Here's Lyn (my wife) and my tale of emigration so far......

April '05: 2wk fact finding trip around the Thompson Okanagan area of BC, sightseeing, visiting realtors, weighing up the pros/cons of life in Canada.

May '05: Followed up on a few properties and businesses that were for sale to look at feasibility of making the move. Discussed options with immigration lawyers based in Vancouver (http://www.visa2canada.com/ - we dealt with Balvinder Pahl and had excellent service).

June '05: Submitted PR application, quickly followed by application for temporary work visas - a business for sale in Kamloops had caught our eye and we decided that if it was feasible we'd like to buy it. Put house on the market in UK. I re-visited BC for a week to see realtor, bank, solicitors etc.

July '05: Sold our house in Worcestershire and moved in with Lyn's Mum in Staffordshire. Both left our respective employers and careers.

August '05: Purchased 32 acre equestrian property in Kamloops (http://www.fieldstone-equestrian.ca) and moved to BC (initially just on holiday visas).

Dec '05: Visited Abbotsford/Sumas border crossing to collect temporary work permits. Now officially able to conduct business, apply for SIN's, drivers licences and reclaim GST on property and capital expenditure etc. Immigration lawyer to contact London embassy to expedite PR application now that we've made an investment in BC and have several employees working for us.

Main points of note so far:

• Application for a mortgage (albeit only 25% LTV) was easy - several e-mails between UK and RBC in Kamloops had most of the detail sorted. This was without any sort of residency status. A $35,000 credit line was made available and bank accounts opened easily too. We got a 5% variable rate mortgage deal.
• If you're looking to purchase/start a business the key thing to prove in your case for a work permit is 'substantial benefit to the local community/economy'. There's no definition for what 'substantial benefit' is, it's open to interpretation, so get lots of supporting evidence. We had letters from RBC, local associated businesses/suppliers, the Chamber of Commerce, local politicians and the mayor. All this evidence and our business plan was put together via correspondence between the UK and our lawyer in Vancouver.
• Utility companies have screwed us for $1000's of security deposits (held for 3 yrs) in order to supply gas, electric etc. even though we pay by monthly direct debit for the supply. Owning a business and 2 houses (one's rented out) inevitably our utility supply needs are high, but having to lodge such large sums sticks in the throat a bit.
• Canadians love to offer help and are very welcoming. We soon learnt that they also love to present an invoice in exchange for 'help'. Rarely has 'help' really meant help.
• Summer in northern Okanagan is fantastic - hot, dry and cloudless sky. Autumn was variable (far more rain this year than usual, though still very dry by UK standards - just 6 rainy days between September and December). Winter isn't too cold so far (not above 0 for the past 2wks, and as low as -15), but easy to dress for (we're outdoors most of the working day) as it's a very dry, crisp cold.

So far, so good - made some great friends, had lots of good times (despite the Blazer's games we've watched ) and don't regret the move. Inevitably there have been stresses and pressures, unexpected bills, times when we've got kranky with each other, but it's all happened so quickly and we've had so much to adjust to (I arrived a week before Lyn and had acclimatised a bit, whereas the day after she landed we were responsible for running the business, being landlords, and without any posessions for 8 weeks due to the Vancouver dock strike).

If anyone wants more details, please feel free to drop me a line

Hi Rich
Thanks for a very useful and informative account of your move.
I am very interested in what you have done, as I am in a position where I am running a business in the UK which I have partners.
I intend to move my share holding out and set up te same type of business in Canada, Ontario. From the customers point of view we will be the same business as my partners are family but it will be a independant company in its own right in Canada soley owned by me. The new business will be employing local staff due to its nature, and I am even getting assistance for location of the business regarding its location and staffing requirements from the local Ontario goverment department.

My problem is this, I have done a great deal of research working with our local chambers of commerce and official organisations who are based in Ontario with respect of the business, I have also made a couple of research trips with a recent on where I visited prospective customers and have almost started the business.
However our papers dont look like they will come though until Sep to the end of 2006. When I have enquired about coming over to set up a business I have been told that I cannot work in the business I need to employ someone to manage it? I do not beleive this is workable as I do need to be on the scene to make sure this is successful. I am now stuck between a rock and a hard place as this is the prime time to kick start the business. And a move around summer 2006 would be ideal for us.

