Looking to settle down in Canada

My thoughts are, with a niche engineering area like yours, the best place to be are the bigger cities. Anything with the population size of 1M above is good. Toronto / Vancouver obviously are the best bet. Ottawa also has some engineering scene going on too.

On whether to bring your family first or later it all depends on your appetite and endurance for pain. Obviously with a family there's more challenges. But its either you rip your band-aid off immediately at one go or do it slowly, take your pick. There is no right or wrong. Without the family you may be able to focus more some say, then again, with the family, you may be able to discipline yourself and have your center of your life with you to keep you focus.

Pay structure: Depends on where you live. Bigger cities tend to pay higher. Remember they count by annual salary here rather than monthly. Look at fringe benefits like day of vacations, RRSP (pension contribution), medical, other allowances if any like phone, internet etc. Some companies pay twice in a mth, 15 and 30. Some pay bi-weekly (every 2 weeks). The later means you have more pay days in a year and also some months you have 3 pay days. Your take home pay is always minus off EI, Federal and provincial taxes.

Monthly expenses - are the obvious, your rent, if you have car you pay for it if its new or leased (but I prefer to buy a 2nd hand cash, its cheaper that way), your RRSP contribution (only pay as much as your company will top up for you and nothing more), other basic necessities like food, leisure, if you rent an apartment, then check if landlord covers water or not, electricity, phone/internet. All the $ differs depending on province my friend. Remember if your unit that you rent uses electricity for heat, and the landlord doesn't cover electricity, you are toast with high cost of heating. Make sure heat is included in the rent!!!!

All the best!

Thank you very much Philip.
  That was really informative. You have almost cleared all my doubts in mind. I really appreciate that you replied to my message inspite of your busy schedule. I just went through your profile and brother I must say that, its a similar lifestyle like yours i am looking for in Canada. Your profile says it all.

I have few other queries.

I am planning to apply for PR through the express entry pool. My doubt is that should i have a job offer in hand to get the PR ? The consultancy i have approached to process my documents told me that i can get the PR without a job offer.
Just in case i get my PR and enter Canada are there any agencies which can help me in finding jobs ?

Is it mandatory to choose a job in the same field which i have studied ? I wanted to completely come out of the technical field and start fresh. Is it possible in Canada ?

Sorry too many questions

Naveen Kumar Hanumappa wrote:

Thank you very much Philip.
  That was really informative. You have almost cleared all my doubts in mind. I really appreciate that you replied to my message inspite of your busy schedule. I just went through your profile and brother I must say that, its a similar lifestyle like yours i am looking for in Canada. Your profile says it all.

I have few other queries.

I am planning to apply for PR through the express entry pool. My doubt is that should i have a job offer in hand to get the PR ? The consultancy i have approached to process my documents told me that i can get the PR without a job offer.
Just in case i get my PR and enter Canada are there any agencies which can help me in finding jobs ?

Is it mandatory to choose a job in the same field which i have studied ? I wanted to completely come out of the technical field and start fresh. Is it possible in Canada ?

Sorry too many questions

Hi Naveen,

Thank you. Well, my path isn't all a bed of roses. Although right now its gotten better. Well, you could engage the services of a head-hunting companies. It doesn't hurt to contact them and talk to them via the phone. Go with 2 or 3 and meet them in person then to discuss your needs. Remember, their clients pay them a fee to find ppl like you, so you don't have to pocket anything. How do you get in touch with them? Get creative, use linkedin, do a search and narrow the search down by places and text keywords. Yellow pages. Google. etc.

The other thing is to, like I've said, see what's out there. I am based here in Halifax, NS and there was a not for profit organization named Greater Halifax that was a provincial government initiative. What it does is that it has a multi-prong approach to rejuvinate the local economy which one of the approaches was to highlight the pool of local talent to prospectful companies. In doing so, they organized events such as a round-table match-making session (much like match-making dating service, but in this case for companies and talent). It was a one day event. I enrolled and went for that. That's how I got introduced to my first company here. The rest was history.

The thing is to keep your eyes open and always ask questions. You never know what you might land up with. As to if its mandatory to be in the field as what you studied. Errr... so you have have the PR already right? Assuming you are already a PR - then technically, you're almost as good as a citizen minus the ability to vote. So, what you engage in to support your daily life is really up to you (of course not criminal activities). No one's going to penalize you if you decide you want to open up a restaurant business or become model. Essentially you'd still be working for $ means you'd be paying taxes to the government. And that's what counts to them. But if you're coming with a work permit, then you better stick with it for the time being until you obtain your PR.