Hiya,
Depressed southern neighbor here looking for some advice. I’m sure you can guess where I’m going with this, so let’s not mince words: what’s some advice on getting to the Vancouver area, obtaining a visa, and a job, etc.? I’m not really looking for nitty gritty details on legal processes and what not, I can find that info documented in various places online (unless you just have a really good link chocked full of info for me). I’m more so looking for some insight from the denizens of the area that know it well.
I’m a millenial that’s been in tech my whole life. I know it’s a massive field, but because I’ve been on linux terminals since I was a wee lad I know how to do… well almost everything that has a job title for it and even at an older age I can pickup new languages and systems with relative ease. Besides that, I’m also an electrician, mechanic, and musician. I’ve been loosely looking for jobs, but so far what I’ve seen seems to be in the city and I need to refine my search. I generally prefer to be closer to the forest, or the mountains (glacier snowboarding is on my bucket list, before they all melt), but I wouldn’t turn down the city if it came down to that.
What are some not-so-populated areas of the west coast that still have at least a semblance of infrastructure? I don’t really care about nightlife, I just want to do tech things and mind my own business without everything that’s happening around me right now (I’m currently in the epicenter of the southern maga dipshits).
I’m curious, too… what’s the temperature like as far as Canadians accepting educated, healthy, non-fascist US citizens? In other words, do you think there might be some bias against me just because of where I currently reside? Take note how I don’t call myself American, because my ancestry is not indigenous to this land. I just happened to be born here.
Any advice on places to checkout/avoid, companies to checkout/avoid, etc. would be awesome and I appreciate it.
And just in case it’s a requirement, you should also know that I put a spoonful of Maple Syrup in my coffee every morning, nothing else. It’s a magical thing! Started doing that many moons ago and I’ll never take coffee any other way now.
ETA: After a couple of comments and staring at the map, I probably should have said British Columbia rather than specifying Vancouver, that’s my bad. Seems to me like the remote areas up there may be more my speed.
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Friendly advice: look further afield.
As in, further north? east? Not CA at all?
Curious what makes you say it in a slightly cryptic way.
Canadians ALSO want to move to a different country, just to be further from the USA. Canada has always been dominated by American interests. This 51st state thing has been a meme for the better part of a century; not that we would become such, but that we already are.
Thought that might be where you were headed with it. It’s definitely on my mind, but I mentioned elsewhere that I have a pretty deep personal reason to be close-ish to Washington State.
If I had complete free-choice and the means to go anywhere, it’d be Finland, Norway or Iceland.
Not sure why you think immigrating to Canada would be any easier than those nations. We’re a real country and everything.
In terms of relative geographical location, Canada is infinitely easier for me. These three are on completely different continents.
Canada also has less work permit requirements than any of the three I mentioned. At least in my situation.
Norway has also completely closed their immigration stuff last I checked a few months ago.
I live in Alberta so I can’t say much on the front of where to live.
When a lot of Canadians say they hate the US (including myself) we are more so saying that we hate the government, not everyone living there. I fully welcome any Americans who want to come to Canada with open arms to escape what is going on down south and I highly doubt you will face much bias being from the US.
As for businesses, I have started to use co-op a lot more especially for gas. I don’t know how many there are in BC, but we have them everywhere here in Alberta. It’s a Canadian co-operative association and you can get a membership to your local co-op for $5 CAD (it isn’t required to shop there but you do get equity and money back on every purchase you make)
When a lot of Canadians say they hate the US (including myself) we are more so saying that we hate the government
I’m just so used to how the southern confederates act towards things like this. They’ll vilify an entire country like China, and then practically tar and feather any Korean that walks by because of it. Crazy shit.
As for businesses, I have started to use co-op a lot more especially for gas.
Are you speaking of this? https://canada.coop/en/
Looks like they have stuff pretty much all over CA, and even possibly some jobs to look into as well. Thanks for that tip! Co-ops are something I really miss about the western states. They’re practically illegal on the east.
I was specifically talking about https://co-op.crs/, a chain of cooperative grocery stores and gas stations through western Canada. However, that seems to be a good list of other coops worth taking a look at!
Hi there! I’m a Canadian but grew up around Maryland, came back to Canada about 25 years ago. Vancouver island and the coast in general is really expensive, and there’s no rentals unfortunately. Personally I don’t think people here are opposed to newcomers, it’s just the squeeze on the already strapped housing that’s pisses people off. We’ve had decades of rich folks (from all areas) buying summer homes and taking away places for people to live. That being said, if you’re a good person, and you seem to be from your responses, people will see that.
