My husband and I will be applying for BUNAC visas in a couple of weeks, all being well we hope to head to BC/Alberta (depending on job availability) in August/Sept 08.
We are going on our honeymoon to Calgary area in February and are wondering if there is any admin stuff we should sort out while we're in the country to make life easier later in the year? eg I wondered if we should open a bank account or get a mobile phone set up? By that point we probably won't know 100% if we have the visas yet.

I've read the scouting trip wiki - useful stuff.

Thanks in anticipation

Congratulations on your forthcoming marriage.

There might be some merit in setting up a bank account while you're visiting Canada. Some members of this forum have opened accounts with HSBC in Canada before they've left the UK.

There are many documents that you cannot obtain until you are resident in Canada or, indeed, in a specific province. I'm thinking of things like Social Insurance Number, provincial health care insurance, and driver's licence.

Technically you could arrange for cell phone (mobile) service, but why pay for the service for months and months before you actually use it?

So, beyond the general research that's described in the Wiki article on how to do a scouting trip, I can't think of anything you could do to save you time and effort once you came to live in Canada for a year.

Oh yes, if you don't already have suitable winter clothing, you could buy it in February 2008, as it also would serve you during the winter of 2008-2009. However, if you end up on the BC coast for your BUNAC year, your clothing needs will be somewhat different from your clothing needs in Alberta. But if you ski you basically need the same gear regardless of where you ski.

If you don't know what clothing to buy for an Alberta winter, I recommend you read the thread entitled Okay - I know it will be cold - BUT......

Hope that helps.

Well done on the up and coming wedding

i know its not very romatic, but layers are better, thermal leggings under the jeans are a must
but like judy said the wiki articles above on the bar is the best form of info for you.

Good Luck

Gill

Thanks for your replies!
It's actually a belated honeymoon as we got married in August... but we wanted a skiing honeymoon so we have had to wait a little while!!!
We spent last winter living at 13,000ft in the Colorado Rockies so we are already fairly prepared for the cold - I don't think I took my thermal leggings off the whole three months we were there!! (well maybe just for a wash one in a while!)

On the subject of cell phones... do pay as you go phones exist in Canada? I was going to buy one for our road trip as a safety measure, thought it might do until we head out properly.

I'm very very excited already!

congratulations on the marriage!

pay as you go does exist, but... you need to think in a different way as you are used to it from europe. (the following is valid for bc, it might be different for other provinces)
* you pay for your airtime, which means, unless you have an according plan with included minutes or an add-on that covers that, you pay for incoming calls too.
* payg balances have an expiry date - the smaller the amount you load up the shorter the validity of your balance (so your account might be cancelled when you come back later in the year)
* only rodgers / fido are gsm carriers (with payg) - so if you want to bring your existing phone over you are bound to get a sim card from them.
* the other carriers (bell / telus / virgin /...) work with cdma technology. you buy a carrier specific phone which will be registered with your number.
* the number is like a local number in a certain area. if you buy your phone say in vancouver and register it there with a vancouver number but use it in say golden you pay the long distance rate - depending on carrier on top of the local rate.


if you don't need your cell phone for people (prospective employers?) to contact you it might as well be an option for the february to check with your provider at home what their rates for roaming (which would be with rogers - again the gsm-thing - if you want to check coverage) are. then really use it for emergency only. and use a landline with a phone card for the other calls.


a search for the many threads about cell phones would give you an overview what people think about the different carriers...

Hi lof and thanks for the very useful info - I'll check out the other threads and see what our best option is.

The BUNAC (SWAP in Canada) welcome meetings are really useful for all the stuff you mentioned.

They gave out a letter at ours which we could take to the bank when we opened our account that wavied the monthly fee for the first one or two months (can't remember exactly). Of course you can shop around for other banks. But as most charge for having an account I wouldn't bother until you are here.

Also they had a rep from the equivilent of a Student Car Phone Warehouse, who told you about the different options for phones and gave you some SIM cards to try out in your UK phone to see if they worked. OK, they will be getting good commission but they were independant and there. We checked prices afterwards and they were very competitive.

Again I wouldn't bother getting a phone until you move here, as said before unless you want it for job hunting. Pay as you charge a monthly fee so your credit will be used up quickly, if it doesn't run out first.

BUNAC also do your SIN card applications at their welcome meeting, although it done through the post so took 2 weeks. it might be quicker by-passing that and going to the service canada office. You won't get your card there adn then, but you'll get the number.

We got our bank account and cell phones set up within hours of being in Canada.

Finding an apartment took a bit longer, but all in all, we were settled within one week of being here, which was a good thing as I started work then.

I would put your engery into finding jobs or making contacts who you can network with once you arrive, maybe revising for your driving theory test (on-line at ICBC ewbsite) and deciding where you want to live so you can hit the rental market with full force when you arrive - these are thigns that you can research from home before arriving.