Some thoughts about what it is like to have moved to Vancouver, Canada from South Africa
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- Is Canada REALLY for you?!?!
Make your list of positives and negatives and sit down with your family before taking the leap. Immigrating to a new country is HARD! It is NOT for everyone.
Yes, there are lots that you need to leave behind or change. BUT there is also so much you get in return. And it is a VERY personal decision.
And unless you are sure of your reasons to go, rather stay.
What is important to you? What do you love/like or don't love/like?
Security?
Freedom?
Schooling?
Public Transport?
Family and friends? Leaving family and friends?
Friendly citizens?
Job opportunities?
Natural beauty?
Outdoor life?
Weather?
Renting/housing?
Banking?
Medical services?
Driver's licence redo?
The immigration process?
Paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork!!!
Are you a patient person?
Are you determined to continue, no matter how long it can take?
Do you have the money to see you through the process?
Are you happy to start over?
Can you deal with being on the opposite side of the world from South Africa?
👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇
We are a South African 🇿🇦 family that moved from Johannesburg to Vancouver in 2021.
Please subscribe to our channel and follow our experiences and learn with us about our new home - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 🇨🇦
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👍 / vangraans
Check out our other videos about various topics:
💲 Cost of living in Vancouver
🗽 Immigration and Emigrating
🏠 Housing & Renting
🏧 Banking
🚗 ⛴ 🚌 🚎 🚲 Transport
💊 🩺 💉 Health
🌄 📸 Natural beauty
🧗 🚣♀️ 🚴♀️ Outdoor lifestyle
🚦 🚧 🚙 Driver's Licences
... and much more!
DISCLAIMER: 📌
Any information provided on this UA-cam Channel is of a general nature and is for educational/informational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional advice and you are not guaranteed the same outcome. Should you decide to act upon any information on this channel, please proceed with caution ⚠️.
Information is gathered and shared from personal experience and reputable sources, however, this channel is not responsible for errors or omissions in reporting or explanations. Viewers are advised to seek specific legal advice by contacting Immigration Lawyers that are active members of a Law Society in Canada or Immigration Consultants registered with ICCRC. If you want to make sure that you are up to date with the latest changes, please visit the Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada website at www.canada.ca/... 🇨🇦
All the best to you with your move to Canada. I emigrated to Australia from South Africa in 1988 and it's the same here in Australia we freely move around and feel safe in our homes. I am blessed and grateful to be living in Australia.
Thank You! I love Australia as well...
Can you pls sponsore me to Australia, its my dream country
Great video,i just got back from South Africa,on my 12 day of of lockdown here in Canada. I miss South Africa, i,m planning to move there soon. Ilove to hit the road when i'm there one of the most beautiful countries i've ever driven in. plus i love the 20 km higer speed limit in SA. Wish you and your family all the best here in Canada.
The higher speed limit does help ;-)
South Africa is a dog show. Don't waste your time and energy moving here.
We dont even have clean water for drinking in our taps at the moment in my city.
Going on a month now
Wow, thank you so much for making these videos and actually offering help. These bits of info are really informative.
Glad it was helpful!
Hey I reached Vancouver . Its an amazing place to be.
Lots of love to you and the family.
All the best
Awesome Ankit! Connect with me - maybe we can go for a coffee.
@@SouthAfricansinVancouver please give me a call
Lovely to hear from you experience to the point unlike alot of other 👌.
Ours your experience driving left side there 😅.
Thanks 👍 Will make a video about driving ;-)
Hi Carel! Man, we immigrated to New Zealand in 2005 and am I glad we did, when we did! A lot of the stuff you described here is also true over here. Hope you guys will be happy in Canada! Groete! Theo van Zyl.
Thanks Theo! We are very happy here so far ;-) I love New Zealand too - have lots of family there. Coming to visit soon.
Such an informative video, thank you for showing us both the pros and cons. I find this video so helpful compared to all the others.
Pleasure
Great following your updates Kallie. Myself and my partner recently obtained Canadian PR through the (Express Entry pathway) and move over to Victoria from South Africa. We're both professional marine biologists and landed jobs within our first 2 weeks here! Loving the place already. It's safe, friendly, and there are lots of gainful employment opportunities in our field. Couldn't be happier with our choice to move here. Let me know if you ever take a trip to Vancouver Island, it would be great to meet.
