Bsidebaby

Cant see we will ever be able to save for a reccy trip before our call comes through............................and if we do we'll have to take all 3 kids as well as family can't be bothered to help out.............

Has anyone ever emigrated without visiting before?

We have no family but a couple of contacts out there.

Thanks

Madmac

We thought about this years ago but then the process has been so long that we managed to get over several times and are glad that we did...because it convinced us even more that we are doing the right thing.

Jumping in feet first can be a good thing, but then we've got no children to worry about and can take more chances.

They say that 'Fortune favours fools and lovers' so where do you fit?

Best of luck anyway. Where are you thinking of heading for?

Regards

Madmac

Bsidebaby

Hello

We are heading to Ontario. Hubby works for FedEx so somewhere within commuting distance of Mississauga initially. He wont have a job to go to as has to re-apply once over there - all to do with different regions etc. If we wanted to emigrate to Dubai he could get a straight transfer but do not fancy that one bit!! LOL

We quite like sound and look of Niagara/Hamilton Region and have a contact there in Port Colborne. Our other contacts are in Quinte areae - Marmora. This area looks lovely but worried about getting jobs although they had no problems getting work when they emigrated (on a family visa).

So hard............

Madmac

At least you have contacts and that seems to be the main deciding factor in gaining employment in Canada: their seems to be a well-integrated 'who-you-know' arrangement in the Canadian jobs market.

Fairly well built-up area around Mississauga and I just had the impression that alll the townships and urban areas bleed into one another. Good if you like that - each to their own.

I'd settle for a village in the backwoods as I like my peace and quiet. However, I realise you can't eat or live on the scenery (before someone jumps down my throat ).

We got on well with everyone we met (well, apart from the headcase in North York who wanted to whack a mother and small child with a large stick!) and it's all about experiencing a new lifestyle and meeting new people anyway.

Best wishes in whatever you end up doing.

Madmac

R2D2

I know everyones circumstances are different, but it constantly astounds me at how many people look to emigrate to a new country never having visited it. Maybe we are just Mr and Mrs cautious and never do anything on the spur of the moment, but when you give up everything you have in the UK surely you would want to have as clear an image as possible of what you are going in to !! You need to have a feel for a place, not just what you have read or been told or the pics in holiday brochures. Canada is very diverse and different areas are very different from each other. For example, before we ever visited, I really liked what I'd seen and read about Toronto. When we got there, yes the city is great, lively, cosmopolitan.......but we knew straight away we could never live there. A lot of people get into this situation with Australia and New Zealand due to the distances involved, and emigrate to the unknown, and then decide its not for them........too late.....I know that people will read this saying "each to their own"....... fair enough, but the whole thing is stressful enough without getting to your destination and thinking....Oh dear...I don't like it!

Biiiiink

I imagine most immigrants to Canada haven't been here before, westerners are pretty lucky in that they are far more likely to be able afford the airfare to scout out places in advance. My grandparents had never been to Canada when they emigrated from Scotland in the 1920s. I bet the reality of many things including their first winter in the mountains was rather different than the picture painted by friends and relatives in letters encouraging them to try their luck over here but they survived, flourished even!

I think Grah from this forum hadn't been to Canada before moving with his wife and 4kids, might be wrong but I think he's said that before. Maybe he can tell you more?

What is it about Dubai you don't fancy? I'd be there in a heartbeat!

Alberta_Rose

I sympathise entirely. Obviously, ideally I'd say you should suss out the place first without the kids and maybe, but not necessarily, later with them.

In your situation though I'd think a good compromise would be for hubby to go over on his own. He can whizz round without the family on tow, and check out different areas, look at housesetc, and also arrange some meetings for jobs. There are some really cheap (compared to Air canada) flights available, particulary in the low season, and he could live very frugally with only himself to worry about.

You'd just have to trust him to decide what would be best for all of you! Would you let him go on his own??

Atlantic Xpat

Couldnt agree more with R2D2.....

I emmigrated with my wife who is Canadian am fortunate enough to have a tremendous support network of a welcoming extended family here. However I sure as hell wouldnt have commited to moving here with visiting (3 times) and spending some time getting to know the area, research housing and jobs etc.

