So you want to move to Toronto?

nicolo

Getting the Visa

This board here is fantastic for keeping you up to date on the process of applying and letting you know exactly when certain portions of the process open up. I genuinely believe if I wasn’t on this forum I wouldn’t have gotten my visa so recommend to anyone you know who’s going to read this and keep up to date.

Traveling
I personally went with Aerlingus, the flight was enjoyable and made it over a head of schedule. I will however recommend that you check any breakables immediately when you get your luggage as a very expensive piece of equipment I brought with me got broken in transit and I didn’t notice for 3 weeks at which stage I can’t be certain it had anything to do with the airline. If you are moving pets send me a pm and I’ll send you on the Irish company we used to ship our cats. They arrived safely and settled in fine once they got to eat and sleep. I thought they’d of been in terrible distress but they were grand. They get shipped to a small cargo place about twenty minutes away from the airport. You have to go there, get some forms, then head back to the airport and go through customs and get all the paperwork stamped, then head back to the cargo and they will release the animals to you.

Arriving

Once through to arrivals you will have to make your way out to the taxi ranks, you will be inundated with guys who look like they might have stolen Liam Neesons daughter in Taken. DO NOT get in their cabs, only some of them are licensed and they will charge you a fortune. The Airport has licensed taxis that offer a flat rate into the city and they are the ones that pull up at the official ranks with the guys directing them, which are just outside the door.

Temporary accommodation

I cannot stress this enough BOOK SOMEWHERE MONTHS BEFORE YOU LEAVE. The idiots I've run into from Ireland who just showed up off the plane with a bag of oranges and a Celtic jersey hoping to just crash somewhere that night. You never know exactly what’s going to be going on in Toronto when you arrive, like for instance a few weeks ago there was Fan Expo (an enormous Canadian comic/film convention), The Toronto International Film Festival ( which is the second biggest one in the world apparently), a huge trade convention and the CNE which is a giant funderland type thing.
If you don't have the cash for a big hotel (like most of us) then you'll be looking for hostels. Hostels are ok here but you'll get the same problems you get in hostels everywhere, you can't pick the other guests and God knows who you'll end up sharing a room with. The alternative is a website called Airbnb.ca, it has temporary rentals of people’s property, it can be kind of pricey but there’s a few gems on there.

Money
Ok now this one can go VERY wrong so be careful. First off there is the simple act of getting your money from Ireland to Canada. When I looked into it, everyone and their dog recommended I use Currencyfair.com. I left it waaaaaaaay too late and it was a disaster, I tried to set it up just before I left and they require two utility bills in your name in the same address that the bank has on file for you. I was moving out and only had one and was going to be in Canada a week later. Even when they do finally get that set up, you need to set them up as a payee from your online banking which means that it’s not actually faster, you have to transfer money to Currency fair which can take up to five days, then transfer it from that account to your Canadian one which can take another five days. It is cheaper if you have the time to wait and the cop on to set it up while still in Ireland.

I tried to transfer funds from my Bank of Ireland account and wound having the money bounce back into my Irish account €300 lighter a full week later, when I rang up Bank of Ireland they said it was an error on a form I'd filled out, refused to refund me and I had to start the process over again while I had to live off my Irish card (which has a charge at most of the ATMs and it doesn’t work in every ATM). My girlfriend is with AIB and they won't do international transfers without sending you out a card reader which takes a millionty years.
Also on a side note be careful about this, I doubt it'll happen to anyone else but one day I got out of bed and checked my bank balance and I noticed 500 dollars had been withdrawn from my Irish account that day, I called up Bank of Ireland who immediately cancelled my Irish card then transferred me to the fraud department who informed me that it was a delayed transaction and was actually just the wrong date. which left me completely cut off from all my money back in Ireland. I had about 700 dollars to last me till I could get that money transferred over. Not a fun situation to find yourself in. Again just saying be careful with relying on Irish cards.

