jamstan

Hi

I live in the UK, am English, & am thinking about moving to Canada. I already have citizenship. For some time I thought I was headed to the west coast, but an article on the Maritimes, & in particular New Brunswick really caught my eye, & now when I do my recce trip, hopefully later this year, I'm planning to come & see it myself.

I am attracted to NB because property is relatively cheap, has a population of 750,000 in an area half the size of England, which must be great, but also create a few challenges as well; is bilingual, & I used to speak good french, & I imagine that my children (7,2) would grow up bilingual. I work in debt management for Citibank in the UK & imagine that would try & get a job with them initially. I am not a banker to my finger tips, more of a jack of all trades. Ultimately want to work for myself, possibly buy a franchise, or fish farming.

As for living areas, not sure. As want to be near the sea, & in a larger city, Moncton looks nice. Fredricton gets some good write ups to as well. Have always wanted to be able to ski in the winter, & be near the sea in the summer, I gather that Edmunston(?) is where you ski in the winter.

Would love to hear from anyone living in NB, about the great things about NB & the not so greats. Are my assumptions wide of the mark? Here is your chance to inform, even educate me!! & if anyone reading this is living on PEI or NS, let me know what I might be missing.

Your info will be added to my growing mosiac of what life could be like in your great country. Thank you for your time

laidback4

You might struggle to get a job with Citibank in Canada. We bank with them at the moment (because we were with them in the UK), and received a letter from them a couple of weeks ago telling us that they are winding up their operations in Canada by the summer.

sinurt

Hi there,
We've been living in Fredericton NB for almost 2 years now and love it. Being bilingual is not essential for living here, I did French at school but have never had to use it here. Some areas are more bilingual than others and obviously for some jobs they may require you to be bilingual.

We are about an hr and a half from the sea but we have plenty of lakes around us for swimming in the summer and of course the Saint John river runs through Fredericton (not that you would swim in it ). There is a ski hill about 45mins drive from here and there are plenty of grooomed trails around the city for cross country skiing.

Fredericton is mainly a government and university city and is smaller than Moncton and Saint John. There is no citi bank here though and I am not sure if there is one in the maritimes?

If you have any other questions about Fredericton ask away

Sinead

airbornesapper

Moved to Canada 1987.

My wife's family live in the Fredericton area (and they are originally from NS).

We finally moved here in 98 (although we left for four years in 2002).

Have lived in BC and Ontario.....but prefer this neck of the woods, it has everything we need....having said that we could easily end up back out west.....TBD

If you want big city life don't come to the Maritimes...if that is what you are used to, then you may find things just a tad quiet.

All things considered, not a bad place.....but not for everyone.

Zhanna

Hi Sinead,
May I just jump in and ask a question as well. This is my first post on this site, I am not even allowed by the system to send a message to you directly yet - must have at least 3 posts first We are about two days away from submitting our AF for PR under Fed. Skilled Worker Scheme. After a lot of research (internet mainly as we do not know a single person in Canada), we chose New Brunswick, Fredericton in particular. My husband is an IT manager, to be precise, a head of advanced support (systems) for one of the largest ISPs in the UK. We've been dreaming about this for a while, but now, when it is all about to materialise (he's got more than enough points and it's being processed rather quickly now), I am getting more and more worried, especially when reading some of the negative posts about life in Canada. I read some of your earlier posts and noticed you went though a period of struggle as well... We are giving up a comfortable life and a good job here in search of something less material - friendly community, less crime, more values, proper childhood for our daughter. What are your thoughts now in retrospective - does Fredericton offer those things to you and your family? Are you happier there than in the UK? Lots of people complain about winters. Are they really that unbearable, and most importantly, are summers better than in UK? :-)
Thank you very much!
Zhanna

Lychee

Yes, but remember it won't be like an unpopulated England. Because there is a tiny population spread over an area half the size of England, you'll find much more limited public transportation infrastructure, variety of shops, variety of supermarkets, variety of groceries, restaurants, etc. than you'd be used to in the UK. The Maritimes very much offer a "back to the basics" lifestyle in Canada.

Tangram

Agree and disagree.

Tangram

Is IT Manager on the list ? I'm a bit out of touch with SW Visa these days.

Zhanna

Yes, as of a year ago or something close to that they've got a new list of 38 professions. And the processing time is now 9-12 months.

Tangram

Ah ok... the days of 3 years plus are behind us.

Personally I would go where the work is, wherever that may be.... within reason.

BristolUK

Really? That's news to me.

Tangram

I was shocked too... didn't know we were Tom and Barbara Good.

Zhanna

Yes, it is much more efficient now. Unfortunately, people who applied prior to the new system are still waiting - some of the new applicants who started a process merely a year ago are already in Canada, while I know a couple who applied in 2007 and still no reply.

Lychee

I suppose the phrase "back to the basics" wasn't entirely accurate to what I was intending, but it was somehow the first thing that popped into my mind. I apologize for that and I take that back.

BristolUK

There are certainly some "behind the times" attitudes and practices in NB.