# Temporary Working Visa - 1 year - Questions!



## Josh (Aug 26, 2008)

Hi all.

I applied to the BUNAC scheme and have received my visa to work in Canada for one year. I am so excited - I just came back from a vacation to Vancouver and really enjoyed myself, so I will be going there and staying with a friend in October until I get on my feet.

Im trying to plan as much as I can before I leave though, and one thing I am struggling to find information on is how to obtain a car whilst out there. I am a 21 year old male, so hiring a car long-term is out of the question, unless I want to pay $6,000-$8,000. I have a British License and have had it for over 3 years (with 3 years' worth of no claims, but I dont think that will matter?). Now the questions I have are; If I wanted to purchase a car, will my license be enough, or will I need an international drivers license, or will I need to take a BC test? Also, roughly how much will I be paying for insurance? Any information or ideas to tackle my conundrum would be great!

Secondly, I have the equivilent of around $10,000 to use whilst out there. I am looking to spend the majority of that on a car and an apartment. How should I go about transferring this money from my bank account into a Canadian bank (if you suggest I open a canadian bank account?) - also bare in mind that I will be working in Canada, so im assuming I will need one anyway to bank paychecks.

Cheers


----------



## soccersteve (Aug 7, 2010)

Driver Licencing and insurance is run on an individual province basis. In BC, ICBC (icbc<dot>com) are the folks who administer both the licencing and the insurance - they are a crown corporation. Until recently if you were coming from the UK to BC you had to retest, but BC have recently caught up with most of the other provinces in Canada and now offer reciprocal licencing arrangement. That is, if you have a Full UK licence you can swap it out for a BC licence. The icbc has information on this.

Regarding insurance premiums they do look at your no claims history when deciding how much to charge you so its worth getting letters from your insurance companies to show when you're obtaining insurance. You have to get your basic (3rd party) insurance from ICBC and if you want to get optional (fully comp) insurance you can get this from ICBC or a private company such as Canadian Direct.

As you're 21 you may find that insurance premiums are not that different to what you're used to in the UK. As a rule of thumb as you get older in the UK you can expect pretty decent discounts from insurance companies if you have a good history. In BC the discounts are not half as good. Good drivers end up paying for bad drivers and bad drivers get away with premiums that would be regarded as low in the UK.

On buying a car you can simply go and buy one cash from a dealership - I did. Had no problems, they will likely want you to pay from your bank account though (money laundering reasons). I've also bought and sold on craigslist - so you could look there too. But have you also considered zipcar? Unless you're really traveling a lot outside of the downtown core this could be an option for you. This is what I do as it is very cost effective; it includes your insurance and petrol (gas). You can book a car for as little 30 mins, choosing from a mini, a mazda or even a BMW or Audi if you want to go posh. Zipcar has many locations in the downtown core, and is all over America and now in Europe as well.

You will need a bank account. Look for a branch close to where you're planning to live/work. The main banks are TD/HSBC/Royal Bank/Scotiabank. Credit Unions (Building Societies) like Vancity are just as good. You'll be able to just wire the money from the UK to Canada just give your UK bank an instruction. If you're planning on making lots of transfers xe<dot>com is a cheaper method of transferring funds. You could also get a secured/prepaid visa card to use while you're here if the bank offers it.

Regarding the apartment you really don't need to make substantial provision. If you take a lease you'll only need a months rent plus half a months rent deposit. BC rental law is biased more to the renter than the landlord.

Hope this helps.


----------



## Josh (Aug 26, 2008)

Thank you very much for your reply, you have helped alot in answering my questions . I am going to use some of the info you provided and continue to research around. I will post again if I have any other questions.


----------

