AngelicaDemon

Hi all!

My husband and I are keen to look into moving to Canada for a couple of years and we are keen to understand what advice you all have. I potentially could relocate with my company to Toronto, ON but my husband works for the NHS. Would he be able to come over with me and apply for a job in the country? He is an experienced project manager but with no degree - I understand from reading on here that this may pose an issue? Surely non-qualified people are allowed to Canada to work on spousal sponsorship or similar? To complicate things slightly, I have underactive thyroid which means I have to take medication every day - and my husband has a serious heart condition which also requires medication every day and means he is at high risk of a hearts attack. How would this be viewed? If he were to have a heart attack, and be admitted to hospital for treatment would we need to pay? Can you even get medical insurance to cover long term conditions?

Finally, (I know!) we have a two year old daughter. Is it usual for children to be in preschool three days a week or so at this age? What kind of cost? What age would she start school, I read somewhere it would be 6?!

Contrary to what it seems here, I have done a ton of research but I'm finding it tough to get answers to the very specific set of circumstances we have

Thank you in advance

bert07

Can only help with childcare question-

Age starting school varies by province, Ontario has junior-k so they start when they are 4 (not sure of the exact cut off month as it's different to the U.K.) whereas Alberta starts at senior k when they are 5. (Alberta is grouped the years as Jan-Dec they turn 5, starting in sept). The senior k in Alberta mostly only do half days and you pay more for full days if the school offer it (some areas offer full days as a standard process).

Preschool, age 3-4 they generally do 2-3 mornings a week, age 4-5 3 mornings a week (9.30-11.30) - this is the private ones and the school ones are 9-12 similar days and it's about $160 a month (this was the closest I found to uk equivalent preschools)

Actual daycare, in my experience is about $80 a day for uk equivalent to full day nursery. Slightly cheaper in a dayhome.

christmasoompa

Hi, welcome to BE.

Yes, he could go with your and work. Only spouses of those in skilled jobs are entitled to Spousal Open Work Permits, but if you're looking at an intra-company transfer TWP then you must be a senior exec, senior manager or have very specialist knowledge, so you will be classed as a skilled worker and your husband will be able to work too.

As for your healthcare questions, have a look around the forum, but essentially you'd fail an immigration medical if you were going to cost the Canadian healthcare system more than approx $6000 a year - but a medical isn't needed for a TWP anyway, so if you're only going for a couple of years then that won't be an issue. Check in to the cost of your medical in Canada, as unlike on the NHS (where you pay a subsidised fee for any prescriptions), it would usually be at full cost so can be incredibly pricey.

HTH, good luck.

J-A-UK

Holiday Insurance would be essential until and provincial health or private/company benefits could take effect

christmasoompa

Travel insurance wouldn't be valid though, is that what you mean by holiday insurance? They'd need specialist insurance - links of suitable companies in the Wiki.

HTH.

Engineer_abroad

If you are going on a TWP you can often negotiate this into any relocation package. If not they can often get you better rates through their insurance company.

Your employer may also have a health benefits system to help cover prescription costs etc. (mine covers 90% of the costs for generic drug brands and 70% for names brands if a generic alternative is available).