If you cant afford to bring the whole family over then IMHO at least one of you should go over and have a look around. Too much of a risk to do anything else I'd say!

Souvenir

My grandparents migrated sight-unseen to Canada from Scotland. They nearly didn't make it. They got held up and missed the boat they were meant to catch. The SS Titanic, I believe it was called.

Cougarslair

Yes we did....

15 yrs ago...
I'm a nurse, one day went into WHSmiths and my wife, (who isnt a nurse), for some reason picked up the Nursing Times magazine and started looking at jobs abroad. "Look" she said "nurses wanted in Toronto. Why dont you ring them?" So thats what I did. Had an interview in Manchester a few months later, got offered a job and appllied to the immigration.

A year later we arrived in Toronto - me, the wife (who was pregnant!!) and two young boys. Did we know anybody - nope, apart from a friend of a friend who lived in Paris Ontario (my wife knew them but I didnt), and the two women who had interviewed me (so I'd only met them for an hour or so).I did have a job however and somewhere initially to stay - although the accomodation was so bad we had to rent a house almost immediatley, the job was dreadful, had to sit the their nursing exams before I got anything like a decent wage, and our furniture didnt arrive for 3 months! But it did get much better.

We had talked about emigrating, considered Australia and Canada but it was always more a case of "wouldnt it be nice if we could" rather than anything definite.

We knew nothing about the place - emigration it was just something I had always wanted to do (and Canada had always appealed - cant say why, it just had).

Bottom line, we got a chance and we took it.

Sadly after 3 years we ended up returning to the UK which was for reasons I'll not go into here but it had nothing to do with work, Toronto, Canada, the life style, cost of living, the people or anything like that.

Now we are doing it all again and hope to return in the next few weeks (this time for good!).

So we did it sight unseen you might say and the only things we knew were what we read in books and happened to see on TV (and Canada seemed to be rarely mentioned on TV!), and we had little bits of information from the couple who moved to Paris. Also we went with just a couple of grand so no chance of buying a home with that!!

These days we have the internet and it is great for finding things out.

We still think Canada is a great place (and that includes Toronto) and cant wait to return. Its going to be tough giving up a house here, steady job etc and going to the uncertainty of having to rent for who knows how long until we can get a mortgage, a job future that is uncertain, less holidays etc etc. But I still think of it a fantastic opportunity for myself and family and will do our utmost to make it a success.

Now if only our house sale would complete....

Biiiiink

Really? Wow. I take it you mean delayed by "held up" and not robbed at gun or knife point...although even if it was the latter, it was no doubt preferrable to travelling on the Titanic :scared:

Souvenir

It doesn't matter to me which it was. I very probably wouldn't have existed if they had made the boat.

In the end, they didn't stay in Canada long. WWI broke out, my grandfather joined up (the Canadian Highlanders, I think) and went fight at Vimy Ridge. I think they re-settled in Scotland straight after that. Certainly, my mum was born in Scotland.

On the subject of said mother, flight AC889 from LHR to Ottawa is now on last call. I suppose I'd better start cleaning the house.

Marmite's a-comin'

Biiiiink

Same, mine went back to Scotland to have an operation for my uncle (child at the time) and WWII broke out, they couldn't get back across the Atlantic. After a few years they gave up hope and instructed friends to sell their possessions.

There's a funky flight tracker in Mac 10.4 dashboard and according to that, your precious cargo will be arriving 10mins late

Souvenir

Broomstick One appears to now be airborne.

By "precious cargo" I assume you mean the Marmite, not the mother.

Lonestar

Hi there,I think its a bad sign if your finances don't stretch to a visit because U need to take as much hard currency from here in the uk when U immigrate because of the great exchange rate,though I did have relatives to vist in Vancouver which just left me the cost for flights.It is impossible to imagine a feel for a place on the web U must visit because it may give U the confidence needed to emigrate because if U get cold feet after you get a visa U are more likely to give up on the move,when I visited vancouver I was ready to be the first British assylum seeker that canada ever had and I was also ready to imigrate on the bases of just Tim Hortons french vanilla coffee lol