Just saying hello,this is my first post and had picked so many info on our plan
to immigrate to Edmonton.
We are a young family of 5 and both nurses here in UK and was offered a post
in Edmonton(Royal Alex) my daughters are aged ,6,8 and 11 y.o
We are hoping to fly to Edmonton early next year if CARNA speeds up their
assesment.
I have some ideas and continously researching all facts that are important regarding our move and I am just being overwhelmed at the moment,it is so daunting.The likes of mortagage,finances,pensions,child benefits are my main worries not forgetting schools,transport,etc,etc etc the list can go on.
But I know most of you have been in this situation and got through them.
Just like to ask anyone if they can point me on the right direction on how to systematically deal with this task so that it will be less traumatic for us ,as a family.All advice and help very welcome.

Cheers...

Hi ally2ana,

A very warm welcome to BE and congratulations on getting your job offer/s in Edmonton.

There's a couple of To Do Lists on the WIKI that will help to structure your thinking a little bit as it certainly can be a bit overwhelming. Here's the links.
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Departure_To_Do_List
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Arrival_To_Do_List
These wont cover everything but they will help get you underway.

Hope the move across goes great.

Kind regards,

Eamonn & Janet.

Hi

Welcome to BE

My hubbie, me and the dog are all off to Edmonton as well. Great people and information on here you should find all your answers to your questions.

Cassie

[QUOTE=ally2yana;6799335]Just saying hello,this is my first post and had picked so many info on our plan
to immigrate to Edmonton.
We are a young family of 5 and both nurses here in UK and was offered a post
in Edmonton(Royal Alex) my daughters are aged ,6,8 and 11 y.o
We are hoping to fly to Edmonton early next year if CARNA speeds up their
assesment.

Hi, we're also looking to emigrate, but hopfully to the Toronto area. My wife's a nurse & health visitor. Would you be able to give me an insight into how you 1st applied to become a nurse, what the process was and how you are finding it all? I am aware that most nurses use the allnurses.com site to post threads for info but to be honest i spend most of my time using this site. My daughter is 12 and we are hoping to be able to move by the time she's 14. How's your 11 year old with idea of moving?? Feel free to PM me in reply to this thread.

Thanks Mark

Quote "....Would you be able to give me an insight into how you 1st applied to become a nurse, what........."


I meant to say nurse in canada!!!!

Welcome from another relative newbie to the site (although I have been in Canada for over 2 yrs).

I have been to Edmonton once (for a course I needed to do) and I found it a lovely friendly city.

I have daughters as well - 4 of them aged 10, 8, 6 and 4 (they were 7, 5, 3 and just under 18 months when we emigrated - flying with 4 kids one of them a toddler was pure hell I can tell yo! ) I am sure yours will settle in well, I know mine did. If anything they adapted better than my hubby and I did!

Other advice - I would say to take it one step at a time. Deal with each problem as it occurs and try not to stress about future ones.

I would worry about actually getting over here first (maybe sort out housing although we didn't. We booked a motel for a week and planned to extend as necessary, had planned roughly where in the city we wanted to find a house and found one once we were over here - maybe not the best laid plans but far easier than trying to negotiate a rental agreement on a property you have never seen from a different country)

I wouldn't worry about mortages initially - try to rent for a while. It will let you get a feel of the place to ensure you really, really want to live there. You can suss out the city, find the best places to bring a family up etc. That all takes time. and it is easier to walk away from a rental agreement than a mortgage! But when you do come to want to buy a house, don't worry at all - get a good realtor - not only will he/she find you the house you desire, they will help you with all the paperwork and legalities too.

Pensions - your employer "should" help you with that, but you can get a financial adviser too to make sure you get the best deals. Finances... not sure what you mean.. if you mean a bank account... well what we did was to go round various banks once we arrived (I am aware that if you have had an HBSC bank account for a while it can make it easier, but we didn't have the foresight and stayed with our Lloyds TSB account) we found the most friendly, helpful and most immigrant friendly ones, and ended up with RBC - maybe not the best, but it does us nicely for now.

