city4

Just thought I would give everyone a slice of our Ontario story so far.

13th Aug 2008: We (me and OH) arrived at Pearson airport in Toronto on TWP, got through immigration and customs no probs picked up our hire car and headed to our temp home (a hotel)

14th Aug: Headed to my new work to let the boss know I was here safe and sound, he was great, told me to get myself settled before starting work. After that we started viewing apartments (loads of research via the internet)which was a bit of a let down, they seemed to be rough and smelly or not available until November!! Eventually we found a nice apartment in Clarkson so we filled in the application and crossed our fingers. Next on the list was BANKS we checked out a few and decided to go with TD Canada Trust, I know there`s been alot said about BANKS in Canada on this forum but TD have been nothing but great so far. Got our debit cards there and then and they approved us for a credit card to help built our credit history.

15th Aug 2008: First thing we headed to our local service Canada office to apply for our SIN numbers, it took about 20mins and we had the numbers in our hands. After that we headed to Future shop to buy a laptop, got a decent Dell for $800 they threw in a printer to get the sale!! Rang the leasing agent to see if we had been approved for the apartment and we had so we drove over to sign on the dotted line!! (we move in on Aug25th).

16/17th Aug 2008: Window shopping for furniture and electricals, then in to downtown Toronto for a wonder, ended up buying a couple of Virgin cells. (didn't achieve much really but it was the weekend)

18th Aug 2008: Decided to exchange our driving licences which is really simple, you take your licence to the drive test center, hand over your UK licence and $75 and you get an Ontario licence which is basically what happened, the problem was we had to que for 3hours!!! The place was bursting at the seams, it was mental!!! (get there early to avoid the ques!!!) I then thought it would be a good idea to start looking for cars and OMG 2nd hand cars are expensive, even a piece of crap rust bucket is expensive out here, we went everywhere to find a decent car but had no luck!!

19th Aug 2008: Today, realised we had been given the wrong post code by the letting agent for our new apartment which also meant we had given the wrong post code to the licence people so off we went to the drive test center, thankfully we were there for it opening (the que was still 20 people deep!!) got everything sorted in 20mins. It was back to car hunting and things were starting to get really tedious, we must of seen 100 cars and none of them were worth a second look so we went for something to eat and I had a good old fashion moan about Canadian cars!!! (I was only venting)
On the way back I spotted a Dodge neon in a big Cadillac dealer so I headed in to see how it looked an hour later it was bought. (I wish I could tell you how much i payed but I blocked it out as soon as I walked out the dealership door ouch!!!) I have now found out just how expensive car insurance is, lets just say my wallet is considerately lighter tonight.

I've enjoyed the challenges so far and still have a smile on my face so things can't be that bad!!!!

Zoe Bell

Sounds cool so far , but you've forgotten one important thing ........

update your location on your profile

welcome to canada

city4

Well spotted!!!!

You a detective??????

Thanks

Zoe Bell

No I just remember taking great pride in being able to update mine !!!

Drop me a PM if you ever find yourself downtown in Toronto .

wizzard

All sounds quite good apart from the Dodge Neon.

Simon Legree

Hello and welcome. Ah memories of Clarkson. Thirty plus years of riding the 6.37 GO train to Union. Before I moved here I lived at Winston Churchill and Lakeshore in Oakville. Bought my first house in Clarkson when it was still a village. I paid what was then the huge amount of $35,500 for it ! Happy days. Enjoy. It's a great country.

terese677

Hello
welcome to Canada
Terese

dbd33

At one time I lived in the apartment building across from the Clarkson GO station. We move from there to Lorne Park Road, paying $140,000 for the house where my ex still lives. I expect it's worth rather more than $140,000 now.

city4

Thanks everyone, I'll keep you posted as are journey continues!!!!

Jaimieb

Hi all

We have also just moved to Toronto (landed on the 08th) and got our 3 year visas secured. Yipee!

We also need to exchange our UK driving licences but were just a little concerned with handing them over. Whent he time comes how do we go about getting them back?

Also, where was the test centre located in Toronto?

Thanks for you help with this

Zoe Bell

The service ontario centre is located at college park. Get of the subway at college and follow the signs.
Keep a photocopy of your UK licence so that you have a record of your driver number. This should be all that is needed to get your UK one back

Rob4BC

Quite correct, and remember that only the photo card part of your UK licence is taken - you get to keep the paper part.

Rob

Zoe Bell

Unless you are like me and only had the ancient paper based licence to start with
The woman looked at it and said "you do relaise I'm going to have to keep this ? "

I looked at it (ripped , creased from living in the depths of my house) and said "you are more than welcome to it "

Jaimieb

Thanks guys much appreciated

calgarylady

will be in your shoes in a few weeks , trying to keep cool.