Moving from Canada to US, need help

Hello everyone,
I currently live in Toronto, Canada where weather is not for someone like me.. very cold here 8 months it`s freezing, snow and salty roads and the 4 months where it`s supposed to be a nice summer, we got last year all summer rain.

So I decided in order for me to enjoy life

swimming, ride my sport bike all year long and have fun with the boat or a seadoo I will have to move somewhere where weather gives me that opportunity. I doing some research about California vs Florida. I never been there yet, I am planning to have a 4 weeks minimum trip before actually moving, to check out all the pros and cons.

(Let me tell you a bit about my profession)
I have an advanced college diploma 3 years plus a BA in computer science I am a network admin and security administrator in IT with couple of certificates as well. My gf has a BA in Sociology and couple of insurance certificates and working in insurance here in Canada.

I would like you guys to recommend some cities in both states, and tell me the pros and cos in your opinion. Make sure you take in consideration the job oppotunities, house prices, life styles, weather, etc

I really appreciate your replies,
George

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Comments

astorrs

We'll be sorry to see you go, but I couldn't live in Toronto either.

What citizenship do you hold (tell me it's dual

)? It will be difficult (if not impossible) to get a US work visa given the number of US citizens out of work right now (a number that is growing fast in IT/high-tech these past couple of weeks).

As for California and Florida, I'm not sure how much luck you're going to have finding a job in either state. Both have been substantially hit by layoffs, it's places like Dallas, TX etc, that aren't suffering as bad. But that doesn't exactly line up with your hobbies.

Plantwiz

I'd agree that CA and FL are NOT places to go for work right now.

Neither is MI, OH, PA, NV.
WA, OR have slowed down. AK may have some, but that's not likely a better place for you then Toronto.

AL, LA - maybe ok....I would NOT desire to live in either place (no offense to our members who live there). Nice to visit, not to permentatly live (unless you were born there).

TN maybe good too, but they've slowed way down. KY - no.

WI, MN, Dakotas, NV, MT, WY .... not much change, but slowing too.

TX is the best opportunity, and the most promising especially for construction/oil or support industustries of the two.

Your odds of finding work are likely better up in Canada at the moment. Things will come around, but not for several months....might even be 18-24 months.

CA:
- Collasping house pricing for over-inflated homes (good time to buy

).
- Over populated
- Earthquakes
- Variety of terrain
- Expensive, but state college is inexpensive compared to many states.

FL:
- Bugs, large bugs
- Tourism
- Old people most from MI
- Hurricans
- Limited travel...basically N or S, the E to W you'll hit water
- Lots of VoIP companies
- Swampy (depends where you are)
- Same time zone you currently know

skrpune

Do you want to come to the US permanently or just temporarily? Sure, the weather is a little better in certain places & taxes are lower, but MAN is our economy in a crappy state right now. I don't think there's any area that's doing great in terms of job opportunities...we've got record highs in unemployment rates.

The easiest way to get a work visa here is to have an employer sponsor you...and as astorrs said, that will be hard to do as most people here are going to want to give jobs to Americans before bringing in someone from outside of the country & going through the extra hassle & cost to do so. I know that sucks, but things are pretty bad here and they're not getting better any time soon. However, if you can find an employer who is willing to hire & sponsor you & jump through those hoops, then you can apply for a visa & go from there. It will be the same situation for your girlfriend - if you were married, she could come along as a spouse but I don't think the US makes any special concessions for non-married significant others. So she will likely have to go through the same process to find an employer & get a work visa in the works.

Regardless of whether your move here would be temporary or permanent, the Visas home page for the Travel.gov website is a good place to start your info search.

By the way, there are plenty of other places to be looking to go to besides California & Florida that have good weather. I know this next suggestion might sound weird at first, but have you considered Arizona? It's got lots of (man-made) lakes for water recreation and contrary to popular belief, there are places in that state that don't have boiling temperatures in the summer. (Although I personally loved living in Phoenix, was there for about 9 years and you *do* get used to the summer heat!) Prices/cost of living there are reasonable and you're not too far off from some great vacation spots in California, Nevada, Mexico, etc.

Oh, and I agree with Plantwiz - beside the economy, the bugs & natural disasters are reason enough to be a bit wary of FL & CA.

Seriously though, those are two states that I flat out refuse to live in - no offense, but I'd rather live somewhere it's not so common to have storms that can kill you or where the ground shakes severely. I have a geology degree and part of me would love to experience an earthquake, but not the big mama ones you can get out in Cali...

EDIT: have you considered maybe relocating to a warmer area in Canada? Not sure how the economy is doing up there, haven't been following too closely since I left Toronto myself (was up there temporarily on a work permit), but it's almost a sure bet that the western provinces are doing a bit better financially & job-wise than most places in the US.

nasu

sry guys I forgot to mention I want to move in like 3 ..5 years and so I can save the money to buy a house there so I don't have to pay monthly interest..

