Within those businesses are armies of passionate folks who work hard to help them do what they do best. Our communities are fortunate enough to welcome international workers from all over the world, and we would love to take this opportunity to celebrate some phenomenal people. Today we are catching up with Yolanda, who works as Supervisor and Special Order Coordinator at the Rocky Mountain Bagle Co.’s Bow Valley Trail Location.
Yolanda is from Mallorca, Spain, and has been in Canmore for five years. She’s been working at Bagle Co. for a year now and describes it as “the healthiest and the most friendly job environment I have ever worked in my 5.5 years in Canada.” Yolanda said her story might sound familiar when asked what brought her to Canmore. “My now husband and I flew to Vancouver in 2017 to learn English and spend a year exploring across Canada before returning home. That spring, we drove our motorhome to the Bow Valley and never left,” she began. “I still cannot resist the butterflies I feel waking up each morning nestled in the Rockies. Even the bad days in the mountains make me smile when I bike to work. Five years later, after a big pile of Immigration processes and with our roller-coaster lives, we have a beautiful family in Canmore with our Chihuahua and our two years old son.”
She told us that she gets her adaptability from her family, who have always been in the service industry. “My dad has his own little supermarket, and my mom had a restaurant,” Yolanda shared.
Not unlike many other folks who have been working on immigrating to Canada recently, Yolanda has suffered through her fair share of immigration-related struggles. “Another company in town sponsored me in 2019 to have a work permit for my third year in Canada. I was ending my second trimester of pregnancy and on the last step of my AINP application when I got laid off work due to March 2020 COVID-19 pandemic,” she explained. Her layoff meant that she no longer met the criteria, so AINP put her application on hold. “My visa was going to expire in August, so I had to find someone willing to sponsor me for another work permit under the same job title and six months pregnant with a due date in August,” she recalled. She was embarking upon the impossible task of having a baby while hunting for a new job that needed to meet some really specific criteria.
Yolanda had a stroke of luck in November 2020 with a 3-month-old baby amid COVID-19 closures. “I finally met Darren and Shanyn, the owners of the Bagel Co., who supported me without even knowing me, sponsoring me and also giving me the time to enjoy my well deserved maternity leave,” she shared. “They will never know how thankful I am of them.”
Even then, Yolanda said it was difficult to get all her paperwork in on time. “Finally, April 2021 we got our new work permits allowing us to be and work in the country until 2023. I hope we get our Permanent Residence before it expires.”
All this is to illustrate just how tricky this process can be. It’s impossible to predict what may happen, and you’re often up against deadlines and contingencies when it comes to the various immigration processes. When in doubt, it’s always advisable to seek expert support.
“Becoming a first-time mother while dealing with the immigration process was extremely challenging for me,” said Yolanda. “Nonetheless, I found the motivation to carry on with the endless paperwork, phone calls and negotiations every time I would bring my son outdoors. Envisioning the adventurous lifestyle we could have here as a family, made me feel as though the stress of immigrating is completely worthwhile.”
This story was made possible by our Community Partners Program. Thank you Foothills Immigration Inc. for helping to expand local news coverage in the Bow Valley. Learn more.