It appears that you have done this by getting a temporary work permit.
Have I misinterpreted your explanation or have I got the wrong impression, any advice would be gratefully received.

ps. do you have kids? which are at school? if you do, can they enroll in a school or university or do you pay for this privately.

Regards
Prakash

Hi there,

Ref utilities, it's worth inquiring with them regarding your UK credit history. In Kelowna one of the companies (can't remember which, whether it was Fortis BC or Terasen) accepted an Equifax credit report from the UK, which cost me just 2.5GBP to obtain and price of a transatlantic phone call). This secured release of the deposit which was over $440 IIRC. The other one wouldn't budge and holds about $400 for two years but at least it eased the pain a little.

Hope this helps, glad things are working out, isn't it great fun getting life reorganised again eh ?

Rich.

Hi Welcome to Kamloops.

I also moved here August this year.

too confusing! too of you called Rich - both recently landed, both in the Okanagan...!

R I C H - thanks for posting, glad it is going to well for you

Clare

Well done You're the second self-employed work permit person here in a short time, I'd never previously heard of that method. Is it difficult to obtain?

Hi Prakash - hope this answers your question too Biiiink....

I'm not familiar with how Ontario deals with your situation, so can't really comment on what's best for you. The main difference between your case and ours is that we purchased an existing (albeit run-down) business, rather than starting something from scratch as you propose.

We were initially told by immigration that they wouldn't issue work permits before our arrival in Canada, for several reasons:

• At the time of application for the permit we'd only placed a deposit on the property & business - immigration wanted to see the full investment made and proof of title.
• Our 5yr business plan proposed generating local employment - we were told that they'd need to actually see some progress made towards this goal before issuing a work permit.
• The business plan also indicated the capital investments were wanted to make to improve and renovate the property and business - immigration wanted to actually see receipts and proof of that investment too.

We were initially caught in a catch-22: no visa would be issued until we'd purchased and started to improve the businesses viability, but without a visa we were just tourists and technically not supposed to work/earn a living.

The immigration official we dealt with went on record to say that we could 'work the property' without a visa. Our immigration lawyer chose not to ask him to expand or clarify what this phrase allowed or inhibited us from doing. Effectively we just got on with running the business, documented everything we were doing (including photographic evidence of improvements we were making), then re-submitted our business plan after 3mths worth of our efforts.

We were careful to show that we were hands-off during the 3mths and that contractors and employees had been responsible for the work/improvements under our direction. It was an interesting and at times stressful way to start out in Canada, and I'm not sure if it's really the usual or best way to approach securing a work permit. To be honest I think the relationship our lawyer had with the particular immigration official was what ensured that our 3mth initial period could facilitate the eventual issuing of a visa. Of course we still had to make sure we were successful and to fulfill our business proposals, but I'm not sure if we'd applied through the London office rather than locally we'd have had the same leeway.

Thanks for the advice - oh yeah, the fun's endless.....

Hi Airseir - whereabouts are you in Kamloops? We're in Barnhartvale.

What are you dioing for a living?

Hi Rich
Thanks for your honest answers, and I would like add well done!
you both took on some challenge
admiration and regards
Prakash

Could you supply some examples of this please?

Sure - on several occasions people said they'd love to give us a hand or had a bit of spare time to chip in with help. No payment was ever discussed or mentioned, yet each of them subsequently presented invoices for labour. It's made us wary of accepting offers of help without qualifying it thoroughly first. Maybe we were naiive to expect an offer of help didn't come with strings attached, but we could only base our decisions on past experience from the UK.

So Rich, are you paying their [falsely submitted] invoices or losing such valuable 'friends' ???

Rich

Yes, that is what I thought. With "friends" like that, who needs enemies. They sound like very strange people. We have done everything with neighbours, built fences, my husband helped one of them shingle his garage and it would never have entered our heads to submit an invoice.

Friends help friends for nothing. Those were not friends and I would have told them to shove their invoices - well I would have politely told them that they offered to help and that I had not contracted with them for work and so I did not think I would be paying their invoice. What would they do about it? Go to a lawyer - yeah right. They are just trying to take advantage and if you told them to take a hike - they would have.

Agreed Liz.

The good 'ol boys were thinking: "hey guys here's a newly landed gullible Brit, bet he has a bucket full of spare $, doesn't know what to do with all that $ with such a good exchange rate, yet another cash cow we can screw".

Please diappoint them

Rich.