Moving to Canada for 12 months - IEC Working Holiday Visa

Last year we just had to send in a photocopy of our passport (I had an old style one at the time) and passport photos from one of those machines. Can you get a new photo tomorrow and scan that?
 
Nothing lined up yet, my girlfriend and I are happy doing anything until we find something more long term. We should be ok to begin with as she is taking about £2.5k and I hope to have around £4.5k to take.
 
I wasn't planning on looking for jobs before I got to Canada but I ended up contacting a web agency out there as they have a position open which is pretty much exactly the same as mine here in the UK, I really feel like I'm a perfect fit for them.

Anyway, I had an hour and a half Skype call/chat/interview with two guys over there last night and I felt it went really well :) I just need to wait to see if they want me to go and see them in person the week I get there, if they do then I might be able to have work sorted within a week!!!

I'm not pinning all of my hopes on it, as I'm completely open to doing something completely different (ie. retail or restaurant work, in fact I quite like this idea if it comes to it). But it was quite exciting speaking to them about the move.

18 days and 23 hours until take off!!!
 
My girlfriend and I are packing up our flat today, moving our stuff out tomorrow, then staying here with the bare essentials until we leave on Thursday. Then we fly on Tuesday. People keep asking if we're excited, but we're not, we're both feel a bit down actually. We had a leaving do with loads of friends on Saturday and I think were beginning to realise the enormity of what is happening next week.

Having said that, we're looking through apartments so we can line up some viewings later this week and it's getting us a little more excited about it.
 
Feeling very strange that we're so close to leaving now. Done some more goodbyes and it's been quite difficult; we keep finding ourselves being excited one minute (setting up apartment viewings and finding out I have a third interview on Friday for the job I went for) to feeling really sad about the life we're leaving behind the next minute.

We just want to be there now! We've done so much waiting.

Tomorrow is some finals goodbyes, sorting everything out so we're ready then getting to bed early ready for leaving at 4.30am on Tuesday morning!

I'll post some pictures when I get a chance :)
 
Best of luck to you mate, so jealous you're going so soon.

I'm looking to fly out in May - handed my notice in yesterday :eek:

Best of luck Nick; an opportunity has arisen for me that means I possibly may not be coming out to Canada in the near future - I sincerely hope that I do, however if this chance comes up I'd be silly to turn it down. Either way, I'll be making sure I at least visit the country, having done so much reading about the place I feel as though I should be there already!

Have a blast, and thanks for all the help, I'm sure we all appreciate it :)

Ben

Thanks both.

That's a shame, Ben. Well, if the opportunity is good then it's not all bad, would be great to see you out in Vancouver though at some point :)
 
We're here! Yesterday was the craziest day I've ever had. We started at 3.30am in my Mum's little house out in the country in East Sussex, and finally at around 9pm UK time we ha our bags an our visas and were on our way to where we're staying. We were excited, then as soon as we got to our room we both felt very odd, the room is great but I think it just hit us why we were here and we both felt so far from home and I be honest I was wondering why the hell we had just done what we had done.

We were so tired! The flight was brilliant but we barely slept on the plane. We are staying out on East 40th Avenue so we although we had seen some amazing mountain views, we hadn't really seen the Vancouver we were used to seeing in pictures and videos. Despite our tired state we headed into downtown and I immediately felt better. Seeing the skyline, BC Place and Rogers Arena as the Skytrain headed into the city was awesome. We walked around for a bit and found somewhere to eat on Robson Street (we love Robson Street - I bet it looks amazing in the summer). Then we headed to London Drugs to get some supplies then back to our place to go to bed, finally sleeping at around 8.30pm Canada / 3.30am UK - a long bloody day!

We both slept really well and are now awake, I feel quite tired still, it's only just gone 6am but we're excited about the day ahead. We have a few apartment viewings and we want to get our bank and mobiles sorted out. I also want a Canucks jersey, but I couldn't understand why they were so expensive in the store on Robson Street; about $45-50 more than the website!

