Joskin

My wife and I went on Saturday - nightmare. I don't know what was worse, the main hall or the car park. Thank god we left the kids behind. We looked at Canada and Australia, found the Australian's much more helpful, but then they did have more room for their stands. We don't live far from Sandown Park - about twenty minutes - so it took us no time at all to get home. Mind you, my wife is from Dawlish Warren, so if we had come up from there on the day I'd have gone back with one hell of a headache!

Covenant

You're so right, this is potentially the biggest decision people make, yet they don't research the subject enough. It's easy looking at the idea of moving to another country through rose tinted glasses but the reality is different and you have to visit the country at least once.

The Organisers of the show were there to make money, but failed to look at the needs of the people visiting the show.

In fairness, a number of people would have gone purely as the first step to finding out about whats involved, but I'm sure they were disapointed.

The venue is clearly not big enough, and the organisers should think of moving next years to Birmingham NEC.

oceanMDX

I rather doubt that your claim is correct. In general, the ethical rules that govern health care practitioners would make any form of fee-splitting illegal with anyone outside of the profession.

Watch out for this one!

Iain Mc

Well myself and my partner went on the Saturday and found the whole thing quite positive.

She lives in Wimbledon though, so not much of a drive though after I'd travelled up from Bournemouth the night before. I guess if we'd spent more than twenty minutes getting there our expectations may have been a little higher!

However, I'm glad we went. This is primarily because we had several specific questions for the High Commission folks, we got in early and had a good chat to one of the chaps on the desk before the seminars, when it wasn't so busy. All questions were answered, and we came away with a good impression of the folks at the receiving end of those thousands of applications. I'm still no less worried that the points requirement may be hiked in the near future though, and will sleep a lot easier when our applications are submitted. So close, yet so far.

Other than the High Commission, we were disappointed overall with the lack of representation in the Canada section. Only a few of the Provinces were there in any real depth, the majority of stalls being hard-sell immigration services or real estate. Not really much of use or interest to us. Contrasted to (for example) the range of exhibitors for New Zealand and it was quite a let down.

The seminars were much as expected. As others have mentioned, it's astounding how far some people can get into the process of emigrating without actually having done any solid research. And no, I'm not going to buy a ruddy business!

Cheers, Iain

CANTERBURY.TALE

We went on saturday, following the advice of others on this fourm we took our 4 children to there nannys for the day and drove up on our own from Thanington in Canterbury , it only took us about an hour and a half. we got there about 9am and were 6/7th in the que. by 10am the que seemed to go on forever, so we timed that right.
we have only just started the whole emigration dream , so we went to gather information on both Canada and Australia. with Canada as our 1st choice.
yes it was packed...but boy are we glad we went........................................WE WON....................... 2 fights to Canada......yyyyyeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh............ .........
the man from hifx has just phoned and 2x 1st class flight tickets to Canada are on there way, just had to go on there web site to see it for myself to make sure my hubby or his mates aren't winding me up,,,,,,,but its there in black and white.

so next step...were to go...any suggestions???????????/
we want to make the most of this and use it as a fact finding mission. so do any of you know off ang cheap places to stay etc. also were would you sugest for a good place to bring up my children.
we have never been to Canada before so all suggestion will be appriciated.

so i will put up with pushchairs in ankles any day of the week if i get a trip out of it................every bruse was worth it....

Elaine & Gary x x x

mickj

Hello Elaine & Gary,

Congratulations on your free ticket
You seem to have left out the first part of the process, research. From you told us, you have no particular place in mind at the moment over here that you will like to live. You can make it a little easy for us, by naming some places, and people here am sure can tell you if its viable for you.

I can say Ontario is the best place, but then that will be classed as being biased. Because you have never been here, everything might just seem great to you at first, you need at least three more trips before you can make your mind up, and that is after visiting different places.

Checkout my post under the thread "migration to canada" in this same room. I have listed what are the first 8 steps in my opinion, of getting yourself here.

What you don't need is BS, and people saying they can get you here in no time, you can do it yourself, as long as you meet all the requirements. As from April 1st, CIC is regulating the immigration canada consultancy, and any consult not on that list, can not provide advice to would be immigrants.

Once again, what areas have you got in mind?

AMT

I have read with interest the experiences of visitors to this year's Emigrate show. Thankfully my husband and I opted not to travel to the south of England owing to the distance and expense. Instead we were tempted to attend the Four Corners Emigration seminar held on Saturday in a hotel near Manchester Airport. I have to say that for the £15 admission charge for a couple we felt the 2.5 hour seminar was absolute excellent value for money. The presenters delivered interesting information about living overseas in four different countries and clarified the points based system for Australia that easily guided us as to what was required for eligibility. I can recommend anyone thinking of migrating to attend one of these seminars. I guess we would have been further impressed had they served refreshments at half time!!!!!

AMT

mickj

I have heard of four corners and a couple near me, used them when they came over from scotland. There has been some good reports about them from other people too.

But you have to look into doing it yourself first, if you have all your documents and the requirements the ask for. Immigration canada does say, once the application is in the system, there is nothing a consultant/lawyer can do to speed it up.

Mine was done by myself, and it took 7 months to complete.

liftman

Fill in the form yourself, get a friend or relative to check it over.

Then do it again, and again until it is perfect.

mickj

Hello there,

The questions they are asking on the forms, are not rocket science questions. You can sit down with your partner, or with your friends that have half a brain
:lecture: , and look over it together. If it turns out that there is something there you are not sure about, come on here and ask, folks here will be happy to help.

cheers

karen&Ted

Hi,
Yes the line up was for Q&A we waited until the seminar was on and got straight to the front. Our Q's couldn't be answered online so a face to face was very helpful for us. We also spent a good deal of our time with the Alberta stand. We wish to settle in Medicine Hat, Alberta. To our suprise there was a Rep from the Provincial building Med hat on the stand. Most of the other reps seemed to be from Calgary, but we struck lucky. So we went away from the Whole thing happy.

Ted

CalgaryAMC

Incredible. I would never have thought. I'm just amazed (and impressed) that little Medicine Hat flew someone over!

karen&Ted

I'm not being sarcastic, but he even had an appointment "chairman of palliser economic partnership" so i guess they really want to promote Med hat !! We lived there for 2 years well CFB SUFFIELD So we remember the differance between Calgary and Med hat!!

Peanut

1. Put all the financial advisors in the Canada room and bring Canada into the main area.
2. Ban pushchairs.
3. Put the High Commission (Wonderful people that they are) in an area that they will not block other stands with their queue.
4. Ban pushchairs.
5. Open up one of the snack areas at the Canada end of the hall so that we do not have to traipse all the way down the other end for a coffee.
6. Ban pushchairs.

Sorry about the pushchair but my parents have already emigrated to France so we don't have any babysitters nearby. We had to take the children or we couldn't go at all. Considering migration usually involves the whole family I didn't think the set up at the show was very family friendly. Don't think the show was worth the money really - we have found out more on the internet.



Peanut

mickj

Just a link to a few facts for those coming over to join us expats here in canada:

http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepu...IE/article.htm