We recently moved to Canada and because of that our lives started almost from scratch and we had to do a lot of things in the first couple of months. Some friends and coworkers helped with tips and some information, but we lacked a list that had most things so we had to figure things out slowly and painfully.
Because of that, we decided to create this guide. This guide is based on our experience and some things maybe not apply to your case. Use it as an informational guide and always check things as they can be changed at the time of your reading.
Also, this guide has some provincial-specific things, in our case British Columbia. It may differ in other provinces.
Let’s go to the topics. The order is by the sequence that we did them.
Phone number
One of the first things we did here was to get a phone number from Canada. It helped in the communication with people from here and also many other forms and documents require a phone number.
They have many mobile phone providers here, like Telus, Fido, Rogers, and Bell.
We decided to go with a phone that had a data plan and were a bit torn between Telus (that is supposed to have better coverage in Canada) and Fido (that is cheaper). We end up with Fido as we got also a promotional value.
We got 10GB of data for 40 in the first line and 10 GB for 45 in the second line. We had the two numbers in the same account.
If you decide to go with Fido, you can use my referral code and we both receive one month of service free.
Tell the attendant that we were referred by a friend and you have a referral link. Use this link
SIN number
You need this number if you are going to work. Social Insurance Number is your identification for tax purposes, so you’ll need to open a bank account, for the job, etc. To go it you need to go to a Service Canada Centre. Look for one that does not seem busy and go early. We stayed in a line for almost five hours to do ours.
BC ID (British Columbia)
BC ID is the simplest form of identity that you can use in British Columbia (Other provinces may have different names). When you get the BC ID you can stop carrying your passport around.
For doing a BC ID, go to an ICBC Drivers License Office. It costs around 36 dollars and they will send you to a mail address that you provide in two weeks. We did not have a permanent address at the time, so we gave a friend number and after we found a place to live, we just changed the address.
Bank account and Credit card
As I was used to using fintech in Brazil, my first option was to try to open a bank account in fintech here in Canada also. I tried to open an account in Tangerine and also EQ Bank. The thing is that both of them required a piece of local ID (they did not accept my Brazilian Passport) and I tried to open an account before my BC ID arrived.
As we were in a hurry to open a bank account, we end up opening the Account in Scotiabank. Depending on the type of account that you choose, you can get your fee rebate if you leave a certain amount of money.
Other traditional bank options are TD Bank, BMO,
I also made a credit card with Scotiabank that has up to 4% cashback. After I received the BC ID, I was able to verify my account in Tangerine, but my credit card was denied, probably because I did not have a credit score.
So in summary, as we did not have a credit score here, we were denied the credit card from fintech but the traditional banks approved the credit card and allowed us to open an account with our country’s passport (we had also the SIN number, phone number and work permit with a pay stub to prove income)
Compass card
If are living in Vancouver, the way to move around using public transportation is to have a Compass Card. In that, you have the option to buy a Daily pass, Monthly, or Store a value on the card. You should make the calculation if the Monthly pass is really needed for you. We use the store value option, we added a value and also enable the auto-reload, so when it gets below 5, it adds a value chosen by us. This way, we pay only for the trips that we take and as we did not go to the office every day, it is worth it for us.
Renting an apartment
Renting an apartment was challenging. Here in Vancouver, it is sometimes harder to rent an apartment than to find a job. We have written a post ‘5 Tips to Help You Rent an apartment in Vancouver’ in our other blog Pieces of the World.
BC Hydro
The process of getting electrical energy in our apartment was very easy. We just opened an account on the website of the energy provider(BC Hydro in our case) and said which was our moving day. After that, it was started to count the consumption to our account. They did not need to do anything at the apartment, just in the account.
Home Internet
There are many internet providers here also and they may change for each province. Here the main two are Shaw and Telus. Analyzing the different plans and options we end put getting Telus. The main difference and that Telus has the same Upload and Download speed, while Shaw has a lower upload speed.
If you decide to with Telus, you can use my referral link and get $50 off on your first bill. Click here to use it.
Driver’s Licence BC
You can drive up to 90 days here with your country’s driver’s license. After that, you have to get your provincial driver’s license. If your country of origin has a reciprocal agreement, you can convert your driver’s license very quickly, if it does not, you will have to make the knowledge test and also the road test.
For BC, you can check the requirements on the ICBC website. But basically, you will have to do a knowledge test that has 50 questions and you have to have 40 correct and after do a road test.
For the knowledge test, you can download an app and practice the questions and also read the manual.
We hope that this guide helps the process of moving to Canada be more smooth.
If you are looking for places to travel, check our travel Youtube Channel Pieces of the World.
Happy living!