So here it is — the first entry in what will hopefully become a long, slightly chaotic record of moving from the UK to Toronto, Canada.
This isn’t a polished relocation guide, and it’s definitely not a highlight reel. It’s a journal: written in real time, warts and all, by someone who decided that “maybe Canada” was worth turning into an actual plan — and then kept going until it became a real one.
The plan, as it stands
Here’s where things actually are, as of today:
- The visa. I’m moving on an IEC (International Experience Canada) visa — the route that’s made this whole thing possible on a realistic timescale.
- The date. I’m aiming to leave in September. That’s no longer a someday-maybe — it’s a season on a calendar that’s getting closer by the week.
- The job. I’ve just handed in my notice at work. That was the moment this stopped being a plan I was quietly building in the background and became something genuinely, slightly terrifyingly, real.
Three sentences to write, and yet each one took months of research, second-guessing, and spreadsheet-refining to get to.
Why write this down at all
Most stories about moving abroad get told afterwards — tidied up, smoothed over, with all the boring or stressful bits quietly edited out. I wanted to try something different: writing as it happens. The good days, the bad days, and the days that are mostly just admin and waiting.
If you’re somewhere in your own version of this — looking into the IEC pool, weighing up a notice period, or just curious what the process actually looks like from the inside — this is for you.
What to expect
Roughly, the entries here will cover:
- The paperwork. The IEC application, documents, deadlines, and the occasional small victory against a government website.
- The countdown. Working through a notice period while simultaneously planning a move — and everything that needs to happen between now and September.
- The logistics. Shipping, packing, and saying goodbye to a house full of furniture that definitely isn’t coming with me.
- The honest bits. The excitement and the nerves, in roughly equal measure, written down before hindsight gets a chance to tidy them up.
Where things stand right now
The shape of it is clear — IEC visa, September departure, notice already handed in — but the detail is still very much a work in progress: paperwork to finish, a house to sort out, and a job to wind down gracefully. It’s that strange in-between stage where the big decision is made, but most of the actual doing is still ahead.
More entries will follow as September gets closer — or, just as honestly, as plans shift, wobble, or surprise me entirely.
Thanks for reading. More soon.