Relocating and importing

Our research has led us to some solid conclusions.

Since moving to Canada directly would involve Nickie going without health insurance or employment for around 10-18 months, by my current guesstimate, we decided it would make more sense to stay in the U.S. for now and continue saving up while the paperwork is processing.

I looked into what it would take to import our vehicle(s) into Canada. I also looked into importing an RV to Canada. There are things you have to do with U.S. Customs as well as Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA). When all is said and done, it doesn't seem like it's worth the pain in the rear. We even asked about buying a Canadian-made RV and bringing it to the U.S. - that would be considered importing to the U.S. even though it would be temporary, and re-importing to Canada including all associated fees even though it's already made to Canadian specs. Our decision -- forget it. Wait until we land in Canada and buy one then. And part with one or both of our cars before landing, to minimize the headaches.

Thirdly, our current neighborhood is most excellent for driving one absolutely mad, what with helicopter chases, gang members hiding out on the property, and all sorts of other insanity I don't care to get into. So we have been looking for another place to live while the paperwork is in process and such, as mentioned before. We looked into a number of places here in Southern California that, last we knew, were still decent places to live. Very few of them have remained decent - most of them are now gangland, plagued with crime, and falling into disrepair and neglect. We even saw some of this as far north as Santa Barbara! Southern CA is a dump, overall, and getting worse... Northern CA rents are, incredibly, even more expensive than Southern CA. We found all this rather discouraging, and weighed more heavily toward leaving CA altogether; of the out-of-state areas we were considering, that mainly left MN and OR. It seems that Minneapolis, MN rents are expensive like L.A., and I know from my research that it's actually colder in MN than in Ontario, Canada, and I've been buying warm clothes but I really don't think we're prepared to drive into the ice and snow to try and acclimate in the dead of winter. Ditto on the winter thing in upstate NY, which right now is measuring snow in feet, not inches. That leaves Portland, OR, which is a relatively short drive away (about 14-15 hours), has a milder winter, and we've been there and liked many things about it.

So in a nutshell:

• Complete and submit Outside Canada application
• Move to Portland OR vicinity, save up and wait
• On approval of application, sell car(s)
• Land in Canada and purchase RV