Lauren_mhari

What would be the total cost of moving from Scotland to Canada? We are a family of 5. 2 adults and 3 children under the age of 6. We also have a dog.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hurlabrick

Where in Canada are you planning to move to?
Are you going to ship all / most of your furniture or just bring a few extra suitcases?

christmasoompa

This thread has some useful figures in, although it’s quite old now so add a bit on for inflation - https://britishexpats.com/forum/cana...canada-735341/

CIC would require you to have at least $27,315 (~16k) in your bank account to get most visas, but you need that when you first ‘land’ so it can’t include all the other cost such as visas, medicals, flights, shipping, pet transport etc. I’d add another £15k or so on for that lot, so figure about £30k as a rough guide?

HTH.

rivingtonpike

where would you be moving to? When we moved 10 years ago I’d say it cost 30,000 GBP and upwards. Would you have jobs in place?

Lauren_mhari

We have been looking at charlottetown, Price Edward Island. We would be shipping most of our belongs not all.

Photoplex

It kind of looks like you want people to provide you all the answers without you doing any of the homework yourself? christmasoompa gave you a link to start you off on your own research... Nobody can do this for you.

Looking back at your other (abandoned) thread, you don't even know if you qualify to move here. I'd suggest starting there, as "moving costs" are pointless if you don't even have a visa application option to move here.

Pulaski

Your questions are creating more questions than answers - how many belongings do you have? Do you live in a two bedroom flat and have room for everything, or a five bedroom farm house with a garden shed and barn full of things?

FWIW My wife and I got most of our stuff (we left the sofa and easy chairs) from a small two-bed terraced house into a 20ft container, with about 10% room left over. It cost us about £2,500 19 years ago (to ship the US), so about twice that today.

Many families with children bringing most of there things will probably need a 40ft container, which obviously costs more, but not twice what a 20ft container costs as some of the costs, are "per container" not per m^3. Are you planning on boxing your own things, as that is very labour intensive and paying for packing and unpacking will add a lot to the cost of shipping?

christmasoompa

Thats a very specific location. So do you have a job to go to there, and if so, is the employer paying for anything as part of a relocation package? Or do you have family there, and if so, will you be staying with them for a while (and therefore saving some set up costs at least initially)? Those kind of things make a difference.

btar

A recent quote from Britannia Removals is £6250 to pack, ship, and deliver from the south coast of the UK to Vancouver. GB Liners were a bit higher and Pickfords a bit lower. This is for the contents of a 3 bedroom property going into a 20 foot container - I hope it fits but we are not hoarders. Two other companies also stated a 20' container would be suitable. Following recommendations on British Expats, we arranged separate insurance through Letton Percival who are extremely helpful and give better cover than that offered by the removal companies. Their premium is 2% of the sum insured whereas removal companies were 3%. Any storage charge is extra.
HTH.

Pulaski

I hope you don't have much furniture. .... Our two bed terraced house almost filled a 20ft container and the only furniture we took was a small drop-leaf dining table with six chairs, a queen storage bed that dismantled to almost nothing (had six drawers but no box-spring base), two twin beds (also dismantled to nothing, with no box-spring base), one narrow chest of drawers, and two wardrobes, one of which was mostly dismantled flat, with a 4'x2' shoe drawer base. Aside from clothes, table and kitchenwares, and about a dozen boxes of books and the same of CDs, the only notable things were a bicycle and a few garden tools. That took 90% of a 20ft container.

btar

So this should be interesting as we have more furniture than you mention, notably a dresser (sideboard with display cabinet on top), a small display cabinet, 4 bedside (nightstands), two bookcases, two office desks and chairs plus the usual 3 piece suite (2 seat sofa), dining table and 6 chairs. No bike or wardrobes though. The assessment of what would be required was based on a video tour (my mobile in cctv mode watched by the removal person) I wonder what they do if it doesn't fit? I'll let you know in due course.

Pulaski

Seeing your list reminded me that we brought a small, about 6ft long, sideboard, but no night stands, no book cases, no sofa, a small desk that collapsed flat into a box about 1m x 1m × 10cm.

And so are as what if "it doesn't fit", I don't think most movers pack the container at your home, they take things in a moving van and transfer them to the shipping container, so they will know based on how much stuff is in the van whether it will go in a 20ft container. .... It sounds like your stuff might go in - your sofa and chairs probably takes about the same as our large wardrobe, ... and remember we had 10% spare room in the container.
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Hurlabrick

Our movers DID packed directly into the ahiiping container from our home (I believe they will if they can park the truck safely). We got all our stuff into 20 ft container with about 1/4 of the containder to spare. Two big beds, tables, chairs (no sofa) and loads of boxes. They know what they are doing when they estimate.

Siouxie

Did your partner obtain the Provincial Certificate of Qualification for PEI so they can work there? https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/marketrepo...ments/14799/ca
Did you get an invitation for Express Entry for FSW (Trades)-or are you going as Provincial nominees (or on a TWP to get Canadian work experience)?

Exciting times!

btar

I am pleased to report that Hurlabrick is absolutely right - they (Brittania) obviously knew what they were doing as all our stuff fitted into the 20 ft container with perhaps an 1/8th to spare. It was all packed and wrapped prior to loading and then, on the last day, moved to the container outside our house in about 2 hours.