The TWs

As a a family who have been in Canada for 2 years and are probably on our way back to the UK next year here are a few things we did wrong and hope you can learn from our mistakes!

1. Don't buy a house too soon! we bought in an area that we thought we liked but ended up hating. If we had rented for a while and explored for a year, we would have bought a different house in a different neighbourhood. Selling is expensive if you get it wrong. Realtors fees are around 7% of the value of the house so you don't want to have to move if you get it wrong!

2. Don't buy a house until you are settled in a job. We didn't expect to earn quite as little as we do, so our mortgage is now unaffordable, even though it was less in 'real' terms than our UK one.

3. Try as hard as you can to get a job before you emigrate. A couple of trips to interview and meet people is a lot cheaper in the long run than failing to get work or only getting a near minimum wage job for a year (as I did)

4. Research your job prospects thoroughly. We didn't and ended up fairly broke. Good jobs here tend not to be advertised with salaries and are often gone very quickly as they are tend to be filled by personal recommendations. This is a 'who you know' job network country, and if you don't know anyone the good jobs can be hard to find.

5. Advice from people here about jobs (both personal and professional) can be insanely optimistic (This is a very positive culture). My wife was told my many potential agencies and employers that her CV was excellent, and her London experience would put her in high demand, but when we got here all of them seemed to disappear without a trace and came up with no leads/ jobs!

6. Try and get health insurance that covers prescriptions with your job. These are not subsidised by the govt. (in BC anyway) and can add up to hundreds of dollars for some basic drugs. It was quite a shock when we had to get anti-biotics for the first time!

Anyway, I hope this is helpful as moving to Canada has been quite a challenge and we came here all bright eyed about our new life, but made mistakes which soured our experience.

bodgerx

What line of work are you in?

The TWs

I am a cameraman and my wife worked as a Production manager/producer, but I have met other expats in different fields who (i.e. HR and banking etc) who found the same

Aviator

Have you not registered for Fair Pharmacare? The govt. picks up the tab on prescriptions once you've met your deductible (which is based on income).

JonboyE

7% on the 1st $100,000 and 2.5% on the rest is the standard commission rate the realtor will start with, and it is negotiable. However, I agree with your warning.

The TWs

With Fair Phamacare you have to have been paying taxes for two years - if you can't prove your income from 2 years ago then your deductible is $10,000 - thats a LOT of drugs.

Danny B

Sorry to hear that things did not work out for you, reading through your list made me chuckle (not at your misfortune BTW) because we arrived in July 2007 practically in the same position as you, and things worked out great for us.

1) We bought a house in a neighborhood that we had no real life experience with, only Google earth LOL.

2) We bought a house and took on a mortgage without having a job.

3) The thought did cross my mind, but on our recce trip it was apparent that employers would not be interested until we were living in the area.

4) There wasn't a great deal of choice for IT jobs here, it was a choice of about 5 places to work and I applied for them all.

5) At the time of getting my mortgage (with no job) my Bank Manager was really building my hopes up saying that I'll find a job no problem, and I'm pleased to say I did.

6) I have and I agree. My 13yr old needs a $4k brace, Thank God for dental plans.

This isn't a smug post, but just to let readers know that for two families arriving in BC at about the same time, one family has had a totally different experience than the other.

Alan2005

1 and 2 were probably not that wise though. It worked out for you, but renting for a year is the more sensible approach; especially as getting a mortgage without a job in today's market isn't actually that clever if you need said job to pay it.

ExKiwilass

I agree with you TW. Langley wouldn't be my cup of tea either, so no judgement here. Personally I found Vancouver such a different city to others I'd lived in that it took quite a while to figure out what neighbourhood worked for me.

It's a bummer that you guys didn't check about the union situation before you came, because that's really the reason you couldn't get good work, not your experience per se...you say your wife is a PM - you mean in the film industry? cos again the union has a fair bit of sway with work there. Danny B probably didn't have to come up against union rules in IT.

Anyway, I wish you all the best.

Danny B

No I didn't Thank God. What Canada needs is another Thatcher to take on these unions

Helen Parnell

Love the post and sorry to hear it has not all worked out as planned.

We moved in 2002 and brought the house within the week, with no job.
Through various circumstances we did not earn a decent wage until April 2003 which was taken away from us in Sept 2003 and it was only again in April 2004 did we earn any money, for it to be stopped again in December 2004.

Fortunately through good health (no prescriptions) good financial management (husband not letting me spend any money) and determination it has turned around. Both my husband and i have taken complete career changes and love the challenge.

I now deal with a lot of people who move over, some rent and some buy, there is no right answer. Some come with jobs, some with out.

BUT what i have learnt it takes at least a year maybe two to at least get to settle properly in Calgary (and I assume it can be the same in the whole of canada). You DO TAKE a backward step regarding credit rating, jobs, friends etc etc and unfortunately you have to cope with that.

This is a country where you get jobs on 'who you know' so you have to take a job well beneath you and for far less money so you can 'get some canadian experience' (this is a whole topic in it self) and also get to know some people who can help you to move up.

Those of you who are thinking of coming over, have to consider if they want to take that backward step, so that you can then in a few years move 3-4 forward. Emigrating is not easy.

danfolkestone

Rob Anders for PM!

(Runs and hides)

Piff Poff

Has this not all been said before?

Sorry things haven't worked out for you as you thought it would, I hope things turn around and you find yourselves in a happier position.

Alberta_Rose

Quite likely it has, but it's not bad advice anyway. The other unknown to a large extent may be good or bad luck. I have seen people on here who were miserable, mainly not having a good job, but things turned right around in a fairly short time-frame when they did manage to find a job they liked that paid well, or when they did find a different place to live that they liked, or whatever.

Some may be pure settling time etc, but much of it comes down to luck as well as planning .....

Good luck for the future!!!

Lemonfish

It has been said before, but am guessing that new people log on here from time to time who may not have seen previous posts?

Would agree with what has been said - assuming that because you have great UK job experience this will translate into good jobs in Canada is a dangerous assumption.

When you land here you are a foreigner; you may have a great education, great experience, all the rest of it, but the fact is you are a foreigner with no track record here.

This makes you a risk and requires employers to believe that the risk will pay off to take you on. It has (mostly) worked out well for us so far, but this has involved luck and things could very easily have gone differently.

I'd say emmigrating is not for the faint of heart. Expect things to be pretty tough for the first couple years; if they're not consider yourself lucky.