MOVING TO VANCOUVER: 5/2/10

Visiting other countries while in Canada on a visa

Many folks want to know if its ok to leave Canada and head to the US or elsewhere while on a working visa.
The answer is YES.

DRIVING
You need to have your passport and working visa with you. If you travel by car, you have to get out of the car at the US/Canada border and go into the office to get your green card (like when you travel to the US out of Ireland). There’s generally little hassle involved. It just adds about 30 minutes to your trip.

Driving back into Canada again you will need passport and visa. The Canadian border police are pretty decent, they want to see your visa and make sure you are legitimately entering Canada.

FLYING
No hassle flying out of Canada, returning through immigration however, they will look at your visa and likely ask you questions about what you are doing in Canada, what you are working at, and ask you what your plans are when your visa comes to an end.

We have had no hassle coming in and out of YVR (Vancouver airport) and that includes trips to the US, Europe and Mexico.

Holiday/Vacation Time.

This might not be your immediate priority when planning a move to Vancouver, but its something that we hadn’t thought much about before moving here.

In Ireland we were used to about five weeks holidays if not more. So it came as something of a shock to the system when we were told the standard is TWO WEEKS per year. I know that that’s how it works in the US, but I thought Canada might be a little more flexible.

Obvisouly some companies are more open to negotiating increased holiday time than others, but in general, they seem pretty set in their ways.

So if you are moving from the other side of the world and you use a week holiday at Christmas time to go back to your home country, that leaves you with little time to take holidays in Canada throughout the year. To be frank, this has been a real pain in the backside for us.

Incidentally though, the price of domestic air travel is pretty prohibitive anyway (I’m just full of good news in this post). Seriously though, a return flight to Toronto is about $700, and return to Calgary is about $300. So for that kind of cash you might get used to staying put on the west coast.

There’s plenty to do in this part of the world, well for at least the first year anyway.
Brief overview of close-ish road trip options as follows (including approx. travel times)

Whistler – 2 hours by car
Squamish (about 1 hour south of Whistler)
Seattle, Washington – 3.5 hours by car
Portland, Oregon – 7 hours by car
Kelowna – 5 hours by car
Vancouver Island ( need to take BC ferries) 1.5 hours
Tofino (Vancouver Island) 5 hours inc. ferry
Victoria (Capital of BC on the Island) 3.5 hours