Retiring to there ?
 

Hi all ,
whereas I realise most people leave to Canada during their working years , would anyone here , just perchance , know of a useful contact , who could help with emmigration , in order to retire in Ontario , Quebec , or where else there ? ( the retirement : just befor , or just after 60 )

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

I remember a similar post on the immigration forum from a while back, after searching back for it I found the following threads (you may also want to check out the current immigration options):-


http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=462017

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=397113

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

There is no retiree category for immigration. Your only option would be if you have a reletive living here already who was willing to sponsor you

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

There was another thread recently sort of regarding this too.
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=487562

I never understood the desire to leave all your friends and family and a well established social network and start afresh in a foreign land not knowing anyone.

At that point in my life I want to have friends and family I can count on around to stop me going a bit nuts...

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

I would imagine people considering such a move at that stage of life are driven primarily by economic motivation - i.e. wanting to find somewhere to live with lower property prices so they can release equity to act as a supplementary pension because they dont have adequate pension provision. No doubt that is a viewpoint likely to actract some controversy though!

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

Too late. :p

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

And then may be some of us , who don't like the recent ( demographic , fiscal and other ) developments in the U.K. and E.U. , so : to them , Canada might still appear an interesting consideration , the latest strength of Can$ notwithstanding .
And , YES , there are people out there , in that age of life , without much family and friends left - but who can afford to pay their way , to a certain decent extent ...so ?
Why not then retire in english-speaking , 1st world , relatively crime-free Canada , rather than in Spain , Oz , Cape Town , Cyprus , Malta , Istria or wherever else ???

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

Off the top of my head....because its 3500 miles / $800 flight from family, doesnt cover drug costs, will result in your pension being frozen, costs a lot more to live here than you would think possible based on visiting, and is mostly cold and snowy for three or more months of the year. Other stuff you might find diverting like soccer, cricket, rugby etc doesnt hardly register here on the radar thats full of hockey, US/CDN football and baseball.

And perhaps most importantly, unless you have a relative here already who can and will sponsor you, your chances of being granted a residence visa are slim to none.

FWIW many Canadians try and spend as much of their retirement as possible as "Snowbirds" in warmer US climates, and live in Canada only long enough to maintain their health care entitlement.

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

Yes, simply learning to speak Maltese and moving to Malta would seem to be a much easier option than getting into and living in Canada as a retiree.

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

I have nothing against the idea conceptually. The challenge, as others have pointed out, is that Canada no longer offers a retirement visa.

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

To "iaink" and all : Thank you !

a ) After 4 visits in the last 10 years ,
the part( I quote verbatim ) about " costs a lot more to live here than you would think possible ..." interests me most of all - would anyone care to add to this ?
b ) O.K. if not officially retiring , how about a really , really , really small business interest , then ? Any ideas ?

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

Which immigration route do you think this would fall under?

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

Nil idea ! Was hoping for a bright spark , or 7 of them !

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

You should probably start here:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/index.asp

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

Thanxxxx! ( Got it ! )
Hasn't changed all that much , in last 20 years ;
must remark : Oz have been v. v. much more welcoming and accommodating , to us , Brits elder settlers ...however : "different stroke" , and all that jazz ???

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

What's wrong with Brussels?

OK. Just a joke.

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

I'm rather hoping that I'll have moved back to the UK for my retirement or at least somewhere with milder winters. I can't think of anything worse than going through a bitterly cold Canadian winter with fragile bones. :unsure:

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

As noted elsewhere, I'm with you on this one...

PS. How do you like my new avatar?

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

The winters here seem pretty mild to me.

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

They are in Vancouver. Apparently.

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

It's super Al isn't it?

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

Couldn't say really, you can't see for all the rain.

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

[QUOTE=Novocastrian;5469166]What's wrong with Brussels?

QUOTE]

Now that you asked ;
well , besides the weather ( often grey and wet ) , actually : I can think of not very much "wrong" with Bruxelles !
We have the world's best beer and frites and choccies , excellent grub everywhere , top medical services with ample doctors , staff and clean hospitals + Nil waiting lists , a stone-throw from La Belle France , Luxembourg and VaderLand , 320 km/h TGV trains which North America can only dream about , fab toll-free motorways where the 120km/h and 130 km/h speed limits are hardly ever enforced , open inter-countries border-crossings , chic francophone and expat-females , affordable quality accomodation , terrific television , fine shopping , history-art-culture-music-press : in abundance ,
2 hours by car to the Channel Tunnel and U.K. , also : friendly cooperative cops and public servants , low crime , great public transport , lovely parks and lakes , high living standards ...I could go on and on and on...see?
Just that the OH thinks "the grass might yet be greener" and all that jazz...

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

Your words echo my thoughts, including the ones about the winters. I am married to a Canadian. He has been living here for five years but wants to retire to Canada. It's a second marriage for both of us and we can't afford to buy a house here; we live in rented accommodation which we can only afford while we both work. He is looking at Nova Scotia for retirement and thinks we can afford to buy a place of our own there, plus it's not quite such a long flight back to the UK. I've lived in Canada for a year and liked it, but I know that's not the same as living there permanently. The alternative to being in Canada would probably be looking at a one-bedroomed council flat which would drive us up the wall. (I'd be okay on my own, but for two it would be far too small. My husband's a big man!) We are coming to Nova Scotia next year with the view to looking at properties. I have been there before and liked it. We are thinking of moving there in about four years' time. Some days I feel really positive about it and think how good it would be to have our own place, make new friends, start a new life etc, and other days I think of all the positive things about the UK, (and I do believe there are quite a few!) that I would be leaving.The bottom line is that if I hadn't married a Canadian I'd have no intention of going the Canada, or anywhere else for that matter, but I feel I have to give it a go. My husband has worked hard here but I know he misses Canada and the open spaces. I think he'd be happier there. When I read posts like yours, and I know you've been in Canada for a while, I begin to get concerned about the move. I sometimes feel as if I'm between a rock and a hard place. Any helpful advice would be appreciated.

