adele

Agreed. On those salaries it would be very, very difficult to live in Vancouver with children. I wouldn't choose it unless I could earn more. Maybe much further out in the lower mainland, but definitely not in the city of Vancouver.

scilly

We have lived in Vancouver for just over 49 years, and love it. We managed to buy a house in 1972, still live in it .......... and cannot afford to move even though it is now worth an insane amount.


You are now looking at $1.5 million for a small 2 bedroom house.


Please do take the advice given by so many people on here and ensure that you are actually eligible to get a visa.


As regards MSP .. it is nothing like the NHS. Unless you are lucky enough to get a job which includes benefits such as a health plan that a) includes paying at least 50% of the premiums to MSP AND b) has an Extended Health Plan, you could be up the creek without a paddle.


You apply for MSP as soon as you arrive in BC, and coverage then starts almost 3 months later, at the end of the 2nd month following. You have to buy suitable medical insurance coverage for the first 3 months.

MSP does not provide any cover unless your household income is below the poverty level, then there is a gradually reducing cover up to a certain amount................... above that income, you have to pay dispensing fees, full cost of the prescription.

MSP does cover cost of visit to GP, referral by GP to a specialist, all costs if in hospital except for an amount you pay toward the cost of the bed (in a private or single bed war, 2- or 4-bed ward).

Your monthly payments to MSP for a family of 2 adults with an adjusted monthly net income of over $42,000 would be $150

No fees are charged for a child under the age of 19, or taking post-secondary education and supported by family.

Check this site:-

Monthly Premium Rates - Province of British Columbia


You do not say what your partner's prescription is for, but you need to check very carefully how expensive it will be. For example, there are several threads on here regarding diabetes, and it is apparent that costs for diabetic supplies and drugs are NOT covered here as they are in the UK

R I C H

No, you can choose to buy it, if you so wish. I didn't bother.

scrubbedexpat091

We have no debt, nor kids and our basic needs (rent, scooter insurance, gas, electric, phone, food, parking fees at work, dog food, other insurance such as house, extended benefits via work.)

All the above runs roughly $26,500/yr with rent accounting for $17,400 of it.

Income in the example is approx $28,000.

scilly

I would consider such a decision rather stupid, and even more stupid if you already have a medical condition.

It would have been just my luck to fall off the pavement and break my leg on the first day!!!

The costs here are nothing like in the US, but they are still considerable!

R I C H

We all have different tolerances to risk, to be called stupid feels a bit harsh.

Whatever, it's a choice, not an absolute as you stated.

scrubbedexpat091

When I first came to Canada, I was here over a year before I qualified for MSP, never bought any sort of travel insurance.

Although I came from the US where I had not had insurance for several years as it was too expensive on what I making, so my perspective might have been different vs someone coming from a country that offered healthcare to most.

Danny B

This is not a dig at you and more of a rhetorical question so don't take this the wrong way, but why do we call ourselves expats instead of immigrants?

Is the name expatriate reserved for rich, educated, developed white elites and the term immigrant for brown skinned people? Why not call this website BritishImmigrants.com ?

I never hear my Filipino side of the family go on about where all the Pinoy expats hang out? Weird huh? I never really thought of it until you mentioned the word.

Carry on

Jerseygirl

As my old mum once told me...'How can you possibly be an immigrant...you are British?'

Engineer_abroad

not condoning it but that is precisely how I think it gets interpreted.

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/201...alled-an-expat

ChrissRoss

I really hope that we would have enough with $82,000. Would the 82k be reduced further before going it bank? Like tax or national insurance?

Siouxie

Yes it would, see this post http://britishexpats.com/forum/canad.../#post12323800

You can use a basic tax calculator to check what you are likely to end up with

TaxTips.ca - Canadian Financial and Income Tax Calculators

The general consensus in other posts on Vancouver is that anything under $100,000 total salary living in Vancouver and you may well struggle if you are wanting to 'live the life' - get out and about, do sports, eat out and have a few toys. If you are happy to live in cheaper accommodation, reduce your outgoings to the minimum and do very little socially, then you'll probably manage on less. I can't give you my personal opinion as I don't live in BC, but that seems to be what the majority say.

If you check some of the other threads on Vancouver (search link was in a previous post by me) you will see what the recommendations are for income.

scrubbedexpat091

There will be income tax, EI, CPP deducted from each pay cheque.

Using an online tax calculator, 82,000 as the pre-deduction income it says take home would be 62,032.

bc2015

I wouldn't move to Vancouver with a child unless you have combined income of over $120,000. This will allow you to rent somewhere nice, pay for childcare (if you can find it) and save up some money. It's often mentioned here that there's no point in emigrating unless it improves your life (due to hassle and expense) and I think that's worth bearing in mind.

Rentals here are expensive and also in demand. The way to get past the demand is to look for places that are above the average rent. For example the place we rent right now (which is a nice place in North Vancouver) is $3000 a month, but there was only one other couple interested in it. Compare this to places around ~$2000 per month in Vancouver itself and there's literally hundreds of people that pass through open houses for them.

Vancouver itself is nice but in hindsight (having lived here for 2.5 years) I'm not sure I'd do it again. It's a really nice city and has some great facilities but it's also completely soulless and has no identity. Sure it also has outdoors (hiking, skiing and so on) but so do a lot of other places that also have affordable and abundant housing. A lot of the hiking trails get over crowded during the summer and the local ski areas get jammed in the winter. Also the meat and dairy is rubbish and overpriced and the food in general is poor quality but that's more a Canada wide problem.

I would think long and hard about the reasons for moving here. I only came here because I got a transfer through work and this is where the Canadian office is but sometimes wonder if east coast/Martimes would have been a better choice.

BristolUK

Maybe I'm naive but aren't some of us on BE not white, not rich, not particularly well educated and certainly not elite?
There are a few Americans on BE who could be all those things but would we say expat? Probably not because they would be from another group not ours. Would they say expat about themselves? I don't know, but then they don't use the same words to describe many things anyway.

Seriously, isn't it because we're a group and we're referencing our group?

If there's a citizenship ceremony with would-be-citizens from all over then "we'd" all be immigrants trying to become citizens...although still immigrants. It's a mix.

If we're all Brits then we're just being a bit more specific aren't we?

There's already two words to describe us; we emigrate when we leave and we are immigrants in the new country. What's the big deal with a different word to describe ourselves coming from the same place.

Are we trying to look for offence where there is none?