Hello,
I am Sara, mother of a five year old boy who is currently a teacher of English in Alexandria. For years, i have been living a conflict whether to stay here or leave. Lately, leaving is becoming the dominant feeling simply because i feel like an outsider here. I left Canada when i was 6. With my son's future in ind, i truly believe i should go back. ( he has the Canadian nationality because of me while my husband obviously can't. We wanna go but it seems i will have to take my son n go first. MY main worry is where in Canada to live, i visited my sister in Ontario then British Coloumbia which i liked. yet, i don't know the possibility of finding a job and reasonable place for rent. My teaching qualifications are from Egypt so i guess they mean nothing in Canada n i don't quite have savings to just study. i need to work and put my son in school as well as have a child friendly place to live, any advice and guidance 
Moving back to Canada....what job, child friendly place to live?
Well having lived both in Ontario and British Columbia (each for 28 years) I'd say for climate BC would be the choice. Since you have a sister there that's even better. Only problem with BC is the high cost of living in the Lower Mainland (Vancover, North Van, West Van, Richmond, Surrey, Burnaby) it's probably the most expensive place in the whole country in which to live.
Given that it has also been on the top 3 list of chosen destinations for newcomers to Canada for several decades now, finding a job there is going to be a bit daunting too, but don't let that put you off.
If you're thinking of somewhere else where the cost of living is going to be a bit more reasonable and job availability a bit better then consider Alberta - Calgary, Edmonton and maybe even Red Deer.
While your teaching certificates from Egypt may not be worth much in the public school system, that combined with your experience (if you read, write and speak Arabic) will probably put you in great shape as far as finding a job teaching Arabic in a private language school almost anywhere in the country. If you're looking at Vancouver there are a number of private language schools there. You might want to do a Google search and start sending out your CV to some of them in whatever city you may be interested in settling in.
Good luck with the job search, hope all goes well for your repatriation.
Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team
thanks alot for the advice, i personally loved Vancouver for my child more than Toronto. However, being expensive worries me. My sister is in Ubc now but her husband's studies en i n April so God knows where he will find a job.
i will look into that private school thing though my Arabic is not as good as my English ( Spoken Arabic perfect but written n grammar quite bad 
)
Perhaps you should really bone up on your Arabic writing skills and grammar a little bit. I'm sure that most of the language schools in Vancouver (or anywhere else in Canada) will probably be more concerned about your conversational skills anyway. I think they'd probably have standardized material for teaching the written language and grammar points.
I'm sure that if you've been there for any length of time you speak almost like a native. I note that you say you left Canada when you were 6, but you don't say that you've been in Egypt all that time.
One question about your situation with your son, since I have a 7 year old Brazilian born son, and perhaps a bit of information on this subject that will be helpful to you.
Did you register your son's birth with the Consulate-General of Canada, and have you applied for his Certificate of Citizenship and Canada Passport already? This is extremely important for you to do.
Application for Certificate of Citizenship: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/informatio … certif.asp
Application for Canada Passport (Minors) born abroad: http://passport.gc.ca/form/pdfs/pptc042.pdf
You will also have to apply for an Egypt Passport for your child since he is also an Egyptian citizen and thus must exit or enter Egypt ONLY using the Egypt Passport. He must also enter or exit Canada ONLY using the Canada Passport, so will need to carry them both. Regarding entering any other country he could choose which passport to use (whatever would be most beneficial for that country).
Also, when you do travel internationally you will require a notarized letter of permission from the child's father which authorizes the child to travel accompanied only by you. It should detail the anticipated date of travel, destination, address where the child will normally reside at the destination, and anticipated return date (if any). In your case it would probably be best to include that he understands it will be a permanent move and intends to join you later.
Hope this information is helpful to you.
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