moving from Canada ?

[albertamommyof4]

Hi everyone we live in Alberta, Canada and i would love to move, i have lived here my whole life and it just seems to be nothing here anymore. I would love to move to California as we have long winters here like 5 to 6 months of winter lol and i would love to live by the ocean as i have exzema and this was one recommendation from all my specialists growing up was to live by the ocean. California wouldn;t be our only option as kids would love to move to Oregan and i wouldnt mind staying in canada and moving to the vancouver area. So my questions are where do i go to find out how much houseing, food and where jobs are for California and Oregan?? i can find out about vancouver area so that not a problem. Also do you know what and if there are any rules for moving from Canada to the USA?
Thanks oh and we are a family of 6 the kids are 12, 10, 7 and 3.
Also do you know how much moving costs would be or how i can find this out thanks so much
Tammy
looking for a change

 

[NHdisneylover]

I think before you start looking for housing and the like you need to work on gettings visas. I do not know the entire process but you cannot leagally just move to the US (or most countries) without obtaining a visa.
Here is a link to the US EMbassy Canadian website which may be a good palce to start researching:
http://www.consular.canada.usembassy.gov/canadians.asp

 

[binny]

We moved from Calgary to Idaho but before 9-11 and we're a dual citizenship family. It was still a lot of paperwork!

You will have to go to Vancouver for papers if you want to come here, they closed down the Calgary office in 95. You can submit papers there but DH had to fly to Vancouver twice for tests and such.

As for moving to Vancouver or the Island that would be much easier. Much less work. http://www.move.com/ can help you find movers etc.
If you are going to buy a house there try http://www.realtor.com/vancouver/nbregion.asp?st=bc



Good luck!

 

[Northstar]

You will need work authorization to live and work in the US. If you're lucky enough to be a member of one of the occupations/professions listed here, you can qualify for instant TN visa at the border as long as you have a job offer in hand. If you work in some other area, it's a lot more red tape for you and for a prospective employer, and that makes a cross-border job search quite difficult.

Also, please consider the medical insurance cost issue! You cannot keep your Alberta provincial health card while living in the US. So while researching the cost of living in California or Oregon, make sure to look at what you'll be paying to insure your family.

I don't want to discourage you... thousands of Canadians and Americans do go across the border to work and live all the time... but it's not like moving to a different province. You might want to look for a Canadian expats forum. ( I don't know of one because I'm an expat the opposite direction US to Canada)

 

[Micca]

Don't blame you for wanting to get away from all that winter. Good luck

 

[Sarah_Rose]

I'm also from Calgary, and totally understand wanting to get away from all that winter! My husband and I moved out to Seattle 3 years ago.

The visa process was relatively easy for my husband as he is a software engineer (on the TN list and has his degree from a university in Ontario that is considered highly "desirable" at the Seattle-based company that hired him). However, I am a teacher with my MA and I am uneligible for a work visa. So though I can live in the country as a "dependent' on my husband's visa, I cannot legally work. The TN visa is also considered "non-resident" and so in order to work towards becoming a permanent resident, your company has to sponsor you for an H1-B visa. My husband got this visa status about a year ago, and is now working on the process of getting his company to sponsor him for a Green Card. This is a long proccess.... and until it happens, we are a one-income family.

If you can figure that all out, the rest (housing, moving, etc.) is all easy. I would look into Vancouver or Vancouver Island as another option.

 

[albertamommyof4]

thanks everyone i will look into all you have all told me about. It is just my husband who works i am a stay at home mom, not sure if and when i will be going back to work lol. Hubby would most definatly have to change positions he may beable to get a transfer as there is one company of his but in colorado lol.
Thanks

 

[binny]

If he could do a job transfer that would be your best bet if youre intent upon moving here. Im in CO now, granted Ive only been here a short while but I would take 10 CO winters over 1 Calgary winter It doesnt get that cold here.

 

[albertamommyof4]

If he could do a job transfer that would be your best bet if youre intent upon moving here. Im in CO now, granted Ive only been here a short while but I would take 10 CO winters over 1 Calgary winter It doesnt get that cold here.

so glad that it doesn't get as cold there lol. But i pictured the ski resorts and thought that it gets cold and lots of snow like here lol.

 

[npmommie]

You will need work authorization to live and work in the US. If you're lucky enough to be a member of one of the occupations/professions listed here, you can qualify for instant TN visa at the border as long as you have a job offer in hand. If you work in some other area, it's a lot more red tape for you and for a prospective employer, and that makes a cross-border job search quite difficult.

Also, please consider the medical insurance cost issue! You cannot keep your Alberta provincial health card while living in the US. So while researching the cost of living in California or Oregon, make sure to look at what you'll be paying to insure your family.

