention centre after the court verified our identity. We claimed to be refugees. My husband and I worked so hard, night and day to settle the legal fee to have our refugee case win in the court. We finally won both our refugee cases in 2015 and got the status as “protected people” in this country.

After 2 years of having “protected person status”, We were able to submit the application for our permanent resident status. We got our permanent residency in June 2018. After 2 years as permanent residents, we were able to apply to become Canadian citizens. We applied for our Canadian citizenship in August 2020. We became citizens in May 2022. That was a big day for us in our lives. Becoming Canadian was an achievement for us after all the struggles we went through. We are so grateful we live in this great country with great people around. We are proud to say we are Canadians! We are so relieved that we reached our final step in becoming Canadians. We will work hard enough to contribute to society as well.

Now, we are able to travel to my country Sri Lanka. We haven’t been traveling to any countries since we came to Canada. We are thrilled to visit my country, Sri Lanka, in the future to see our families and friends. We can also travel to other countries freely. After becoming Canadians we are learning so much about Canada and the cultures. We are very much excited to explore new places in our country.