One place I haven’t seen mentioned is Smithers. I really like that town! Super cute, has a brewery and all the stores downtown actually have businesses in them. Added plus of a ski hill you can see from downtown. Not ridiculously expensive either, for bc. Will get cold in the winter, obvs, but I saw you lived in Vermont so nothing you can’t handle. Also shout out for Vermont! I spent my summers there as a kid, miss it something fierce. Personally I love Fernie but it’s just as expensive as Victoria since it’s Calgarys Whistler. If you are really keen on the coast Powell river is good, also Campbell River and Port MacNeil. All three would be places I’d move.
I’m not in the tech field at all so can’t help with that part but pm me if you have any questions about the coast or stuff like that. Good luck friend, may we all get through this.
Yea, the rich folk thing is exactly why I would expect to have issues. They do that to places, New Zealand is another good example. I am definitely not rich, though. Kinda curious, are there “vanlife” type people up there? I live in a RAV4 right now, used to live in a skoolie. I won’t take away any of your houses, I just need a water/food source and maybe a gym.
I like the sound of this Smithers town. And looking at the map, there are a bunch of peaks in the area, definitely my style. Zooming out a bit, it seems that whole general area right there is right up my alley and on a major road.
Thanks for the offer and the infos, I may just hit you up for some more insight at some point! Especially since you’ve sorta done what I want to do, although you had the benefit of being from CA originally.
Smithers is the shit. I love it there. It’s way bigger now but still a great spot.
Don’t try to go to work for the telecoms here. As an employer, they suck.
Duly noted!
Just to elaborate a little bit on this, the telecoms in Canada have achieved complete regulatory capture and are essentially an unfettered oligarchy with territorial monopolies. They own and operate their own regulatory body, the CRTC, which lets them do whatever they want and rules whatever way they want them to decide in any situations. Occasionally the government itself steps in to force a tiny fraction of some utterly reasonable demand on them and they scream in every media source (all of which they own) about how they’ve violently murdered and annihilated the entire industry with such horrible rules and then they pettily cancel infrastructure projects and lay people off to make their point before continuing on as completely business as normal as if it never happened because of course it was completely harmless all along.
So that’s the telecom environment here. All coverage and internet access sucks, unless you’re in a major city or along a path between major cities, and this is why. But if you’re in a major city then you have to deal with major city real estate prices. This is the Canadian dilemma. Starlink has been a godsend for many people in rural areas (which is the vast majority of people in Canada, according to our telecoms, where you go down the wrong cul-de-sac and become rural) although with Musk involved that’s just replacing the very evil devils we know with one very evil one we don’t. For the van-living life you’ll need to make that important decision about how you’re going to get connected to modern society, and all of the options you’re going to have will feel really bad. On the whole Starlink will likely be the best of a bad bunch but you’ll have to figure that out for yourself based on whatever situation you find yourself in. Worth keeping in mind though.
Nanaimo is on Vancouver island, a 90 minute boat ride from Vancouver.
You’re welcome here, if you can afford it. Rents are hella high but demand might simmer down soon, finally, and BC is one of the few provinces making actual progress on housing. You might have up to a 1h30m commute but rapid transit in Vancouver is usable and can take you quite far across the city, into Surrey Richmond and Coquitlam. Biking is doable as well if you live not too far from your work, there is a solid network but you have to look for it sometimes.
Do you want to live and work in Canada temporarily (while orange man in power) or looking to eventually get permanent residency?
If you can have an American company move you to one of their Canada branch offices then you can easily get a CUSMA Professional (while the agreement lasts) temporary work permit for 3 years, then try to apply for permanent residency.
This is the official immigration Canada website where you can get official info. It has application prices, note 1 canadian dollar is about 70 cents US. Note there are a lot of sites out there of companies advertising Canadian immigration lawyers, getting a lawyer would be a smart idea, but use the official source of information rather than Google search ads so that you’re not getting scammed.
Do you want to live and work in Canada temporarily (while orange man in power) or looking to eventually get permanent residency?
Preferably permanent eventually. I’ve been done with this country long before the fat cyst got political. Up until now, I’ve had the national parks and forests to keep me sane. That’s slowly fading, though.
If I could find a tech job in the US, then that’d be sweet to get transferred like that, but it’s been rough here in that regard. I’m also fairly stubborn in who I work for. I’ve been treated very badly in the past, and most of the companies I could work for that have Canadian offices are not on my list of “OK to work for”, at least that I’m aware of. Besides, I’d still be under the ultimate leadership of an American Capitalist. If I can, a Canadian company would be awesome, but we’ll see.
