This is the story of how I moved to Canada in October 2023. To achieve this, I had to sell my apartment, endure two visa refusals, and even get married.
After graduating from university, I worked as a field geophysicist in eastern Russia – in Transbaikalia, Chukotka and the Magadan region. I didn’t even think about moving abroad then. Canada existed for me in much the same way as crocodiles in Africa or kangaroos in Australia: somewhere far away, in another universe that had no overlap with mine.
One day I found myself at the Minex industry exhibition in Magadan. Wandering between the stands, I noticed a familiar name – a Canadian company Phoenix Geophysics. I immediately wanted to go up and talk to their representative, whose name was Murat.
— Hello, I worked with your equipment in Chukotka when I was a student. You flew from Moscow, do you have an office there?
— No, from Toronto.
— How from Toronto to Magadan? Well, the company is in Toronto, and you probably work in Moscow?
My brain creaked and refused to believe that someone had actually flown to Magadan from Toronto.
“No, from Toronto, via Seoul,” Murat explained calmly.
In the evening at the buffet table, Murat told how he immigrated to Canada twenty years ago. In nine months, he went from “I don’t even know the alphabet” to a successful interview at the embassy. At that time, I had already been studying English for a year, and his story, of course, inspired me.
– Why don’t you think about moving to Canada? – Murat asked at the end of the conversation.
From that moment on, Canada became a little closer to me. When I returned home, I opened the Internet for the first time to find out how I could go there. Outside the window it was the summer of 2018. Then I had no idea that it was with this simple step that a story would begin that would ultimately lead me to moving.
Then I asked about options for moving, but that was all. I didn’t take any specific steps, I continued to work in Russia. Six months later, she moved from Magadan to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to join the team of Australian geophysicist Paul at the Shanuch nickel mine.
We communicated through a translator: I had difficulty finding words, could barely put sentences together. This, rather, had an effect on the method of my learning English – the emphasis was on reading and writing, but I still couldn’t speak fluently.
In Kamchatka, I studied geophysics using Australian equipment and software, listened to lectures by Canadian geophysicists and studied the experience of using electromagnetic research in the Philippines and Africa. And at some point I came to an important conclusion: the world is huge, and you can work anywhere. You just need to know English. But the most important thing is that my thinking has changed: from “I feel good in Russia too” to “how can I work abroad?”
In addition to the Australian, Canadian airborne geophysicists also worked with us, searching for ore bodies from the air. Among them was the man who later became my husband. So in my story, a love line was added to the professional plots.
At the beginning of the relationship, I tried to get a student visa: I planned to come to Toronto for language courses and go to college for a business education. Collected documents, paid for the course Essential Business, even sold an apartment to show funds in the account that would be enough to live in Canada for a year. But at the beginning of 2020, she received two refusals: “The stated purpose of the visit does not inspire confidence,” the letters said dryly.
Then my boyfriend and I went to counseling and learned that the only real option was marriage. In January 2022, we got married in Georgia, and already in April we submitted documents for family reunification. I waited a year and a half for a decision on a permanent residence permit.
In October 2023, I finally received my visa and came to Canada. From that moment on, a completely different story began – the story of adaptation to a new country.
The first three months turned out to be the most difficult. I immediately signed up for free English courses for newcomers and went to school every day. It was a completely new experience: it’s one thing to study with a teacher in Russia, and quite another to live in an English-speaking environment and hear real speech around you. Canada provides great opportunities to learn a language, and I took advantage of this opportunity.
Three months later, in February 2024, I found my first job in my specialty – as a geophysicist. I continued to do what I could: field electrical survey. That same year I tried a new method for myself – gravity survey.
Today, in August 2025, I am already working for my second Canadian company, learning new techniques and continuing to expand my experience. It turns out that in two years I went from my first steps in a new country to full-time professional work in geophysics—now here in Canada.
But the most important change happened inside. Almost all my life I could not imagine myself outside of Russia – “abroad” simply did not exist in my picture of the world. The first impetus was meeting Murat, then working with Australians, meeting Canadians… First a small grain of doubt, and then a whole pearl of a new look: the world is huge, there are many opportunities, and I can be part of this world.
If I had stayed in the “I’m fine as is” attitude, none of this would have happened. And now I know: sometimes one question is enough: “is this possible?” – for life to change completely.
