Since it isn’t specifically stated here – for those following from afar, we moved back to Australia.

In late 2016.

Canada was great, we had some amazing experiences and made some awesome friends, but housing was too expensive and we missed our families and friends here. Any one of those wouldn’t have done it, but the combination meant it wasn’t what was right for us, for now. But we are and remain proud Canadian citizens – we hold a Canada Day party every year as a winter catch up, and you never know what the future holds. We moved to Canada on a two year plan, and since I was always bad at maths, we stayed for 7. We’re back in Perth on a 10 year plan (almost 2 years into it!) so we’ll see what happens next. We bought a nice house, close to friends and family, and we’re enjoying it so far.

It occurs to me that it’s been almost 10 months since I updated this! So what has happened since then..

• We went to NYC and Washington DC. Was very awesome. Went to Comic Con in NYC, Smithsonians in DC.
• Had Elizabeth’s family visit over Christmas. Spent time over on Tofino with them, also a few weeks of them camping in our house. Was also awesome
• Went to Perth in April for Swancon. Saw many people, didn’t take too many photos. But it was still awesome.
• Became Permanent Residents of Canada
• I no longer work at UBC – over the course of a few weeks, we went back and forth over some terms of a restructure they wanted to make in my group, and we weren’t able to come to a meeting of the minds on terms, and they have to do what they have to do, so I got a redundancy. It was a little bit of a shock initially, but not much, I’d been half expecting it as an outcome – their hands were tied by my position description. By that evening I had an invitation to come talk to a reseller about working for them instead. Yay networking!
• So I’m now a Solution Architect / Professional Services Engineer for a reseller, which included a nice pay rise, and get to regularly go hands on (elbows deep..) into storage (NetApp, Isilon) and virtualization (VMware) systems. Lots of fun. New job is based in Vancouver for the most part, with occasional visits to the BC Interior, a 48 hour visit to London Ontario, and also several days in a warehouse in an unspecified industrial area of rural Washington state.
• My dad came to visit for a few weeks as well – that was fun – we saw all the sights that the lower mainland of BC had to offer. He’d previously been here and visited Vancouver Island, before we lived here, so this was all new for him.
• Have two other friends from Perth visiting (separately) over the next few weeks, which will also be nice.

It occurs to me that this may be of interest to some people. My wife Elizabeth and I are currently in Canada on a working holiday, and have been for the last 6 months. Much like in Australia, I’m currently working in IT for a University, which is a lot of fun and gives me fun toys to play with. Elizabeth was working for a software company, but they’ve moved out of town, so she’s on.. erm.. home duties right now.

If you’re someone from the Internet, or someone I know, and interested in doing a working holiday in either Australia or Canada, feel free to email me – whp@splash.theducks.rog (correct the typo) and I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.

The basic process:

• Apply for WHP Visa via http://www.whpcanada.org.au
• Once approved, book plane tickets
• Sell/store/give away all of your stuff
• Tidy up paperwork for things at home (Power bills, car rego, etc)
• Start looking for a job in Canada
• Book initial accommodation
• Make your way to Canada, with proof you have $4000 to support yourself. We weren’t asked, but you might be. We took a C$5000 bank draft from our Australian bank to a Canadian bank plus bank statements
• As soon as you get there, sort out an address to get things posted to
• Apply for Social Insurance Number + Card. This gives a piece of government notarised paper with your address on. They mail out the card in a week or two
• Open bank account
• Get a cellphone account (you can use a Canadian SIM in an unlocked Australian phone)
• Get job, get paid
• Optional steps: Get driver’s licence by passing a knowledge test, then a practical driving test. Easy hints – cyclists are assumed to be insane (and are), and the yellow line down the middle of the road means it’s 50km/hour limit)
• Have fun!

Some things to know about banking in Canada as a newcomer

• If your Australian bank card has a Cirrus or Maestro logo on it, you can use it in an Canadian bank machine (they call ATMs ABMs – Automatic Bank Machine). You should assume you will be doing this for about a month, even if you get a job
• Some banks, I’m looking at you HSBC, won’t give you an account if you don’t have a job (or if you didn’t have an account with them in another country).
• Best bet is probably the one your Australian bank drew the draft on. Deposit the bank draft, and some cash withdrawn from your Australian card to cover bank fees
• Most banks will also put a 7 day quarantine on your account for the first month, meaning it takes 7 days for any deposits to be validated
• Most banks in Canada don’t personalise Automated Bank Machine (ABM) cards, so you’ll probably get one of those straight away. As well as some more official looking paperwork with your name + address on them.
• You might even get a few counter cheques, but of course, don’t use them until your draft has cleared, or until you start getting paid and your pay has cleared.
• Once you’ve had a job for about a month, and two pay cheques, there’s a good chance you could apply for a Canadian credit card, which is helpful for paying bills over the phone, etc
• If you’re not sharing a house with a Canadian, you will probably need a cheque book ($30-40) for rent, bill payments etc. In comparison to the Australian BSB/Account details to enable easy peer-to-peer transfers into accounts only, the equivalent numbers for Canadian accounts allow withdrawals, so aren’t used much

Some things about applying for jobs in Canada:

• Canadian employers are required to say “Canadians and permanent residents of Canada will be given priority”. My understanding is that generally they mean it.
• So unless you have a pre-arranged job, or a reasonable amount of experience, or prepared to work for minimum wage ($8/hour in BC) maybe this isn’t the place to come.
• For more professionally oriented jobs, instead of addressing selection criteria specifically, you cover it more generally in a cover letter

I’ll update this post as I think of more to include…