House hunting

To search for apartments I highly recommend using a realtor (pm me for a recommendation) if you’re not I recommend using Padmapper. It’s a site that collects all the places being advertised on a bunch of different sites. Even if you are using a realtor, keep looking up Padmapper and if you find somewhere you like, send them a link to it and let them negotiate with the landlord. Toronto has a 1% rental market which means that only 1% of the rentable properties in the city are available and the law in Ontario is heavily weighted towards the tenant so landlords have to be insanely careful who they let move in and it’s their market Realtors are better at dealing with the weird laws and arguing your case so get one as soon as you start looking.
Apartment hunting in Toronto summed up so far - affordable/ above ground/ not in the backarse of beyonds ... pick two. And when you do find one you'll need to provide a Canadian credit check, letter of employment, bank statements, landlord reference, employer reference, star sign, stool sample, shoe size, past life reference from a reputable psychic, mother’s maiden name and measurements, your diary from when you were 12, your first pets name and social security number. If like me you were fresh off the plane you won't have a Canadian credit history and without a proper place of residence most jobs won’t hire you. Fun catch 22 no?

Just to put some perspective on this, myself and my girlfriend had almost $18000 coming over between us. We are both highly qualified professionals and we looked at about 20 something places, and made offers on about 18. We offered increased rent, six months up front, A Canadian friend of ours with a good job offered to co-sign as guarantor and despite that and offering to show our passports/ visas/ landlord and employment references from Ireland we still wound up getting turned down for all but the last which is essentially a corridor under someone’s house that we still had to pay four months upfront for. It took us over a month to find somewhere. We eventually had to move into a spare room in a friend’s house as we couldn't afford to stay in hostels anymore, if we hadn't of been lucky enough to have a friend here with a spare room I honestly think we were leaning towards just getting on the plane home. We eventually managed to find a place to live and I am not exaggerating when I say it is a corridor under someone’s house. It is six foot wide in places and costs us $1400 a month, which includes all bills so essentially it is actually about €800 a month which is not too bad I guess. Basement apartments are generally cramped and the windows are tiny, not recommended for anyone who suffers from seasonal affective disorder. If you do decide to go for one make sure to ask the landlord if it floods, and if the basement has a drainage hole into the sewers make sure it has a flowback valve or you will have the sewers bursting into your living room. It's not normally an issue apparently but definitely something to be aware of.
One thing about having pets in Toronto, despite all the nonsense to allow humans to live in their properties, landlord don’t seem to care that much about pets, probably because none of them come furnished and as such it’s not their couch getting destroyed.

Getting supplies

I haemorrhaged money the first few weeks I was here because I had no idea where to go, most of the "convenient" places are stupidly expensive. My advice is to find yourself a No Frills or Food Basics, they are the Canadian versions of Aldi/ Lidl and honestly the food is fine. Loblaws is also meant to be good but I've never been myself. Mobile wise I recommend Wind, I got on a bill where I get all calls/ texts/ internet for 35 dollars a month, which comes out as 40 after taxes. Be careful they don't add on call waiting without asking cos it’s an extra ten a month. I think that offer may be finished now but they’re a good service anyway.

Getting work

Finding employment is a nightmare as well, even if you just want to work retail. As I mentioned we are both highly educated and really wanted to find a decent work in our fields however even after applying to all the companies (even the ones that weren't advertising) we heard nothing back, which in and of itself means nothing in Canada, the job process takes ages. A housemate of ours got a call back on September 15th for a job she applied for in July. Also Irish experience means nothing over here, they want you to have “Canadian” experience, some employers can be real sticklers about it. A book store I applied for made me fill out a huge "psychology" test. I had an hour to complete it and this was after my initial application and this was for a temporary seasonal job. I have yet to hear back.


Socializing

We've gone out a few times and found the Canadians to be very friendly but drink costs an arm and a leg if you are in the wrong place. I got charged 7 dollars for a 330 mill can of beer at a gig. The drink is also super weak, last night I went out and had eight vodka and cokes and was sober by time I got home. I'm not a big drinker and 3 vodkas in Dublin would have had me drunk but it was just weak as hell and overpriced. Also only one company is licensed to sell anything harder than Beer/wine and its called LCBO, there’s a fair amount of them around but you wouldn’t get a naggin in the local shop.
Another HUGE thing you need to remember is that you need ID to get into some of the clubs. I'm in my 30s and was refused entry to a gig because I didn't have ID. It’s just insane, luckily I had a scan of my passport on my phone (from one of the many applications to landlords) and that was ok identification for me. Still though, best to bring it if you can.

