Immigrate to Calgary, Canada? Advise please!

[DesparateHousewife83]

I would really value some impartial views and advice on this please.
My husband and I are considering a move from the UK to Calgary in Canada, with our two daughters, 1 and 4.

The reasons are: better quality of life: more out doorsey activities on your doorstep, good education (free? I understand?) , great health care and really friendly locals. City looks beautiful and the more I read the more I like the sound of it.

The trouble is my husband says he will only agree to seriously considering this move if we practically win the lottery! However, We are in a fortunate enough position due to inheritance not to have a mortgage on our house here in the UK. So theoretically we could sell up here, move there and buy a much bigger home (been doing some research) and from that point of view have a more comfortable hone lifestyle.

Is this a bad idea? Should we rent our house as a fall back should we hate the move?

Is it right to take our daughters away from all of their family?

How much money do you really think you need to make a move to Canada?

Has anyone had first hand experience of moving a family to Calgary by any chance? cold you share your thoughts please?

Would you go and do a reccy if DH is offered a job there before committing?

I would really value your views as I don't want to ask family and friends; I don't want to cause any anxiety that we may up and leave at this stage.

Thank you so much!

I would do a recce before you make the move. We were all set on Calgary at first but once we went for a visit we knew it was not the place we wanted to move to. We live on the East coast now and most people here go out West to work after they leave school or University but when it comes to raising their families they return to the East coast.
We sold our house and moved here in 2009. We shipped our belongings over in a container. I highly recommend doing that!
Health care is not as great as the NHS.
Cost of living is higher.
We like the education system over here but it is very different to the UK. Our daughter is in French immersion and she loves it! Not sure if that's offered over in Calgary.

We are spend all of the summer at the beach and in the winter we spend it at the ski hill and trails. Life is very laid back and we love it! It was the best move we have ever made :)

Thank you so much for replying, and your good advice too. I think you are right a reccy is a must.
Do you mind saying how easy you found finding a job over there? Did you find it best to find a job to add to your points system or did you have a slightly more straight forward work transfer? It's all a bit of a mine field...!
Thanks so much xx

I have not emmigrated to canada but personaly i wouldnt emmigrate without a job offer.

Do you have any family or friends in calgary? Or any first hand information?

I got very excited about my mate's move to Canada. He posted picture of his garden... and it had a hacking great MOOSE in it !

I was wibbling with Moose stroking envy, until he enlightened me about the probability of Moose not being too keen on being stroked. I still would really like Moose visits in my garden though.

Have you looked into visa's and stuff ?

I came to Italy after sticking a pin in a map, with no job lined up. But I was young, free and single. Now with a kid, a husband, responsibilities, a house I wouldn't budge without a cast iron contract for a well paid job where they took care of all the entry/right to work paperwork for me. And even then I'd probably be inclined to suck it see before selling my home and really cementing myself somewhere new.

You have to bear in mind that if anything happens to the adult relationship once you've gone over and established yourselves there, then one of you could find themselves stuck with a choice of being somewhere you hate, or being in the same country as your kids. Becuase you can't just unilaterally decide fuck this for a game of soldiers and take your kids home without the other parents permission.

If one partner is moving abroad against their own personal preferences it can make an already quite tricky transition quite a bit worse. So I'd say unless everybody is really truely 100% on board it's a bit of a risk to push ahead anyway. By raising the bar to lottery win, to me it places a question mark over how much your spouse really wants this.

edit ....leaving somewhere you hate,

Yes, come for a recce. The City itself is not that pretty if I'm honest - but having the mountains on your doorstep is pretty amazing, and we find it a great place to live. We ski in winter and camp all summer and we love it here.

You might find it really hard to find work before you get here - DH tried and they all said 'come back when you've landed' so he gave up and we just both looked when we arrived. We started off in Vancouver and later came to Calgary with DH's job. (Vancouver is lovely by the way, but stupidly expensive).

Traditionally AB has had loads of jobs, but the oil price dip will certainly slow things down for a bit.

Can't tell you anything about schools, sorry, as we've got no kids. But a friend has a child in French Immersion so I know it's available.

