The finances of moving...
 

It's always a bit sensitive to talk about money, however it is a vital part of planning to emigrate. Myself and my husband have intended to move out for years, and have been saving up to ensure we will be able to cover the move and set up costs. We also have done works to our home to increase the equity and market appeal. It'll still be a couple of years off for the move, but we wanted to make sure everything was as ready as we could be before putting in the application. So, with a couple of questions, we are now thinking it might be time to begin the official paper trail...

• Did you use an immigration specialist service?
• Is it worth speaking with an accountant or financial advisor about moving and living costs?
• Did you set up a Canadian bank account before the move?
• Do we sell up for the equity, or let our house out for an additional source of income?
• How do wages compare for a similar job in the UK and Canada (you can only find so much generic averages online)
• Is it more cost effective to buy furniture here and move it with a container, or to buy new once we land?
• What hidden costs did you come across?

Any advice is really appreciated, we have been cautious not to jump in to soon to make sure we aren't let down by poor planning :)

Re: The finances of moving...
 

I'll move this to the main forum as it's not really a visa related question, I'm sure you'll get some good advice there.

Most people don't use an immi consultant, it's pretty easy to do yourself unless you have complicated circumstances (criminal record, medical issues etc). If you can do it yourself then that's a few grand saved!

An accountant or financial advisor wouldn't help with moving/living costs, that's not really what they do. BE can help with that though, there are lots of threads on the cost of living in Canada (as a general rule, about the same as in the UK) so have a search to find previous threads. And this one has some useful figures in for moving costs - https://britishexpats.com/forum/cana...canada-735341/ If you can tell people where you'll be moving to, that will help too.

Re: bank accounts that would let you set up an account before you move - https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Banking-Canada

Selling or renting house, I'd say it depends on the visa you'll be on in Canada. If it's a temp work permit (or any other kind of temporary visa), personally I'd recommend you keep your UK house at least until you have PR, just in case. If you'll be going for PR then you may need the equity to move with or to buy a house in Canada, but it really depends on your circumstances. Just don't forget to factor in Capital Gains Tax if you think you'll sell further down the line.

Wages will depend on what job(s). Do you know your NOC codes?

Furniture, again will depend - if you're moving with 4 kids and have a 5 bed house then probably more cost effective to ship it all rather than buy everything new. But if it's just two of you moving from a one bed flat, it may be cheaper to buy new.

Hidden costs - see the thread above which has some in!

HTH, good luck.

Re: The finances of moving...
 

1) No - they are a scam and a waste of money
2) No - you should know your own finances and what you can or cant afford
3) Yes - setting up a bank account before you move is easy, lots of them have new settler accounts. I found scotiabank was the easiest to do online, but quickly changed to RBC once landed, but thats easy enough to do once you get here to change banks anyway.
4) Can you afford to keep your house and buy another one? Awesome, keep it, wish i could have afforded to. Or do you need to sell the house to get the money to move and settle in a new country? We did, so we had to sell.
5) Wages and cost of living could spread into hundreds of pages of responses. The short and simple answer that you need to know, IMO, is that all sorts of things are all sorts of prices, some more, some less, but ON THE WHOLE a similar income in Canada will get you a similar level of living as in England - but importantly I feel you get more with you money here i.e. bigger house, more space, better standard of living, bigger vehicles, etc - of course depending where you choose to go, small town northern BC vs Toronto or Vancouver for example. But for major cities think London incomes and lifestyle, for small town think the Midlands.
6) As said above, depends how much furniture you have. For a family of 3/4 leaving a 3 bedroom house in england, we chose to ship all our stuff because some of it was sentimental, but honestly if doing it again i probably wouldnt have bothered since we changed a lot of it and bought new stuff anyway to match the bigger and different style of house.
7) No major hidden costs if you do your research. A few extra bits of identification or police checks or health checks but no more than a few hundred pounds.

Hope this helps.

Re: The finances of moving...
 

I can hear the steam coming out of Christmasoompa's ears from here...

