how many decided to emigrate for a different life and never actually visited the area you decide to live in, as many answers to this would be great or if anyone knows of the percentage roughly that move to canada without actually been there
thanks

Everyone I know visited first. If you are going to make such a major step, and spend that amount of money moving over it seems foolhardy not to pop on a plane and come over for a week or so

I did hear an "amusing" (or scary..) tale of a family who moved to Winnipeg in the winter, and returned within 3 weeks as they found Winnipeg "cold and flat"


Clare

yes, i was wondering about that, too. why would you wanna do that? it's a major step and i think it would also help the whole process of immigrating if you had a good idea of where you're going...

winnipeg - cold and flat...?! really?!
that's funny. and it makes so much sense to leave the country for good then...

I came over in 1963 without a previous visit.
I applied for a job in Ottawa and 4 months later we had sold up and sailed over on the Cunard Carmania with the wife and two young ( 5 and 2) children.

I did read considerable literature and was not dissaponted. Only been back 3 times in the last 40 years.

I would not have left if it hadn't been for the job offer. But by the first week in Ottawa we knew we had made the right move. Our standard of living increased dramatically and we had another advantage. A high proportion of the people in the company were from the UK.

Never got homesick and we now have most of our close relations ( children and grandchildren ) and friends living in this part of Canada.

We came over to Nova Scotia without visiting.

I don't think we would have been able to tell anything out from visiting for a week as we have found that living somewhere is a lot different to going on holiday. Eg things will seem exceptionally cheap on your visit but as wages seem to be lower here and taxes higher, it soon becomes expensive once you live on a Canadian wage. These sort of things can only be found out by living somewhere. We really thought we were going to be so much better off than we actually are.

We had no suprises. I got a very good booklet ( which I still have) titled " Working and living conditions in Canada". It was put out by the Canadian Government.

My salary doubled and with the money from the sale of our home in the UK we were able to buy a very nice detached bungalow for $17,000. My wife didn't need to go to work and later when the kids left school, they didn't have to leave home to get a University education.

I am fortunate to have a wife that never missed her family and has never returned to the UK in 40 years. She felt we should spend our vacations on this side of the Atlantic where there is so much more to see.

Hi,

we moved out to Victoria 2 years ago (yesterday was the anniversary actually) from South wales with our twin boy and girl - aged 3 at the time. We had sold everything and I only had an interview to look forward to 2 days after we arrived (no job offer).

A big leap of faith I admint but we had been given some guidance by someone we knew who already lived here. Even if we had visited I don't think anything can prepare you for the actual act of selling up and moving - sometimes you have to take a risk..

'Life's an adventure or it's nothing"

Cheers - Steve

(Raised hand here)

Yup that would be us. We did two years previously have a weeks trip to Toronto but that wasn't a holiday nor was it anywhere near long enough to fact find...nor did it help at our interview!

We didn't come to Saskatoon (stop sniggering at the back there!) as we only had one part time wage coming into the house at the time. We did however do hours of internet investigations. Had we come to visit here, I doubt we would have stayed here but its growing on us after five months so we'll stop a while.

Whilst I would say its not necessary to visit, if you can, do it. For one thing it's a lot of fun and it does give you a flavour but if not use Amazon a lot and buy books and videos.

One thing is for sure...we definately won't be going home. This is such a huge country we can easily move somewhere else. At the end of the day, I guess it depends on just how much you will gain by coming here and how sure you are about it if you can't do a trip. Hope it helps a bit.

Pat

We visited Saskatchewan for almost the whole of July.


The purpose of such a long visit was to decide

A) where to live

B) What jobs were currently in that area for me.

C) To look at the schools

D) and to see as much of Saskatchewan as pos..

None of us wanted to come back to the UK.


Car hire for a big 4x4 was £800 for 24 days.
Our flights were £1600 for three people.
Hotel rooms were £40 a night inc. breakfast

what with jetski hire on Candle lake ( 3 days off our house and job hunt ) the total cost of our visit was somewhere between £5000 and £6000 for the 3 of us. Thats appox £80 a day each all in , money VERY WELL spent.

We covered over 2000km and saw quite a bit of the place.

One main benefit of our visit was a meeting with Immigration to go over and thro' our paper work, which he took off us to start processing...


You can look at pictures in books/internet and read all you like but it will not prepare you for how vast the place is or how beautiful.

I recommend anybody considering living somewhere to visit as we had preconceived ideas that changed.

all the best,

Goatee

p.s DON'T stay at "Joe's Cabins" on Candle Lake
it was the only let down

You know of course that Saskatchewan has very severe winters.
A visit often can give a false impression. The only real test is at least 2 years living in an area.

I have lived in Ottawa for 40 years, but still find the winters very long. That said I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, it's my home and where my extended family is.

I wish you luck and hope you grow to love Canada as much as we do.

Thank you for your kind words.

When we were in Sask, we asked lots of questions of the locals including the winter weather, which we were often told was not as bad as people had said and we had read. Due to global warming the once 3 foot of snow is now very often only 1 foot and that -30 will feel like -5 to us from the uk due to the DRY cold.

We also look forward to trying some winter sports like snow boarding and cross country skiing. My son has played ice hockey for 2 teams over here and is looking forward to getting stuck in.


We don't mind the winter being long, as long as we can enjoy the summer as well.
When we got back to England at the end of July it rained for a week and a half. Yes all day at the begining of August !

We look forward to a proper winter and a proper summer.
Our only concern is will we be able to use the out doors in the summer due to the mozi's and black fly.

thanks again
goatee

Don't really believe what the locals will tell you about the weather. The Nova Scotians still insist that the winters that they have been experiencing in recent years are freakily cold with unusual amounts of snow. We have eventually managed to find out that these sort of winters are in fact the norm but I think the locals would actually like to believe that they are milder.

I'd take it with a bit of a pinch of salt too. Our neighbours have gone to great lengths to tell us how hot it will be in the summer and how cold in winter. This season is of course different to most years and '...just wait till next year...' Actually they're not the only ones, the bank folks, IGA and gas station people..in fact anyone who can get it spat out generally will they certainly don't need any asking! We arived in March and after a week of lovely sunny weather it started snowing (boy did I feel like a kid again!) and left about a foot or so - which was described as the worst dump of the winter. If that's as bad as it gets we'll be fine although at least three people have told be that as the summer has been so unusual there probably won't be any snow by Christmas....yeah right!

I'd be interested to know what you thought about the mossies and crickets??? Came as a bit of a surprise to be for sure :scared:

Pat.

In my 40 years in Ottawa there have been 3 snow free Christmas's.

In recent years the winters have been slightly milder. But the worst one I experienced was the winter of 1962/63 in the UK. We had three weeks when even our so-called central heating failed to keep that stupid tank in the attic from freezing. Also something else happened that winter that I haven't experienced in Ottawa. I was unable to get to work for two days because our village was cut off.

Give me winters in Ottawa where the roads are kept free of snow and ice and our houses stay comfortable all year round.

I hate the mosquitoes. Apparently, according to the locals they should have been gone by June, but I have just come back from walking the dogs and only got bitten about three or four times. These mosquitoes are very surprising as sometimes the only way I know I have been bitten is when someone says that you are bleeding!!