Amazulu

Don't expect any kind of understandable answer!

abner

And another thread loses the OP in 5...4...3...

carcajou

You have experience in both countries. What should OP do?

abner

- Keep both country options open, i.e. don't abandon the Canadian visa application at least until it is clear that a viable Australian PR path exists.
- Stop evaluating the choice between the two countries in terms of how much nominal income and mortgage debt one might be eligible for. There's little difference between the two in terms of longterm economic opportunity for a young migrant family. And there are better grounds to choose between the two, based (for example) on family ties, weather preference, geographical proximity to the UK, or whatever.
- Anticipate extra hurdles to migration due to COVID-19, particularly in terms of job availability, in either country.
- But, despite any negative inferences in the above, don't give up either. The OP's focus on mortgage eligibility might have been a bit premature--one needs the visas and the jobs first--but it speaks to a focus on longterm economic prospects for a young family. And those seem likely superior in either Canada or Australia, than they would be in the UK.

[Sorry, one more]
- Be prepared to move quickly and decisively, should a migration-enabling job opportunity arise. Or, have 4-6 months family expenses saved in cash, if you've got the visa and are prepared to jump without confirmed job prospects.

MelVan

I think that's very sound advice for the OP. But I'd also think about even longer term issues - including educating your children and the sort of opportunities the OP might like them to have. Is tertiary education something to which the OP aspires for his children? Is proximity to the rest of the world for family, travel and education reasons important?

I spent most (other than when I lived and worked in the UK) of my life in Australia, and I left Australia recently to come to Canada to live, hoping never to return to Australia (I can't completely foreclose that possibility as my Canadian spouse still likes Australia for some bizarre reason). Australia is a long way from the rest of the world. I know this acutely as my career was international - and the only reason it became that way was because of the opportunities that came from living and working in the UK. Canada is not as far from the rest of the world (I know people talk about Australia's proximity to Asia, but I think that is somewhat exaggerated) as is Australia.

I'm a big fan of "prepare for the worst; hope for the best". Taking a relentlessly prudent approach to savings and finances and establishing buffers against hard times will help to weather any storms. Not ruling out either country but going with that which is more advanced / likely to be easier is a good first step. Being nimble in every respect (down to not having too much crap/accumulating too many possessions/getting too attached to things or places, so if opportunities change they can be embraced quickly) and developing familial resilience to change and strategies for integration into new communities, will really help no matter what is the outcome.

And always collect as many passports as possible, and keep them current along with anything else that allows for easy movement between countries - and never close overseas bank accounts or give up overseas credit cards.

lb77

I am in Edmonton and I would do your homework very carefully, Alberta has been in reccession since 2015 with Calgary hit the worst. Job security in construction related industries is a thing of the past, I would well imagine Western Australia is in the same boat. You should base any decisions and calculations on a 'worst case' scenario and then make you choices.

abner

Profoundly agree with this bit.

I used to worry about the impact of moving around on the children, once they reached mid-to-late primary school age and started to develop durable friendships with classmates. But it turns out that they're very adept at maintaining key longterm friendships via game-based chat mechanisms (Roblox, Minecraft, etc.), to a degree I didn't expect until I witnessed it working over several years.

And by the time they're 7 - 8 years old, one can have surprisingly 'adult' conversations with them about why the family is moving, what Mom and Dad hope to gain from the move, and how to deal with the new country / city, and with the transition away from the old one.

whytrigg

Interesting thread.

I moved to Canada 4 years ago, I live in Calgary and I have never regretted the move at all, although, I'm somewhat drawn to Australia because the winters are so long and cold here. There is snow on the ground for 6-9 months of the year.

I know the entire world's hurting at the moment, but Alberta is really struggling and since I arrived things have just gone from bad to worse. Luckily I've had the same job since arriving here and it looks relatively secure, for now. My wife doesn't work as my kids are so young, so we are a single income family, I can afford all the essentials and a pretty nice house, but after putting a small amount away for savings there isn't much disposable. Luckily when she returns to work that will be entirely disposable and we can start up vacations and extreme hobbies again.

