I am an American, thinking about moving to Vancouver. And I don’t know what to expect or plan for.
Does anyone have any experience to share?
Like what?
Weather? Immigration? Crime? Food? Cost of living? Nightlife? Public Transit? Political situation?
Work permits? Can I buy a house there? Taxes? Cost of living? Whether I would be welcomed?
Since you’re looking for general advice rather than specific facts, I’ll move this thread to IMHO.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
Well, I’m a Canadian so I can’t help you with work permits or property ownership for foriegners… although there is an awful lot of foriegners in the Lower Mainland that own property so I suspect it isn’t all the difficult. I don’t live there anymore (I was transferred to Alberta) but I remember good deal about it as I lived there for a while.
Cost of living - I lived in a 1 bedroom apartment in North Burnaby for 5 years. I think the rent cost around $800 CDN per month. Power (hydro), phone, TV, etc are about average… maybe $40 month each, something like that. Could be cheaper if you economize.
Taxes? Like what, sales tax? IIRC, 14% (PST and GST).
Food in the grocery stores can be suprisingly cheap… or at least it was cheaper than I thought it would be. It costs about the same here in Alberta.
Great selection of resturants. Great nightlife. Nice city. Great place to live as a young man in his 20s, but definetly not my cup of tea to stay in permanently. I had many, many good times there.
Transit system is OK. The freeway system (what freeway?) absolutely sucks. Its bloody awful. I lived close to my office so I walked a fair amount. I made a habbit of not driving around until around 7PM as I’d get irritated really easily by the traffic.
What is IIRC? I was thinking about income tax.
Any other surprise expenses that I might not have in AZ?
Thanks
I would say winter. I don’t think you get that very much in AZ
IIRC means “If I remember correctly”
I live in Flagstaff. We are surrounded by the largest stand of Ponderosa pine trees in the world.
The elevation is 7000 ft, and there is a ski slope about 12 miles from here. Granted it is not Whistler.
Vancouver is ordinarily rated as one of the two or three best cities on earth to live. Rent/housing is extraordinarily high by Canadian standards, so you want a good income. Other costs are all normal. Weather is quite rainy. It has no real winter, just occasional drizzle and/or sleet in Jan/Feb. Cultural amenities of any sort you need are available. I wouldn’t live there, though. Too wet.
My family moved from the US to Toronto 8 years ago. I was in high school at the time, so if i get my facts wrong hopefully someone will correct me. We all came up on my dad’s work permit and then got permanent resident status and are now working on our citizenship. To get a work permit you have to get hired by a company that can prove that they have to hire you because no one in Canada can do the job. And no family members can work until they get their permenant residence. Some exceptions include getting a job with the U.S. government in Canada (my mom applied for a job as U.S. customs at the airport before we became landed) and people on student visas being allowed to get on-campus jobs. Staight imigrating is tough. They have a points systems which focuses on education, the amount of money being brought in, and the ability to speak/read/comprehend English and French.
The other thing to watch out as someone on a work permit is housing. We had to rent a house for our first few years because as foreign nationals we would have been required to put a huge amount down when buying a house (i don’t remember exactly as I wasn’t the one buying the house, but it was either 20% instead of 10% or 40% instead of 20%; a doubling and a 20% was involved). And, unless you get super lucky (like we did) you won’t be able to bring your car up. Or if you do you won’t be able to dispose of it in Canada.
Living in Canada is great. We currently have a very progressive Supreme Court and things like file sharing, gay marriage, and marijuna are, if not technically legal, at least not viewed as things that need criminal consequences. And there are more American ex-pats here than people realize. Historically, americans are Canada’s biggest immigrant group, and most esteemed old Canadian families are actually UEL’s who fled north after the American Revolution. One thing that irks me as an american is that in a country that tries so hard to respect its immigrant populations, american bashing happens all of the time. Not america bashing in the “whats up with your government/religion/warmaking?” sense, but actual making fun of americans as a stereotyped people. Stuff was said to me in school that would have been grounds for suspension if the word “american” was replaced with something like “chinese”, “black” or “greek”. And more often than not it was coming from the teachers. Oh well, I got over it. And if the ex-pat Americans up here didn’t agree wtih the Canadians that the US has got its problems, then they wouldn’t be up here in the first place. I hope you make it up here. Be sure to bring a coat.
Big Raincoat
Industrial Strength Umbrella
Waterproof Boots
Vancouver gets more rain than all the states in the US combined ! 
Acceptable nightlife
Great looking women
OK looking men
Great parks and mountains
Lots of water
Grass and trees everywhere
Nude beach
Active gay/lesbian community
Too many ethnic groups
Lots of mixed couples
Draconian city council
Retarded premier (governor)
General:
- Taxes, uhm… you’ll wish you stayed in AZ.
- You’ll need a work permit (I think).
- Cost of Living is not bad at all for the educated/skilled types.
- You do not need special permission to purchase a home.
- You would be very welcomed here - I personally know 2 ex- Americans that have made Vancouver their permanent home.
Oh, sure, we realize it… We called them “draft dodgers”, remember?
-Rav