American postgrad moving to Ottawa - Questions! (transfer, neighborhood)

[prasad5413]

Hi all,

I am new to this forum; my wife suggested that I search for some advice online and here I am.

I will be moving to Ottawa for a temporary (1 yr - 1.5 yr) postdoc at the University of Ottawa. This is my first time living outside of the states; I have many, many questions. Here are a few to start:

1) What's the best way to keep in frequent contact with my wife (who will be staying in California for about 5 months) on the telephone? We have skype installed on our laptops, but I am also searching for an international calling plan with a cell-phone. Any suggestions?

2) I am planning on taking my car with me (I'll be driving cross-country from California to Ontario). What steps do I need to take to make my car 'Ottawa-legal', and myself legal to drive there?


Any advice or thoughts you have are much appreciated.

[mikeyyc]

For the car, while you should change everything over within 3 mo, you may be able to keep your car registered and insured in California as you are a student and it is not staying permanently. Check with Ontario's Ministry of Transport and Customs Canada.

Cell phone, check with Verizon, as I have just relocated to the states, and they have a family plan with no roaming, no long distance to Canada. Includes mobile to mobile minutes and the whole kit. I was quite surprised. Their companion network in Canada is Telus.

[Pookster]

Here's some information re: driving in Ontario. I'm not sure if you would be considered a visitor or a resident though..

Visiting or Moving to Ontario?

Settlement.Org: How can I get an Ontario driver's licence?

Look at the "Driving" section in the following link:

International Students & Staff: Living In Kingston Guide: Transportation Around Kingston and Beyond (http://www.queensu.ca/quic/intlstu/settlingin/guide/transp.htm - broken link)

Hope this helps!

[Ocuri]

As above users have posted, if you are planning on keeping your car registered in California, there should be nothing you have to do on your part to keep it legal. You'll be here as a visitor and cars with plates from the U.S. are as legal as local ones, so my suggestion is keep it insured there. If you are planning on transferring it over to Ontario plates beware, as not all American cars are transferable and that may be a complicated process.

I'm currently a student at the University of Ottawa and living here as well, so I MAY be able to help with other questions regarding this.

[ajfoxy]

To stay in touch with your wife is to but small cheap calling cards. You can find these in neighborhood corner shops or independent shops that sell meat , groceries and other stuff. The best ones cost 2.50 and for i would recommend buying just a 2 or 3 at a time, so they don't go to waste. Most of them require you to use them up because as soon as you deactivate them they remain active and some cards do have a small charge (10 cents) deducted everyday you don't use it up. So it is better to buy 1 or 2 and use for a long conversation or multiple calls all around the world. The best I have found so far is called SUBWAY.
the SUBWAY card is red and has a picture of a speeding subway on the front. It cost 2:50 but actually has double the amount of talk time equivalent to 5.00 card. I have found that the ones sold in gas stations are too expensive and give the same call length with higher connection fees.So, I recommend SUBWAY and other calling cards like it. I have found them very cheap and convenient. If you go to halal or ethnic shops you are most likely to find one because people are always calling relatives. One card enabled me to call England ,and Wales and I had over 9 hours of talk time in U.K. , another gave me 3 hours of talk time to AFRICA.Good luck.