Child benefits etc - all I can remember from that time is that my husband presented me with a load of forms to sign.... I imagine he got them from one of the canadian government webpages someone else will have to advise you.

Also schools - we contacted the school in the area we had rented a house in and asked them.. they gave us a load of forms and advised us that they would have to check the kids didn't need ESL tutoring or something similar (again hubby dealt with this one) - he had to go and show that he was a native English speaker as were the kids at some office down town and that was job done. They needed photocopies of the kids passports and birth certs on registering for the schools if I remember.

It does seem incredibly daunting, but if you take it stage by stage it does work out easily.

And congrats on getting this far

Hello There
I am a nurse in Calgary.We have been here since March 2007 and can certainly relate to how you are feeling.I found doing a few research trips very helpful prior to our big move,but can appreciate that not all people emigrating here can do this.We tackled our move by making lots of lists and asking ourselves questions about the type of lifestyle we hoped to achieve.
For us,a good starting point was work commute time for both of us.Then look at areas to live within the acceptable commute time,will this work around the children,what to do if one of us was sick etc.LotteW summed things up really well.
You will be surprised at how friendly and helpful people are.CARNA have recently been heavily critised by the provinical government for taking so long to process overseas nurses,so hopefully they will take notice and get a move on.If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to ask.
Best of Luck Sarah & Andy

Hi Everyone,


Thanks for all your welcomes and support.

Eamonn and Janet thanks for that info and link ,just to mention what a coincidence when I was researching on the forum your Blog was the fisrt one I have viewed.

Lotte that is a ton of good info there.When I mention mortagages I was also referiing to our mortgage here in UK,I am sure many is aware that there is a crisis ,market housing is stagnant and most people I know in our area has no buyers.On the other side of planet
we are lucky enough to have a good agency and will be providing us with 60 days family accomodation until I arrange our own.Also if I cannot sell my house here in UK there is no way I can afford to have a mortgage in Edmonton.

sarah & andy nice to know I have a colleauge ( if you dont mind me referring to you like that) that is in Calgary.I have not done a research trip as I am unable to do due to finances and work commitments.But we have been once
to Toronto visiting my brother in law I also have a sisiter in Vancouver but have not visited her yet.I am trying to do my best researching areas where to
find accomodation in Edmonton while here in UK but its hard.Hopefully CARNA
can finished our assesment this October or November.

smid.n.nails I will sending you a PM as requested,your my neighbour,wait are you in Newcastle Upon Tyne not Under Lyme?

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the welcomes and support.

That is great link you have provided eamonn & janet.
Lottew that is a ton of info there thanks.when I mentioned mortageg I am also referring this the stagnant housing market here in UK.We are lucky enough to have family accomodation to be provided by Capital Health when we arrived there.

sarah & andy nice to know you there in BE nurses in Calgary,I think my best thing to do is arrive in Edmonton before I can really identify where I would like to settle,it hard to do research of good and bad areas for family living while here in UK and just using internet.Hopefully CARNA will release our assesments
this October or November.I cannot afford a research trip due to finances and work commitments but I have been once to Toronto visiting my brother in law.

smid.n.snails I have first identified there is Economic boom in Alberta back on
October 2007 and so many sectors is in boom as well including Healthcare,have done research and submitted online resumes and was offered
and interview this April and was offered a job in Edmonton and since then we are submitting and chasing paperwork.If you have anymore querries dont hesitate to contact me.

Thanks You all and more power to BE.

Sorry double reply I have waited half an hour before I realize that my first replied was indeed posted,well there is extra info smin.n.nails on the seconr reply.

No problem ally2yana. Oh, and hope the blog didn't make you choose Edmonton over Calgary!

Kind regards,

Eamonn & Janet.