dishwashing

Just to confirm Aviator is super helpful and nice

Tramps_mate

If your partner earns more than enough, why stress?

Be pregnant, settle in to the move, get used to Canada, have baby, 6 months later get child care and start working again!

Dashie

Or if there's enough money, wait until she and baby are ready for that. Most people take a year in Canada. I've been at home nearly 6 now. But that's because we keep having babies..lol! And besides, childcare is expensive and would negate what I could earn in our current situation. Anyway, just trying to say there's no need to put a time limit on now

erin87

Thank you for all your advice.
We got here 2 days ago, staying at a hotel in Burnaby.
I wanted to work or study basically to meet people and to keep busy, it does say on my visa no study but not sure if that blocks out an online course? Just to keep me occupied?
My partner starts work Monday so I need to get myself out there! Although the next few weeks I need to suss out the best area to live in, any suggestions would be great xxx

Lychee

Best area to live in? "Best" is so relative and subjective. Help us out by describing an area that would be best to you. Be very specific. Ex: "I want to live somewhere where I can rent a 2 bedroom house/flat for under $xxxx, where I can walk to the supermarket, where I can live without a car easily, where I can stroll to a park/beach/shopping/etc., close to public transit, etc." Based on your feedback, we can make a few suggestions.

Former Lancastrian

In some cases, you do not require a study permit to go to school in Canada.

If you wish to study in a short-term course or program
You do not need a study permit if you plan to take a course or program in Canada that lasts six months or less. You must complete the course or program within the period authorized for your stay in Canada.

erin87

Thanks for that, I'm now going to make some enquiries into short term courses tomorrow.
Yes I wasn't very specific with the property's!!
I ideally am looking for a 2-3 bed house as as iv said I am expecting and would like a room for if family come visit, but they seem very hard to find it seems all appartments or kind of shared property's, I'd like it in an a place close to shops ect as I don't drive but also not to far into town because my partner doesn't want really bad traffic every day. Price range up to $4,000 a month, is this all too much to ask for?! Lol iv heard Londsdale is nice and also Kitsalano??

scrubbedexpat091

If your husband hates traffic, live as close to his employment as possible. Further out you get from work, the more traffic he will deal with, lower mainland traffic is bad on a good day, and avoid living where you have to cross a bridge during the commute, they can be a mess during rush hour, especially to/from the north shore, but traffic over there is a mess over there as well, very frustrating place to drive in general.

Aviator

Where is 'town' Do you mean Downtown Vancouver? If so the North Shore, using Sea Bus to commute to downtown, or maybe live near a skytrain station if you are on the south side of the inlet. I would avoid driving wherever possible, as has been said, he won't avoid traffic traveling during commuting hours.

'Shops' is not quite like shops in Europe. There is no 'high street' there are shopping centres and endless strip malls. You can be close to a few stores, but will likely need to drive to others.

Rosie Lee

Erin87, I would seriously consider waiting untill after you have had the baby, for your move. I have a good friend who has had several children, in the UK and recently here. Her experiences with the Maternity care here are archaic compared with UK.

Oakvillian

OK Rosie Lee, we get that you've had a crappy time in Canada and are preparing to move back to the UK. But this post is complete nonsense. The pre- and post-natal care available in Canada is certainly comparable to, and in some instances significantly better than, the UK system. There is absolutely no need to delay a move to Canada because of impending motherhood, so long as one has covered all the insurance bases, which it appears the OP has done.

Apart from which, of course, she's already here.

scrubbedexpat091

And somehow thousands of babies are born in Canada every year, just fine.

Rosie Lee

This is not based on my experience, this is a friends from Scotland, who has just had her 5th child, so she knows what she's talking about. She was only seen once untill well into her 3rd Trimester, despite being an older mother. She was swollen, and could smell the keytones in her urine. This is regularly tested in UK, but was not here! Instead of having everything done in the same location, she was driving all over the place to different locations, heavily pregnant and with other small children in tow and there was little cohesion between the different elements. The post natal care was again along the same lines. In UK the midwife visits regularly for 2 weeks. Here, she had to go to her! Yes, she has insurance. In fact she has actually had 2 children in this country, one paying privately and one with insurance. Both experiences were in her opinion not comparable to the UK.

MillieF

Yes, they are Erin, and healthy happy babies at that. I'd sooner have a child in Canada than I would the UK.

Where I work we seem to have had a spate of births just of late (quite seriously, are we in the middle of a baby boom, because just about every woman I know who can, has either just had a kid or is about to). Where I am we have a bit of a shortage of 'family' doctors, but the medical services in general are good, and for midwifery I have only heard good reports. Get yourself off and join a new mums coffee morning, and chat to a few women there, it will dispel any unnecessary fears.

Lychee

Vancouver is like this:

The further out of Vancouver you move, the more time you'll be spending in traffic commuting to Vancouver. The further out of Vancouver you move, the more likely it is that those areas are built for cars, and you'll really want a car to get around, and the more isolated you'll feel without a car. The more likely the areas are built for cars, the less walkable the area typically is, including shopping areas.

This is a generalization, of course... places like New Westminster, White Rock, or Steveston are extremely walkable. Lower Lonsdale in North Vancouver is also like that. But for the most part, the further outside of Vancouver you go, the more suburban/car reliant it becomes. If you want big houses and somewhere outside of the city, the sacrifice is that public transit options may not be good/convenient, shops/supermarkets are more likely to be in strip malls where you drive to them, and public transit options are often limited. The urban geography of Vancouver, or anywhere in Canada, simply isn't like that of the UK.

If you want to live somewhere where you won't be spending time in traffic, where you will be able to walk to the shops, etc. you'll have to live somewhere with higher population density, like downtown Vancouver's Coal Harbour or Yaletown, or False Creek's Olympic Village, or neighbourhoods like Commercial Drive, South Cambie, Kitsilano, Mount Pleasant, and Riley Park. Lower Lonsdale in North Vancouver is also good. This is assuming the job will be located in these areas as well. My advice is to NOT seek out out a commuting lifestyle in Vancouver. There is a reason driving in Vancouver is bad - the city has purposefully built it this way, to encourage people to live in public transit corridors, in higher density areas, and to use alternative forms of transportation, like bikes or the Skytrain. I used to live in Yaletown and worked downtown, and it was brilliant. I didn't need a car, there were supermarkets, shops, parks, waterfront walkways, beaches and public transit at my doorstep. Sure, I did not have a large house downtown, but I realized that the tradeoff was worth it - the entire downtown public area like the seawall became an extension of my home, and I didn't spend any time commuting or driving. I walked everywhere. This is not the typical lifestyle the average expat is dreaming of when they think of moving to Canada, but in the context of Vancouver, it works really well. You don't want to be living in Vancouver surburbia unless you're okay with driving everywhere.