we accept self employed people more than anything, but the rule is that you must have a canadian investor, and at least 1 employee.


The cost of living in New Brunswick is wickedly cheap. Unfortunately the avergae salary is not as high as other provinces. But you will still have more money to yourself here. The culture and the people who live here are very carring and understanding for the most part. Look at the 3-4 thousand 9/11 passengers that got stranded in Moncton. I myself live in Moncton. It is a bilingual city that is in the middle of a massive housing and technology boom, Ibm is comming to town as well as a dozen other massive companies. We have the world's highest ranking of call centers and tech related jobs per capita, besides silicon valley that is.

Our watter is clean. Just got a 1.2 billion dollar watter treatment plant. The air quality is great compared to other provinces. There is millions of acres of untouched land all over the province. My only warning to anyone looking to move out this way is to avoid the northern cities and towns because they are full of french Quebec seperatists bastards and gas sniffin Aboriginals.

This area is a great place to raise children. And housing is fairly cheap. 100k buys you a brand new 2 level with finished basement in a prestigious neighbourhood. If you want luxury. A massive 3 story with fully finished basement and in-law suite will run about 250k in our most snobbish subdivisions.

The crime rate is pretty low compared to anywheres else.
We are also the coffe capital of the world according to Statistics Canada. There is 1 Tim Horton's on every 5 blocks it seems. Not something to be proud of but hey...

Hope some of this info helps you out

face it, it rains 24/7 :)

Have you ever wondered why the cost of living in New Brunswick is cheap? It's because nobody wants to live there. Have you ever been to Vancouver? It's fuckin gorgeous!

all of interior BC rocks. awesome mountains and lakes, some of the best snowboarding in the world. it's also the warmest area of Canada.

The reason why people leave here is because there was a major employment shortage, but i gurantee you, there are tonnes of jobs available now

Don't normally do this but.......BUMP.

The info so far is very helpful - thanks to all.

Keep it coming please, I need all the help I can get!!

Why do you want to move to Canada?

Can't believe there isn't at least a few people making money from porn who have either moved or tried to move to Canada. Anyone know how the immigration people regard that. If you even mention porn is it like an automatic no? If so what's the best way to workaround that? Maybe put the profession as general IT or a programmer?

Looking at the points system the biggest barrier by far seems to be the job side of things. That said I should easily be able to get away with calling myself a programmer as it was my previous employment before moving into adult stuff.

You would need to live in the UK (especially areas of higher unemployment) with a kid on the way to appreciate it. Canada isn't the only option but is in the top 2.

A few reasons really. To start we have a baby on the way and we do NOT want to bring our child up where we are living now. The schools are very poor unless you pay for private education and while we could afford to do this, I was educated in public schools and feel I benefited from it. Also, the area in which we live is relatively cheap but the standard of living is not good. The streets are dirty, there is an unnecessarily high crime rate, the local council have no clue what they are doing...it goes on. We could move elsewhere in the UK but to find a significantly nicer area we'd have to pay at least double for the house/area we'd want to live in if not more. Why pay £300000 for a 4 bedroom detached house in 1/4 acre of land in the middle of a London suburb when you could pay £100000 for a similar property with more land in Canada.

Reason two, we want to move somewhere with a more sensible legal and moral system. We were considering Holland on this front but they don't have enough housing for their own people let alone immigrants.

Reason three, we'd like to move into the mountains. This said, France is also on the cards. Clean air, nice people (usually) and near to the snowboarding. I have sinus problems and T has chest problems, both of which are significantly reduced whenever we travel to the mountains.

There are a load of other small reasons that escape me at the moment but it all boils down to wanting a better life for our family from having a nice house with a big garden to good schools.

Have you seen this Canadian real estate site: www.mls.ca ?

Since you are talking about Mountains BC is where you would want to live. There are alot of place that are smaller than Vancouver around that area. That are really pretty little places. ie Hope, Salmon Arm. We have relatives in that area. Its gorgeous!

I am actually in Manitoba. The cost of living is lower than most of Canada in the main city Winnipeg. Most of the other towns in Manitoba are pretty small. There are also some great little towns in Northwestern Ontario. That is actually the area I am from. The cost of living is higher but no where near what it is in Southern Ontario. You won't get mountains in Northwestern Ontario but you will get that small town atmosphere. Great places to raise children! Lots of lakes, fishing, hunting, camping. Do a search on the net for Sunset Country. That is what they call the area that is North Western Ontario. The area gets alot of American Tourists and camp owners.