Re: The finances of moving...
 

:confused: Not sure why, I'm inclined to agree with him. :lol:

There are some good immi consultants amongst the many dodgy ones, I just don't think they're needed for most people, as I said above.

Re: The finances of moving...
 

Hello and welcome to BE!

1) No need for a costly Immigration consultant now you have found BE! You have experts here that won't charge you a penny, thus saving thousands of £ £ £ £ £'s

2) Absolutely no point in speaking to a financial advisor about moving / living costs - they are more for how to invest your money for best return and lowest taxes - and for retirement / savings purposes

3) You can set up your bank account in advance, as has been mentioned already.

4a) Selling or keeping - if you come on a Permanent Residency basis I would sell - you will need a minimum amount of money just to be allowed to emigrate to Canada (settlement funds) plus the immigration and moving costs
4b) Once you are a resident of Canada you will be taxed on your world income (and you will have the headache of tenants). Not forgetting the exchange rate fluctuations that will impact any profit!
4c) You will have to declare any and all assets held overseas that are worth $100,000 or more (combined) and pay any taxes due - then when you sell it (you will need to get it valued before you leave) you will pay CGT in Canada on the difference in value between the date you became a resident for tax purposes and the date it is sold.
4d) (If you are coming on a TWP then keep it until you are sure you are going to be staying in Canada permanently).

5) Without knowing what you do for a living (the NOC code) and your level of experience / seniority, it's impossible to say whether your salary in Canada will be equal to, less than or more than you currently earn. It will also depend on which Province you move to - and which City!

6) Housing and house prices have increased exponentially in Canada (throughout most of it, anyway) so you should determine how big of a house you might be able to afford (and what you need) before deciding what to ship over. Generally speaking I would say ship over the heirloom / meaningful pieces of furniture, or anything of high quality that would cost a fortune to replace, pack all your personal belongings, memorabilia, books, music etc.,etc., leave most of the rest behind. Shipping costs are not cheap!

7) Lots of threads on this subject.. use the search function (advanced) and select 'posts' then 'Canada Forum and tick 'also search child forums' (meaning sub forums).

We also have a wonderful Wiki section on moving to Canada.. worth a read (but make a cuppa first, there's a lot!) https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Categ...gistics-Canada
:)

Have you worked out a route and whether you will have sufficient points to emigrate to Canada? Without that knowledge everything else is just conjecture.. fingers crossed for you! :)

Re: The finances of moving...
 

I know :-) It was tongue-in-cheek, I just had to smile at the tarnishing of all immigration consultants with the same dirty brush :-)

Re: The finances of moving...
 

And leave everything electrical, with the possible exception of heirloom table lamps (which will need new plugs and new bulb holders). Anything will motors or electronics will literally more of a problem to get to work than it's worth, and may be a safety/ insurance issue to boot.

Re: The finances of moving...
 

Apart from games consols and computers etc., they usually have a switch to change frequency / input. easy enough to get a plug adapter if necessary.. :)

We have a nifty wiki about it :D https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Compa...f_Goods-Canada

Re: The finances of moving...
 

Yes, agreed. :o .... Laptops and anything else that uses a "power brick" transformer may already have an input voltage range of 100v-250v, so all you would need, as you said, is a new plug or brick-to-socket power cord,

Re: The finances of moving...
 

Hi @chrismasoompa, thanks for your reply and for sending me to the right place! We are generally happy to get things done ourselves, we just didn't want to skip a step that is recommended, or can make a big difference to success of application. Having read all of the replies we have confirmed we will sell the house, and go through the application paperwork ourselves. We're looking into partial container shipping, as there is just the two of us moving from a 3-bed semi, and most things are replaceable not sentimental. We might even sell the lot, or donate anything important to family, so avoid shipping entirely. From what we've seen, there will be a lot more house to furnish on the Canada end, so we will need more/bigger furniture anyway.
Our job codes are 2112A and 2121A, and we intend to settle PR in Calgary :)

Re: The finances of moving...
 