It's cold here in winter - and can be really cold. It was -23 with the wind chill this morning. Winter really does lasts from Nov to March. Snows quite often in May. But we get Chinook winds that warm us up for a while in winter so at least the bone chilling cold doesn't go on for weeks and weeks. Summers are lovely. Spring and Autumn last about 5 minutes each.

We sold up and shipped like the other poster. You'll like the house prices if you're from the south of England

I find food expensive here. Healthcare is mostly 'free' but you tend to get top up insurance through your employer that pays for things like Dental, Physio, prescriptions etc.

Oh, and our Mayor Nenshi has just been voted World's Best Mayor

It's not as easy as 'deciding to move' I'm afraid. I assume you have investigated whether you are applying for permanent residence as a skilled worker (look up your NOC codes and calculate your points) or whether you are going to try and secure work and a temp work permit?

Dh works in Calgary but we live just over an hour away. We have been in this location for about four years now.

I find the health services no worse than the NHS, and in some circumstances better. A lot of folks move west for better health care, as the bigger cities in ON etc do suffer from the same problems brought on by sheer numbers - waitlists etc.

In practical terms, Calgary is a 9 hour flight from London, and kids pay adult prices, so travel to the UK for a family is expensive. We are a family of 5 and it is just not possible to do the trip 'home' very often. We are lucky in that family visits us here (we are a pretty big visitor destination, so more likely to get visitors than if we have moved elsewhere...)

Where are you looking in Calgary? Okotoks is pretty much 'Little Britain' and outside, Airdrie and Cochrane are going much the same way. Huge British population with a lot of Brit police officers recruited by the Calgary police a number of years ago, and more recently an increasing number of ex british military leaving the army from the nearby training base. Plus the usual trickle of immigrants.

I like Calgary.

Get yourself onto britishexpats for advice. There are a million Calgarians on there, but there are also specific areas for immigration and work permit advice. Until you have worked out whether you 'can' do it, maybe hold off on the 'whether'?

My brother lives there (wife from calgary). It's amazing and we loved it. Salaries are good but cost of living is high - fresh food, especially meat is very expensive. education is free but dc are expected to go home for lunch or you pay for them to be cared for at school during lunch (not masses but worth knowing). Health care isn't brilliant sil went on waiting list for a midwife and never got to the top of the list so gave birth without ever having seen one despite registering at 5 weeks pg.
It can snow Oct to may and sometimes in the summer.
We loved it when we visited but I know my parents already have a grandchild out there so taking my 3dc would devastate them.

I would add that everything in Alberta revolves around the oil and gas industry. This is not a good time for oil and gas, with a lot of uncertainty (conspiracy theories about the Far East trying to bankrupt North American oil by artificially forcing the barrel price to drop, etc etc). Most oil and gas companies are reducing staff currently, and other industries are not recruiting as they are waiting for the outcome of the budget next month.

There are also considerations that suggest due to the recent very low oil prices, the province dropped billions of revenue, and discussions around how to continue to provide services - the education sector and the health sector are all heavily involved as the provincial budget relies on oil revenue. Some commentators (including those within provincial govt) are suggesting that it may be necessary to reintroduce a cost for provincial health care etc. The education sector is actively campaigning with TV ads against budget cuts.

I notionally work in the education sector, and we will not get our annual pay increase this year - but so far no redundancies, just a hiring freeze.

A lot depends on your job situation - what industries do you work in? But really, Alberta is in a holding pattern currently - as no one really knows what the next couple of years will bring in terms of oil prices.

Lol motherofdragons - midwives are not the norm for antenatal care or for birth here. The obstetrician delivers the babies. Midwives are becoming slightly more common, but they don't exist as a norm, because they are not required. To judge a health care system because it doesn't match with your own background is truly bonkers.

I've given birth in three countries - you don't need a midwife. The obstetrician was more than capable lol! (I should add, in the three countries I have given birth in, including Canada, I only had a midwife in the UK. Which birth resulted in a birth injury? The one in the UK. Good old NHS.)

