purpleangel

Hi

Firstly, apologise for the vagueness of the post, but my partner and I have been discussing the possibility of making a break from the UK to pastures new for ourselves and our 2yo.

Canada is one of the countries on our current shortlist, as an English speaking country and somewhere I have fond memories of visiting as a child, but there are lots of things to take into consideration and I wondered if you could offer some advice:

1) Locations - we have a 2yo and all enjoy walking, countryside and visiting sites of local interest. We would need somewhere with good schooling options, somewhere in a safe neighbourhood with local parks and shops. Budget wise - I'm not sure, my husband is a programmer and I have an administrative background. (I've visited Calgary and Banff in the past and thought them beautiful for a visit)

2) I'm interested in your experiences of integrating a toddler into a different country's education system. Our daughter currently attends nursery and is fairly adaptable to new situations.

3) What are the average property prices for a 3 bed house with parking and garden (I realise that is dependent on 1 above) - rental initially, I would imagine

4) Moving costs? We are planning to use the smallest possible container option for essentials (clothes, toys, electrical items and a select few items of furniture, the rest we are planning to sell)

5) How much would you recommend as a 'float' to have available after the move? We would obviously be looking for work as soon as we could, my partner probably sooner than myself so that I can help our daughter adjust and settle into childcare.

I think that's everything for now - as this is something that we are looking at for a couple of years time.

Thanks for your help :-)





2)

christmasoompa

Hi, and welcome to BE.

I see you've also posted in the NZ and Oz forums - do you know you're eligible for a visa for all 3 countries? That might help you narrow it down, so I'd suggest you research that first if you haven't already.

Sorry, but a bit too vague! Can you be more specific - do you want to ski, French speaking, what kind of climate do you want, are shorter flights to the UK more important to you, or easy access to the US, etc? Canada is the size of Europe, so a few more specifics will help narrow it down. Do you have a province in mind?

A toddler shouldn't be a problem at all IMO. She won't be attending school for a few years yet anyway, so has less of an adjustment to make.

As above, until you've at least narrowed it down to a province, that's just too vague a question I'm afraid. There will be a huge difference between costs in Vancouver versus costs in Halifax for example.

You'll probably find that it will cost you more to buy everything new than to ship your stuff, but as a rough guide figure about £15-25k for a family. This thread may be useful reading - http://britishexpats.com/forum/canad...canada-735341/

CIC will require you to have a certain amount in your bank account (iirc, it's around $20k for a family of 3), but that's considered by most to be very low, so personally I'd double it, particularly if you'll want two cars. Again, the thread above will have some useful figures in.

HTH a bit, good luck.

purpleangel

Thanks

Re: the visa, that's very interesting - I'll look into it.

Re: location, sorry for the vagueness. English speaking preferably initially. I did GCSE French a long while ago so am very rusty, although I'd like to pick it up again. Skiing is not a requirement, we much prefer walking or clambering around; climate-wise OH would prefer somewhere not too warm, but I'm open minded as long as fans are available!; we're not concerned about access to other countries - although we will still have family in the UK; I like the idea of easy access to nice scenery, but haven't set on a province yet - still very much open minded.

re: schooling - does the schooling system start with nursery, reception, infant school, as here in the UK? Does state schooling exist or is it a privately funded system?

re: moving furniture - we're mainly thinking of buying new rather than moving things as most of our furniture isn't that great, most is second hand or got damaged through our last house move and having a toddler! Also we wondered if renting our current house as furnished would be a better option.

Thanks for the information on costs - I'll take a look! We only have one car at the moment, but it's helpful to get an idea on what we need.

Thanks :-)

christmasoompa

Definitely the first thing to look into, as if you're not eligible for a visa then any questions about where to live etc become moot.

BC maybe? A lot of Canada gets hot and humid summers, so if your OH doesn't fancy somewhere too warm that might rule a lot of places out, depending on what he counts as 'too warm'. If he's anything like me, this week in the UK at 30+ degrees is definitely 'too warm'!

It's a different system, but yes, it's state school (although you can pay for private if you prefer). Have a look at the Wiki to understand the different school years and at what age your daughter will start school there.

Again, depending on where you go you might find 2 cars is essential, as public transport tends not to be as good as in the UK. But it will depend on whereabouts you live really, if you're in a city you probably won't want two cars. Make sure you sit down when you look at car insurance prices.

I'd suggest a really good read of the Wiki, and the CIC website to check out the visa side of things, hopefully that will help you and you can figure out some more specific questions.

Good luck!

purpleangel

Thanks - I'll start looking when little one is in bed tonight!

