Moving to Canada as a teacher - help!

[Adventurelady]

Dh, and i have been discussing moving to Canada from the UK for a while now, and we decided to go for it. Dh is a teacher, and just can't take teaching in the UK anymore. I think things are tough in Canada too, but i think overall things should be better than life in the UK. We should be able to afford a house almost mortgage free. We are thinking of Alberta, particularly Calgary area.

Has any teacher made the move to Alberta? I'd like to know your experience, what's it like teaching there, and steps involved to move there. I wouldn't be working as have small DC. Would i be covered for health insurance? Would be able to afford on Dh salary alone if we can pay for house outright?

Also i am not sure how it would all work. We have a mortgage, so would need to sell up, but would need a job lined up before hand. If for example Dh got a job offer in April/May, it would only give us weeks to get us all over there?

Any experience of getting a job, and the practicalities greatly appreciated.

[marcopront]

If you are on Facebook you could join one of the groups for international teachers. They are very helpful.

[timbitstimbytes]

Hi, I'm not a teacher and am outside Toronto, but the process may be more difficult than you think. The provinces tend to be very protective of professions like engineering, teaching, even radiology and you usually have to go through a rigourous process of getting recognised. Alberta is one of the provinces though that has a more "independent-minded" set of schools called charter schools which may be a possibility for you. https://www.alberta.ca/teacher-certification

In terms of immigrating, this again is can be a pretty long process for those not sponsored by a company and you need to qualify and attain a number of points and things like your age and dependents are also considered. You may want to get an immigration lawyer to help apply for Permanent Residency as sometimes you can qualify for express entry. You then need to stay in the country for a certain period (a number of years) to qualify for citizenship.

Health is "free" at point of entry and is given to those who have been in the province after 3 months, there are a number of insurance companies who can fill the 3 month gap for you.

The last thing to mention is that in order to buy a home if you are not a citizen, you will be taxed at 20% of the property and this amount is not eligible to be mortgaged nor is it returned unless you finally get citizenship. So if you wanted to go buy a home, then absolutely hated the brutal winters, the Government would keep that 20%.

The province is absolutely beautiful but you should also be aware that it's often referred to as the Texas of Canada as it has quite a conservative lean to the politics which may or may not suit you both.

In terms of affordability Canada has recently become ridiculously expensive, when I was back in the UK I was amazed how cheap everything was in the supermarket. I paid the equivalent of 10 pound for a small block of cheddar the other day. Mobiles are also expensive and whilst the homes are suited to the environment, your heating still needs to be on for much longer than in the UK it went to -45c in Alberta recently and they were having some trouble with the grid. Let me know if you have any more questions.

[Ionacat]

Have a look at this thread. You need to get a teaching license for whichever Province you want to move to and I don’t know how easy that is from the UK. You could look for international schools that advertise in the UK and will take care of the visa etc. for you. (But suspect those jobs would be like hens teeth.)

https://britishexpats.com/forum/canada-56/uk-teacher-moving-canada-help-936485/page2/

[Neodymium]

I don’t know anything about Canada but I would not move and immediately buy. You need to get a feel for the area and suburb first. I would rent for 6 months while you decide.

im in Australia and we have a teacher shortage here too. Houses are pretty expensive but the exchange rate is good for you. (Sucks for us though). If you are specifically looking for somewhere cold in the mountains there is lots of areas of Victoria that are like that. I’ve no idea what the process to move here is.

[Adventurelady]

@timbitstimbytes where can I find information about 20% property tax?

[timbitstimbytes]

https://kahanelaw.com/non-resident-real-estate-holdbacks-alberta/ sorry it’s actually 25%. I believe it may have changed to 183 days and you need to be on at least a temp work permit. Bear in mind it can take min 1 year to go from temp work permit to permanent residency than typically 5 years more for citizenship. It took my husband 8 years, Covid made it worse but he was transferred by a
multinational and had a lot of lawyers working on it, as well as being married to a Canadian. To be honest, in many areas like Toronto I know teachers who I have temped for years and still don’t have permanent jobs despite training here and not needing permits to work, it can be really hard to get up the ladder, especially in cities, although Alberta may be different to here.

Lastly, I would get onto a Facebook group about Calgary and get someone to recommend you a realtor to talk to who knows the local market well, they will charge you in event of a sale or rental agreement but can take you through the ins and outs of the rules and what the market is actually like there.

[timbitstimbytes]

Sorry one more thing, buying and selling costs a good deal more here in Toronto buying and selling realtors charge 5% of the purchase price and property tax is also really high although that changes from
place to place.

[CreedMungbean]

Will you be entering Canada under Permanent Residency status? If so, then the foreign ownership tax won't apply (we live in BC - came here originally under a work visa, had to delay buying a house until our Permanent Residency was approved due to the foreign buyers tax).

[Kejikel]

I moved to NS in 2017. I can only give my experience but I think some things I mention may give you an idea of things to look for in your research.

NS teachers have 90 credit hours in 1 subject. 30 credit hours in another subject. They have 60 credit hours in under grad teaching degree.

I needed 120 credit hour inc 30 credit hours in undergrad teaching to get a bridging licence or 150 credit hours to get a teaching licence. I had 105. 90 in Bsc and 15 in PGCE. I could not teach in public sector. I could not afford to get both the extra 30 in another subject, which I would have needed to get on a BEd course in NS, plus the extra 45 in BEd.

I taught in a private school instead, which I loved. I did volunteering and substituting for 2 years before this. I found the grading very hard and can see why it is necessary for a Brit teacher to do at least some courses. I did not know how to grade a kid after 9 years of teaching exam subjects in UK!