Hi Frikkie - Awesome that you guys got here! It is definitely much better. I'd definitely let you know - I love meeting up with people and Victoria is on my list to visit!
Watching from Namibia 🇳🇦🇳🇦, I find this informative.
Thanks for watching!
I hope u like it. Its beautiful
I love it
If you get chance and want to see some beauty in Canada, take a drive from Calgary to Lake Louise(Banff) and through to Jasper. Head over to BC from Alberta on highway 16 up there, and head down to Whistler. Whistler is beautiful and those Rocky Mountains are incredible.
Now if you ever come down to the East coast, Quebec City is beautiful and the drive from Quebec City along the St. Lawrence through to Gaspe, "the birthplace of Canada" as they say, is absolutely breath taking. My two cents too, is that no other province competes with Quebec when it comes to restaurants, food in general, and hospitality.
Here in Ontario, where I live, it is pretty common for folks to head over to Florida or the Carribean to escape the winter months. It pretty cheap to do that, all things considered. In my opinion, as a fellow South African that moved to Canada in 1982, Canada is a great base country to have versus SA. A Canadian passport holds more weight in terms of international travel and it's much easier to head abroad making Canadian dollars as opposed to a South African making rands, holding a SA passport. Also, one other thing regarding those cheques, I'm actually a landlord here in Oakville, Ontario, with a few rental properties including a multifamily apartment. Been a landlord for about 20 years and have received etransfers only from several tenants for at least the past 8 years. And I will agree with, it's expensive here, especially now. I managed to escape the madness of the real estate market here as I got in many years ago before the boom of housing.
Thanks - I am definitely still doing that!
I'll stay right here, in South Africa. On a farm. Very happy here. Even with the risks and being armed 24/7. It's still the best. The politics are taking care of themselves 😊
Lol yeah really sounded great love having to keep my glock on me 🤨🤨
And I don't disagree with you at all. I love South Africa but for us, this made more sense. For you, it makes more sense to stay...
Ok I'm sorry I'm canadian through and through but see my fair share of gun violence and know the toll it takes until your out of it. I know my comment was a little snarking and dripping of sarcasm and I'm sorry.
But to most Canadian the idea of being armed 24/7 is like a living hell and I'm not exaggerating.
I'll leave you with a wise criminal told me... that a gun is heavy in your hard , heavier on mind and if you use it succesly heaviest on your heart.
That wise criminal was me lmaoooo 😋😋
Love die video. Dankie . Al die goed wat mens wil weet
Dankie Elster - Ek gaan nou baie meer gereeld opsit. Stuur vrae wat jy het en ek antwoord so goed ek kan ;-)
You can use E-Transfer to send money electronically quickly to anyone with a Canadian bank account.
Thanks - Been using Interac lately. It works well
Welcome to Canada and to British Columbia. If the costs of meat is concerning, look at buying bulk from local farmers and ranchers. You will receive excellent product at reduced prices.
Thanks for the tip! I will definitely look into that.
I hope u can visit america as well.
O yes! Definitely visit the US as often as possible ;-)
Yes, totally agree. It's not cheap in Canada. Vancouver seems particularly bad. Its such a lovely country and we had a wonderful year as a working holiday when we were younger. We are british and had later gained PR status as we wanted to move, but when it came to it, the numbers simply didn't calculate. Taking a step back, removing the excitement out of it all and the 'grass is always greener' mindset, we realised that our life in Wales UK has a number of advantages over Canada. Wales is extremely safe, friendly, cost of living is so much lower than Canada, and there are reasonable jobs. It does rain alot in a Wales, but its much the same as Vancouver (and it does keep the grass nice and green which is a positive!) We also find that there are many things that are a bit backwards in Canada, and of course, it's extremely cold for many months if the year. The temps really cannot be underestimated!! It's fine as a holiday, but oh man it be hard to handle month after month. The 'less cold' places like Vancouver, Victoria etc are so expensive, I suppose everyone in Canada wants to be there to avoid the cold. I suppose it comes down to personal circumstances, but Canada is not always how it looks in the brochures and moving there should involve extensive research. We shall continue to have our holidays in Canada as we love the culture and landscape, but to move permanently for us just didn't work out.
Very True Adam - Anyone planning on moving should do extensive research. Cost of living is very high here...
