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Hello all,

I've been meaning to post an introduction message - I found this site and registered back in August last year when I posted a panicked question about filling in a Family-class PR form.

I have been planning to move to Canada since around April 2020 and thought I would tell our story.

My parents were on a 2-year working holiday in Ontario when I was born, back in 1980. They returned back to the UK when I was 18-months old and I’ve lived in England since then. For my entire life I never gave my Canadian birth certificate much thought, the only two times I would ever think about it was when filling in car insurance forms and as a “Did You Know?” type thing at parties. I’m married with two children, and myself and my wife are both “house cats” who like a routine. So this is pushing us way out of our comfort zone.

It wasn’t until 2018 when I read a news story about the 2017/18 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis (thanks Larissa Waters!) in 2018 that I found out that my birth certificate meant I was a Canadian citizen, and that my children (who were born the the UK) were also Canadian citizens. Aside from 18 months of my life that I don’t remember, I’ve spent my whole life in the North of England. This blew my mind!

I briefly got very excited and decided “let’s move to Canada!” - but after doing some research on the IT job market and house prices in Canada, we changed our minds.

I live in Huddersfield, a town that doesn’t have a great amount going for it except that it’s is fairly cheap to live and lies smack between Leeds and Manchester which have a ton of well paid IT jobs. I figured to get the same job market access I would have to live within commuting distance of Toronto or Vancouver, and came to the disappointing realisation that the maths just didn’t add up. Salaries were lower than even Northern England and house prices much higher.

I decided to write off the move, but to apply for Proof of Citizenship certificates for myself and my children, so I could give them the option of moving to Canada when they grew up...

Fast-forward to 2020, having commuted to an office for the best part of 20 years, suddenly it seems that we no longer have to cram onto an overcrowded motorway or train. This made me realise that I could reopen the Canadian move idea, as I could move to a cheaper part of Canada and work remotely for a USA/Canadian/(possibly) UK company.

I don’t have any strong ties to any province but ended up “deciding” then “undeciding” on Calgary, Vancouver Island, Chilliwack, BC before settling on Halifax, NS. The pull of BC was strong but the house prices (especially as we are bringing 3 cats which seems to rule out the option of Condos/Townhouses with their Strata pets rules) put me off. The 8 hour time zone difference would also make keeping in touch with friends and family in the UK a bit trickier. The Atlantic provinces being cheaper to live and being closer flight-time and Time Zone difference make it feel to us a much more achievable leap. We don’t need to be in a big city, but picked Halifax as we are at least near a big-ish city.

IRCC wise, we now have 3 Canadian passports and I sent off “Sponsor your Spouse for PR” paperwork in September 2020 (I am hoping to receive an acknowledgement in the next month or so).

We were planning to have had one or two recce visits to Canada before we move, but had kept putting them off til things calmed down around travel. But, it seems that travelling has gotten more and more difficult rather than less difficult, with the Hotel Quarantine policy now putting me off even attempting it. So our new plan is to digitally recce a few areas around the Halifax area and create a short list. Once we are out of our 2-week quarantine we can drive around and see them from the ground. It feels terrifying to be moving without a visit first, I think we are just going to have to accept that it is either this or delay moving indefinitely. Our main time constraint is that I want to get the moving schools disruption out of the way while my children are this young, as the consensus seems to be that it is better for them academically and socially the younger they are.

Our rough plan is as follows:

• Fly to Halifax, Nova Scotia in late July/August 2021.
• Ship our house contents sea freight (Pickfords)
• Put our UK house on the market
• Stay in a furnished AirBNB for 4-6 weeks.
• Pick the area we like the most on the ground from our shortlist
• Sign up for a long term rental
• Register the kids in the local schools
• Furnish our new house with the contents of a container
• Fly our 3x darling cats over (we are going to leave them with a friend, and have PetAir collect them, then fly them over).

I have enough savings and with the Canadian passport don’t have to have a job lined up ahead of time. I am an IT contractor which gives me flexibility - along with the shift to WFH is in my favour - I can do one of the following:

• Get a UK contract before I move and continue it (NS being 4 hours behind I think I could work almost UK hours 6am (NS)/10am (UK) start).
• Get a UK contract once I’m settled in NS.
• Get a US/Canadian permanent job (probably best for Canadian credit rating).
• Get a US/Canadian contract role.

