Hello,

I'm a Canadian who moved to London, UK from Calgary about 5 years ago, and due to some unfortunate twist of fate (basically, my employer is incompetent in dealing with sponsorship licenses), I am being forced to leave the UK. It has dawned on me just recently that I wouldn't be able to find another job that will sponsor me in time, so I have about 3 weeks before I leave to sort some stuff out.

(1) What to do with my savings? When I came over here, the exchange rate was favourable (GBP 1 = CAD 2.20). Nowadays, it's CAD1.60. I am thinking of leaving my UK savings at my UK account and transfer it when Brexit proves to be a success after a few years from now? I am hoping the pound gets stronger in a few years, but that is just wishful thinking.

(2) I don't have a lot of stuff, but I won't be able to carry all with me in my baggage allowance. What is the cheapest (but reliable) shipping provider to Calgary?

(3) Living in London made me realise how much I like living in a walkable neighbourhood where you have a local high street that contains (mostly) everything you need. I don't really like driving and definitely do not like living in the suburbs. I don't think I can settle back in Calgary after experiencing life in London (well, not yet anyway). I am still debating between Vancouver or Toronto, but I guess this will depend on where I can get a decent job.

Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal are the three walkable cities of large-ish size. After London, move to Toronto or Montreal if you're seeking an urban living lifestyle. Vancouver is the choice if you wish to spend your free time in nature.

Once you become tax resident here, any gain (such as investments and the FX) is subject to CGT. If it is over $100k, must be reported on a T1135 too.

Sorry to hear about your situation. We had a similar one last summer, in that my Canadian girlfriend discovered fairly late on that she wouldn't be able to renew her work visa nor get indefinite leave to remain in the UK, and her company was unsure about the sponsorship, so she had to leave sharpish. Fortunately she was able to sponsor me to move to Canada.

We chose Toronto as it's the closest thing to London in terms of urban experience (my girlfriend is from Edmonton, and didn't fancy a move back there). So far it's working out well for us.

In terms of shipping: we had a bad experience with Anglo-Pacific, who delivered much later than promised and then managed to forget to ship two of our boxes entirely (they eventually arrived, five months after we moved).

Can't help on the FX rate unfortunately but if / when the pound does ever recover I can recommend Transferwise as a low cost way of transferring money from the UK to Canada.

Someone from another thread recommended I transfer my money to a Canadian GBP account when I move. So far, HSBC seems to be the only one that has it but I can't open one when I'm not physically there in Canada. Any other options?

Transferwise have recently launched a 'borderless account'. See here:

https://transferwise.com/borderless?source=publicNavbar

I don't know any more about it than is on this link. I have and will continue to use Transferwise for all my GBP to CAD transfers, they are excellent, no hassle, quick and excellent rates.

More options if left in the UK. If it is in a HSBC account in Canada, chances are you are stuck using HSBC for the FX. Keep it in the UK and use whoever you like. So long as they are reputable, all FX brokers pretty much have the same rate, some negotiate more than others though.

Not that it matters too much but it's much further back than 5 years when £1 got $2.20.

According to xe.com, 5 years ago it was $1.55.

For a while it was hitting $2.62.

Now I buy the other way, so $1.60 gives quite a discount.

Don't move here, it's a pigsty.

There's a good chance it's going to get worse, not better. There are no guarantees, obviously, but if I were in your shoes I'd take the 1.60.

You can do a LOT better than 1.60 with transferwise. They use mid rate money market rates less .5%. Much better than traditional FOREX companies. I have already transferred very significant amounts of GBP through them. Your call of course.

Gotta love your comments Oink!!

I was going to say.

The pound really tanked in 2009 and had a brief rally in the months prior to Brexit. Brexit then tanked it again.

I always thought we'd see it return to 2 to 1 for the longer term but I don't think so now. The price of Oil is more likely to increase than Brexit being any success.

Canada has a petrocurrency.

Britain faces an exodus of foreign investment because it is a small market- it will become to Europe what Canada is to the US- insignificant. At least Canada has some natural resources to drain.

If the OP sees their future in Canada I'd get on and move the money.

I have been tracking GBP vs CAD since 2000 - plotting every month end exchange rate. The highest I can see it went was $2.52 in Jan 2003. It then held at above or close to $2 until Sept 2008, then dropped sharply.

There was a brief 'flirtation' around $2 again from Jul 2015 to Feb 2016, then politics took over - The Conservatives called a BREXIT referendum to try to sort their own internal party divisions once and for all and lost - GBP tanked.

Rate started to improve again back to $1.77 in May 2017, then the Conservative again put party interests above all else and gambled on a snap general election.

I say all of this as a lifelong Conservative, but I am heartily sick of them playing party politics I can tell you!

Be happy that it is above $1.60, be ecstatic if it goes to $1.70 and grab it while you can. At the end of the day, no one knows for sure, but I can see Brexit dragging on for years yet - although likely that UK will call a base rate rise in the next couple of months, but that would only be worth a cent or two I suggest!