T Minus 43 Days

Matts on 2004-11-22T19:47:07

The date is set, we move to Canada on the 5th January (assuming our house buyers don't pull out or delay).

Now we get to see my credit card go mad for a bit!

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congrats...

da on 2004-11-22T20:04:01

congrats on finding a place, closing, etc.!

If I might ask, where did you end up choosing?

Cheers,

da (at coder.com)

Re:congrats...

Matts on 2004-11-22T21:01:05

Hah! We didn't. We'll be renting or staying with my wife's parents initially.

We hope to end up in Elmira or Fergus (Ontario), but suspect we will just try and find the best value for our money in terms of a house.

Re:congrats...

Beatnik on 2004-11-22T21:56:25

Both names don't ring a bell and I've seen half of Ontario (*COUGH*) a few years ago :) Where exactly is it?

Re:congrats...

Matts on 2004-11-22T23:09:59

Just north of Kitchener and Guelph.

Mapquest is probably more helpful than my directions though.

Re:congrats...

Beatnik on 2004-11-23T00:37:44

Aah yes.. been there.. Kitchener and Guelph that is :) Be carefull in the dark, those menonite carts can show up out of nowhere.

Re:congrats...

da on 2004-11-22T22:03:44

Ooh. Bonus for kw.pm.org. :)

May I be the first to offer you a beer, if you are able to come to our meeting...? Our January meeting is Thursday the 20th; the scheduled topic is a demo of Komodo 3.0, probably plus a code review or puzzle challenge or something like that. Location, the University of Waterloo.

Welcome! :)

Re:congrats...

fishbot on 2004-11-23T22:13:42

I went to highschool in Elmira. Fergus is lovely, though. ;)

Congratulations. Let me second DA's invite to the kw.pm.org meeting!

some tips

jmason on 2004-11-22T20:39:28

good luck! some quick tips from one who's done that kind of thing, twice ;) --

1. ensure you have plenty of cash in your UK ATM bank account, and that the card supports the Cirrus or STAR networks, so you can withdraw it when needed. also set up online banking.

2. bring plenty of documentation of good credit -- UK bills, bank statements, etc. dunno about Canada, but not having a US credit rating is a big problem in the US; and the US credit rating bureaux don't track non-US citizens, which == no credit rating. so you may have to persuade someone, e.g. a landlord/property letting agency, you're not a risk. (generally an extra deposit will do the trick anyway.)

3. bring the docs you may need to pay your UK tax, too; for a year or two, you may have to file UK returns as you may still be considered a resident for purposes of tax.

fun!

Re:some tips

Matts on 2004-11-22T21:04:42

1. Check. I'll hopefully still be paid into the same account as I am now.

2. Check-ish. We're trying to sort that out now before we go.

3. We have forms P85 from The Revenue to fill in. Hopefully that will be enough - it would be a disaster for us to pay taxes at both ends. We'll certainly be doing our damnedest to make sure this doesn't happen.

Re:some tips

jmason on 2004-11-22T21:25:57

yeah, I don't *think* you'd wind up paying taxes at both ends -- but you may have to file a return saying essentially "I had no income in the UK this year".

Re:some tips

Matts on 2004-11-22T21:34:54

I actually got a nice letter from The Revenue just this week saying "We don't want you to file tax returns any more". Second piece of good news I got from them this month (the other was a refund!).

I'm hoping that this means I won't have to file anything :-)

Re:some tips

jmm on 2004-11-22T21:52:10

Reminds me of the Irish blessing: "May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you are dead."

Unfortunately, a half hour is probably all of the slack that Revenue Canada will give you.

Still have a job?

tarrant on 2004-11-24T21:21:19

Hi, Matt. Congrats on the move, and I'm glad the details seem to be working out for you.
Out of curiosity, were you able to keep your old job and telecommute after all?

Re:Still have a job?

Matts on 2004-11-24T22:58:23

Yes. I actually ended up with 3 offers (including MessageLabs) for telecommuting in the end.