Alrighty, so info on salaries in Calgary for those NOC codes -

https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/marketrepo...on/20049/22310
https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/marketrepo...pation/2616/AB

Those salaries should give you a nice lifestyle but I've no idea how they will compare to a UK salary for the same job.

You've not mentioned it, but I assume you've got a visa route sorted?

Re: The finances of moving...
 

Thank you- I appreciate the simple answers! We will be selling, the equity will most definitely be useful either for getting a car sorted when we arrived or adding to a deposit to buy in Calgary. It all sounds promising from our planning!

Re: The finances of moving...
 

Sound good. If you're moving with Permanent Residency then that makes sense, I personally wouldn't advise selling up if you're moving on any kind of temporary visa though, so it will depend on if you qualify for PR without a job offer (i.e. score at least 460–470 on the CRS), or if you'll need a job offer to get a visa and therefore will presumably be moving on a Temp Work Permit.

One other thing to research is what you'll need to do to be able to work in Canada in your occupations, as 2112 will certainly be regulated (not sure about 2121 though). So that's another thing to do add to the list!

Best of luck.

Re: The finances of moving...
 

Hi, thanks or your reply! This has definitely confirmed for us selling is best, its what we were leaning to anyway, we just wondered if having the additional rental income would be of benefit on the application/living on the other side.
As for comparable income, our job codes are 2112A and 2121A, and we are moving from Staffordshire to Calgary.
We have a set of paintings we will want to bring, but we can leave other furniture, so it could be worth a look into individual shipping rather than a container.
As for points calculator, we got stopped at the point needing IELTS scores, and since we aren't planning to move for another couple of years we don't want to get the test done, just for it to expire. Do you have any advice for this? :)

Re: The finances of moving...
 

Yes, just guess your IELTS scores for now - assume max points as native speakers. It's only to give you an idea of your score, if you're not scoring enough then you'll need to look at other visa routes. And if you are scoring enough, then I'd recommend you apply sooner rather than later if you can, if you want to move in a couple of years. If you leave it longer then you risk scores increasing, or the immigration system changing completely.

Can't help with the comparable income I'm afraid, the general guide given on the forum is to make sure you'll be earning at least 1.8 times your UK salary in CAD, so if for example you earn £100k in the UK, you'd need at least $180k in Canada to give you a comparable lifestyle. I'd imagine your salaries should be more than enough, but I've no idea what you earn in the UK or how it will compare.

HTH.

Re: The finances of moving...
 

Hi, thanks again for your comments. I ran through the express entry calculator with 9s scores on IELTS for us both, and comes back that we are eligible (yay!). So with your advice to apply sooner rather than later, given that the process takes some time anyway, can you advise on where our money needs to be at the point of putting in an application? We will have a good chunk in equity from selling our home but does this need to be finalized to be included in the details of the application?
Sorry if I'm confusing, obviously this is all very new to us, and I don't want to start the ball rolling and be in too deep too soon. Any information is really appreciated!

Re: The finances of moving...
 

Fab, that means you're eligible to enter the Express Entry pool. But it's a two stage process, once you're in that pool you then need to be scoring enough on the CRS to be in with a chance of being selected and given an Invitation to Apply for PR. So do double check your CRS scores as the next step, you'll need to be scoring approx 460-470 as a minimum as a rough guide. Here's the test (again, just assume max IELTS scores for now etc, it's only to give you an idea of your score) - https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigr...d/crs-tool.asp

You would need to show proof of funds when you submit a full application i.e. after you've been selected from the pool and invited to apply. You have 90 days to submit a full application after receiving the invite. So timescales will depend on your score and how quickly you get an invite really.

HTH.

Re: The finances of moving...
 

So I ran through the CRS with each of us as the lead applicant, I got 445 and the hubby 482, so we would hopefully be eligible to enter the invite pool with his score. We both have basic highschool French, and would happily take on studying it more and taking the French test too for a few extra points if you think this could be helpful?