One note it is colder in most of Canada then the states. But you just get used to it. Its not that bad! Plus you get snowmobiling, skiing, ice fishing, etc. Never seen a Christmas not white in this part of Canada.

Lorna

Very nice link, gives me an idea of what I'm looking for.

Iamrobertson - I can't find a very goot topological map of Canada, where in BC are the mountains? Are there any in Manitoba?

Also, anyone have any idea what % mortgage companies look for buyers to put down on a purchase property when buying? Especially when you are self-employed?

http://www.mls.ca/mls/map.asp?gt=R&g...kootenay&map=1

the okanagan area is very, very nice. killer mountains and awesome lakes.

Why Canada ? Whats wrong with the United States ?

All I'd say to that is if you need to ask the question you probably wouldn't like the answer.

After growing up there, if I had wanted to live there I would have stayed in the first place.

There is also the problem of my husband. Being an Englishman he would have a very hard time moving to the US and working without the government getting pretty upset with us. Green cards are practically impossible to come by for English people, and getting permission for a spouse to move into the US takes years in good circumstances.

Beside those reasons, there is also the fact that in MOST circumstances we'd be no better off. I won't get involved in too many details but most places I'd be willing to move back to are either MORE expensive than where we are now or have higher crime rates or crappier schools or any number of other things. Besides, after living in a place with free healthcare, why would I want to move back into the often horrific insurance system of the USA?

Explain this comment

Fucking classic.

When making that statement I was referring to the legal system in which I am currently living - the UK system. Although the US has its problems too, the legal and moral system isn't really what keeps me away. Bush maybe, but not the legal system itself.

Hey Beastiepoo,

You only find mountains in BC. As you go across the country it becomes prairies. Manitoba is prairie. And not as nice to look at. Then as you get into Ontario you hit the Canadian Shield. Very Rocky, lots of hills, trees, lakes, etc. Southern Ontario is very populated and lots of cities. Northern Ontario is less populated and alot of little towns.

Check out Hope, Salmon Arm, Jasper, Banff in BC.
In Ontario check out Dryden, Kenora. Also Ottawa in Southern Ontario is very nice. Very clean, great schools. Depends if you are looking for that small town upbringing for your children.

Feel free to send me a PM once if you narrow it down to any areas.


Lorna

does anyone have an idea how hard it is for someone like me that works porn full time but isnt a major player to get some sort of visa? I make roughly $4k after all expenses and before tax is payed so I dont have a problem paying rent and food etc but Im not exactly a big company :)

I'm interested -- what's wrong with the UK system?

Whistler is nice, but you need sleezy kind of $.

Beastiepoo, my recommendation would be to fly to Vancouver and rent a car, then spend 1-2 weeks driving between Vancouver and Calgary. Go to Banff & Jasper. Go to Kelowna & Penticton & Vernon, etc...

I would go sometime around May-September

Mainly its the local councils that fuck things up. Things aren't bad here overall but the porn and drug laws need serious reviewing. I'm no druggie but I do believe that the UK would benefit from the kind of outlook that Holland has. Spend far less running down the little MJ dealers and crack down on the big cartels. Also the porn laws are still stricter than those of us in the porn biz would like.

Locally, our council spends very little on actually trying to clean up the town, and loads on 'beautification' and 'traffic control'. This means that we have the highest concentration of speed bumps in town than any other town within 100 miles, and that we've had several pointless (but pretty) redevelopment of 'local areas'.

Its difficult to explain the problems until you live in the system but they are there. Our town also gets a higher percentage of asylum seekers shoved into empty accomodation. They don't work and get loads of welfare benefits. They cause trouble ( I hate to stereotype, but they do), get into drugs and the cycle of crime that is involved. Like I've said, we could move elsewhere in the UK to escape most of the 'moral and legal' problems but would end up spending 2 to 3 times more on a house in the more desirable area.

Several years ago Canada was letting people move here if they had 250,000K cash or had plans to open a business.

In Vancouver you see alot of wealthy asian folk, and thats because the only ones making it into Canada were the people bringing money.

Things could have changed now, but I know for a fact at one point you could easily move here based on your bank account balance.

Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Victoria are probably the best Canadian cities.