We plan to move whether my wife’s PR is completed or not, and if we fly to Canada before it’s accepted (as looks likely) we will wait for it to come through from Canada.

I am undecided what I’m going to do for work but I have lots of options as above. I think it’s likely I’ll end up finding a permanent job for a US/Canadian company as it will make getting a mortgage / credit much easier.

We are treating this whole thing as an adventure, realise that the only way to know if we’ll enjoy living in Canada is to move to Canada! We have read enough accounts from others moving to new countries that we will be on an emotional rollercoaster and it will take us time to adjust and overcome the culture shock - so we have said that we will give it 2 years, good or bad before we make a final decision to stay or go.

As I said earlier, this is very out of character and is terrifying but we are thinking about it from a “You Only Live Once / Life Is Too Short” perspective and going to give it the best we can. If it ends up being a bust, at least we will never be tortured with the “what if?” question.

HGerchikov

Welcome to the forum. Good luck with the move!

christmasoompa

Hi, and welcome. I agree with your view, as you have the luxury of citizenship you may as well give it a go! Hope you all love it, but even if you don't, at least you've had an adventure.

Best of luck with the move.

dbd33

Are you familiar with the Guidewire product suite and/or Salesforce?

rivingtonpike

By virtue of where you were born, you have happily overcome the biggest hurdle most people have to face - the right to live and work in Canada wherever, whenever and at whatever. So many people come onto this forum with the notion that Canada being a commonwealth country, the visa issue just isn't a problem; you simply turn up and begin your new life!

Rotate

Thanks all for the replies, a part of this move is motivated by the "this just fell in my lap, it would be a shame to waste it".

dbd33 I'm not. My current role is DevOps Engineer / Site Reliability Engineer, so Linux, AWS, cloud, Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform, Ansible etc.

Siouxie

Do be aware of the tax implications of selling your house after you have become 'resident for tax purposes' in Canada.
https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Tax_a...e_Sales-Canada
https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Taxes...gration-Canada

If you don't sell it before hand you may also need to consider the tax implications of the need to declare 'world assets above the value of $100,000.'
https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Forei...porting-Canada

If your spouse doesn't have PR by the time you want to move over, take a look at coming in under dual intent > https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Spous...d:_Dual_Intent

As an aside, you may find there are opportunities for working in IT in the Atlantic Provinces - there is a pilot program for immigration to encourage people to move there, that includes several IT occupations on the APPP for PNP list - here's a link to the designated (approved) employers list )opens in new tab, no download) - check for any 'IT' related companies https://novascotiaimmigration.com/wp..._employers.pdf CGI are one of the leading 'headhunters' - so check them out too https://cgi.njoyn.com/CGI/xweb/XWeb....age=JobListing
(such as this one.. https://cgi.njoyn.com/CGI/xweb/XWeb....=792666&lang=1

Rhe

Hi Rotate!! It sounds like you have made a great decision - we've been discussing moving for years too and always assumed there would be many hurdles. After looking into it properly for the first time this year, I've been kicking myself we didn't do it sooner.

My husband and I have just submitted our PR application and are planning to move to Halifax as well. We met when studying in Ontario and have traveled a lot of Canada but this was the place we could see being a home. We live in London now but have lived in Leeds and Manchester too and are bored of the big city but wanted a nice city to go to and that is why we're choosing Halifax. There are many beautiful places to live - by no means extensive and this is only based on what I have read but I made this map of locations which are supposed to be good to live if it helps: https://goo.gl/maps/nz7jBSWYRHqhEsCF9

I absolutely loved the feel of Halifax - we don't have kids yet but it has a vibe of being good for any age. There are a lot of craft bars and a Friday / Saturday night is lively in a nice way but there are many outdoor spots and it seems wherever you live, you are not far from a nice place to walk. People are very friendly as well. It's also a nice province size wise too - within a short drive you can be walking around a lake or a exploring a fishing village or hiking a trail in Cape Breton.

