Did u visit first?
 

Did anyone start the emigration process before visiting Canada?

I know it's crazy :eek: but all of our money is tied up in our house. We just can't afford holidays! If we saved up to visit first it would take at least a 18 months - probably more (there is 6 of us!) and then it would be another 2+ yrs to get PR which means at least 3 yrs in limbo - and that's being optimistic! The whole point is that I want my children to grow up with a better quality of life so waiting seems so pointless!

We have considered getting a temporary work visa and renting our house out but with 4 children who need schooling it's not really practical.

Also, we didn't qualify until the points were lowered, and I am concerned that we may not qualify again in the future!

We have thought about getting a loan to pay for a visit which we could then pay off once we sold our house (assuming we got in!) or we could apply now to get the ball rolling and have our first visit when we land and then come back to the UK to sell up etc.

Has anyone else done this or are you all too sensible? :D

I'm moving with my boyfriend. He has been to Canada a few times while I have never been. I would have been quite happy to apply without going to visit (and so we could have had our forms off many months ago) but my boyfriend insisted it was only sensible for me to visit first.

Therefore we are going (I think) in March for 2 weeks and so we won't have our forms off before then. I think there are pros and cons of both ways (ie visiting first or not) but you obviously want to move there for a reason and visiting is not likely to put you off (is it?!) so going there first would only be to cement your decision whcih is good if you're not sure.

Does that make sense?

Alex

My thoughts
 

I can only speak for what myself and my wife are going through.....we did all the research for emigration, looked at social/economic/lifestyle factors. Chose Canada 100%. Discussed over and over, thought through the reasons why, and then reaffirmed it was Canada. Decided that BC was perfect destination, did loads more analysis, info gathering etc.

We submitted our PR application and my wife who is an OR nurse sent off her BC nursing application. Our timescales indicate that she'll need to do a course over here in UK to obtain BC nursing registration, which puts us nicely to the end of 2004 before she can even apply for work over there.

So we plan to visit in July this year for a 2 week recce - strictly not a vacation, time to get around, look at areas, see a few hospitals and hopefully fix up some informal interviews there. This gives us the chance to really assess what we're looking for over there and hopefully, if CIC need to interview us we have the background knowledge of actually knowing where we want to live and work.

Like you, all our assests (well 99% of) are tied up in our home but it's been easier for us as there's only the two of us, so a visit isn't so expensive. I would say that there is no way we would plan to land and ship stuff over there without paying a prior visit, it would be just way too much of a risk. Have you thought of using up some of your property capital to pay for the visit and making it a real good one for you all ? Remortgaging etc needn't be so expensive and it would only be for a reasonably short while until you make the move ?

Hope this helps. Like you, it's tough having to wait but it does give us that amount of time to save up for hols and make the necessary visit. And it means that if you're really serious about it you'll last the course of time. Someone advised us to use as much time investigating and researching stuff via the internet, books, etc. Which is what we are doing. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it makes things worse and we tend to 'switch off' from things over here, like the news, current affairs, doing stuff we might usually do or even spending money (why bother, do we need it, can we take it with us, etc).

Perhaps there should be a forum for 'moral support' ;)

We came to Canada over 30 years ago having never visited. I think that the trouble with taking a holiday is - its just that - a holiday - it never really gives you the complete idea of what its like to live somewhere. Kind of like a holiday romance - not the real thing!

I think nowadays you can do lots of research on the Internet. From reading this board it seems like the most important thing is to research how easy it will be to get a job in your own field where you are moving to. After all, nobody is going to be happy anywhere if they cannot get employment. After that - I would say go for it. You don't really need to visit. Get in touch with people over the Internet and save your money for when you emigrate.

We started the application process before visiting.

All the paperwork has been sent, but we won't actually be visiting until April this year.

We just felt that it was the right thing to do. If you wait around and do everything in the most logical order, you could end up waiting forever or not doing it at all.

Go for it, you only live once!

We didn't visit first either, it seemed like an unecessary expense, looking back I dont think it would have made any difference to our decision anyway, although maybe if when we visited it had been -40............................!?

Besides, we know someone who visited first, sold up, moved here and went back after 3 days!

Good Luck
Pammy

Re: Did u visit first?
 

You are way braver than I was!

People do land without visiting first, although not many from UK :) Could the two of you come over and have a friend mind the kidlets?

Check out fares with http://www.flyzoom.com/ or Canadian Affair http://www.canadianaffair.com/

Either way, where abouts are you thinking of moving to?

Clare

My wife , two children and I came to Canada in 1963.

At the time we hadn't even considered Canada. Australia was the destination for most Brits, mainly because it only cost 10 pounds for each family member. However I had talked to a number of returnees and felt it was too far and too remote at that time.

The only reason we are here in Ottawa is because of an Add in the Sunday Telegraph by a High Tech company ( Computing Devices of Canada) that wanted drawing office people. I applied and 6 months later we were here. I sold every thing up in that 6 months and within a year we were well established in a new home. The improvement in our life style and the fact that my wife didn't need to go out to work, made the decision to stay so much easier.

I'm the only one in the family that has ever returned to the UK for a visit and that was only 3 times to visit my mother when she was alive. Been almost everywhere else in Europe in the last 40 years, but really have no attachment to the UK now.

Ottawa is our home, even though it has some pretty wild winters and humid summers. None of our children have left for other countries. My son lives locally and my daughter is in Montreal.

Re: Did u visit first?
 

Crazy!
Then we must be as well. We have sent our application in November and a job already approved.
We haven't set foot in in Canada yet but we are planning on a trip in June. :scared: :scared:


But we think we will be surprised if we hate it, but if we do so what we have lost nothing except a few quid.
By the way we have 3 kids as well ages 3,6,11



Remember don't wait for your ship to come in! swim out to meet the bloody thing! :)

Thanks for your comments guys - some interesting points have been made.

We were originally interested in Calgary but we are now thinking Ottawa. I would pack up and leave tomorrow if I could!

Am I right in thinking that once you have applied for PR you are no longer eligible to visit Canada until your application is processed?

Were did that come from?
As I said we are going in June and I actually stated this on our cover letter to CIC when we applied.
So I would be very surprised if that was correct.

Oooops! :o

Hello,

I think those that are moving without visiting are very brave!

I know that I couldn't do that.

It might cost you a bit to visit in the short term, but it'll cost you even more if you get here, hate it and then return to the UK because you didn't check it out to begin with. Its a bit like buying a house by looking at pictures.

However Canada is a great country and I love living here! Even if it never seems to stop snowing!!!

Int.

Just to offer my thoughts, I've got to say that I couldn't contemplate such a big move without at least a visit or two beforehand. As was suggested earlier perhaps just the two of you could take a short visit just to get a feel for the place.

Having said that, I've noted that there are quite a lot of people on the "Moving back to the UK" forum who found that living in a place was totally different to actually just being on holiday there and indeed they couldn't settle. That's no surprise really so perhaps that's the argument against visiting beforehand. Visiting maybe gives you a view through rose tinted glasses.

Visiting Toronto in January 2000 when it was about -18 or something certainly put us off going there. If we had been there in the spring then we wouldnt of really appreciated how cold it gets and what it was like to live through a proper canadian winter.


So visiting first especailly in the winter definately has its merits.