Moving to Canada

Hi rustyboy,
I was thinking of doing the same thing.I'm self employed and would love to move to Canada.
Clean country and plenty of room.

I have been 10 times in my short life,east coast however, NS.

Amazing place,have family out there.

yeh

i hate to be one of these "oh this country is going to the dogs" etc and thats not what this is really about. I'm considering it as I hear there is a lot of work in 3d and animation out there (particularly Vancouver and Montreal) so i'm following the work really. I'm young and feel i'd like a shot at this while i'm still young. however it's just the thought of completely upping sticks and starting life in a new country scares the bejesus out of me! lol

Thinly disguised, I want to be an ice road trucker, thread ;)

My brother has applied to move out there to NS. I love it as a Holiday but if it permanent I think it become par for the course just like life here in England.

rustyboy,go for it,you can always come back if things dont work out

Seriously rusty, why not go for 6 months on a visitor's visa and check out work availability, housing and lifestyle before upping sticks permanently.

I would deffo advise trying it, I travelled a lot when I was younger, working in many countries and have never regretted a moment, wheras I would surely have wondered what if, if Ii hadn't taken the chance.

Exactly rusty, just go for it while you have the chance. If it's sh1t you can just get on the next flight home.

Before you know it you'll have wife & kids and won't be able to try anything like it.

cheers guys.

They do a 12month working visa like Australia do, so i think i'm going to look into this a bit more later!

was thinking of doing the same, have used up the australian visa. have friends out there and they got work no bother in the construction industry, and they are lazy to say the least. cold for 5 or 6 months of the year though. at least in australia you could move to warm places all year round. i think tickets, visas, insurance for the year and setting up your bank account in advance came to around 1500 euros for them. probably do it much cheaper by myself

I lived in Toronto for 3 years before moving back 4 years ago. Was a great city when I first went there. Changed a bit now.

Still beats most places here hands down mind.

Go! I lived in Toronto in the the early 80s for two years - great city (too few proper pubs tho at that point). Prob changed a lot since, but Canada is superb.

My cousin upped sticks and took his wife and three children to Hamilton, Ontario 18 months ago. They started up a business which is going well and the kids love their school life and new friends and I know they will never return to the U.K. to live. Just do it, don't die wondering what might have been.

I know Hamilton well. Traditionally a very working-class industrial city (a bit like Sheffield or something) but modernising very quickly and has some really nice areas. Definitely a good place to be buying property at the minute.

Oh, and they don't like the people of Toronto too much ;-)

And from one who knows-East is east but West is best. :)

I say go for it mate.

I've always wanted to own my own pub, so my wife and I left Australia in early 2006, moved to Costa Del Sol, opened an Aussie Bar and had 2.5 years of great fun.
End of the day we sold up due to the economy, lost a little bit of money, but have amazing memories, had a baby over there (thats another story) and we have been back in Sydney now for 12 months and back on an even keel again.

You'll die wondering if you don't do it. If you fail, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start again.

Easy really!!

go for it, why stay on this small over-populated island?

learn french.
if you want to improve your chances of work,
esp in Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec.

british expats .com is a good site to get honest views and info .

ty all.

I immigrated to Canada after WWII. Travelled across on Queen Mary. Beautiful country but winters are extreme. I suffered from homesickness and returned home after 7months. In those days it was like travelling to another planet and one never saw one`s family and friends again. Different nowadays though with mass communications and Jet flights. I wish you the best of luck.

Vancouver is great. Go for it. If you don't you'll always wonder about it.

A bit like knobbing Jordan.

Been to Toronto, Calgary and Vancover...

Never knew what was where when we went. It was all booked online from the UK. First trip, got the train from Toronto to Niagara Falls, took two facking hours. Later discovered that you can drive it in 35 minutes. :(

The only way to see Canada is to live there, it's just too vast for holidays. 14 days out of the UK but spent about 65 hours in planes, trains, boats and cars.

...not knobbed Jordan though, still wondering about that.

I looked into this a few years back. The one thing that stuck in my head was that you're awarded as much for being able to read and write French at level 3 as you are for having a phd!

Also, if you have a million pounds they'll accept you as they reckon that's enough to live off.