Hello

I've just started a savings account to save up for my immigration to Canada.

I haven't a clue how much I should be aiming to save though. What did it cost other people?

Really, without knowing more about you and yours how can anyone answer this question? Some come here with piles of equity from a house others with the minimum required to meet the funds criteria for immigration. The answer to your question is 'more than you think' generally.

As much as possible....obviously.

Depends on many things really. We're not paying for ours (company relocation so they're covering it all) but I would estimate around £15k or so.

That's for shipping contents of our 4 bed house, flights for 4 of us, transporting a dog and two cats, rental and accommodation for first couple of months, reccie house hunting trip and estate agency fees here in the UK. Plus probably other things I've forgotten!

Hope that helps.

Thanks for your reply. Not very helpful though and slightly sarcastic too.

Equity from a house doesn't really come into it. It still costs a certain amount of money to emmigrate - whether you have equity or not.

Thank you Christmasoompa, this is really useful and exactly the sort of answer I was looking for. A rough figure is all I was after, just so I know roughly what to aim for

But your equity can contribute to the costs if you've no other savings, so it could be quite relevant.

Actually, in about four years time you will look at that and thing how true it was.

The future could bring virtually anything, save as much as you can, hopefully you wont need it.


British Expats works on the "Garbage In, Garbage Out" principle. You tell us nothing about your circumstances or plans, how many of you there are, where you are going, what you plan to do.

You are lucky anyone replied at all, and any figure quoted with the best intentions could well be wholly meaningless for your own circumstances, and that has potential to be far more missleading than "save everything you can" in my opinion.

Welcome to BE Forum!

Seriously though, it is a very difficult question to answer as everyone has different circumstances.

I for one am going to study in Canada so I need to prove I have enough to cover my course costs. All in all I am aiming for approx $60,000 if not more. It might become less if my damned house doesn't sell for the right amount though!

True enough but it also costs a different amount of money if there is just you, the young free and single couch surfer or if actually you are a family of five. Since you chose not to clarify your expectations of a response by providing this info, you shouldn't really expect all of the answers to be sensible should you?

The whole process cost me around 2000GBP (including my flight) then i took a further 2000GBP with me for the first couple of months.

I was on a spousal visa and it was just me flying out we had an income from my wife and a place to stay. If that is not your case you need to think about

1. Medical Costs
2. Six months of living expenses
3. Visa costs
4. Flights
5. Shipping

Plus any other things that you can think of...It's certainly not cheap.

Sorry to all those I've annoyed by not giving my circumstances - certainly not intentional. I didn't choose not to clarify; I just didn't think to in my post!

I still think "how long is a piece of string" and "as much as possible obviously" are sarcastic. It's not "obvious" to me, otherwise I wouldn't be asking. I'm not an expert, have no idea how much it costs to emmigrate and come here for advice. Why not just politely ask for more information from me? But anyway, here's more information:

There are two of us, husband and wife, moving from the UK to BC (don't know whereabouts yet, we will be making some recce trips). Probably will make the move in around two years time; hopefully with a job offer for my husband, so on a TWP. Will be shipping the contents of a three-bedroom house. No pets, no children.

Thank you for any advice.

Yes, I appreciate that ... just how much to put aside from any equity is the question. I had no idea whether that would be £2,000 or £20,000 - thanks to christmas and liverman I now have a bit more of a clue

But they didn't say "save everything you can". I wouldn't think that is sarcastic, I'd think that was good advice. They actually said "As much as possible....obviously", which IS sarcastic.