The Ultimate Checklist for People Moving Away From Canada [Part 2]

Relocating to a new country is daunting itself, but what intimidates people more than the actual move is the process involved to get there. You’ve got paperwork to sort through, finances to manage, plans to make, and a dozen or so tasks to do before you can bid adieu to your home.

In part one of our blog series, we shared a few things to do during the early stages of your moving process. Here, we’re going to talk about what follows in the later months.

Get a Head-Start on House Hunt

Ideally, you’d like to move into a new house or apartment after first having visited it at least once. However, if you’re relocating from a country, this isn’t always possible. And if you already have a tight schedule planned out, i.e. your work or school resumes the day following your move, you won’t have much time to go house hunting. Besides, wouldn’t it be a whole lot easier if you can take a cab straight from the airport to your new home, without worrying about hotel bookings and all that luggage?

It’s best to get a head-start on your housing decisions and figure out where you’ll be living before you relocate. Start by searching neighborhoods and listings, reading up on the city’s real estate trends and news, and reaching out to local real estate agencies. Set up appointments for when you arrive so that you can expedite the process. And, if you have someone in your destination country who can help you out with this, you can even nearly finalize a deal before you fly out.

Get Rid of Things You Don’t Need

The last thing you want to deal with when there are just a few weeks left to your move is unwanted furniture and household items. This is why it’s best to start packing a few months prior, and slowly eliminate things you don’t plan on taking with you. This way, towards the end you’ll only be left to pack the things you were still using all this time, and would’ve packed away useful items and gotten rid of the unwanted stuff.

You can even host a garage sale to sell your stuff. The earlier you get started, the less likely you are to sell off things at throw-away price or give away valuable (but unneeded) items for free just to get them off your hands.

Run those Last-Minute Errands

Finally, with just a few weeks to go, it’s time to run those last-minute errands you were holding off on. Cancel your utilities, along with any subscriptions, and memberships you’ll no longer need. Update your postal address so that you can receive important mail from Canada when you’re abroad. Pay up any outstanding bills and loans that are yet to be paid, and close your bank account if you’re leaving permanently or don’t think you’ll need to use them again.

And lastly, don’t forget to have a little farewell celebration for yourself before you leave!

Global Legalization Services is an Ottawa based document legalization service that offers document attestation, document authentication services. Get in touch with our team today to get your documents attested before you move away from Canada.