# need some advice



## ciara57 (Sep 15, 2010)

hi, my name is sarah and i am new to the forum and would really appreciate some or lots of advice.
im currently living on the isle of wight and me and my family have just started the application process to live and work in canada on a PR visa. 
the reasons for choosing canada................ we have 3 girls ages 12, 10, and 3 yrs and both myself and my husband work hard and my husband does earn a very good wage for the island but life is a constant up hill struggle, we are looking to find a better quality of live and better oppertunities for both us and our girls.
my husband works as a heavy duty machanic and from reasearch have found that his average wage to expect in canada is far better than here.
we would be renting and do not have a property to sell here, we would be flying out with the basic minimum required by the immagration, its either use the money as a depoisit on a house here, or start a new life and we have choosen the latter.
the reasearch i have done has shown vancouver to be a expensive area to live so have ruled that out, we preferr to live just outside a big city rather than in the middle of one......but where????? given my husbands trade do you suggest anywhere??? and is canada on a whole really a lower cost living???? not looking to be rich, just to beable to enjoy our family. lots of info appreciated
thanks sarah


----------



## patient man (Feb 14, 2010)

WHY vancouver or the other larger cities in canada why not look at halifax or somewhere on the atlantic provences, maybe poorer provences but they have the lifestyle you are seeking and more than likely lower cost of living, tho others in the forum will put us right on that.
As for the cost of living my research shows it may be on par with the uk on most items but property is cheaper fuel is cheaper. 
But it all depends on what you value in life.


----------



## ciara57 (Sep 15, 2010)

hiya, thanks for replying, we have just started looking around and made a start on the bigger areas, we are assuming we have plenty of time to research as the visas we have been told will take between 8 and 12 months!!!! 
not knowing anyone there and have never visited its really hard to know where to start!!! 
i expect we will end up where ever my husband can find work and start from there, but want to get it right for the sake of the girls, this is a one chance thing and dont want to get it wrong, so keep coming with as much info as you can, would be of great help to me!!!!
the sort of life im craving, is an out door life, being able to take the kids out at weekends without constantly worrying about money, to pay the bills without stressing every month....just the simple things really, nothing extravagent just to be a bit more comfortable, and of course will have the bennifits of living in a stunning country.....
thank you sarah


----------



## MandyB (Jan 14, 2010)

Hi
Just to start you off - look at Alberta - the province has a good employment percentage and has a broad spectrum of terrains from forest to desert. 
We live near Edmonton which is mid Alberta and its capital.
It would be best to come over for a holiday (in the winter!) that gives you the 'worse case senerio' - we did and still came! The roads are kept really clear of snow & ice, the malls are under cover & heated, all cars are plugged in to stop the blocks freezing! Summers are hot, winters are cold, spring and autumn short & sweet

Good luck
MandyB


----------



## ciara57 (Sep 15, 2010)

hiya mandy, thank you for your reply, i will look into it, getting info from people that live in canada is so helpful...........so the job oppertunities are good, what about rental prices and the general cost of living, and what would you think an average for a heavy duty machanic would be??? 12 years experience, 4 year apprentiship and has run a work shop. 
we are entering on a skilled worker visa as my husbands job is on the list.
sorry for all the questions, hope you dont mind.
sarah.xxxx


----------



## Oggy (Jan 25, 2009)

Hi Sarah

This link is provided by the Government of Canada - Labour Market Information & you may find it helpful...

Labour Market Information from the Labour Market Information (LMI)


----------



## MandyB (Jan 14, 2010)

ciara57 said:


> hiya mandy, thank you for your reply, i will look into it, getting info from people that live in canada is so helpful...........so the job oppertunities are good, what about rental prices and the general cost of living, and what would you think an average for a heavy duty machanic would be??? 12 years experience, 4 year apprentiship and has run a work shop.
> we are entering on a skilled worker visa as my husbands job is on the list.
> sorry for all the questions, hope you dont mind.
> sarah.xxxx


Alberta suffered less than other provinces in the recession - although it was hard to tell we actually had one here! - also we recover quickier than other provinces.
Opportunties are good - but as with everything there is competition - the more you 'get yourself out there' the better. Join every internet job search engines, agencies etc. My family came over for a Xmas holiday and took down the names of companies where my hubby could work (electronics engineer) and then emailed CV/resume to them all. He came on a 3 month ticket and went for an interview with one company who replied to his email and got the job. Not saying it happens all the time but it can!
Dependant on which area you want to live & size of rental determines the costs. Once you know which side of the city you are living investigate those areas. 
For mechanics - this ad I found at random.
Maizis & Miller Consultants 

Heavy Duty Mechanic (Job # 834) 

Heavy Duty Mechanic (Job # 834)
Edmonton, AB

A Heavy Duty Mechanic with strong diesel engine skills and experience is needed in Edmonton for an urgent opening. This position is strictly an in shop position and involves a lot of custom work, no two days will be the same. The bulk of this role will involve building and testing diesel and natural gas powered generators. The ideal candidate will have a strong background working with engines or generators and be familiar with assembling. Those with advanced electrical skills will be given preference. A Journeyman Certificate in Mechanics is preferred but not required for this role.


Pay rate ranges between $30.00 - $34.00 per hour depending on experience. Comprehensive benefits including extended health, dental, optical and pension are included.

This will be a standard day shift.