It was fun pulling up this post from 2-years ago ... how much weight has been lost living the Westcoast Life Style ... lol. Re banking ... Canada's banking policies are very conservative and very strict. We do not follow the US's wild west approach. This was evident in the US driven worldwide financial crisis of 2008. Canada was not affected only because of our sound financial policies. Message to your 2021 selves ... you do get your PR .... whoohoo!
LOL - Hi Warren! How are you doing? It's amazing to think 2 and a half years and almost 600 videos later...
Born and raised in Vancouver but i want to move
/live to/in SA!
SA is a wonderful place too - If that is where your future lies enjoy it ;-)
I'm always curious about the type of services immigration bloggers are finding. I haven't used/posessed cheques in 10+ years. It is all online banking I pay my rent online banking etc.
Online banking is just so much easier. We receive about 3-5 checks a month from people paying us still..
I'm also looking at canada
My fiance is a teacher so hopefully that will be enough to get us over.
I'm very unsure of the steps that I need to follow to get the process to a point where she can start applying for a job.
I like the sound of winnipeg as a place to stay
Canada is great but the process can be a nightmare. it is possible to handle your own application but to be honest it is better to get help. The The immigration website has this way of sending you around in circles for hours at a time...
When I came over 25 years ago I lived in BC , I loved it but to expensive , moved to northern Ontario in the woods , and have never left , cheaper and yeas cold , but beautiful and safe and I have my own lake ...lol and I am going to die here.
It won't take much for me to move out to the countryside to be honest. I love the quiet. And I would like to have my own lake...
Just to clarify, school is free until you get to post-secondary education, then it can get pricey. Cheques are dying away fast here as well.
Thanks for that Robert! That is true - post-secondary gets really expensive.
I love the Afrikaans accent - greetings from Namibia
Greetings!
That’s true, BC is very safe even for the kids. Nowadays you can have a couple of beers 🍻 with your friends over Zoom only 😉. There’re millions of immigrants who went through the process, you’re not alone. School acceptance is easier in other provinces.
Thanks - we love it here. Starting to meet more people - even if some are over Zoom...
Cheques for rent depends on WHERE you live in Canada, we're from N. Ontario moved eventually west. Cash is king in N. Ontario but in Vancouver there's a lot of drug dealing and crime associated with it. You can track the money with cheques. It protects you and the landlord.
Interesting!
Landlords want the cheques to make sure they have the rent for every month. It’s not the bank system.
I guess we are just not used to it - last time I used a check before coming to the US and Canada was probably 2007. I believe some South African Bancks have officially stopped issuing Checkbooks.
Lamb is extremely expensive. Because for most of Canada, it is too cold and snowy in the winter to have them. In areas like Vancouver where the weather is ok, putting sheep out in a field is feeding the cougars. And bears. And coyotes. And wolves.
Aha! That makes sense. I thought the North American Continent just haven't caught on to how awesome lamb tastes ;-)
It’s my favourite meat (raised in England) a few very small farms on Salt Spring Island keep some sheep - they keep bears and cougars off Salt Spring,
The Gulf Islands have good lamb.
Lovely videos well explained things! Would you like to recommend immigration consultant in South Africa to assist us through the process. Thanks enjoy
I worked with a lawyer in Vancouver - Des Friedland. He helped
A friend of mine is living in Canada and said the south Africa Canadian are the most unfriendly and snobbish people around
That is strange - I guess every person is different. We've sofar only found friendly people. No doubt not everyone is awesome but then again we don't have to hang out with every one...
That’s crazy any kid can walk up to a school in the states and get education
That is true - in the States there are no questions asked...
Thank you for an informative video. I’m also on the process of the Canada PR visa. Just a question is it easier if I do the state nomination application? Or it makes no difference really ?
The state programs helps a lot with getting in quicker. There are two "points" levels you need to achieve to get in. The first is to qualify to apply and once that is done, you are in the queue. Once in teh queue they select the people with teh most points to get in. If you have a provincial nomination, you get an extra 600 points so you basically shoot to the front of the queue...
You’ve obviously never heard of online banking for moving money around. I haven’t written a cheque in 25 years.
I use online banking for everything. Just some Canadian companies still use checks...
South Africa seems way more advanced than Canada and I can kind of understand why because they are so under staffed.
On certain things indeed
Technically, medical and school aren't FREE, they are paid by your taxes, but it doesn't hurt as much as forking directly out of pocket....
