Hi, we are moving to canada in January on a 6 -12 month extended stay whilst we make our minds up whether to stay in B C or to get a life back in the UK. We will use this time to assess everything from the job market to education and the economic climate.

We have vitually sold everything here in the UK to go on our adventure. The house, cars etc have been sold. Big decision but worth it...i think!

My partner has limited me to my suitcase and one box for clothes and personal belongings.

If any of you ladies or men for that matter are like me they need at least one plane to carry the shoes.

This may sound pathetic and selfish but i dont want to get rid of my clothes or shoes and want to take them.

I anticipate that to fit everything in (realistically) i will need two large (ish) suitcases and a box for all personal belongings such as photos etc.

Anyone any ideas on the limit you can take and what the costs are for excess baggage like shoes!!!


Any advice from the ladies will be great as i anticipate the men will just laugh at my request!

It probably depends on your airline carrier - if they have a website you can usually check the baggage allowance on there or if not, look in the small print in the pouch that comes with the ticket for more details. Also - if you do find you're over they don't always charge excess fee - I had 10 bags for me and my son coming to the States and got away with it, even though technically I was over the limit! I think they're more upset if you overstuff one huge bag so that it doesn't fit in the carousel rather than take one extra smaller bag (or 2 )

Check your allowance, one company gives 60kg each! That is a lot of shoes and clothes.

the other thing is, why don't you ship a teachest over? That's what some friends of mine did. Don't forget to include those items on your goods to follow list!!

Clare

so you are going as temporary visitors then, did you get a visa as you are from uk, we were told we did not need one from the immigration, good to hear your thoughts on this as that is what we are doing whilst our Pr is being processed.

Hi
Well my partner has some business to attend to in Vancouver and the US, so we have taken the decision to go as business vistors/tourists for 6months - 12 months. Hopefully he will be able to get on with the business and then we can assess whether it is the right decision for us.

I am not exactly sure what the requirements are visa wise. I think that as long as you can prove to the Immigration at the Airport that you are there as a temporaray visitor only and are able to prove that you can sustain yourself whilst there. In addition to this i think they like to see a return airline ticket!

When I moved to Spain I cut down on excess luggage charges by sending a lot of things Fed Ex. It worked out a hell of a lot cheaper.

Also excess baggage http://www.excessbaggage.com/ do smaller shiploads as well as larger. Mind you, the partner may not want to talk to you if you sneakingly arrange 2 extra crates on top of your oversized checked in/carry on luggage, but we won't tell if you don't

Erm...I hate to ask this one but I assume that you'll have a return ticket? If you turn up at Customs, won;'t they query why you have effectively your household goods with you? Don;t get me wrong, I'm hugely impressed that you're taking this leap of faith but what will happen when they ask for your home address??? Just curious really.
For the record, I carried a holdall containing underwear, socks, couple of sweaters, a coat, immigration stuff and a camera. This female travels light

We have another address in the UK and yes we have thought about the return ticket. We would not attempt to stay in the country without the correct documentation.


No household goods will be accompanying us, just shoes and more shoes!

When I moved to Canada I found excess baggage way cheaper than Fedex and of course you have it with you instead of needing a delivery destination. I travelled with KLM and their basic allowance for a transatlantic flight was 2 pieces of luggage up to 32Kg each so I had a base of two laaarge bags toattling 64Kg before I started. Like someone else said what you want is to keep each bag under the allowance and add extra bags. KLM charged (when I went earlier this year) £70 per extra bag and each bag had the same allowance of 32Kg. So for £70 I got to take a 32Kg suitcase with me which I could collect at the airport and clear customs peronally etc, compared to Fedex who wanted £90 to ship a 25Kg "crate" which was in effect a smallish cardboard box with Fedex written on the side that almost fell apart when I tried to pack it, no way was I entrusting anything valuable to them in a cardboard box. So I saved £20 and got more weight in a better scenario.

On the entering the country part you might run into issues if you have a one way ticket and intend to stay for 6-12 months with no definate leave date. The first time I went to Canada was for a 3 month vacation to visit my (now) wife and I had a return ticket and tehy still pulled me over and wanted to know why i was staying so long and where was i staying and proof I had enough money to support myself without working illegally etc. They let me in once I could prove that and I never had any trouble entering after that.

So I would say as long as you can prove you reasons are genuine, that you have enough money to sustain yourself for the duration without working illegally and that you can show some ties to the UK to prove your intention to return (ie you are a genuine visitor) then you should be ok.

You might run into issues if you start talking about doing business in BC as they might want to know what kind and you need to be careful you aren't doing anything that could be considered illegal work. Also if you have business in the US you might run into issues if you try and leave and re enter a lot accross the border but my guess would be you'll have more issues trying to enter the USA than Canadaif you mention business. Some of my collegues went to one of our regional offices in Chicago from here in Toronto recently and they were Canadian Citizens and as soon as they mentioned it was work related they got pulled in by the INS and grilled.

Drew

We've moved around the world a few times from Australia, New Zealand, UK and Canada. I've found a few little "tricks" that might be of use to you.

===Airline employees stop reading here===



Lots of airline companies allow either a bike box or snowboard/ski bag free along with your luggage (especially to Canada cause of the mountains). But they very rarely ever check the contents or (more importantly) the weight of these items. It's a real hassle to try and weigh a big bike box on those little scales designed for luggage . We've filled many bike boxes and snowboard bags with more than just bikes or snowboards on at least 10 long haul trips. So far, only once have they weighed a bike box. Normally you have around 40+ pounds max weight per piece so most bikes weigh from 22-30 pounds leaving 18-10 pounds of "free" luggage allowance. Some carriers charge for bikes and even then it still works out pretty good cause it's usually around £50. We've even stuffed about 35 pounds of stuff into a snowboard bag. True there were 2 snowboards and boots in the bag but they only weigh about 15 pounds total.

We used to carry loads extra in our carry on, but lately the airlines seem to be weighing them so watch out for that.

Thanks for all your replies ...very useful stuff!

Out reasons are really to:
a) See if the country is what we thought it was whilst on holiday for a month
b) To visit our family who are based in Van and Victoria
c) To carry out detailed research into the Canadian / US markets for our business and whether it is worth us investing in opening a canadian/US branch.
d) to see if it somewhere we would like to settle and set up home and a Canadian/US branch.

Obviously the ties we have the uK are too strong just to up and leave and i think the research element is vital before we make the decision to apply for PR or Business Class immigration.

We have around $200,000 to keep us afloat whilst there, and this takes into consideration any rent, living expenses we may incur. We are also to be supported by the UK company.

Please put my mind at ease and tell me that once we make that 8 hour journey that we may face questioning, but it will be ok!

Weeellll - it's not a sure thing 'cos it depends on the attitude of the immigration officer you end up with. They are trained to suss out who are genuinely visiting and who are planning to stay illegally so if you play on the visiting family angle you should be fine, but the second part is getting approved for the time you wanted - they make the final decision on length of time you can stay - maybe 12 months or maybe 3. So, in my humble opinion I would say you'll get in OK just not sure how long for!

Once coming through to the States we got interviewed twice - once by the officer who stamped our passports who asked loads of questions and then as we waited for luggage out another officer came and asked more questions, so they were trying to catch us out - scarey!

it took 2 minutes to get through customs and immigration didn=t want to know, we were lucky, so it depends on the people that daz, they just stamped the passports and told us to make sure we keep warm.

Way to go CJ! We'll meet you down the pub when we get there!