Obviously we are in the same position as you - we have never lived there but hopefully that helps to reassure you it is a good choice :-) Feel free to send me a message with any questions - I can share anything I've learnt from being there / my research so far. If you're not pinned to Halifax for work, there are some lovely places not far from Halifax too like Lunenburg (I fell in love with this historic town - and equally the drive from Halifax to it passed through some really nice places).

Best of luck for the adventure!! Hope to see you there at some point in the future!!

dbd33

Ah, good luck then. I know a few GW developers who used to commute to, and now work remotely to, Halifax, but I don't know anything else about the market there.

adele

Just saying hi and wishing you all the best for the move! I'm from Salendine Nook, Huddersfield and am the same age as you. Did you go to school in Huddersfield? I moved to Vancouver 12 years ago, became a Canadian citizen in 2014 and have a Canadian OH and daughter. I don't know if you can get it in NS but Yorkshire Tea is available here :-)

Good luck!
Adele

dj322

Good luck with the move. You are right when you say to give it 2 years, as it did take me this amount of time to really understand Canada and sort of settle. I always did miss home, living in Victoria and being 8 times zones away from the family did make it much harder. I think the move also made me realise what I really enjoyed and liked about the UK, simple things like our mannerisms and the culture. I have been back in the UK for a few years now but plan to go back to Canada this year, I think my life will always be split between my 2 homes. I have worked in IT Support forever and found IT jobs in Victoria with the provincial government.

You are right though, never have any regrets and what is the worst that could happen? Life is for living, you live it once so live it well and learn about yourself along the way. It is trickier with kids and a family, but not impossible, nothing is. I thought I knew myself really well, but moving to Canada definitely made me realise and put into perspective who I am and what's important, as did this pandemic!!!

Rotate

Thanks Siouxie - the dual intent and house sale are things I need to nail down a bit more - thank you!

Thanks, Rhe. We can always move if we find we're not happy in Halifax.

I don't know if all this effort of moving will put me off moving again for a while - or have the opposite effect ("that wasn't so hard - let's try it again.." !!)

All the advice I've seen is now kinda upside down with WFH, I'm torn between wanting to find a role in Halifax as it will at least allow me to meet some local people, but then I'm tempted to go for something further afield to lower the chance of being back in the rat race commuting to an office five days a week again..

Thanks Adele, I think we could survive without Yorkshire Tea but it'd be a bonus if we could still have it

Makes a lot of sense.

The pandemic has definitely sparked a lot of this impetus to make such a big change to our lives.

dbd33

My approach to that, and I've been a contractor working without a break since slightly before Grace Hopper was born, is that all that matters is hours billed. If there's work and someone will pay you to do it from Halifax, take it. A contract with a client actually in Halifax is improbable and the commutes there aren't very long anyway so I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Atlantic Xpat

Not Halifax, further East in Newfoundland but this business is always hiring. A local start up it was bought out by NASDAQ this year for $2.8Bn. https://verafin.com/careers/

A note of caution about the lower cost of living in Atlantic Canada. Aside from housing (rent/mortgage) it really isn't cheaper here at all. Groceries cost more, booze costs more, insurance costs more. I'd recommend getting a rounded view of cost of living to ensure that the lower property prices & cheaper mortgage/rent isn't swallowed up by increases in cost of living elsewhere.

scilly

Yprkshire Tea is most certainly available in Halifax, has been for years. I think I bought it once here in Vancouver for my daughter in Halifax, then she found it generally available over there.

Heating costs can be higher in Halifax and area .......... and they also are at the north end of hurricanes and tropical storms coming up from the southern US. They get regular warnings every year, then it depends on whether that particular storm stays on course or veers slightly to east or west.

There have been at least 3 hurricanes actually hit and done at least some damage in the 20 years my daughter has lived there, plus one "snow hurricane" that did a lot of damage. Several more hurricanes have just dumped lots of rain with strong winds in the same area.

You learn to live with power outages caused by "severe" storms ............. those hurricanes in the summer and nor'easters in the winter.


The weather is always calm and peaceful on the east coast! Newfoundland seems to be getting the heavy snowfalls that NS used to get.