Emma.Giles

I am an Army officer keen to relocate to Canada with my Wife and 2 young sons. I would be grateful for any advice ranging from jobs, mortgage, finance, schools moving and visas.

Thanks

Giles and Emma

singingringingtree

Welcome to the forum. You will find loads of good advice and information on here. If you start by reading the Wiki on Canada (top blue bar, fourth button in) that will give you a good overview of the things you mention. You can also use the search button (bar below) to find past posts on different subjects. Quite a few army people on here. Good luck with your process.

LinsyPinsy

Just wanted to add to the welcome. This site is fabulous for getting advice and support from those with the same concerns/questions as you.
It will take a while to get your head round the process so take your time reading the wiki as singingringingtree says.

Good luck and welcome

lindsey

TheThornes

Hi there. Was there a particular part of Canada you were hoping to move to? I know of someone and have met a few ex-Army guys who were stationed at Medicine Hat and, once they left the Army, decided to stay on over here or come back this way to live. We are in Cochrane near Calgary.

How old are your children? We have two kids, just about to turn 9 and 5 respectively. My eldest goes to the local elementary school and my youngest is just about to start Kindergarten there. Schooling over here seems very much to be that you just go to the local school unless you require say a Catholic school or French Immersion etc. We've certainly been more than happy with schooling system as we've experienced it so far.

Sorry, but I can't offer much advice re jobs etc. My husband had a job to come to over here so we came via the Provincial Nominee Route. We were able to get a mortgage no problem - used a broker who had been recommended to us. Although my husband had his job lined up, at the time we were granted our mortgage, he hadn't even started the job!

Anyway, I wish you all the best.

Aviator

Welcome to BE. This would be a good place to start reading http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Category:Canada

When asking a question, it is a good idea to be as specific as possible. This will help get you some constructive answers.

Emma.Giles

Thanks for your response really useful, my kids are 6 and 2. At the moment we are thinking of Calgary but I suppose it will be job dependant. What size deposit must you put on a mortgage?

Giles and Emma

TheThornes

Our kids were 3 and 7 when we moved over. The younger they are the easier they settle I think. Like I said, we live pretty close to Calgary and we really like it here but yes, like you say, it will be job dependant. Sorry, but not really sure about what size deposit you have to put down for a mortgage. I guess a lot depends on the size of property you are buying. We were fortunate in that we had sold our house in the UK before we came over and had a reasonable amount of equity from it which was used as a deposit on our new house over here.

JonboyE

A minimum of 5% down. If you want a mortgage before you get work you will need to put 35% down. There is an article in the wiki ...

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Mortgages-Canada

Aviator

Depends on how much you want to borrow, your income and if you want to pay CMHC mortgage insurance (required for low deposit).

http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/co/moloin/index.cfm
http://mortgagesincanada.com/
http://www.ingdirect.ca/en/mortgages/index.html

Google 'Mortgages in Canada' and there is enough there to keep you reading for a week.