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

[QUOTE=Ray51;5470032]It ain't.

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

a) Search out the numerous cost of living threads (although maybe not the current one...apart from judys links on page one there is not much info on cost of living.:) Heating and hydro, maintainence on wood/siding/pitch shingle properties, property taxes, car insurance, basic groceries like milk, bread, chicken....its a lot.

b) You could try some of the provincial nomination investor classes, they seem the most accomodating for people with nothing but money to offer. Dont get too excited though as they might well have age restrictions...I dont know.

Even if the grass is slightly greener (and it might not be) its just not worth the upheaval and having to make a whole new bunch of friends and acquantainces, find new interest groups and separating yourself from family, grandkids etc etc. And also never having a state pension increase again, even is you live another 30 or 40 years.

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

[QUOTE=Ray51;]Don't forget the Atomium and paedophilia, not to mention separatism. (Not that we don't have the latter here of course).

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

Yup. Mr. Creosote himself.

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

Thanks again !
as for "b)" above : indeed , proof of sufficient money , handing out a few hundred KCan$ to a provincial administration and foregoing all interest on it , for 62 months , until/IF it gets returned ...sure still does get one "in"
( provided one is sufficiently motivated , for just such goings on ) ;

Re : greener grass ? As I am in late 50's , and have lived and worked in Europe , Africa , Middle East , Far East and N.America , I can't help but to be astonished with quite what apparent ease other people still seem to re-locate , at a drop of the hat , to the Antipodes / East. Europe / anywhere considered fashionable and "in" , at the mo...Maybe ambitious gung-ho youngsters can quite happily put up with a major inconvenience , or dozens of them - yet , the whole theme of seeking that "greener grass" , on reflection , just suddenly appears so complex nowadays , a maze of huge , ever-changing databases to research first , with regard to both substance and costs e.g. all various aspects of healthcare , taxation , quality of life ( as opposed to percieved materialistic "standard" of living ) , personal safety , future trends , ease of geting about and around , the old-age arrangements and so on ...
But , I am thankful to all the good people for their bona fidae comments , to my original question , so :
cheers , from our La Capitale of burEaUcracy , where everybody and their secretary promptly went to lunch at 12.30 and are thus not expected to be seen again at work before , Monday , say : 10-ish???

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

That sounds incredibly civilised. I'll put it on my list for future destinations.

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

Bare in mind that the reason Ive been in canada a while is because I love it here, winter and all.:)

I was just offering an answer to the question "why not". Its all too easy after you have lived somewhere for a while to loose sight of the good things you have...if you are living in brussels and have friends there and your house is paid for etc, its a different situation to being stuck in the UK housing affordability nightmare with a canadian husband pining to come back to what he knows.

The rest of my generally negative view of retiring to the unknown is based in large part with thinking about what it would be like for my dad to come over here and how it would be to leave his leisurely life of golf 2 or 3 times a week and his hobbies and his wife of nearly 50 years conveniently buried in the churchyard 2 minutes walk from the back garden if he feels like having a chat with her, and my brother and one set of grandchildren a couple of hours away on the train.

It makes no sense to me for him to leave all that behind for the sake off freeing up some equity and perhaps escaping some inheritance tax.

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

Many thanks , iaink !
There's many a happy-ish BritExpat out and about , here in Bru , too many of them frequently thinking : just how much better their lives would be elsewheres ;
for some , it's the( said ) weather , for some others : the taxes , or the surf , the prairies , kind-of-english language , exotic lands , perceived "freedoms" , who knows...
- swings and roundabouts ?!

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

Thanks for that reply; it was helpful. I wasn't sure whether you liked being in Canada or not. I know I liked it and enjoyed my time there. I think it's possibly harder for my husband being here than for me being there. I could buy British papers and other goods and even see the Union Flag whereas he has very few reminders here of his Homeland. Although he doesn't say much I know his heart is still in Canada.

Re: Retiring to there ?
 

[QUOTE=iaink;5470998]
b) You could try some of the provincial nomination investor classes, they seem the most accomodating for people with nothing but money to offer. Dont get too excited though as they might well have age restrictions...I dont know.QUOTE]

Thanks gain , iaink !
Saw quite a disappointing , depressing 50-minutes' TV documentary on Quebec yesterday , produced by a very trusted TV-person ...

On your point "b" above : there's many a place , in this our world of 3rd millenium : benefitting excellently , indeed , from many assorted "people with nothing but money to offer" ... Switzerland , Monaco , England , Andorra , Liechtenstein , Isle of Man , Channel Islands , Gibraltar , Brit. Virgin Islands , Luxembourg , Montenegro ...off the cuff , all readily spring to mind , as does
( for retired Brits , anyway ) Australia and any number of other , better kept : secret tax-haven locations...
It is very much easier for a country to benefit from the ample assets and income brought into a country that way , than earn the needed foreign currency the hard way , e.g. by exporting competitive goods and services ...