Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

Seeing as we're waiting for the world to go back to normal before we can get documents sorted, can I just ask what your top reasons are for moving to Canada? And what are your dealbreakers?

If you moved to Canada and then moved back, what was the one catalyst behind the return?

Thanks.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

Everybody's situation of wanting to move to Canada are somewhat different and I suspect a lot of UK citizens who decided to move did it because they had a Canadian spouse, common law partner. Yes quite a few did move without such be it on a working holiday visa and decided to stay, offered to them what appeared to be a better job, visited and fell in love with Canada so looked at how they could move or think the grass is greener. I am sure there might be other categories.

I can honestly say they did not move for cheaper domestic air fares, a state of the art banking system, access to public transportation, cheap internet and mobile phone plans, cheap car insurance and having gravy and cheese curds on their chips (French fries).

What are your reasons for wanting to move to Canada? What makes you think your lifestyle will be better as opposed to moving to another area of the UK? For every positive there is likely to be a negative. Some will say "Go for it" others might advise "Stay in the UK". You can do as much online research as possible but the harsh reality is the decision will be yours in the end. Visiting is not the same as actually living in the country. Some of us are happy, content, hate it or just simply put up with living in Canada as circumstances don't make it easy to just move back to wherever.

If I hadn't married a Canadian I highly doubt I would have considered moving to Canada.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

A problem with being in Canada in the past years has been lack of access to friends and family. They're there, you're here, they don't want to see Canada and you don't have time off to go home. If you're not near a cheap airport, and that means one in the US, you likely can't afford to go anyway. That'll all be worse now; you be going off like Stanley and Livingstone.

otoh, consumer durables! You can buy more stuff.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

If I had to summarise I'd say you get more space and larger housing than the UK, but still some social safety net and not nearly as much of the abject poverty that you see surprisingly large amounts of when you live in the US. Canada is a good hybrid of "US" consumer lifestyle, with a hint of UK style social security safety net. You get socialised medicine (up to a point), sane government leadership with a functioning political system, and not quite such fanatical gun rights advocacy as South of the border.

Much depends though on whether you can find a decent job, and probably where you choose to move to within Canada. And whether you can hack the winter year after year. I couldnt find a decent replacement job in Canada and was hired in South Carolina for about 25% more than I was paid in Ontario, and much as I dislike the politics and social disparity here, I dont know that I could face winter in Ontario year after year again after a couple of years of the easy life down here if I could find a decent job back in Canukistan.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

Top reason to move to Canada? ..... "We couldn't get into the US". :rofl: :getcoat:

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

A case of "Be careful what you wish for" in my experience...

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

It would have been easier for me to move to the US but they don't speak French there.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

Sad but very true in some cases. There is one country in particular where they apply for PR status in both the US and Canada. Once their US application is approved even if the Canadian one is approved months before they then choose the US. Since 2008 some of those who chose the US then decided Canada was the better option and found out they no longer met the requirements to retain their Canadian PR status and felt very pissed when reported and issued removal orders to leave Canada.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

It's common for people to accept a job offer in Canada and then not turn up because they were granted a visa for the US. IME that's the most common reason for people not to turn up after signing the paperwork. It's also common for people to walk out, giving no notice, because they get a job across the border.

I realise that this is at variance with industries in which people are typically hired from within Canada.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

Not all job offers result in PR status immediately. I was referring to actually getting PR status, doing the landing and then going to the US once US application approved. Great if you decide to do this but don't be pissed when Canada orders you to be removed.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

International witness protection program for us. No...wait....ignore that!

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

I don't know how many of the people I work with have legal status in Canada. Only that people often leave because they gain work in the US. I don't know, TBH, that they have legal status in the US but off they go. Computer contracting, here and in the US, is like the building trade, lots of workers are undocumented. Still a fair number of people take permanent jobs (that does require some form of work permit) here and then go to the US instead; we lost two in the past year for that reason. This may be part of the reason that employers (as reported here, I don't see it in real life) prefer people with "Canadian experience", at least they'll turn up for the first day.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

The top reason that I moved to Canada the first time was "we couldn't get out of the US quick enough".

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

We felt like that about New York, but the US is big enougn to accommodate lots of different tastes, needs, and expectations, and we headed south, past Mrs P's home turf, and found our own little piece of paradise. .... Well actually, it turned out to be a piece of paradise big enough to fit the entire road on where we lived in London, including all 84 houses (42 on each side), all the back gardens, all the front gardens, the pavement, and the actual road itself. :rofl:

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

Oh that's interesting. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

Yes it's certainly a personal choice and I agree that even visiting won't be enough. There are just things that won't reveal themselves to you until you're actually living there.

Can I ask, now that you're in Canada, would you ever consider moving back?

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

This is one thing we have a lot of practice with. My closest cousin is in London. The rest of my family are in the Philippines, Australia, Austria, the US and Canada.

My husband's live in the Scottish Highlands and Islands whilst we ourselves are in mainland Scotland.

To visit anybody, we need to take a 1-hr flight or go on a long drive (and then a ferry).

We've not seen anybody since Christmas.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

The larger housing sounds fab lol So, how was winter in Ontario?

And do you mean to say that when you hold a Canadian PR you can then work in the US? I've no desire to go there especially with the current admin, mind, but I am curious.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

:rofl:

What made you decide it was time to leave the UK, if I may ask?

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

Winter was mild in Ontario this year, very little snow and the temperatures barely went below -20c https://toronto.weatherstats.ca/char...e-monthly.html
........ and no, as a PR you can't then work in the US without a work permit or visa of some sort (unless you happen to be a long haul trucker) :D

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

Really? Which country is that?