Thanks for the direct link and insight on the lawyer, I’ll definitely dig through it!
I’ll add that once you are on the island, there are a lot of medium sized communities, plus lots of more rural areas. Housing prices are still kind of high from a historical perspective but can be pretty cheap by Vancouver standards.
Likewise, the Okanagan, Kamloops and Shuswap regions have lots of more affordable communities up in the hills around fairly decently large population centres by BC standards.
Finally, if you start heading north it gets positively affordable. Prince George, Vanderhoof, Terrace, William’s Lake. Long drives are needed to get places though. Still, where else would you get something like the Sandblast?
Oh my, you’ve sold me on Prince George with that. Any group of skiiers that are that pissed it’s summer are OK in my book, lmao
Some people might try to dissuade you, as there is a housing crisis in BC. But truth be told it’s a beautiful place, you’ll fall in love with it. Nobody will hate on you for being American. Anywhere on Vancouver Island would be very civilized but it gets remote up above Campbell River. The Kooteney’s are gorgeous, Nelson and surrounding areas. Shushwap is nice. The Okanagan. Up north Quesnel is supposed to be great. There are crappy areas in some of these places too, the island feels methy at times. It’s not perfect but you could make a life there and be very happy imo. It’s gonna be expensive
The kootenays are my favourite area of BC but there isn’t any housing vacancy. I recently had a job offer for 100k/yr in nelson but i couldn’t find anywhere to live for 2000/mo and i lost the job offer.
Damn, the housing bits I didn’t really know about, which means that expensive is probably an understatement.
It’s almost sounding like I may need to consider anywhere else in CA. I do love remote, though. I really love remote areas. The sound of nature does wonders for my tinnitus and focus.
If you like remote, consider northern Ontario. You don’t even have to get super north for the population to plummet. The area is also incredibly beautiful, but so is BC and they don’t get the same snow (there’s so much snow, oh god…).
The only issue with Ontario is that I have some personal reasons for wanting to be somewhat close-ish to Washington State. I have considered it, though. I used to work with some devs up there, but my company canned them before I could get transferred…
Which one is the snow king, Ontario or BC?
Well, in terms of amount of snow, northern Ontario probably has more. But in terms of snow-related recreation, BC has more skiing and snowboarding opportunities since there are way more mountains. Ontario is more suited to ice skating, snowshoeing, snowmobiling (AKA skidooing), and sometimes tubing.
Haha, good distinction. There’s “the king of dumping on you” and the “king of fun” kinda snow.
I know Whistler is pretty much THE ski spot in the entire world.
We’re a country of mostly trees and fields, so there’s no lack of nature. Or remoteness.
I would try to find a map of areas serviced by fibre optic internet, and use that to target regions to look into.
Do note, though, that basically anywhere between the Rockies and, like, Fredericton gets right proper cold during winter.
Good idea on the fibre map!
I’ve experienced cold-as-shit, but I’m not sure I’ve experienced proper cold yet. Lowest was -8F (-22C) and even then it only lasted for the coldest part of that night and went just above 0F (-17C) as the sun came out.
I lived in Vermont at the time, house was heated by an oil furnace. The furnace died 2 days before this happened and didn’t get replaced until a week after 🥲
There is nothing on the west coast except for vancouver and victoria. I am a linux admin in victoria. One of the most expensive places in the entire world. It’s nearly impossible to get a job here even as a born in victoria person but pm me and I will help you the best I can.
Also vancouver island is extremely xenophobic to newcomers just before you get your hopes up.
lmao, I replied way too fast! Thanks again for the other infos.
On the topic of temperature, the only nice weather in the entire country is southern vancouver island. Vancouver is ok but it’s wet. It’s cold in the rest of canada.
I meant more the temperature of how I would be received. I absolutely love cold and shoveling snow, weirdly enough. Lived in Vermont for almost 10 years.
Maple syrup in coffee? Bro that’s unhinged lmao
Don’t knock it 'til you try it!
Where are you from? Vancouver would be warmer in the winter compared to Vermont.
I was born in southern US (Georgia), but I’ve traveled around a lot and lived in almost every climate (I was in a School Bus for a while, floating between national parks and forests). Vermont was definitely the coldest, but Texas surprised me one year.
Anywhere in BC except for east of the rockies and the northeast you would have no issues I think
Damn, that’s rough to hear! I appreciate it, though. PM inbound.