I see everyone saying the same thing with the jobs. I know many jobs in IT and very bad job opportunities in auto and other industries as you all know depends what job in IT in what city u live u might have lots or not at all opportunities. But again in like 3 to 5 years things will change I just want an overview of things plus I'll go visit many places before I actually move permanently but it`s better if I know things before I go visit. I guess in a few years than I will have to marry her so we can go together and I will need to look for a company that can sponsor me.

Thanks for all your replies as u know there are many things that have to be taken in consideration before moving, floods(FL) and earthquakes:)

moss12

nasu try to consider racism as well if your a minority , if that a concern

skrpune

moss12 wrote: »

nasu try to consider racism as well if your a minority , if that a concern

Is there seriously no racism in New Zealand? I think that racism and general stupidity are something to be concerned about anywhere in North America, or in the entire world for that matter. I lived in NYC for 21 years, AZ for 9 years, Toronto for 2.5 years, and now I'm in Chicago for the past few months. I haven't found a place totally free of ignorance yet unfortunately. Certainly there are places where certain groups may have it worse than others or areas where there are larger populations of more enlightened/less ignorant people but the US doesn't have the market cornered!

I've met idiots everywhere I've lived. But I've also met lots of very nice, non-prejudiced people everywhere I've lived too. I wouldn't advise letting stereotypes about stereotypes keep someone from moving to the US. I swear, we're not all jerks!

Aldur

skrpune wrote: »

...I swear, we're not all jerks!

haha, well it's actually very true. Everywhere I've been I've run into people who are just too ignorant to see past their nose, but in the same breath I've meet people who are kind and are willing to help out in anyway. No matter where you go you are going to find people who are prejudice for one thing or another, the key is not associating with those people if you can.

nasu

hey that`s very true eveywhere there will be discrimination of race of your job position and so on some places more than other. I don't really worry about that it`s more about weather, good place to live have a family grow my kids in the future u know stuff like that ..good jobs in IT networking and security especially.

Hey to the member that mentioned he lived in Toronto now in Chicago how is it ? how do u feel there so far ? how long did it take to move from Toronto to Chicago, I'm a Canadian citizen actually having dual citizenship

skrpune

nasu wrote: »

hey that`s very true eveywhere there will be discrimination of race of your job position and so on some places more than other. I don't really worry about that it`s more about weather, good place to live have a family grow my kids in the future u know stuff like that ..good jobs in IT networking and security especially.

Hey to the member that mentioned he lived in Toronto now in Chicago how is it ? how do u feel there so far ? how long did it take to move from Toronto to Chicago, I'm a Canadian citizen actually having dual citizenship

I'm originally a US citizen, and my husband and I were moving back to the US after just a 2.5 year stint up there, so there wasn't much to it for us. I just made up an inventory of our belongings, brought the dog's documentation to show that he was originally a US "citizen" too (along with a current vaccination letter/doc from the vet & his medical history just in case...but they didn't look at it), and our vehicle's documentation to prove that we brought it into Canada & were bringing it back out with us.

We drove across the border and the whole process took forever. We used a freight company to ship the majority of our belongings with us, and we just brought ourselves, the dog, the car, & the necessities to survive until we got our stuff on the other side of the border. But we were stuck in a backup at the border for what seemed like forever (probably an hour or two, I don't remember offhand), and then we had to park & wait around in line for quite some time (almost 2 hours if I remember correctly) to get documentation for our car & to get our belongings "cleared." They just asked "so, uh, you are just bringing in your own personal belongings, riiiight?" When you're a returning citizen, they just assume you went into the other country with your own stuff & that you're just coming back with that same stuff. Technically, anything new you purchased is taxable as an import, but it's not really enforced with returning residents. If they were to compare the dollar values of what I "exported" in 2006 vs what I "imported" back in 2008, they would have seen a slight difference, but they didn't care to compare and I didn't care to mention it.

The laws on you importing your stuff from Canada into the US will be different if you bought your stuff up there though...definitely look into what's personal belongings vs household goods & how they may be taxed/not taxed depending on their origin & whether your move here is meant to be temporary or permanent. If your imports are taxable & you present yourself as temporary at first but end up going permanent, they WILL catch up with you later to tax you on that stuff. But again, you will have to do some separate research on what's taxable as it relates to your specific situation. It might work out better/easier/cheaper to sell some/most of your stuff before moving to the US.

Toronto was a great primer for the BLISTERING COLD weather here. We survived one of the coldest & snowiest winters on record (2007-2008 ) and it seems like this winter is pretty much the same here. These Great Lakes aren't seeming quite so great to me during winter time!

KGhaleon

Los angeles.

Do it.

nasu

good jobs in there ?