Rentals - from $700pm - $1200pm but difficult to tell until you know where & size.
Hope some of this helps you.
MandyB


----------



## Guest (Oct 5, 2010)

*where to go?*

Hi, having just come to England for two to three years, I thought I would give you my thoughts on the subject. I live near Poole by the way so quite close by.

We lived our twenty plus years life together in Canada living in Ontario, a little north of Peterborough and south of Haliburton. It is a very beautiful part of the Province and known as Ontarios Lakeland. I am Canadian but my wife is English so she had to go through the application process (points and all that) but it was no problem. I was a high school teacher in UK so did the same job in Ontario. I originally came from Ottawa so one Christmas I took my wife there working on the basis that if she liked Ottawa in the mid winter with the temps in the -25c and the winds blowing a gale from the north she would like anything. She did so we went.

We ended up in a small village of 2500 people because that was where I was offered a job. Eventually my wife (an architectural Designer) found work in a small architectural practice in a nearby town population 20000. So this is the first point... we lived where we found the job and found the job because of where we lived. It goes both ways equally. It is important to try and find a job that will give a family health and dental plan because these things can be expensive, especially dental and prescriptions.

We rented an apartment for a year while we found a hundred acres of bush, paid $80000 for it and built ourselves, from scratch, a house. total cost for build about $110000 making about $200000 in total. last year when we came here we sold it all for $250000, so you can see that property prices do not change a great deal over a number of years. (there was a recession in the middle of this time period)
Don't expect to invest in poroperty, certainly in most Provinces outside perhaps Vancouver BC and Calgary AB, it is not like England.

Life for most Brits is very different in Canada. It is a country for young people with a big focus on the outdoors. We used to fish, canoe,sail, go wilderness camping in the summer and curling, skating, X country skiing, dog sledging, ice sailing and snow shoeing in the winter. I was also big into hunting and trapping. If we had to, we went to Toronto maybe twice or three times a year. Too big, noisey, too many cars etc.

Outside of the cities and big towns, you can drive for an hour and only meet a handful of cars. In a lot of places if you break down in winter you can freeze to death if you are not prepared. We used to have at least three days around the -40c and regularly below -25c. In the summer a few days of +40c but regularly in the mid twenties to low thirties. We lived only 110 km from the American border. I have spent quite a lot of time in every Province and apart from NS and PEI I have found that space is what strikes you most about Canada. That and the mosquitoes in June and July.

Schooling is not much different, my son is 14 and has adjusted to school in the UK quite seemlessly. However, I can not get used to the tiny houses, no land, the traffic, the use of CCTV camera everywhere and radar/traffic cameras everywhere. I never feel private here, always feel somebody is looking over my shoulder. 

We came back as my wife had memories of England 25 years ago and so when I retired she wanted to return to the 'home country'. She always said that she did not belong in Canada and that she always felt to be an outsider. After a year here she wants to go back but to NS, (I had planned to retire to NS as I am a big sailor). WE both find the UK very expensive, we cannot bring ourselves to pay 300000.00 for a little house in the country with a small back yard, when in NS we can get 6 acres with 200 ft of ocean front and a 100 year old 4/5 bedroomed 2500sq ft house for 250000 pounds. However we must now wait until my son completes his GCSE's

In Canada Cars are cheaper and cheaper to run with gas half the price. We even found food cheaper but clothes about the same. Electronic equipment and appliances can also be cheaper (Canadian Tire being a fabulous Canadian institution). Drinking out a bit more expensive. Eating out about the same. We found salaries to be higher, even in the bush where we were, in fact for teachers it was more than twice the salary with much better working conditions.

Quality of life was soo much better back at home and I found the stress levels to be a lot less. I think your kids will grow up to have a much better chance of a good education and quality of work life with much more opportunity. Canada is growing, it is looking to the future, it has huge natural resources, unlike Britain where so many people celebrate and live in the past and have little vision of what their future might be.

Come back if anything I have said interests you. For a woman's perspective I am sure my wife would be pleased to add her view point.


----------



## ciara57 (Sep 15, 2010)

thank you so much mandy and mnunnery for both of your in-put, as iv said before i really do need as much help as possible.
i expect you will see me on here asking loads of questions over the next coming months and i will keep you posted on how the visa application progresses.
many thanks sarah.xxx


----------



## jeff66 (Aug 19, 2009)

8-12 months for PR. Is that right? Wow I thought it was round 42 months?

We have been here just over a year now, I we can help with questions, please ask.

jeff


----------



## Jennianne (Feb 8, 2010)

in response to mandys reply we have been looking at rental propertyies in edmonton as my husband went 2 weeks ago to start a new job there. You r looking anywhere from $1200 up for a 3 bed townhouse which is a terraced house here. You r not going to get anything semi decent for less than that. I have a few websites for alberta you can look on to get an idea if you want them pm me x


----------



## ciara57 (Sep 15, 2010)

thank you that would be really helpful, the only thing is not sure how to private message!!!!!! lol, not good with all this, the site is new to me so not sure how!!!!
good luck with your husbands job, when do you join him????? keep me posted on how the move goes, would love to hear more from you.
thank you sarah.xx


----------



## Jennianne (Feb 8, 2010)

I have sent you a private message if you look up in the tope right corner where your log in name is it says below that private message click on that x


----------



## jeff66 (Aug 19, 2009)

whoops


----------