Yes 30 C is too hot for him!

Public transport would be a bonus - I don't drive yet, but we haven't had the benefit of inner city regular transport, having generally lived out of town - I'm used to hourly buses/trains.

dbd33

A level of service that would amaze residents of rural Canada.

Aviator

We are in the Lower Mainland of BC and 30c is a cool day this week! We are looking at up to 35c in the next week.

BristolUK

I'm always puzzled by this one but admittedly a lot would agree shipping is cheaper. When we moved to this house we were four, including 2 kids 13 & 15.

On the day we arrived, so did a removals van of one bed, a few pillows and quilts we used as a mattress and a few kitchen items of crockery and cutlery. One chest freezer, 2 bedside tables and two chests of drawers.

The house was empty but did come with a fridge-freezer, dishwasher and a cooker that we since replaced for $350, new.

Off we went to Leons to buy the other beds, washer-dryer set, dining set, all the sitting down furniture. $4700 is the amount on the invoice which I came across just the other day.

TV came from Future shop - $400 (better available for half that now), Lawn mower and patio furniture from Canadian Tire - $400.

Over the next few months we added a second freezer and small fridge, coffee tables, computer carts, TV stand, half a dozen bookcases, new set of pots and pans, baker's rack, microwave, toaster oven...$900

So that's around $6400. The cost of the house stuff we already had was maybe $600. So we must have done pretty much everything for $7000. We replaced the cooker, as stated, for $350 and the dishwasher and fridge-freezer already here would have added another $1000.

So less than $8500.

Of course, it was 10 years ago but looking at Leons, there's not much of a change in the overall price of equivalent purchases.

This doesn't include clothing, of course, and other personal stuff that some may want to bring.

I did ship some things and I do regret that for reasons other than cost, but the cost of shipping the household items I would have wanted over here was out of proportion to their replacement cost.

Perhaps there are some things that people cannot be parted from and the difference between that shipping cost and then adding the essentials meant the cost of shipping those essentials was less than replacing them, but maybe not if it was essentials only if you follow.

Or maybe I just buy cheap but functional tat.

christmasoompa

So £4400 at today's exchange rate, a bit more than shipping it would usually cost. And as you said, it was 10 years ago, so I'd guess price would have increased since then.

I also think with kids there's a lot to be said for having their own items around them when you're moving them from everything that's familiar, their friends/family etc too.

Photoplex

From everything you've said, Calgary sounds right for you guys, but again - not a lot of information to go on.

Some of the most breathtaking scenery and landscape is a short hop from Calgary in the Rockies. Lots of IT work here too, although that's slowed up a little with the oil downturn.

We did just have a weekend with 35c weather though!

Pulaski

Visas have been mentioned - does your partner work for a business that has an overseas branch? By far the easiest way to emigrate is through a transfer by your employer if that is an option. It might limit your choices of location, but it solves the "looking for work" issue, which is the biggest unknown when emigrating "alone".

BristolUK

Not if the rate I was quoted for far fewer items than I bought here was anything to go by.

But my figures were to compare with the £15k-£25k

I also said looking at the store where I bought most things the overall price was little different.

Washer/dryer pair is about $300 more but equivalent sofas to the four we bought are ($50x4) $200 less.

While I concede I might be 'cheap', I was also flush with cash at the time so we didn't exactly shop around and four sofas was probably a tad unnecessary.

JamesM

Welcome to the forum.

Canada's most successful immigrants move for their children.

Remember life is what gets in the way of plans and prepare yourself for the roller coaster.

christmasoompa

OP - the above isn't serious advice, just in case you didn't pick that up as a newbie.

scilly

Temperatures in BC for the last week and forecast for all of this coming week are currently ranging between 25+ to 40C


Houses, condos and apartments over here usually come with all appliances (range and fridge, and often microwave)


I have to ask ........... why bring electrical equipment?

Canada's electricity is 120 Volt, 60 Hz and the U.K.'s is 230 V, 50 Hz. so you will need to convert the voltage, and you will also need a converter so the plug will fit in Canadian electrical sockets.

We've been there, done that!

We were given a beautiful KitchenAid mixer with all the gadgets as a present, unfortunately it was UK model. It was unusable so it sat in storage for 3 or 4 years. Then a family came from Australia on a year's visit, he had a bit of electrical knowledge, borrowed our mixer and set up a converter to use with it, having done something similar down under.

They left that with us when they left .......... the converter took up more room on the kitchen counter than the large KitchenAid mixer. So it all went back into storage, until someone else borrowed both some yeas later, and neglected to return them.

It really was good riddance!