Moving to Canada for 12 months - IEC Working Holiday Visa

McDaniel said:
Good luck dude!

After a a couple of weeks and back and forth I've decided to go home; been here just shy of two months now but not enjoying it any where near as much as I had hoped; I think the 3months I spent travelling didn't help in the respect I've felt so unsettled for such a long time - been out of work now since December 28th and miss the routine.
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I'm sorry to hear things haven't worked out as planned, but still, it sounds like you've had an amazing adventure, and I imagine you've got a new found fondness of home, which I'm sure will be great when you're back.

My girlfriend and I are in a situation where we love the city we're in, but we miss people back home, and I think what is making it worse is that neither of us are particularly happy with our jobs at the moment. Because of that, we're pretty certain we'll want to go home after a year. Which means that we can't really feel settled any more, because we might be going back sooner than we thought it makes everything feel temporary. Suddenly buying something nice for the flat becomes "Is it worth it if we're going home?", which might sound small, but it's not a great way to live. We're 28 and 29 and we're realising that we're probably ready to settle, but not here, back home in the UK.

It's making it very hard to call this place home. We're definitely homesick though, it's funny, it's very hard to explain it, it's just a general feeling of not feeling right, despite so many good things going on in life right now (with work being the exception).

Who knows what the future holds. We have family visiting in a few weeks, then we have friends out, which will be amazing, but also very sad when everyone has gone home and the winter rain sets in. Although that does mean snowboarding and skiing starts :)

It sounds like I'm just moaning, this really has been, and will continue to be an amazing and very important experience for us. I love city life, particularly here.

[TW]Fox;24650394 said:
Just absolutely amazing.

I have flights to Vancouver booked for a few months time and I can't wait :)
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Awesome! What brings you out this way? Are you doing another road trip?
 
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Nexus said:
I know how that feels having spent two years living out there.

On one hand its the most perfect place, but on the other its just not the UK which is home. Plus its such a long way from family.
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That's it. If I could mix the best things about home and here, it would be the best place in the world.
 
[TW]Fox;24661554 said:
Yup - doing some of the North West USA too :)

Just trying to work out the best way to get to Jasper from Vancouver at the moment.. Via Whistler, or the Trans Canada? Almost every inch of BC seems to be beautiful so it seems impossible to pick a route without accepting whichever one you pick means you'll miss awesome stuff on the route you could have taken!
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Interestingly I was doing some research as I want to eventually do a road trip to Calgary, and I ended up putting together a blog post about it before we left the UK. The plan was to go via Jasper so it may be useful.

Basically, someone on Reddit suggested a route which was a bit longer than normal, and it doesn't go via Whistler, but it may be a bit more interesting than just staying on the Trans Canada.

The drive up to Whistler is amazing though, I've only been as far as Garibaldi Provincial park so far, but the road is amazing.

Blog post:
http://www.ourcanadianadventure.co.uk/2012/12/vancouver-to-calgary-road-trip/

Route:
http://goo.gl/maps/wgzCP

Reddit post that I found:
http://www.reddit.com/r/britishcolumbia/comments/x3j5j/roadtrip_from_vancouver_to_calgary/
 
Marky said:
Interview went very well in the end :) Feeling confident :) Should hear by mid-August if I've got it!

Quick question regarding my phone... I plan on buying the next iPhone when it is released in September/October... If I buy it in the UK, I'm assuming I can just go out there and grab a SIM-Only deal? What are the contracts like out there?

It's getting closer and closer now and I'm definitely getting more and more excited about it - Just wanna get out there now :p

I received my CIC letter of introduction, so I'm all sorted pretty much - I assume I'll get the IEC Letter of Introduction soon?

- Marky
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As others have said, you'll be fine sticking a Canadian SIM into an iPhone 5, provided it's unlocked and can be used on any network.

My girlfriend and I are with Fido, we got a decent enough deal, it's around $50 a month, but we get pretty much everything we need for that, including plenty of data which was important for me. I prefer to pay a higher line rental and know that I'll never have to pay more, rather than have a fluctuating bill every month.

Fido often have deals on, so when you arrive see if they have anything good going :)
 
Pretty sure it's still only 2 x 1 year visa for Brits. It's 1 x 2 year for Irish people.

Starting 2013, two significant changes were made to the International Experience Canada initiative for British citizens:

British citizens will no longer be required to demonstrate habitual residency (i.e. that they have lived continuously in the UK).
British citizens are permitted to participate twice, each time up to 12 months.
Those who had participated under the 2010 quota or earlier (including through SWAP’s partner BUNAC) will be eligible for two additional participations of up to 12 months each.
Those who had participated once under the 2011 quota and once under the 2012 quota, (including through SWAP’s partner BUNAC) will not be eligible.
Those who had participated once under the 2011 quota or once under the 2012 quota (including through SWAP’s partner BUNAC) will be eligible for one final participation of up to 12 months.

