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Moving from Pakistan - Items to bring

rafay24

Newbie
Jan 13, 2016
8
1
Hi,

We are couple with two little kids and we will be moving to Calgary in May-16 :). I would like to know which items(other than clothing), including food, should I bring in more quantity since they are either expensive there or specific to Pakistan and difficult to find. Also, please let me know if we can bring some usual medicines with us(fever, digestion, flu, etc).

Thanks :)
 

steaky

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Nov 11, 2008
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What kind of food? Certain food items cannot be brought to Canada. You can bring small quantities of medicine though.
 

kriv

Hero Member
Aug 14, 2014
456
65
rafay24 said:
Hi,

We are couple with two little kids and we will be moving to Calgary in May-16 :). I would like to know which items(other than clothing), including food, should I bring in more quantity since they are either expensive there or specific to Pakistan and difficult to find. Also, please let me know if we can bring some usual medicines with us(fever, digestion, flu, etc).

Thanks :)
Everything is available here in Calgary. You just name any Pakistani or desi thing and you will find it at your doorsteps..:) There are lots and lots of desi stores here and even the big Canadian stores has ton of Pakistani/Indian stuff. If you are planing to live in north east then you won't even miss Pakistan that much as it is pure desi area. You will find super biscuts, peek freaks, Lipton tea, tulsi at almost every store. Desi grocery, desi cloths, desi restaurants, desi films in cenema is what you can find easily no matter where you live in Calgary. Yesterday we thought of having a desi Nashta of halwa puri and we tried a new Resturant:)
 

rafay24

Newbie
Jan 13, 2016
8
1
Thanks for the reply. Its good to know that all desi stuff is available :D

Can you please share a list of food items that are available but expensive there compared to Pakistan, which I can bring in bulk and save money for a few months?
 

kriv

Hero Member
Aug 14, 2014
456
65
rafay24 said:
Thanks for the reply. Its good to know that all desi stuff is available :D

Can you please share a list of food items that are available but expensive there compared to Pakistan, which I can bring in bulk and save money for a few months?
obviously every thing here is expensive as compare to Pakistan, whatever you are going to buy will be in Canadian dollars which at least in the beginning for you will look/feel like it is very expensive (cuz you will be doing currency comparisons/conversions in your mind), But eventually you will get use to it and wont look/feel expensive.

just for a comparison
Atta (9kg): price ranges from 6 to 15 Canadian dollars (lots of brands available)
bread : price ranges from 1.77 to 3 dollars (large size)
chicken from a desi store is like about 8-12 dollars.
all type of Daals available in different weight packings and none is below 10 dollars
all type of vegetables available and price varies from day to day (sometimes you buy the same thing at 10 dollars which you bought previously at the price of 5 dollars)
Pakistani massalay (national and other Pakistani brands) all at about 5-10 dollars a pack.

obviously you cannot (or not feasible) bring daily use grocery items with you and you have to buy them here in dollars as per your weekly/monthly consumption. (i am sure most of food items wud NOT be allowed to be imported in canada). Yes the trick here is to buy things in bulk and in large packing which reduce the cost significantly.

I personally do not see any food item feasible to be brought from Pakistan. yeah if you smoke cigs then you can bring your stock (allowed quantity) from Pakistan (here it may cost you 12-17 dollars a pack)

Things to bring from Pakistan:
Food: (none)
cloths: basic cloths for 2 seasons (summer and winter)
shirts, pants, 1-2 leather jackets (best item to bring), basic cloths for kids, under warmers (also a good item to bring),you can bring good shoes (i really miss the variety of gents shoes that are available in Pakistan). ladies will be happy with the shoes available here (price ranging from 20-500 dollars which ever price range she wants). joggers for summers (the service shoes) is a very good item to bring. So basically just list/bring the basic items in clothing which can accommodate you in your initial 2 seasons. I focus on basic things only because once you are here you will be forced to buy things from here due to the weather and usage requirement of this place.

House hold items: you can get every thing from here at any price you want to pay.Yes it may save you some money if you bring your basic cutlery, few serving dishes,cooking pots etc so that you can instantly activate your kitchen here without spending dollars..:)

Other items:
-if you are cricket fan and your kids like to play cricket then bring a good Bat and wickets. it is worth bring them.
-basic urdu books for your kids (if they are minor)
- Electric items: NONE they wont work here.
-bed sheets (dont bring them as hey wont fit in to the size of beds available here)
-furniture: doest make sense.

Conclusion: instead of food items focus on things which will help you to instantly start your living without spending too much dollars.

nothing else special coming in my mind right now....if anyone else wants to add something in the list.
 

rafay24

Newbie
Jan 13, 2016
8
1
Thanks a lot for the detailed reply kriv :)

This is off the topic but I am looking for a short term rental in NW. Can you assist? (Email: rafay[dot]aslamkhan[at]gmail.com)
 

sarimraza

Hero Member
May 23, 2012
294
3
Bringing anything to canada is useless, since everything is available there EXCEPT . . .

1. Certain medications, doctors may or may not prescribe them, so if ur especially used to some, bring them along -- also medicines are not free in canada health care and are much more expensive -- but bring only prescription medicines -- all others (flu, fever, allergy, ) mild ones are all available

2. DATA -- family photos, music, movie collection etc on usb

3. Laptop and smartphone

4. money

5. All important native and canada based documents inc passports etc
 

steaky

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Nov 11, 2008
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sarimraza said:
Bringing anything to canada is useless, since everything is available there EXCEPT . . .

1. Certain medications, doctors may or may not prescribe them, so if ur especially used to some, bring them along -- also medicines are not free in canada health care and are much more expensive -- but bring only prescription medicines -- all others (flu, fever, allergy, ) mild ones are all available

2. DATA -- family photos, music, movie collection etc on usb

3. Laptop and smartphone

4. money

5. All important native and canada based documents inc passports etc
In the other post, you said you would be landing in May. So, how do you know everything is available in Canada except the five items?
 

ARN

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Mar 26, 2015
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Hello folks!

Need some help please.

For immigration, I have to declare my jewellery that I'm bringing with me and in goods to follow that I will bring later at some point.

The issue is, we have big gold and diamond sets here and the value of 1 of them is about CAD10,000 roughly. So the cost of all of them will be humongous.

Now I have multiple sets like these. Should I declare all of them in goods to follow, in case I want to bring them in later at some point or not? Is there some duty charge on jewellery that costs more than CAD 10,000?
 

torontosm

Champion Member
Apr 3, 2013
1,677
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ARN said:
Hello folks!

Need some help please.

For immigration, I have to declare my jewellery that I'm bringing with me and in goods to follow that I will bring later at some point.

The issue is, we have big gold and diamond sets here and the value of 1 of them is about CAD10,000 roughly. So the cost of all of them will be humongous.

Now I have multiple sets like these. Should I declare all of them in goods to follow, in case I want to bring them in later at some point or not? Is there some duty charge on jewellery that costs more than CAD 10,000?
You should definitely declare them to avoid paying taxes on them in the future. Don't worry about the values, as there is no maximum on what you can bring in if declared
 

steaky

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sarimraza said:
I dont have to land in canada to know what is or is not available there.
Then you have no idea what really available and not available there.
 

ARN

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Mar 26, 2015
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torontosm said:
You should definitely declare them to avoid paying taxes on them in the future. Don't worry about the values, as there is no maximum on what you can bring in if declared

Thank you so!
 

ARN

Star Member
Mar 26, 2015
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Do medicines have to be declared also?