Hi everyone,
I've got a bit of a long story to tell and a piece of advice to request from you lucky ones living in Canada.
The story goes: Me and the husband happen to be experienced in finance admin and customer services people. I can also speak fluent Spanish and quite a bit of Italian and Portuguese, none of which I find much use for in Britain.
A couple of years ago, when all the big finance outsourcing started, we realised that neither of us really wanted a career in finance and were faced with the fact that in the UK once you've been put in a certain box by the job market (i.e. finance) it is very difficult to get work doing anything else.
We spent the year before last in Argentina trying to organise a mushroom farm in a piece of land we own there. At some point reality caught up with us and money run out, and we had to come back to the UK broke and jobless.
Back in the UK, as the saying goes that beggars cannot be choosers we had to again take jobs in finance. To top our misery fate re-deployed us in Manchester. And there it comes the bitterest gulp as we knew from the start we didnt want to move here, but for almost a year now we have loathed every waking hour we've spent in this city.
So we are now trying again to jump the fence and move abroad.
We know that the language barrier was one of the problems we encountered in South America as jobs were scarce where we were based and my husband couldnt speak Spanish.
For a while now we've been looking into moving to Canada but are not sure how realistic it is for us. Why Canada? For one the language shouldn't be a problem. Seconly we're only a couple without children we do not have to think of schools and so on, not that there arent any in Canada! but I mean we can go pretty much anywhere someone offers us a job. Lastly, having lived in Edinburgh I have been lucky to meet a few Canadians, along with many other people from a number of countries, and the Canadians were the ones I connected best with.
Anyway, I would like to hear it loud and clear and as harsh as it may be. Are we dreaming or is there a possibility of a better life for us in Canada? If you are a British expat living in Canada I would appreciate very much your input.
x Gabs

Maybe. Why not take a trip over and see for yourself? Zoom do plenty of cheap flights from Manchester.

If you're under 30, BUNAC might be an option to get out here more quickly.

How much does climate mean to you, and what sort of climate do you like?

My husband and I also chose Canada based partly on the civility of Canadians whom we'd met in our native South Africa.

Overall, I do like Canada. I think it's a good country.

But, thirty years on, I don't like the winters here. Actually I now dislike them more than I did when I first arrived. When I was new to Canada, the winters were a novelty. White Christmases were like a fairy tale come true.

Now I'm trying to arrange my life in such a way that I'll be able to spend a couple of winter months in the tropics. Our kids are young adults, so my husband and I have more freedom of movement than we had when our kids were in school.

Twenty years after my husband and I immigrated to Canada, we did a 2.5 year expat stint in Melbourne, Australia. We absolutely loved it.

We had not liked the Australians we'd met back in South Africa. Ironically, when we'd had the option of coming to Canada, we also had had the option of going to Australia. We were young and newly married. We didn't have enough money to emigrate AND do a recce trip beforehand. Also, my conscript husband was going to be deployed in Angola, as part of South Africa's illegal invasion of that country. Time was of the essence. We had to make a quick decision with the facts available at the time. We chose Canada.

When we actually lived in Australia, we found ourselves liking Australians very much. Although this necessarily is a massive over-generalization, I think Australians and Canadians have a lot in common with each other. I think the people of both countries are nice, on the whole. What the Aussies have going for them, at least according to my taste, is their climate.

But several members of this forum have different tastes in climate. There are several of them who have moved to Canada specifically because it offers skiing.

If there is any possibility of doing a recce before you decide, I second bazzz's suggestion.

Bazzz -Thanks for the tip! My hubby is under 30 so he should qualify for BUNAC. However, I don't -boohoo- so I wonder if he were to go on a BUNAC visa, would I be able to go with him and apply for a job there or should I apply for a job and get him to follow me on the BUNAC visa??
Any input on whether this is feasible and the timescales?http://britishexpats.com/forum/image...s/confused.gif

Also, I've done a self assessment on the immigration points system and got 73. The result was a pass but is that any good? or is it just about the usual result? and will it save me from years wait and/or a refusal from the immigration office?

Judy - Thanks for you reply. It's very encouraging to hear from someone who's been there 30 years, and sounds like you've settled all right. http://britishexpats.com/forum/image...es/thumbup.gif

As for the climate we both definitely like it cool. I particularly dislike very hot weather, and hot and humid yuk!
Last winter in Patagonia temperatures were always around the -10C and sometimes got to -20C. The ground froze about 10 inches deep sometimes. But that was never an issue for us. Husband is an ex-scout so he knows some tricks that were quite useful, i.e. lighting a fire with only one match and no fuel http://britishexpats.com/forum/image...es/thumbup.gif

As for Oz hmmm, it really doesn't look like our scene, but then again we've never been to Oz so shouldn't knock it before trying. Are you thinking of buying property there? be quick before all the emigrating Brits arrive and make the prices go up http://britishexpats.com/forum/images/smilies/lol.gif

Not into skiing but I think Canada has other nice things that are right up our street and range from a stable government to amazing nature and plenty space, low crime rate, good healtcare (the UK NHS is truly gone to the dogs and it's not the immigrants fault but the government's), etc.
I know for a fact that moving and settling in another country is not easy -I did it myself many years ago and now I'm trying to get out of it. We just want to give it our best go. Now that we know a bit more about the immigration possibilities I guess a recce trip should be in order http://britishexpats.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

Your result is not the problem. It is well above the 67 points that you nominally need. The problem is that applying for a permanent residence visa via the skilled worker route involves a 5-year wait, more or less.

A lot of the information that you need is contained in the BE Wiki article entitled Newcomers to the forum.

Hope that helps.

The UK healthcare system is far superior to Canada's.

Not in my experience. We have had to use emergency medical care on a number of occasions and found it far more efficient and professional than anything I ever experienced in the UK.

QUOTE=AdamF;5601073]The UK healthcare system is far superior to Canada's.[/QUOTE]

You can get on the BUNAC up until you're 35, I have 2 friends who came over on it, one's 34 the other is 32.

It seems that the Canadian government is in the process of changing the cut off age for working holiday visas. See this thread.

Oh dear! Looks like they both go in, in the nick of time!