jason1969

HI ALL

I'm thinking of selling up in the UK and moving to canada. With my savings and the sale of my house i could afford to buy a house and car in Canada.
I would be intrested to know how much i would need to earn to pay for food, utility bills, taxes and have a little over for recreation (pub).

I'm not looking for a high powered job, just a better quality of life.
I would like help on finding a province in which to start looking for a place to settle. I don't know where to start in such a large country.

p.s

We have a 15 month old son. So a good place to bring up a family.
Thanx

iaink

Im afraid its not as simple as deciding to come, the canadian government has to decide they want you as well.

Start off with the FAQ in the canadian immigration section or at
http://www.cic.gc.ca/

there are a number of routes you can take. Assuming you have no immediate family here the usual routes are either skilled worker or provincial nomination. For skilled worker there is a self assesment test to see if you have enough points to qualify.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/skilled/assess/index.html After that it is a long wait after filling inthe forms, usually 2 or more years.

The other option is under the business class

As far a living expenses.

Electricity and Heating $400 per month
Insurance (property and car) $250 per month
Groceries for 3 $500 per month
Cable TV Phone and Internet $100 per month
Gas and maintainence for Car $300 per month

Annual property tax, varies, approx 2+% of appraised value of house...in my case $250 per month.

Be aware that most immigrant coming over without a prearranged job struggle for at least 2 years to get settled, and many go home dissilusioned after lossing a lot of money. Read through the posts here to see the kind of struggles that await you, as well as the potential benefits. This is not a decision to be made lightly or on a whim. Gunner posted a really excellent checklist in a recent thread that help to sift through your motivation for making a move.

Where in canada is a whole other topic.

Iain

jason1969

Thanks Iain,
My grandad is Canadian and i do understand the immigration process. At the moment i am reseaching as much info as i can
But Canada is a big place and theres shed loads of info.
I have also thought of renting out some property in the UK to part fund my stay in Canada. But for now i have a lot of thinking to do. Thanks for the cost of living breakdown.

Jason

Covenant

Jason,

I seem to remember reading that any UK income as ie from property rental for eg, is liable to canadian tax. you may beed to keep that in mind.

Good luck.

jason1969

Hi thanks,
Yet one thing for me to look in to.
Does anyone know about this and could tell me more???

jason

gunner

Hello Jason,

Like Iank said, there are a lot of issues to address before taking the plunge, of moving here to CANADA. I moved over here from London too, and i have made a little checklist of my experience for people who want some info.

I hope you will find the bottom article useful:

Relocating to Canada (From UK)

Disclaimer: I can only give information herein from my own personal experiences, I relocated from London UK to Ontario in Canada where I married and now live with my wife. I make every effort to be accurate in the information I give out but do urge you to confirm everything with other sources and if you find any inaccuracies please let me know.


The Idea to relocate

This is the first thing you need to think about, its very easy to look at another country as a utopia, somewhere that is better than where you may be now, this "grass is always greener" mentality is something to be wary of. If you want to emigrate because it seems a cool place to live investigate this assumption thoroughly, learn about the country you wish to relocate to, in this case I specifically write about relocation to Canada and Canada is a very large land mass so ask yourself where in Canada you are going, this may already have been decided for you through a work placement but investigate such things as:

Employment

Crime Rates

Homelessness

Health and Dental

Schools and Colleges

Child Care

leisure facilities

House Prices or Rent

Cost of Living

Laws

The Weather/Climate

All the above need to be considered carefully and its advisable to use the many resources on the internet but the best seem to be the local or even national news websites. I could list some but they are easy to find using popular search search engines and web addresses can change.


Ask yourself "Why?"

If you have been offered a job abroad that you cannot turn down or most of your family has already moved then you probably have reason enough but please continue reading the following paragraphs.

If I was to ask you "What's your reason for emigrating?", You may answer this quickly and dismissively with things like "the crime rates lower" or "standards of living are higher" but I urge you to take some time and serious thought as to your reasons, maybe you have made the decision on the back of a messy break-up, you think things are not going well for you so you want to run, this is quite common, it is genetic that when you feel threatened you do one of 2 things, you stay and fight or you run for the hills, its known as "Fight or Flight" by those who study human behaviour and it may be what you are basing this decision on.

Practical Exercise

Find something to write with and a pad, work through the items below, I recommend you write as it makes you consider more the responses more carefully than if you type it. Limit the responses below to 5 items each

1. Write down reasons why you think you want to emigrate, remember a limit of 5.

2. Write down the things you will be happy to leave behind and why.

3. Write down the things you will miss and why.

4. Write down the things you are looking forward too.

If with part 1 you found it difficult to limit it to 5 then this is quite a good indicator that you want to do it and have considered it more than just waking up and deciding its a good gig but look at your reasons and do some research into your responses. If you said "The crime rate is lower", "Better education for my children", "Better employment for my skills", check these out and confirm that you are not wearing rose colored glasses.

If question 1 you found it difficult to answer with 5 reasons but in response to number 2 you had way more than 5 reasons you may need to consider that you are running away from issues in your life and looking for a utopia where everything will be like a "happy ever after" story. If this is the case look again at your answers and see if there are other ways of dealing with these issues. If things look very bad then discuss with your GP options that may help you deal with these issues. Don't be afraid to do this, I personally have been diagnosed as a depressed personality and was on anti-depressants which helped me through dark times and there is also things like counseling. If you have difficulty answering this with 5 items or have only a few more than 5 its a sign that you are not wanting to emigrate to escape bad feelings. I am not going to comment about if you are wanted regarding criminal activities as reasons to emigrate or reasons of persecution in your home country.

If to question 3 you can think of a large amount of reasons which may hold strong bonds like really missing all your mates or you are very close to your family then maybe you need to consider a less permanent trip, a 3 to 6th month stay abroad with a return ticket, on a British passport you can stay 6 months in Canada. If you said you will miss material items or your local coffee shop then you probably wont find it to difficult adjusting abroad.

If you cannot think of many answers to question 4 then you may want to see how many responses you put to question 2, if 2 is high and 4 is low then it could be a case of running from something or "flight". If you write allot then check out that you have your facts right about where you want to go and that all the things you are looking forward to will be there for you.

This exercise is just to help determine if your reasons are good, Here are some good reasons:

You have had a job offer that advances your career

Most of your close family (Mum, Dad, Bothers, Sisters) already reside there

The Love of a great person

You have skills required by the country, a desire to live there, a clear understanding about the country and the culture and funds to support yourself.

If your reasons are still good and your still determined then we can proceed...

What's Next?

I would advise that you read carefully the Canadian Immigration documentation viewable here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/

Documentation on this site goes though things such as eligibility, funds required and require application processes, depending on your eligibility level you may have to wait up to a year and a half or more for the paperwork to be processed but there are other methods into Canada and ways of applying within Canada