So, is a removal order permanent?

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

How do people get jobs in Canada when not in Canada? It seems almost impossible when I checked. I thought employers need LMIA etc first?

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

:rofl:

Did you at least get to choose a country or did they spring it on you?

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

As someone who is used to a max of -5, that seems intimidating. :rofl: I reckon you get used to it though, don't you?

I suppose it's easier to get WP for US when you're Canadian and vice versa?

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

:rofl:

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

The space sounds heavenly :wub:

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

Larger housing OK up to a point, but taken to extremes its just more vacuuming to do, more bathrooms to clean and more grass to cut. Ultimately its just "stuff" innit.

Winter? Long, cold, snow on the ground between mid Dec and March, sometimes April. Lows down to below -20C many mornings, months without the temperature peeking above zero. But mostly sunny, and there is fun to be had learning to ski and such.You do need to embrace it or else you will go nuts. That said I'm in my third year in the Carolinas and there is much to be said for wearing shorts in February instead of a snowpants and not having to clear the snow off your car to schlep to work in the slush, or better yet driving roof down in a convertible most of the year round. Summer in Ontario was an eye opener, very hot and humid, but I guess that helped acclimatise me for southern living to some extent.

PR doesnt help get into the US but you can be a Cdn citizen after three years + and that can get you into the US job market (although there are some downsides to Nafta "TN" visas that I wont bore you with).

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

Via email, telephone interviews, Skype, the same way they do if they're in Canada.


There are always workarounds if the demand is there. Currently, in our business, loads of people are laid off but, at the beginning of the year, it was more common to hire someone in Bangalore or Shanghai for a job in Toronto than someone in Toronto.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

That is a question I cannot honestly answer. There is the option to move back at anytime seeing I have dual citizenship. My question is Why would I want to move back? I will shortly be retirement age so looking for a job would not be high on my priority list if I chose to move back. My parents live in Canada and I have 2 adult children both in Canada. Yes I have cousins, nephews, nieces still in the UK that I haven't seen or spoken to in 32 years so close family is also not a reason.
For every positive I could find to move back I could equally find a negative. I own a nice condo here and wonder if I could even get a similar property in the UK for the same price? Too many what ifs and buts for me to consider and at the moment no desire to move back but could if I wanted to.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

There are several countries but I have dealt with one in particular which shall remain nameless less I be accused of being racist etc even though the evidence and facts support this. In these particular cases the removal order is not permanent and they could always reapply for PR status once removed back to their country.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

This was the view from my home office, about six weeks ago, before the trees leafed-out. :)

Most of what you can see is ours, except the far distance on the very left, but we own a lot more out of the picture, around to the right.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...b1be4cbafe.jpg

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

Do you get many tornados there? Never really worried about that in Canada, but here every time there is a thunderstorm I wonder why my house here doesnt have a basement. We have had at least 2 touch down "locally" in the last couple of weeks, one was on the ground for over 30 miles. People killed. Sobering.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

Not that I've ever worried about. There was a fairly serious one in Charlotte, NC a couple of months ago, that caused some serious damage, but mostly only to trees, and seeing an 18" (45cm) pine snapped off like a matchstick is sobering to see, but mostly they're pip-squeaks. The nearest ones I know of to Pulaski Manor were one that ripped a few tree limbs off on a farm a few miles away, and one that wandered across a parking lot, remove some guttering from a supermarket roof and then drifted down the road and into a field.

Bizarrely we have a "cellar", which is only accessible from outside the house - it's not fully dug out, so it isn't high enough for me to stand along the whole width or lenght, and has a dirt floor, but the builder probably did about 75% of the work reuired to have a great basement that would have been the entire footprint of the house, but just didn't finish the job. :rolleyes:

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

The previous house on this site was carried away by a tornado. There's a pattern of newer houses and barns across the countryside along the path.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

Typically though Tornados in Ontario are more of a "once in a generation" event, rather than an annual reality that you hope not to get caught up in. I don't recall ever doing a tornado drill at work in Ontario. Down here thats a real thing on the schedule now.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

NO :thumbdown:

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

We're Brit Canadian but not lived in Canada yet. My brother in Law gets to go because of my sister but it's me and him with the passion for something different. We've been in Calgary and Edmonton only but the house size, space and nature was enough to put up with the cons of Calgary being stuck in the 90s.
Didn't find many greasy cafes which I'll miss or the amazing food choice we have here everywhere.. especially as I love the veggie choice here. Having said that for aroynd the same cost.. The space alone would be mentally healthier for all of us. We get a lot of rain in our part of the UK so we're stuck in Oct to end March anyway.

Darwen

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

For me the number 1 reason was that i could earn lot more money in Canada doing the same job ...second was the myth that quality of life is better for kids/family etc.
i went back to the UK in 2014..then came back to Canada at the end of 2016 for the same reason as number 1..it was the best bet to gain financially security for when i finally retire and go back home in 20 years.

don't get me wrong i enjoy living in Canada but i equally enjoyed living in the UK as well

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

It is snowing here. It won't settle but it is snow in May.

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

we wanted Cambodia but they misheard us

Re: Top Reasons to Move (and Not Move) to Canada
 

"Many a true word is spoken in jest" :D Actually quite true for me, well, previous employer. Long story short, US didn't really want quite a few of us relocating to the US office. Canada seemed more than happy for us to open an office and relocate people there. So that's how I ended up in Canada.