I don't want to discourage you... thousands of Canadians and Americans do go across the border to work and live all the time... but it's not like moving to a different province. You might want to look for a Canadian expats forum. ( I don't know of one because I'm an expat the opposite direction US to Canada)

what was the process like to move US to Canada? just curious, and why did you move?

 

[Northstar]

what was the process like to move US to Canada? just curious, and why did you move?

It's all DH's fault! Just kidding, I love where I live. DH is a university prof and got an irresistible job offer from a Canadian university. He also has roots (2 generations back) in this area. We moved before NAFTA TN visas, so we had to do the long process of getting a work authorization through the Canadian consulate in Boston. The work authorization was temporary, and I was a "dependent" like Sarah Rose so I couldn't work at first. After we fell in love with Nova Scotia, we applied for permanent residence, which from all I can see is way easier than getting a green card in the US.

The process of moving was kind of confusing because we didn't know what questions to ask. It all worked out in the end... there are speed bumps in your way, but no dangerous potholes!

 

[canadianjovigirl]

We too would love to leave AB for the USA, but it seems way to confusing and complicated to be able to do it legally and work etc. I did live in Vancouver for 7 years and surprisingly hated the constant gray and rain, at least here when it snows its sunny I guess we will have to wait until the kids are done school and then purchase a condo here and one somewhere warm in the US and spend 6 months in each place as i just cant seem to wrap my head around how to go about getting work visas and the legal process to move to the USA.

Good Luck with whatever you decide!!!

 

[Tina]

The work Visa issue is not usually an easy one. I have a friend from Ontario who is now living and working in California. She was able to come to the US on a work visa, but its a very specific visa. She cannot change jobs. Her company has been doing rounds of layoffs for the past two years and each time she was stressed to the hilt, worrying about being on the list. If she had been, she'd have only 48 hours to leave the country. Luckily, she's still employed and doing well.

 

[binny]

what was the process like to move US to Canada? just curious, and why did you move?

I did the same move when I married DH we moved to Calgary right after the wedding. I joke that I spent my honeymoon with an immigration officer. Actually it wasnt terrible going that direction. Lots of paperwork but nowhere near the amount of coming to the US. Of course, we didnt have a child then either and I had lived in Canada before so they took a lot of that info. Again all pre 9-11 so Im sure its different now.

We moved back to the States 18 months later.

 

[binny]

so glad that it doesn't get as cold there lol. But i pictured the ski resorts and thought that it gets cold and lots of snow like here lol.

We get a lot of snow but it doesnt usually stick around from what I understand. The forecast here is for +10C for the rest of the week. We have snow wherever the sun doesnt reach but the roads are all clear. Ive been told we get a lot of snow then it melts off, then repeat LOL we havent had much snow here though in the 6 weeks we've been here.

 

[albertamommyof4]

Thanks everyone
Wow i never realized that is was so much work to move to the states lol i think i was a little nieve about it, glad i got the info.
I am thinking moving to the states will have to wait for a while lol but it isn't toatlly out of the question in years to come.

 

[bbangel]

Health care, health care, health care! Have you looked at what they pay? Insane! And even then so much isn't covered.

 

[golfgal]

Health care, health care, health care! Have you looked at what they pay? Insane! And even then so much isn't covered.

Taxes, taxes taxes, have you looked at what YOU pay in taxes and the waits to get things done???

 

[abdmom]

As someone who moved to the States and has just moved back to Canada, I say don't do it!

The cost of a long distance move is about $20K. Then there's the real estate commission of selling a house - 6%. Health insurance in the U.S. was about $400/month for a high deductible policy for a family of 4. This means I paid $400/month and the first $5400 of health insurance costs each year before the insurance paid a dime. So, yearly I paid $12K for a family of 4. God forbid that someone got seriously ill too, because the maximum that the insurance company would pay was $5 million. Before my dh died, he ran up $800K of health care expenses (in 4 months) on a policy with a $2million max. If he had gone over, I would have been out of pocket for the balance. Property taxes were about 2X that in Canada. There are also a lot of "other" taxes that we don't have in Canada. Utilities were also much higher. Child care is very expensive too. Although taxpayers in the U.S. can deduct mortgage interest, there is no deduction for child care costs and very little for dependents - so tax deductions are pretty much a wash.

Then there's the paperwork in moving back and forth. Don't get me started on that one. I never realized how much paperwork there would be to get things like my health card back. It took me 4 months to import my car back to Canada. When we imported our cars to the States, we had to sell one of the 2 in Canada because it wouldn't pass muster. Going each way we had to pay a huge amount in duty on the cars.

PM me if you'd like more gory details.

 

[albertamommyof4]

thanks so much it sure does give me a lot to think about