I'm posting from my phone so I'm sorry if these pictures are too big.

The Rockies - our window was dirty :(

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We got a taxi from the airport as we had so many bags. This view greeted us as we turned into whatever street it was we were on. Much more impressive in person but you get the idea :)

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Outside London Drugs in the rain on Granville Street. The rain was kind of cool as the light reflections as it was getting dark were great. Can't wait to do some proper street photography in the rain.

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I'm starting my 'photo a day' today, which is exciting as well. Not sure how long I'll keep it up but it'll be fun while it lasts.

EDIT: we also saw a car crash within about 10 minutes of leaving our place yesterday.
 
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Wow! What a day we've had. We headed into downtown around 9am and had some amazing breakfast crepes somewhere. Then had a wonder around some streets to look for banking, mobile phone contracts and to get our SIN. One thing I've noticed is just how many awesome food smells there are around, I can't wait to try some of the places we've seen out!

Anyway, we couldn't get a bank account as Coast Capital Savings require proof of permanent address, which we don't have yet. We did however sign up for Fido, so we both have Canadian mobile numbers now, which is great. We also got our SIN which was relatively easy, it only took around 5 minutes each after we had waited maybe 10-15 minutes to be seen.

We then went to Rogers Arena to buy some Canucks jerseys, very exciting!

It had been sunny for the afternoon but these were taken after some heavy rain, so I look a bit tired!

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We had three apartment viewings today, first one was nice with amazing views but the guy was a bit odd. The second one was lovely, but it was way too small and expensive for what it is, and then the third place we fell in love with and put down a $200 deposit on, and if all goes to plan we'll be there on 1st April. Here are some pics from the listing:

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The view:

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It has a little balcony which overlooks Science World, False Creek and BC Place. The apartment itself is lovely, as is the building. It is a one bed place, with a little den which has a desk in it, very handy. There's a swimming pool and gym as well which is a nice bonus. It's a short walk to Robson Street and other main shopping areas which is great.

We also went up the Vancouver Lookout today which was unbelievable, the views were stunning!

I'll post some photos of our day in the next post.
 
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Vancouver-1 by Nicholas Benson, on Flickr


Vancouver-2 by Nicholas Benson, on Flickr


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Trying out Tim Hortons for the first time:


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Haha, no it definitely wasn't us in the accident!

For me I am definitely loving things more and more. We've had a bit of sunshine the last couple of days and the city is bloody amazing in the sun. I had a third interview today and I'm fairly confident I'll get the job, which is great; this makes me feel much better about being here as well, knowing that work is nearly sorted.

We had a great day yesterday in the sunshine, we walked down Robson Street to Stanley Park and had a bit of a walk around there via Second Beach, then around Coal Harbour where there were some incredible views of the mountains. Watching the float planes landing and taking off was really cool as well.

We went to a place called Boston Pizza in the evening to watch the Canucks game. The Canucks had posted on Facebook that they were doing some games and prizes there, so we got involved in Canucks bingo, but we didn't win anything unfortunately.

We checked out Gastown today and found some cool places to drink. We're also meeting another couple (both from Scotland, like my girlfriend) for drinks tomorrow night. We met them through the forum we set up a couple of months ago.

I'm really beginning to love it here. Some more pictures:


Vancouver-32 by Nicholas Benson, on Flickr


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Vancouver-22 by Nicholas Benson, on Flickr


Vancouver-21 by Nicholas Benson, on Flickr


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Yeah it was awesome up there.

We went to a Canucks game last night, it was amazing being there but it was a fairly dull game, a 1-0 shootout win for the Canucks.

I also signed my offer of employment as well, I start on the 8th April so I've got a bit more time to settle in which is nice. Better base salary than I was on in the UK too which is a bonus I wasn't expecting.

We're off to the gun range today :)
 
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