British Truckers Abroad

dear all my wife would likre to know2 things from you guys that have already made the move to canada
1 has anyone taken pet and had problems with them related to the flight , she worries about the animals .

2 we dont have expensive furnature would you consider £3000 container is cheaper than buying new on arrival .

sorry if allready coverd .

I don't know about the pets. Know people that came here with their dogs without any problems...

About the other question. We first considered too just to go and buy all stuff new in Canada. And that'll work maybe for furniture but there's so much other stuff you probably want to take with you. Books, photo albums, pictures, paintings,cd's and all kind of other stuff from your past... And really, when you start buying furniture overhere, a nice couch, cubboards, dinner table... even when you buy used stuff, it adds up quickly... I'm happy we took all our things with us...

Something to consider: When you go with help of an agency, they might know other people that go over... You might be able to share a container... Just a thought...

sounds like good advice thanks a lot a big help

We brought a container over. It was the best thing we could have done because it gave us all the familiar things we had and that was nice. To buy new here is not cheap, although it isn't as bad as people try telling you if you are sensible and listen to advice given. The things you may want to bring are things like a UK tv and DVD player. They run perfectly fine on a converter and you can see all your discs then. Other things like sewing machines are good to bring because you can get them cheap enough, but why go for the expense in the first couple of years.

But there is something about the container you should consider. Use a proper, decent removals firm and get the load done door to door. Get them to pack it for you and to store it for you. They will do a good job and it is properly insured, and they will carry it into the house for you. We paid a total of about 5K for ours, but we had one breakage, and it was very worthwhile. We used Blatchfords, btw. They came in in early December, packed everything and took it to storage, then it was shipped and stored in Winnipeg and delivered in April, when we were actually ready for it.

You get exactly what you pay for on this. My friend paid about 3K for his, and nothing was wrapped, it was just stuffed in the container and half their stuff never got across. They had to get another container shipped with the rest of their stuff. The damages were incredible. Wardrobes that were in several pieces and the such.

We didn't bring our pets, but some have and have been able to bring them as excess baggage. It is cheaper that way.

Thank you bobthedog i am listening to the advice and we will probly take half a container all the help from members has been briliant and we know the direction we are going and it starts with selling the house valued today at £215,000.

If you are not filling a container then you may be able to use a groupage service, although a decent removals firm will see you right. We brought everything. All our beds and linens saved us a lot of money. Our couches were good quality and would have been costly to replace.
When you buy a house here, you usually get major appliances with it. We had our dishwasher, fridge freezer, washer and dryer in the house. If you buy a brand new house then you won;t get them, and you would have to pay taxes on it. A second hand house means you don't have to pay that.

I would recommend that you choose your area you want to move to, and discuss it fully amongst yourselves. Decide whether living in town or outside town would suit you. Look online for houses in the area and make enquiries. Make sure you are all aware what the others are thinking because this is a big thing to do. You need to be in agreement about everything.

Other things to remember. People will try to steer you to do things their way. Even other expats will do this and I upset a few when I came here because we had already found the house, arranged the mortgage and opened the bank accounts before we actually moved.

If you do things right then you can make the ride much easier.

great minds think alike as they say

hi
i got 1 real good advice for you , dont sell your house just yet come over to canada and try it first for a while , and if u like it u still can sell your house , and buy one down here
just in case you don,t like canada or it doesn,t work out , u still have your house in the uk to go back to
like i said just somme advice , u have to look at it from both side , what if it ,s not what u expected
as far as travelling whit pets thats pretty easy , call any airline and they will tell u
i brought 2 dogs with to canada

Tony we brought our dog with us the dog was an aggressive GSD that in 8 years had never been seperated from us. It suffered no lasting effects from the flight. Use a reputable company to ship your dog, there are laws regarding the size of crate, vaccinations and health of the dog. The dog flew over in the hold on the same flight as the rest of my family and we brought him home with us that night.
Regarding furniture, we brought nothing and started from scratch and glad we did. New home, new start etc. We were not sure if anything would fit in the new house, beds are different sizes or whether it would "go" with anything. We were able to furnish the full house for around $10k then the extras like electrical stuff that doesnt work here anyway.

Yeah but you are rich, Dave. I'm skint!!

I drive a truck so I will never be rich but just accept that and get on with life

thanks for the advice benn we have considerd this option but cannot afford to move without releasing the equity and it is a strugle for us new morgage just before the banks colapsed so we will end up selling and moving to a smaller house and morgage. so the idea is come over rent and keep money in bank untill we are settled. My wife has no family ties in the UK and i am Ex Army so will settle any where ,the kide are very young and resiliant so in short good advice and in the right situation i would agree but i cant its all or nothing and that makes us more determind to fight for the dream. thank you benn for the info on the dogs my freindly 6 yr old GSD should be ok

In some ways I agree with Benn and think that keeping an escape hatch is not a bad shout, but keeping an escape hatch means you anticipate a real possibility of not doing well here. I don't know if that is the committment that may actually be required to make a success. It is only my opinion, but I think it has merit having seen people come and go in the 4 years I have been here. There are no guarantees in any case, but putting yourself in a position where going back is not going to be a simple case of booking flights makes you more prepared to fight for what you want.

Sounds as though you have figured it out well enough.

And Dave, your lass is working hard too.. There is an advantage in itself....

I am with Rob on this one, with an easy way out there are many times when it would have been much easier for us to just hop on a plane and hightail it home, besides why have all that cash tied up in something you cant even enjoy when there is far more to spend it on here

If it wasnt for Mrs LOL66 working things would be very different

echo of a conversation my wife and i had last week the advice is good with sound reason and and experiance but our situation with equity and the mind to make a 100% commitment says sell before we move.

I think that type of commitment is so important.

Agreed.. Without committment, there is no real need to work at all the necessary aspects. It all takes effort and understanding.

Hi tony

i'd recommend getting the dog it's passport, i have 2 jap akitas on passport it shows all the jabs and microchip details and i'm told it can make life a lot easier for bringing your dog into Canada/America as it's in an offical format plus if things aren't right over here when u try to return to the uk the dog will have to go into quarantine for 6 month's i'm 99% sure of, and no doubt you don't want to leave the dog their on it's own for that amount of time i paid a the breeder to look after mine when i brought him over from France to the UK here's a link.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-pets/p ... /index.htm

Once the rabies jab has taken you can take the dog out of the uk but it can't return till the 6 month's are up from the date it was a positive result, i would also reccommend doing it as early as possible the whole process took us about 7 month's as u have to wait for the results at the start and once your in Canada u can keep the jabs upto date to keep the passport valid.

If you have any questions i know people who ship dogs to the US and i think Canada so i could find out answers to any odd questions.

Allan

The whole process took us about 3 weeks to arrange, all vaccinations up to date, rabies jab, a couple of phone calls and jobs done.
Its very simple and no big deal but also very expensive