Setting up your home

Apartments generally don’t come furnished in Toronto so make sure to hold a bit back in your budget to buy a bed, mattress, chair and general stuff. In the hostel I was in at first I had a TV and I can't begin to describe the horrors of just how bad Canadian television is. There is a channel that is just The Big Bang Theory 24 hours a day. Also most shows of half an hour will have upwards of 4 ad breaks. Some ad breaks will have the same ad multiple times, it’s just mind boggling. Internet wise I recommend Techsavy.

Community.

One thing that was a massive surprise to me is that I was shocked by the racial disparity in Toronto. White people would be a minority in my appraisal. Most other races have areas of the city that cater to them, China town/ Greek town/ little Italy etc., but there is no "Irish town" to rely on. what I can recommend, and what has been a huge help in all aspects of the move has been the Facebook group "Irish and New in Toronto" which is a great way to find out about jobs/ apartments/ where to go to see sports events and find the ingredients for a decent fry. It’s also super useful for people moving back to Ireland who are selling off their old stuff cheap so I recommend that.

The Canadians on the whole are as polite and friendly as they are famous for but it varies between genuinely lovely people (my realtor drove me around the city for three hours to let me get a feel for the place) and people being polite because they’ll get fired if they don’t smile for eight hours a day. If I’m really honest (and I can’t stress enough how much this is just my personal opinion) but I find them to be incredibly boring people. It sometimes feels like I’m living in that game The Sims, everyone is just really bland and smiley all the time. Again that is just my opinion and is most certainly not most people’s impression. That said on a non-doom & gloom note it is a beautiful city, the streets are kept in great condition and the subways are spotless. Even the homeless seem more “down on their luck” than “I will stab you because I‘m on drugs and like stabbing.” There does seem to be a fairly good selection of things to do as well and the Aquarium and museum are fantastic days out. If I could go back a year and give myself some advice I’d say to move to the west coast, it’s meant to have a worse night life but it’s also meant to be easier to get a place to live/ work once there for a year I’d maybe move to Toronto once I had the Canadian credit history and reference and experience etc. built up. I don’t mean to put anyone off, this is just my personal experience and some information I wish I’d had before I left.
for anyone who is coming over An Sibin on Queens east is an Irish pub that’s started doing a decent Irish fry, so hopefully see you there

This looks great! I will read it when I wake up properly!

sashafierce

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COYVB

Walmart for chicken breast. Costco for all other meats. No frills for pretty much everything else.

Save.ca app for weekly flyers

krudler

sashafierce wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

That, loblaws can do good deals on meat, 5 chicken breasts for 9 bucks etc, usually its chicken on the bone but that's no biggie. mince too, can get like a kilo of it for good prices. Different shops for different things and it'll save you in the long run, sometimes I just cant be arsed going to no frills for the sake of saving 5 bucks or something so I just get everything in metro or loblaws, depends on what I'm buying though.

Also, milk in bags, get used to it, it's way cheaper.

COYVB

Metro and Loblaws are insanely expensive for stuff not on sale though. Keeping on top of the flyers is the way to go across the board. Time things right and be willing to shop around and you'll cut 20-30% off your groceries.

retalivity

Asian supermarkets for fruit/veg/meat...waaaaaay cheaper

COYVB

retalivity wrote: »

Asian supermarkets for fruit/veg/meat...waaaaaay cheaper

Yeah definitely. There's a Chinese place in Pickering, the name of which escapes me right now, that has superb prices for great stuff. Love me some Chinese broccoli.

Wouldn't really bother with them for meats though, aside from calamari

Cullen82

Thanks for this ridiclously helpful post Nicolo - honestly!

You've just convinced me to head to the west though - Have heard much about the work/living situation in Toronto and think it would be nice to make starting out that little bit "easier" by heading to Calgary or Edmonton

Cheers