raindropsandroses

We live in NS and we absolutely love it here.

A few things I would suggest from being a serial expat (many different countries before Canada) and a stay at home mum of a preschooler.

I would wait until you have PR to start a family for several reasons. I had no family history of problems in pregnancy at all and ai was very fit and healthy, but I had nightmarish complications which no insurance would have covered, and being packed off back to the UK whilst having complications in pregnancy would be horrendous.

Likewise, it depends how independent you both are, but it sounds like you have close family support from your fiancée's parents, having kids shakes up your life hugely, and emigration is tough - doing one shortly after the other while you're still trying to establish a life here, and while you don't have the security of PR...you may be borrowing trouble. Added to that not having a support network close to hand its going to throw you, and more especially your fiancee in at the deep end.

What if she ends up with PPD? It would be isolating enough being a new stay at home mum in a new country, but not having a circle of friends and their support makes it a lot tougher. For example, a while ago I had to be rushed to hospital for an emergency, my husband was in an all staff meeting and I couldn't get hold of him. Had I not had good friends who dropped everything to help and looked after our child we would have been in a real pickle. In emergences you need people within five minutes of you who can help.

With PR too you'd be entitled to the full suite of Government benefits (obviously depending on what you're eligible for) including Child Benefit, which is another safety net.

Re shipping your stuff, I wouldn't personally. You aren't coming over with much money, not if you are intending to make a permanent life in Canada, and taking any money out of that 25k I think would be starting to cut it too fine, especially if you want to start a family - take that 4k that you would have spent on shipping and put it aside, then you have an extra safety net for when you have kids, or for a rainy day.

If you get PR first you would have time to establish a life here, friends, support etc, which would make things much easier on you when you do decide to start a family - plus only two sets of PR fees and all associated costs rather than three. Emigration is hard and it is stressful, and it throws up a whole lot more issues than you would ever expect - you certainly get to see how strong your marriage is lol. Every time we've emigrated I forget just what a toll it takes on you, and even moving to NS from another province threw up its problems. Adding the stress of a new baby into the mix? No thanks!!!

raindropsandroses

Sorry that sounded very doom and gloom!

hh619

Thanks Raindropsandroses.. we are now cancelling everything because you've scared us half to death!!
We are both very independent, but I’m not sure anything prepares you when moving to a new country. I do agree about the PR side of things, although, the PNP job offer stream appears to be straight forward and relatively fast (if anyone’s used this stream, please let me know) and hopefully won’t take too long. I guess that is only for Ontario though, I need to investigate the other PNP’s.

As per the below and Aviators advice, I think as long as I get a contract in writing, we both get OHIP + additional employer coverage? Correct me if I’m wrong of course.

Good advice. I'm thinking that we try to get a funished place initially until we get our finances sorted. We could store our belongs for the time being, until we have the extra funds to bring them over.

raindropsandroses

Sorry! I'm not sure about Ontario personally, but I do have friends who've gone through Ontario's PNP scheme from within Canada and it took them 18 months or so, that was a year ago so perhaps they're more efficient now.

Re provincial health care, again we moved to Canada after we had PR but if you're on a TWP insurance, provincial, employer and otherwise only covers you for reasonable, routine expenses - an awful lot of pregnancy stuff isn't covered as pregnancy isn't seen as an essential. If you wait until you've got PR all is covered, and with employer insurance you'd be in a good spot. For example if, God forbid, your fiancee ran into problems during pregnancy and X treatment was the standard but probably wouldn't work, but Y treatment would definitely work but it much more expensive, without PR you'd be stuck with X. As my consultants were fond of saying, in pregnancy more often than not everything goes smoothly, but wouldn't you want the reassurance of knowing that if things did start going wrong both your fiancee and child would have the best available care, rather than just the cheapest basic option?

It may be that you can find some insurance which would cover it, in which case great, but then there's still the support network issues.

Yes, insurance would cover emergency treatment but that wasn't what I meant, if your fiancee has to have emergency treatment and can't get hold of you, or you need an hour or so to get home/to the hospital, who's going to look after your child in the mean time?

Getting settled in a country is so much easier when its just two adults, plus it gives you the opportunity to really explore life there without the considerable added responsibility of your kids interests to think about, all the making sure you have provisions for any emergency, you can wing it a bit more when you don't have kids.

Sorry, I really don't mean to sound depressing, if you take starting a family out of the mix it sounds like you're starting off on a good footing

Another thing I would say, as I feel obliged to promote NS, is that whilst there may not be as many jobs in your field, you may be able to negotiate a much better deal in employment terms. My husband certainly did, not many people wanted to work in his field in Nova Scotia, everyone wanted to work in Ontario/BC/Alberta so he negotiated a very good deal and gets treated very very well by his employer, who don't want to lose him.

raindropsandroses

Another thing, you could get an unfurnished place and look for the local thrift stores (Value Village a big chain one) and if you've got a local Habitat for Humanity Restore shop (google "habitat for humanity restore Facebook" and your city) they sell very cheap furniture and appliances.
We got a lovely sofa, loveseat and armchair set for $150 total and they look brand new. Most of the Restore shops will deliver for a small fee too.

hh619

It looks to be 30-60 days, but i'm not sure if thats just for PNP and then additional time for PR? I really need to find out more about it..

Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program: Processing Times

Perhaps starting a family can be put on the back burner for now then! We were just trying to do our part for the Canadian population

hh619

Great idea, thanks! The missus loves a bargain

hh619

It appears that the PNP stream for Job offers is paper based. Does anyone know if the paper based PR application requires ECA for high school edutcation and language test to be taken?

OIPNP charge $2000 for PNP if in GTA and $1500 if outside of the GTA then plus PR application fees.. it certainly mounts up quickly!

Siouxie

You might want to take a look at this post, if the Atlantic Provinces were your first choice..

http://britishexpats.com/forum/canad...ancies-899238/

For PNP streams, read this: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration...-nominees.html and https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration...igibility.html for links to the PNP programs.

Edited to add - here's the link for the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Project https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration...ion-pilot.html

raindropsandroses

Lol in that case I am a bad Canadian, we only have one child and he wasn't born here . I dont want to be a downer about starting a family - that's a choice which is very personal to you, but from emigration experience, not something I'd choose if I had the option to get settled first.

Yes the 30-60 days is for the PNP processing, then the points get added to your EE profile, then you go through the standard ITA draw and PR stuff with CIC. It seems v expensive to be frank, and paper based is a lot slower than Express Entry. Yes you do still needle IELTS and ECA for paper based.

Siouxie makes a great point, the Atlantic Immi stuff seems to be working well, I know a local couple who've gone through it and they were very happy with it, and where we are in NS (about 1hr-1.5hrs from Halifax) there's a lot of very positive talk about it locally.

dbd33

Tuppence was a poster who found a good job in NS then wanted to leave it but could not without leaving the Province. Perhaps a read of her posts would be of interest.

hh619

Thanks Siouxie & raindropsandroses - I'll take another look at the Atlantic Immigration Pilot.

In Regards to all NSPNP streams it says "All of our streams require at least Canadian High School (or equivalent). " How many GCSE's need to be taken to achieve this with an ECA? or is it 6th form?

hh619

Thanks, i'll take a look

scilly

You might also think hard about expecting in-laws to come for extended visits and provide child care ..............

it is not acceptable for parents to come and provide free child care, thus taking a job away from a Canadian. You might find that they are refused extended visas in that case.

Aviator

More than unacceptable, it would be illegal.