Are there any ex pats living on Vancouver Island? we're hoping to be out there within two uears. Im a teacher husband is in the police. Would we be able to settle on the island with these professions and if so where would be best? We have young children but are hoping to live somewhere fairly rural with land Any advice gratefully recieved

If you want to buy land/acreage on V.Island, you will need plenty of $$$.

Look at http://www.mls.ca/map.aspx?AreaID=1048 for prices ... they are scary.

It's a beautiful place, but expensive.

Hi! We will be going to Campbell River on VI this year if all goes to plan. Depends how rural you want to be. CR is cheaper and as you go north of there the prices are much cheaper. We visited a small town called Sayward which was lovely and prices round there were lower. I don't know if you need to follow the job vacancies!

Yes, there are a few of them on this foum.

My reading of this forum suggests that it's taking around 39 months for applications for permanent residence in the skilled worker class to be processed. By the time migrants get their medical exams done, sell their UK houses and actually move, it seems to be more like 4 years from beginning to end.

Here is a website about acquiring teaching certification in British Columbia.

I don't know. I'll leave it to others who are more familiar with Vancouver Island to answer those questions.

As a starting point, you could use Citizenship and Immigration Canada's Skilled Worker Self-Assessment to figure out if you would earn enough points.

It's best to complete the self-assessment for both spouses, see who earns the most points, and then designate that spouse as the primary applicant.

A warning about the self-assessment tool is in order. This comment is not aimed at teachers or police officers in particular, but at people in all occupations. There is a gap between CIC's assessment of a profession and the readiness of the relevant provincial professional association to accept an applicant from outside of Canada. CIC often allocates points for education, and the applicant is admitted to Canada partly on the basis of those points, and then the relevant professional body sometimes does not accept him/her or at least imposes requirements for additional Canadian courses.

You can do a word search on this forum for "teacher" and "teaching" and for "police," and you'll find out more information. Be aware, however, that many issues (the school system, health care, professional and trade certification / accreditation, drivers' licence, and many, many others) differ from province to province. So if you find a previous discussion thread about teaching in, say, Ontario, the information in it may not apply to British Columbia.

British Expats also has forums for specific professions. A quick glance at the Police forum suggests that there are a good many discussion threads about Canada. The Teaching forum seems to have a lot more threads about Australia, but there are a few about Canada (and a quick glance at the front page revealed one about British Columbia).

I will share with you the experiences of my friends who are teachers in Calgary (which obviously is not in British Columbia). They are Canadian women who had stopped working in the paid work force for a few years while their children were young. When they returned to teaching, they had to work as supply teachers first. Initially they got a couple of days' worth of work here and there, when permanent teachers called in sick. Gradually they worked their way up to longer term temporary assignments, e.g., replacing teachers who were on maternity leave. Then they got permanent part-time jobs. (One friend got half-time jobs at two different schools, so she had to switch from one school in the morning to another school in the afternoon.) After three or four years they eventually got permanent, full-time jobs. I would imagine that a teacher who relocated to a Canadian province from overseas also might have work at getting his/her toe in the door.

Clare BC, who lives in Vancouver, often mentions a Brits 2 Vancouver forum, which apparently has some participants from Vancouver Island.

Hope that helps.

Hi, There are lots of ex pats living on VI. I am moving there on Monday to take up a nursing post in Victoria. I would endorse what all of the other respondents have said to your post.

The most importaant thing to do which I am sure you know is to research and research. It is worth looking at the BC PNP site to see if police and teachers qualify for PNP, as this is a quicker route in.

Also check out some of the archives on this site, as there have been discussions in the past about VI. There is also a "Discovering VI" web site which has a discussion list. Not everyone is as friendly as this one, but you do get good info.

I also post occassionally on to the Brits2BC list, it is excellent.

David