There are boat loads of people out of work and unless the op has something exceptionally unique to offer employers, he'll probably find himself at the back of a very long line of people looking for work. What's left of the job market here is more about networking, and there is a very strong preference to hire locally so being new to the area with no network is really going to be tough. My neighbour was just telling me last week that they used to have 250 employees in their family run business, they had to let nearly everyone go and now they are down to 8 and can still barely keep the lights on.

Something else to consider, teaching assistants have just been defunded by the provincial government. That means there are only private positions available now and all of those teaching assistants that have just lost their jobs will be first in line for any vacancies that come up. You should do your research on that as there is a very high likelihood yours misses will have to retrain in something else. Even if she didn't, she would need a recognised early education qualification as it is a regulated industry, that may mean going through an application process to have existing skills recognised, or redoing something here.

While I've painted a rather gloomy picture for you there, life here is incredible, you've just picked a terrible time to come. I would reconsider Alberta, and look at Saskatchewan or BC instead, before covid hit Saskatchewan was doing amazing things with their economy and I expect they will be one of the quickest provinces to recover and prosper once this is all over. Alberta was the power house of Canada's economy for the last 2 decades which is evidenced by the fact our province makes equalization payments to the others, but I genuinely think Saskatchewan will be in the future.

Good Luck.

the troubadour

I'll gizza a clue. You were from my recollection an early canary in the mine. Unable to get a job after a considerable period saw you high tail it back to TX.

the troubadour

We'll put it this way shall we? The answer given will go straight over the above poster's head, as he only choses to read and post what is ideologically sound to own agenda.
WA is not technically in a recession but mighty close. The rise in the up and down I/O market has delayed an official declaration of recession, but we maintain highest unemployment figures,
with small business struggling and loads of closed shops.
Once the government lifts the pay outs to unemployed in September, if that is even possible, we will see just where we stand.

the troubadour

You appear to be quoting wrong person. I've no intention of moving to Alberta, using that Provence as being in a similar situation to the State of Western Australia. In fact we here in WA appear a bit better off for the moment, but the reliance on shipping out stuff from the ground is
hardly the remedy to rid ourselves of future ills. The commodity market being so fickle, with prices dictated from overseas and the over reliance on China to continue imports, where relations are at all time lows.

Pulaski

Commodity prices aren't "dictated from overseas", even if you're in the oil or diamond business, which are the most heavily managed commodity sectors. Commodity prices are, mostly, a simple balancing of supply and demand, so when demand falls the price will also fall unless the producers also cut production. Unfortunately (for the producers who need a high price to enable profitable production what sometimes happens is the opposite, with producers trying to offset the fall in market price by increasing production, which pushes prices even lower. Which what has happened in recent years to oil producers, with OPEC members often agreeing to cut production, while actually increasing production.

Most notoriously this impacts agricultural production, and the failure to cut supply of fleeces is what led to the collapse of the Australian Wool Commission in 1991, when demand (ironically, from China) for wool collapsed in the late 1980's, and the excess production of fleeces was too great for the AWC to continue buying "excess" fleece production at an intervention price (i.e. artificially cutting supply by buying up some fleeces to stop thrm entering the market) to keep the price of fleeces up.

Pulaski

Are your recollections pharmaceutically induced?

I don't work in mining, have never been involuntarily unemployed, and have never even set foot in Texas. I haven't been to Australia either, but I am not sure if that is relevant to your recollection. Oh, and nor am I a song bird.

Amazulu

I warned you back in post #31 not to expect any kind of sensible answer!

the troubadour

Oh look whose back. . A most unlikely place to seek a sensible, non ideologically biased response to most any post will be anything from The Mamba.
The total inability to engage in debate goes without further comment.