True, also being from a country where I paid taxes and then still had to pay for Medical and school as well - it still feels free to me ;-)
More ouboet waar begin mens ek het 'n agentskap ge kontak maar hulle vra 400doller vir my aansoek prosesse
Hi Ryan. Dit is ongelukkig wat dit kos - maak net seker dit is 'n accredited agentskap.
@@SouthAfricansinVancouver hoe doen ek dit
What would it cost should you have a passport and want to move there ?
Hi Gordon - You will have to check with an Immigration attorney but these guys charge $200 just for the first interview to see if you qualify. It could cost anywhere from $5k-$10k depending on your circumstances.
Canadian Immigration website is not straight to the point. So frustrating.
That is true - It is a maze!
In my opinion the video should ha e been made after residing here for minimum 2 years. His still in the “honeymoon phase”.
Yes, living here is not cheap, that I agree with. Unfortunately my experience with South Africans has not being super great.
Thanks for your comment. I do regular update videos and yes there are always new things you find out that might have an influence but generally the pale in comparison to the security issues back in SA. I'm sorry to hear you haven't always had great experiences with South Africans - All I can say is not all South Africans are the same...
Funny .. SA supposed to be a 3rd world country yet they are so far ahead of so many 1st world countries .. we are in NZ, same thing - years behind SA
True - on some things. On others like crime not so much..,
Hey help i need to move there
You need to find a consultant man - I am just a reporter...
nice
Thanks
Had to check the date when he went on with the cheque business. I’m in Toronto. We use e-transfer for almost everything. Haven’t used or even seen a cheque for years. Weather? As I write Toronto is in a heat wave temperatures are regularly over 30C with humidity that will give Durban a run for the money. Kids look forward to the winter so they can ski and snowboard. Me, I just hide from the heat in air con and wait for the fall.
Emigration is like that, new arrivals with limited knowledge jump to conclusions that are not so. I suppose it’s because one is trying to make sense of the new environment. We emigrated twice: Pretoria to New Zealand and then after three years from NZ to Toronto.
Chances are this guys landlord is Chinese. Typically the Chinese prefer cheque’s. Also for legal reasons sometimes cheque’s are used. I say this not as a criticism, but rather to point out that first impressions about a place are often incorrect and unsubtle. In the main though it is a good sensible video. There are always gotchas when you arrive in a new place. We needed a phone number to get a credit card. And a credit card to get a phone.
By the way Canadians drive better than South Africans and at least in Ontario SAers often fail the test on the first attempt because they have bad driving habits.When I visit SA these bad driving habits are confirmed.
I have to agree the use of checks has definitely started tapering off. Although we publish books and get payments from Canadian Businesses and about 10% of companies still mail us checks for payment. About 20% pay with "EFT" and the balance by credit card. We actually have very few people paying by Interac - not sure why.
Also had extreme heat wave here - was crazy as most Vancouver homes do not have aircon. Never needed it...
Better book your road test immediately.
Got It Done
For your family and future, everyone should RUN out of SA.
While I obviously felt the same way - I mean we left - I do believe that SA has some amazing people and a unique resilience about it. I still think things will get better there...
you earning Canadian Dollars not Rands, so the lamb chops cost $52 not R700 - if you a tourist then maybe yo can say it cost R700 cos you have to convert your funny money to Dollars to get foodies - I remember when a Dollar cost us 75cents then it was 1R then R1.25, after 1994 our currency collapsed cos we were then regarded as a 3rd world developing nation (actually I think we 5th world with aspirations of becoming 3rd world - grinnzzz)
Yip, amazing to think there was a time when the Rand was stronger than the dollar...
So agree with you, after this recent unrest I think we have been downgraded probably to a 5th world and just lying to ourselves to be considered a 3rd world country. We are heading downhill in SA and very fast...
I freely move around and I feel safe in my home, in South Africa. I've been doing this since I was a child.
I moved from Joburg to Durban, I'm loving the hot exotic weather and the beach.
I don't even see sunlight where you are. How do you know that person was friendly with you because she understands that benefit from you financially?
I thank God's protection and blessings in South Africa, I don't trust man but only Him. Anyone can decide to be a thug.
Even If I lived in Canada I would only put my trust in God and not man.
Not everyone experienced South Africa the same. Maybe we were just the unlucky ones…
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