Anyone from Canada? Thinking of emigrating there...

by teel 65 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  jgnat

  Canadian here. Western Canada; Edmonton, Alberta. Angharad said it all. We've got jobs. Need I say more? We're heading for another oil boom, so move sooner rather than later. If Simon and Angharad had moved just a year earlier, they would have saved a fortune in housing.

  http://www.albertacanada.com/immigration/

  Job hunting: www.workopolis.com

  About the cold - we are coming out of one of our snowiest and longest winters ever. We're all miserable and desperate for green. There's a stupid commercial running right now, "Canadians Love the Cold", by Tide cold-water. (Get it?). They have completely missed the Canadian character. We endure the cold. Sure, it is all right for skiing and tobogganing (as long as it is not too cold), but we truly love our warm inner spaces. And we go wild outdoors with summer festivals.

  There's a weird cultural phenomena called "Tim Horton's". It's a coffee and doughnut shop. Nothing special, except that nearly every Canadian is addicted!

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojq-koj__HA

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRI-A3vakVg

  You can pick up your plaid flannel shirt from Mark's Work Wearhouse.

  Mad Sweeney, you mgiht want to check out southern Ontario. To my Canadian sensibilities, it is hot and humid (at least in the summer). Everyone has air conditioning!
• 

  Angharad

  There's a weird cultural phenomena called "Tim Horton's". It's a coffee and doughnut shop. Nothing special, except that nearly every Canadian is addicted!

  hmmm Tim Horten's in the morning, does that make me a real Canadian now?

  I love the I am Canadian advert!

  Yes, as Jgnat say we moved over at a really bad time as the house market had rocketed but we had to take the opportunity while it was there, things aren't quite so crazy now though.

  On that note thought one thing that can be a challenge is when you first arrive you will have zero credit history and so it can be difficult to secure a mortgage / car loans etc might not be so bad now though, even if you can show you history from your home country it counts for nothing really . It doesn't take too long to get things going but they make you jump through a lot more hoops in this respect so make sure you have lots of documentation and are prepared for a lot of questions !
• 

  Mary

  There's a weird cultural phenomena called "Tim Horton's". It's a coffee and doughnut shop. Nothing special, except that nearly every Canadian is addicted!

  That's because it's much better than that crappy place called Dunkin' Donuts which serves horrible coffee and disgusting donuts that I wouldn't feed my dog. Yep, Canadians love our Timmie's and our maple syrup.

  am I out of my mind to move there, or is it the best decision of my life? - of course the answer is somewhere in between, but feel free to be extreme if you want to

  I'm Canadian.....pros and cons to living here. Biggest Pro: Universal Health Care. Biggest Con: I hope you like winter. Compared to our American cousins south of the border, Canadians are pretty laid back about politics and the only time we actually ever watch politicans debate is when it looks like one of them is (literally) going to be the crap out of the other guy in the House of Commons. Other than that, don't expect too much debating over which-party-is-better-to-vote-for, because we know that each suck and what's the point in dwelling on it?

  We don't carry firearms on our person as most of us would be afraid that it might go off and we'd shoot ourselves in the dinger and there's no fun in that.

  Our beer is the best! It's also ridiculously expensive which pisses everyone off so we try to smuggle the odd bottle back from Buffalo when we go over there shopping. We pay A LOT in taxes which also pisses everyone off, but that's never going to go away so there's no point in dwelling on it. Might as well kick back with a bucket of KFC and a couple of brewskies.

  You can go to Europe and no one wants to kill you because they know less than nothing about Canadians and are hard put to even find where Canada is on the map.

  Our TV programs are an embarassing joke, so yep, we depend solely on Hollywood to provide us with Entertainment, just like everyone else in the free world. Our TV satellite provided through places like Bell and Rogers is total joke and not worth the $$$ you have to fork out, but right now, it's virtually impossible to get the American satellite system, because Bell and Rogers don't like the competition.

  All in all though, Canada's a pretty decent place to live, so sure----come on up!
• 

  mouthy

  I love Canada ,think it is the best place in the world

  ( Not that I have been all over the world) Just England,
  I left there when I was 19,traveled.. alot of the States( heavy expenses medical)
  But I think you should obtain work before you come. In MY area Ontario
  work is not really obtainable,It takes some getting used to with the snow &
  cold. ( I hate the winter)but I find the Canadians are friendly,Fall is WONDERFUL
  Summer is Great ....Hope you think about it carefully.Anghard & Simon seems
  to have settled wonderfully....they are real CANUCKS
• 

  Satanus

  Calgary is the most conservative city. Vancouver and montreal are the most liberal. Salt and pepper, so to speak. Depends what you prefer.

  S
• 

  headisspinning

  This might be helpful:

  Successful Newcomers in Manitoba

  These are career stories of immigrants who have successfully integrated into Manitoba's workforce. They talk about their experiences in their own words. They share their success stories to help you build your own success in Manitoba.

  http://www.immigrantsandcareers.mb.ca/cdmb-newcomers/general/pages/home/
• 

  Iamallcool

  I will NEVER live in Canada in the wintertime. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
• 

  JRK

  Timmy's has killer coffee!

  JK
• 

  strymeckirules

  the natives are restless. beware.
• 

  Simon

  Also I'd apreciate any kind of advice, description of your country, way of living, ease of employment, weather, people, anything that might cross your mind.

  As personal info I'm a software developer - however partly because of the JWs, partly because of bad decision making on my part, I have quit the university. So I am an interresting combination - no degree, but actually quite skilled and with vast experience - been working for 10+ years in the field, and right now I have the competition doing everything in its power to get me to work for them, so I must be good. So, how much do you think the lack of a degree would impede me there?

  As Angharad said, we moved over here in 2007 to Calgary, Alberta and have not regretted it at all.

  It's a nice place - good for employment (lots of Oil and Gas companies so the city has been booming and salaries are good) but very close to nature and the spectacular Rockies. You can't go wrong being just an hour away from Banff / Lake Louise!

  I'm actually in the same field as you and got a job offer and work permit a couple of months after we put in our application for PR so they then fast-tracked it under the 'skilled worker programme'. If you can get a job offer, its the way to do it - the job market softened a bit with the global downturn but has been pretty solid in Calgary and recovered a lot recently.

  The lack of university degree is no problem at all. I never had one in the UK either and only got one for the immigration points. I actually had it down as 'in progress' on my CV ... no one ever asks for degrees when you have experience but you should have it on your CV (they put it in job specs but no one really needs it). IT degrees in general are so far behind the times that they are really pointless and pale in comparison to hard skills and experience that can be applied.

  What sort of skills do you have? I may be able to give you some pointers of what to focus on or where would be good places to look for work. Getting employment is the hardest thing (if you're remote) but people are very open to hiring immigrants here which doesn't have the same stigma as in the UK.

  I had my CV up on Monster and included Canada as a work location which was how my employer contacted me (I actually got their email trying to 'sell' Calgary to me on the day we got back from a 3-week vacation here and replied "I know, I was there this morning!").

  Let us know if you need any more info (email simon@jehovahs-witness.net is best). There is a lot to learn, it seems like it will never happen and there are lots of people who want to take your money to 'help' so beware (really, the forms and paperwork aren't too bad).

  It was a great move for us though and we've never regretted it and have a great new life here and awesome friends so I only have good things to say but of course YMMV depending on your expectations.