Am I right in thinking then that we can complete the initial application with just our savings and still have the house, and then when we complete the full application after an invite we need the house to be sold up?

Re: The finances of moving...
 

Fab, 482 would be enough to get you an invite so that's good news. I wouldn't bother with French personally if you only have GCSE level, 'basic' French to get you minimum points is about A Level equivalent so it would require quite a lot of extra work, and at 482 it wouldn't be needed anyway.

You don't need to sell the house at all if you don't want to, plenty of people choose to rent it out instead, it's totally your call. There's no requirement to sell it unless you'd need the funds.

Best of luck.

Re: The finances of moving...
 

Hi, now we have a better understanding of timings and the stages of the application, we are trying to book our IELTS for as soon as possible- can anyone confirm which test we would need to take? I'm thinking General Training, though as we are both in sciences would this need Academic to work 'for a professional organization'? And I think USVI is just if you wish to emmigrate to the UK?

Re: The finances of moving...
 

General. https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpce...num=998&top=29

HTH.

Re: The finances of moving...
 

Thank you- we're booked in, now fingers crossed we can actually get to the test! I'll ask COVID nicely :thumbsup:

Re: The finances of moving...
 

Fab. Good luck with it, don't forget to get your ECA applied for too, as that usually takes longer.

Re: The finances of moving...
 

Thanks! Do you (anyone!) recommend any particular organisation, there seem to be several options!

Re: The finances of moving...
 

If it's just for a standard qualification like a degree, then there's really no difference, I'd personally just go with whoever is quickest (usually WES, but check current processing times on their websites).

Good luck.

Re: The finances of moving...
 

Welcome to the forum.
There is a lot of good advice on here. Also use the search function.

Did you use an immigration specialist service?
You don't have to. The key part is giving the information they specifically ask for. Also obtaining the information may take time. So dont wait till you apply. Download the forms. Read through them and make a check list of what you need to get together. This is key. A lot of my immigration delays and in many others were due to this.

Is it worth speaking with an accountant or financial advisor about moving and living costs?
No. Depending where you are moving. You can look up costs of rent. One of the best things to do is depending where you want to move to. Ask on here. but be specific in terms of, how big is your family (age etc). People on here will be able to chime in with costs. For example I am a single male in my early 40's with my own place. My costs are very different vs a family

Did you set up a Canadian bank account before the move?
I used to work in a bank here in Canada. You can open a account, but its not essential. You can do it when you get here. Its not that much of a big deal.

Do we sell up for the equity, or let our house out for an additional source of income?
This depends on a number of factors. You may need to sell due to the type of immigration stream you are coming on. Another question to ask is what is your long term plan? Some people tend to live in Canada and retire in the UK. I have friends that still have their homes on rent.

How do wages compare for a similar job in the UK and Canada (you can only find so much generic averages online)
Its hard to compare. It really varies. I have friends in the police service that make waay more money than they would in the UK. I have a friend in pharmaceutical sales that would make more money in the UK (& he is planning to move back to the UK).
I personally make more money here. I do pay more taxes. But I find there is more opportunity here. Higher standard of living. Food is not as great and cheese is expensive.

Is it more cost effective to buy furniture here and move it with a container, or to buy new once we land?
Leave your electronics. You can move with furniture. I would not. Only move things of heirloom and value. You can buy everything here.

What hidden costs did you come across?
I would not say hidden costs. But there were small details people don't tell you. For example you will need to get a credit card asap. Build your credit. Credit is not everything. But people will tell you it is. It is one factor of four (income, savings, debit and credit score). So you need to get all factors of the four.
Don't get tied into buying a $50k vehicle when you get here (I drive a 2002 Honda CRV for example).
Depending where you are, infrastructure is built around the car. So popping down the road to grab a pint of milk is not the norm. I swap my tires twice a year (summer/snow). But you will learn from the Canadians in terms of clothing and habits.
There are other threads on this. So utilise the search function.