Hi to all!

We are looking at emigrating from the UK in the next couple of years and we have spent the last year researching life in NZ (this included a 2 week research trip in May this year!)

So my conclusion is... beautiful country, but I'm worried the distance will isolate us from our close family. I plan to now spend the next year researching Canada, starting with British Columbia. It would be great to hear from anyone who has emigrated to the area or even anyone who has either lived or spent time in New Zealand (South Island) and opted instead to live in Canada!

Look forward to hearing from you

Welcome, I hope your not punished for escaping.

Firstly, I would do a little background check. See what options are open because the rules regarding permanent residence visa applications changed last year. Have a read in the Wiki section to see if you meet the requirements.

I myself have not moved yet but I am hoping to receive my visa shortly (or win the lotto, as I have been praying very hard for either options), so can't provide any more advice but be patient someone will be along shortly with some words of wisdom.

Hello,

Ever since I went to NZ in 2001, I have wanted to work there - temporarily initially with a view to settling. Then I married a Canadian, so emigrating from the UK to Canada is now plan A.

Canada and NZ share many things. Mountains (although none here in SW Ontario), lots of space, the potential to buy a big house for relatively fewer pounds Sterling, Commonwealth countries, a national love for the great outdoors and BBQs. I would say that NZ and BC ain't that different. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it snows, sometimes it's sunny.

Canada is obviously much bigger. They drive on the wrong side of the road. Ice hockey is a religion. NZ is probably "more British", in the sense that rugby and cricket are the main sports and you are more likely to find a fish and chip shop and a pub. The Kiwis make better beer. The Canadians have flat sausage. The Kiwis have lots of quality lamb. The Canadians have Alberta beef.

Depends on what you're looking for!

Hi and welcome to the Canadian part of the forum! We're much nicer on this side anyway.............

As a pp has suggested, your best bet is to first have a look at the Wiki and see if you would be eligible for a visa. From my understanding, Canada is now harder to get in to than NZ and Oz, so before you do too much research into areas, etc, that should be your first check.

Feel free to ask questions about the particular visa route you think you will go down and somebody on here will help you.

As for people that have been in NZ and moved to Canada, we've definitely got at least one forum member that has done that. I just can't for the life of me remember their name! But they have applied for PR and I believe are currently in NZ waiting to move to Canada. If you do a search of the forum it might throw up their details, but I'll let you know if you it suddenly comes to me later.

Good luck.

Hi

Well, I am living in NZ at the minute and have just got my residency for Canada last year after a long 3yrs and I cant wait to get out of here to get to Canada.
Im probably going to upset a few Kiwis here but honestly it has nothing to do with the people (who are fantastic and I mean fantastic) or the scenery (which is breathtaking).

However the post above hit it on the head when they said that NZ is Little Britain or it is going that way. The opportunities are minimal here as in Canada they are vast. Everything has an unrealistic price tag on things and it costs a fortune to go anywhere from here.
Believe me from someone that lives here and has done for 3yrs, get yourself to Canada the land of plenty. Ive been to Canada many times and believe me I wish I had of waited it out to get there before coming here.

Hope this helps By the way Christmas that must make 2 of us now!!!

*waves* we spent a good 6 months looking into OZ but couldnt get a visa, apparently crane drivers, altho desperately needed on the ground, are not on the list and as we all know - if you are not on the list you are not coming in. canada is closer, cooler ( i hate really really really hot heat) and we are on the list. still gonna take years and thousands of ££s but its our long term goal so fingers crossed.

we are looking at BC, hoping to start job hunting in jan/feb ( if / when we sell our house) go over on a TWP then apply for PR after 3 pay slips ( to prove he is working in canada) looking into schools and if aspergers will cause my ds to fail his medical ( he is a higher functioning aspergers 9yo, basically his iq is massive but he occasionally has problems with behaviour)

I know nothing about NZ. However, you may want to consider that if NZ is Little Britain, Canada is little America. Canada is much more American than Australia, if the idea of living in an episode of Desperate Housewives fills you with dread you might want to think again.

comparing the whole of canada to desperate housewives?

Comparing all of New Zealand to Little Britain?

You were the one I was thinking of, just couldn't remember your screen name (sorry).

Thanks for taking the time to respond to the OP.

DH is set in a suburban street built in the identikit mode, it's physically an accurate representation of the environment in which most Canadians live. I accept that life in Davis Inlet is somewhat different. Admittedly I haven't seen DH for a couple of seasons but, when I did see it, the main difference between it and reality was that the cast worked less often than real Canadians. I suppose Degrassi is a more precise representation of typical Canadian life but don't know if it's shown widely outside Canada.

Yup, Degrassi was shown all over. Some of the Aussies I know say they used to rush home after school to watch it. Having grown up in S. Ontario I always thought it was shite.

I preferred 'The Truman Show' although if I have to live next to Jim Carrey I may shoot myself.

They drive on the wrong side of the road.

We do not think so.

I'm a Kiwi who's recently (November) moved over to Vancouver. I'm currently working through the PR process so I can stay.

I moved because I got to the point in my career (software development) where there wasn't much opportunity left in NZ. I was getting very bored and there were no roles around that interested me. (I worked for a large IT consultancy that you will have heard of).

Clearly, I'm biased towards Canada but get homesick at times so take that onboard.

Kiwis *think* that they are outdoorsy people - they're not. A Canadian's idea of what to do for a holiday is to go camping and they *all* do. It surprised me during one public holiday at the start of summer that everybody I knew (it seemed) was off camping.

Vancouver has very easy access to the outdoors with a big harbour and the fantastic North Shore mountains with the gnarliest trails you've ever seen (I'm a trail runner, ok, difficult trails make me happy).

NZ is very much a primary products based economy. Dairy, lamb, beef, wool and tourism make up the majority of what goes on. I forget the figures but those 5 categories would be perhaps 60-70% of NZ's export earnings and I think I'm being conservative.

Canada has a much more broad based economy. You have a primary sector (wood and beef) along with oil and out east you have manufacturing. Sure any one sector might be having a problem but that's the joy of a diversified economy.

Canada is also generally richer than NZ. You can see this in the quality of the infrastructure and services that are provided.

Canadians are nice people and are very friendly. The women are more relaxed and outgoing than Kiwis generally are. The general attitude to life is much the same though - i.e. vaguely market socialist. Think that capitalism works very well but that it needs a heart.

The US is a big factor in Canada and I'm not sure I know enough to tell how much. Certainly, the downturn in the US is and will continue to affect Canada but Canada is not the US and has other things going on.

Employment-wise I found lots of opportunities in my career and am now doing a fantasticly interesting job and learning far, far more than I ever would have back home.

NZ is small and far away from everywhere. That affects everything.

Yes, I miss NZ and I wish things had meant I could have stayed. I never thought I was going to leave NZ until life made it quite clear I needed to.