How I ended up in Montreal

When I came back to Monterrey from my year of studies in 2008, I wanted to go back to France and look for a job, settle there after finishing university. The following years were a bit rough for me, way too much party (yeah, lots of fun, but way too much part-eey) and lost focus and compass for a good while. It turned out that immigrating to France is not quite easy and the job market is hard for immigrants.

At the time, Monterrey was a hot spot for violence and cartel-related activity, it started to get dangerous, this grew my itch of moving out of Mexico. The U.S. was an obvious option but I wasn't very sold on the American dream and culture, except for some cities/states that I would like to live at, add the waiting times for immigration processing times, just didn't feel right.

I got a job at Aeromexico, as an airport agent, at that time it seemed like a great opportunity and somewhere I wanted to stay, good pay and benefits (once you got your permanent-union job, which could take some years). They fired me, I guess wasn't taking it seriously enough, I was assigned to 5 am - 9 am part-time shift, and sometimes I would arrive directly from the parties :S. I had no money, no savings, nothing, as paycheque-to-paycheque as it gets. The 5-minute walk from the terminal to the parking lot felt like a 2-hour walk carrying 400 kilos of worries on my back. It was 9 am on a Sunday.

Fast forward a couple of months I was working for Protrans international @ Monterrey, back then, they were big but not as big as they are now, I was a CSR for LTL shipments ( LTL is pretty much all they did back then), short time after I was assigned important accounts, automotive plants, MAGNA, VALEO, IACNA, LEONI, MATCOR, etc. I consider that short period of my professional career very important as it has helped me to understand how big companies plan, ship, require, expedite, cross freight to/from Mexico, how Laredo works, how auto suppliers ship, how MI/OH/KY automotive manufacturing belt works, local deliveries, routes, cross docks, graveyards, customs brokers processes, how customers consolidate their trucks to cross into Mexico and deliver at the plant, I even handled a couple of charter flights to avoid plant shutdowns. I coordinated pickups with U.S. based suppliers and regional LTL carriers, then tracked the shipments back to Laredo. Good times and much learning from my coworkers Jimmy Garza, Hector Salinas, and Ulises Castillo and boss Anice Jaime. Almost 10 years later I still keep personal and business relationships with carriers, customers, and ex co-workers. I also met my SO while working at Protrans.

Next, I was offered a shot as a sales rep for a small Montreal-based company and I took it. It wasn't bad but it didn't feel like a good cultural fit and I didn't see a lot of room to grow, the company was not really committed to growing outside of its family.

So Montreal, Canada was in my picture, my father worked for C.A.T. for 10 -12 years or so, by the way, that's how I started in transportation, working for his C.A.T. office in Monterrey, entering rate requests in AS-400, printing and matching invoices PODs , hand-delivering paper invoices + POD to customers, collecting cheques, etc. I was 16 and I just got my driver's license so I loved being on the road.. anyways, I had heard a lot about Montreal, saw pictures from my father's trips to Coteau-du-Lac HQ ... I thought.. well Montreal is an "American" city with a European feel.. so I started looking for jobs here. I filled many web forms, sent hundreds of emails, and resumes to companies here, airlines, travel agencies, freight brokers, trucking companies, amusement parks... you name it.

Finally, someone called, another freight broker, the deal was, 6-month trial, and if I brought the goods (accounts and sales) they would sign the sponsorship for me to immigrate here.

I brought the goods, I had to if I was gonna leave Monterrey behind and start a new life in Canada. So, I paid a couple of grand I didn't have to a law firm to start my process. It went by quick, 6-7 months of back and forth with forms and paperwork, medical, background checks, English test, school records, etc. fast forward, April 2013, all approved, just waiting for our visas to arrive by DHL, could be a week, could be 8 weeks.

Aeromexico had a sale so I bought 2 one-way tickets ( Gret was coming with me) for the red-eye flight MEX-YUL on Saturday, March 10th, 2013, come Friday the 9th, we still didn't get the visas, I was nervous as it meant change flights and pay fees, which I don't like and I didn't have the 300-400$ US to spare on airline fees, I was about to move to a different country and start a new life.

It's Friday morning, we were unpacking and made our minds that I wasn't happening that day. At around 2:30 pm DHL shows up with our visas, so, it's go-time again.

We arrived here with 4-6 bags,~ $5,000 pesos (~ $250 US) to my name, and ~20,000 pesos available in credit cards.

All was going somewhat smoothly for the first 6-10 months. Things started to go downhill after about a year, I won't go into details but the company was a sinking ship. It all went out of control very quickly. I knew I couldn't stay there much longer and SynerGY Logix was born ....that's a story for another day.

6.5 years, 2 work permits applications, 2 Quebec selection certificates, a permanent residence process, french-language tests, lots of fees, and lots of waiting, we became Canadian citizens in October 2019.

It has not been easy, but certainly, worth it, Canada has given us plenty of opportunities and I love to raise my baby girl here.

If you ever need some help or have questions about immigrating here , ask away!