Please note that no third party organization/vendor can guarantee you a spot in the IEC 2013 initiative.
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McDaniel said:
It's good; I've still not told many people - been focusing on the job hunt and also seeing some familiar as have a few deaths in the last couple months. It's nice being somewhere where I know how everything operates and is familiar though... and also cheaper! I can buy a loaf of bread for half the price XD!

I still need to get another car though, but will wait till I am back in work. I am sleeping easier at night (well, bar the heat) - and feeling more content.
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That's cool, funny that some people don't know you're back though :p

In general, I'm not finding it that much more expensive here. Some things in particular are, like if I want to buy something that I'd normally buy online, it's either not available or I have to pay extortionate shipping and import duty for it to come from the US. Our rent and bills is comparable to what we were paying back home, and I'm earning more than I was in the UK which is also helping.

Meat is cheap though, which is nice :)
 
Just got back from a weekend of camping, and we were supposed to go hiking but a bee stung my foot so I could barely walk due to the swelling. We still managed to check out Lower Joffre Lake (we were planning to hike up to the glacier and see the other two lakes) as it's only 500m from the car park.

We camped at a place called Strawberry Point on Lillooet Lake, it was awesome!

Our hire car
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Our camping spot
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I'm on a boat!!!
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Lillooet Lake
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No camp fires allowed unfortunately due to the recent weather
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Lower Joffre Lake
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Marky said:
Beautiful pics as per use Squirrel :) Sweet Hire car :p :)

Hoping to hear back about my interview this week! Fingers crossed! :p

About 8 weeks until I'm planning on leaving now - Can't believe how close it's getting! :eek:
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Thanks dude. Forgot to mention, we popped to Whistler as well and it was awesome. There was some mountain biking event going on, so it was really busy. We're going for a proper visit next weekend so we can do some hiking on Whistler mountain. Good luck with the job, you'll love it there :)
 
We've not been to the US yet. But you're right, you can go for 90 days as a tourist (so you can't work). If you're starting in the US (ie. you arrived there by air) you'll need to get an ESTA, which you can do online here - https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/

However, if you're arriving in Canada but plan to go to the US by land (ie. in a car over the border) then you don't need an ESTA. You might need to complete some basic paperwork at the border but nothing more.

Yeah we'll get plenty of pics :)
 
That's the one, I forgot the name of the form.

Am I right in thinking you need to pay the $6 in USD, or by credit card?

We need to do a trip to the US soon, Seattle is the most obvious place to go first, although I'd also like to check out Portland, and definitely San Francisco if we can get some time off work early next year.
 
No, we ended up just getting the cheapest insurance we could. It was risky but fingers crossed it'll be ok in the long run. As you say, most of the cover doesn't really provide enough to cover more expensive items. You may be better off looking for a item specific insurance for those items.
 
Cool! Whistler was awesome when I went, I can't wait to see it again in the winter :)

We went to a Canucks pre-season game last night, mainly because during pre-season it's much cheaper so getting tickets near the ice is much more doable ($50 instead of $150). It was awesome, plus they won 6-1.

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-westy- said:
Well, it looks like its just me going to Canada now, as my girlfriend and I have broken up. Slightly higher costs, but it means that I can perhaps go sooner :)
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Oh blimey, sorry to hear that dude, how are you feeling about coming out here on your own now? It'll certainly be a different experience, and who's to say which is better, I'm sure you'll have a blast though.

Marky said:
Oh that is so cool :D I can't wait to see a hockey game... and a hockey fight :p



Is it true they love the accent? Because I will pull out the poshest royalist British accent ever :p
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Yeah the hockey is awesome, we started watching it (downloading games) before we came out, and I followed it a lot last season so feel like I know the team quite well now, and the game itself. I'm so excited for this season, we're going to the home opener against the Oilers on the 5th October :)

We haven't seen a fight yet though, not in the two games we've been to :(

I think everyone likes an accent which is different to theirs really. Our accents get commented on less than I thought they would, although you never know what people are thinking and not willing to say out loud. We were mistaken for Australians quite a few times, which is odd.

If I was single and out trying to get with ladies, then I may have a different opinion on whether they fall for the accent or not :p
 
Nexus said:
Having spent two years out there, I'd say its all down to where you are living and working. Vancouver is a lot like London in that its very cosmopolitan. Whistler is so full of people from all over the world working, especially Australians, that your accent isn't really that unique. I'm sure if you went to a distant small mountain resort town where there are no Brits, you might have more luck with your accent as a pulling tool.

I did get people thinking I was Australian quite often in Whistler, I think its in part because tourists also expect them with how many there are. However, it was annoying when I was wearing a name badge that said "London, UK".
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That's funny about the name badge. I noticed lots of Aussies when I was last at Whistler too, they seem to flock there, and I don't blame them, it's great there.

[TW]Fox;25003472 said:
It was absolutely amazing, I got back on Monday. I have loads of pics and have not sorted through any of them yet so I've not posted anything. Canada was a fantastic place (This trip was 8 days in Canada and 10 days in the USA) and I loved Vancouver.
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Awesome, I'm glad you had a good time. Hopefully you weren't here on one of the stormy days, although the storm we had a week or so ago was pretty amazing :)
 
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