My kids have never come home for lunch. We pay the minimal amount for lunch cover and it's fine. Some schools charge it, some don't. There are 'school fees' but these are minimal - around $150 a year. And you provide your own school supplies (pens, pencils, paper, glue, markers etc)

And yes, the weather is worth considering. Bahahahahahahahahahaha.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply and give me some much needed advice.
You are all right: we need to establish if it's even a possibility re visas etc before we stress out about whether to go or not!
My husband runs a tennis club here in the south of England and so would be looking to stay in that field if we moved.
We do know one local in Calgary who also runs a tennis club, so hoping they will be able to introduce us to some others within the same field.
There certainly is lots to consider- but I will hold off on mulling it all over until we have done some proper job research and digging and then onto visa.
Calgary still has a shine for me though despite some of the not so positive comments! I love the idea of a moose in the garden!!
Thank you all again xxx

If you go, please can we have Moose in Garden pics ?

I have a massive soft spot for them.

I haven't had a moose but I have had a skunk!

Not that many moose in Calgary...
We've had coyotes, mule deer, and frequently get held up on the roads for the herd of elk to wander around, or for bear jams. The kids frequently get indoor play at school becasue the elk are on the school field... And I got spooked by a cougar walking the dogs at the dog park. They shot it 20 yards away from where I saw it, the following morning
No skunks. Thank feck.

I'm in Fort McMurray, which is a 8 hour drive north of Calgary.
You really do need to investigate the visa route. One of my friends (who is ex police and lives in Airdrie) had to wait 3 years but landed with PR.
DH got a job offer with a work visa and LMO (now called an LMIA). Basically, your employer has to satisfy the government that there's no one available in Canada to do the job.
His company (oil) have just laid off 1000 permanent staff nationwide.

We have wolves, bears, lynx and coyotes in our "back garden". Been here 4 years and still not seen a moose.

I'm in interior BC, eight hours west of Calgary. We have a great life here and I have no regrets. However I have a feeling that if your dh may be right and emigrating now might require a lot of money.

We came over on a temporary work permit six years ago when there was a shortage of IT specialists and then applied for provincial sponsorship for our permanent residency visa and it was relatively easy, if stressful, time consuming and expensive.

They recently revamped the immigration routes, so look at the CIC website. One option might potentially be the Persons Program [[http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/business/self-employed/index.asp]] as you said your dh ran a tennis club and there seems to be an interest in athletics. Otherwise you are looking at the new Express Entry route or finding an employer who is prepared to jump through the new hoops to get a temporary foreign worker.

I think that right now is not a good time to think about moving here, but do come and visit, it's a beautiful part of the world!

Try victoria, the city of langford are trying to get tennis Canada out here.

It takes along time to get a visa, and it's also really expensive to live in Canada.

There is lots of advice on british expats

I lived in Ontario for 12 years so don't know "out west" but my first thought was tennis in Alberta means un tennisable weather for a huge chunk of the year. Try west of the Rockies for more amenable weather patterns! Unless it's indoor of course!

Thank so much that's all sly useful advice!
Thank you nooka for those website details too!
Maybe we will have to settle for a few holidays in canada for now while the long visa process is underway- if it gets underway!!
Xxxxx

Midwife info was from dsil who is from calgary and only lived in UK for 3 years.
Re lunch - don't think cost is much just something to be aware of. Db mentioned their 2 local schools charge for lunch care. They're fairly close to calgary centre.

She's quite right lol - there are no midwives - antenatal care and delivery is routinely handled by other medical professionals. Midwives are just becoming trendy with the middle classes - you can have one, but they aren't routine at all. It's a bit like having a doula in the UK you are quite welcome to avail yourself of one, if you can find one and can afford it otherwise the docs do everything. So complaining about not having a mw in calgary is a bit like complaining you don't have a doula in Canterbury. It's not an example of poor medical facities.

I was living in Vancouver when I had dd1 in 2006 and I had a midwife ( and a doula). I think midwives are much more common than they used to be.

I have never lived in Calgary, but had visited a few times and loved it, and I know a few people who live there and are very happy.

Moved to Calgary area 8 months ago. Love the mountains, wide open space (we live out in the country) but the city doesn't do alot for me (and as we moved from the not terribly picturesque Houston that's saying something). Kids at private school so can't comment on public schooling, but love their private school - they teach the same Alberta curriculum, which is good. French still a big part of school even in English language school, which considering how much french is spoken in Alberta (not a lot!) is excellent. Cost of living pretty high, housing expensive, and as a foreigner, it was tough to get things sorted like buying cars. But, we've seen 6 moose since we arrived, and have deer in the garden daily, so it's all worth it.