Atlantic Xpat

^^^_____ Sensible dat. Very pragmatic approach.

Geordie Lass

I'm interested in why you moved to NZ in the first place and now want to move to Canada?

I'd love to go to NZ but have never been but have done a lot of Oz. NZ would be on our list to go see if we don't get into Canada!

Lychee

Winnipeg, Toronto and Nova Scotia are very different from one another with different climates, vegetation, and geographies in the same way that the UK, Norway, and Ukraine have different climates, vegetation, and geographies (just an arbitrary comparison mind you, but still...). Winnipeg, Toronto, and Nova Scotia also have different local cultures, histories, demographics, and traditions which influence how you'll experience them.

Day to day activities won't be that much different, but aside from factors such as "what you can afford" and "where you can find a job"- what is important to you in a place?

Does being within a short drive to the ocean play an important role? Do you like varied topography within a short drive? Do you favour a large selection in restaurants both by cuisine type and price range? How about a large, bustling metropolis? Or the walkability of a city/town? How about greenery? It does sound trivial, I understand, but I mention greenery because based on my observations on this forum, many expats assume Canada mirrors the UK's seasonality, but it doesn't (with exception to coastal BC) - and many get culture shock from the simple lack of greenery (ie: Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, etc.). Or the fact that there still aren't any spring flowers by the month of May! These are all considerations to factor when you're choosing random locations throughout Canada.

laser558

Well, if it's any help, I'm from the UK. I came over here in November, 2006 for a long weekend to look at a house and came back owning it. I had worked in Nova Scotia for just one week in 1993. I didn't even know the area I bought in. I was granted PR in 2010 a day before I was made redundant. I landed in May, 2011 and I haven't looked back. Mind you, I am fortunate in that I am able to work from home and don't need a huge amount to live on. If I had massive monthly expenditure, I would probably have to think again as jobs in this part of the world are pretty few and far between in my field of work. I mention all of this as I think it meets the criteria of your question in that I bought and moved over here without a formal recce.

iaink

I moved here after a grand total of 4 days in Canada for a whistle stop interview. One of those I was pretty jet lagged, one was the interview, and two were effectively sightseeing in Toronto (where the job wasnt but the airport was)

It worked out OK for me long term, but I was single and care free at the time. With family involved and anything to leave behind in the UK in terms of property or a decent career I would definitely take the time for some visits here, winter and summer.

james.mc

We went once to visit my Dad in Victoria, a couple of years back over Christmas and new year. The visit was a couple of weeks. That's it. Applied for FSW not too long after.. been playing the CIC waiting game ever since.
So much so, that the visit we are going on later this month was once two one way tickets based on optimism at the time. Now we are subject to the ever shifting average posting times CIC keep playing with.

minimeeze

We came here 3 years ago, having never visited before (unless you count my time I spent here sitting an exam part way through the immigration process). There are just the two of us (no kids involved) and we figured that we had nothing to lose. We researched the different provinces of Canada, decided that BC was where we'd like to be, and chose Chilliwack for no other reason than we liked the name
We have absolutely no regrets and wouldn't change anything if we had to do it all over again (and yes, I actually do like Chilliwack!). We just figured that if we didn't like it, we had 2 options - move somewhere else in the province or move back to the UK.
This worked great for us, but if there are children involved, you may have to do a bit more homework.
Good luck!

SteveHarris

Yup, we moved to Victoria over 10 years ago without a recce. Worked out for us but suspect we were pretty lucky. Our kids were 3.5yrs old at the time, found great day care, kindergarden, etc... - like I said lucky.

irish_eyes

Even better, I'm a Canadian citizen My OH still needs to get PR tho.

irish_eyes

Really looking for somewhere that the kids can have a happy, safe and fun childhood in. Family friendly is of the utmost importance. We dont eat out alot and when we do, its fastfood for the kids usually or chinese food. It would be nice to move somewhere that I could walk to the shops but I mostly drive to them now. I am not to bothered with what I'm looking at as long as its not awful to look at then great. A leafy suburb would be nice. Great schools and stuff for the kids to do. You get the idea. Thanks for your reply. (and all the other ones too) I really need to learn how to multi quote everyones replies at once.

irish_eyes

wow! glad its worked out!

irish_eyes

Well thats a great question!!! Canada was our first choice but OH is a kiwi so it was the lazy option to be honest as he knew how life was here so it made sense plus all his family are here so it was a chance to spend some time with them too.

The location of NZ is just rubbish. I have tried so hard to make it work here but my heart is just not in it and after 3.4 years here its time to get on with what we really want to be doing with our life. New Zealand is a beautiful place to live tho but its just so far away from the rest of the world and SOOOOOOO expensive to get to the rest of the world from here. Whilst I have got on with life here and enjoyed it the majority of the time, I cant help but wish I was somewhere else so trying to work out if Canada could be the place. I know for certain its not New Zealand. Where abouts in Canada are you looking at?

Chookie

We came over without ever having visted before, but we had more than enough savings that we could have gone back and started up again if it hadn't worked out.

The way we looked it, it would have been prohibitively expensive for Mr Chookie, me and the 4 kids to fly over just for a brief visit and Mr Chookie didn't want to come alone. We had no one to look after the kids for a week or two so that we (ie Mr Chookie and me) could come over so we decided to save our money, come over and if it didn't work we would call it quits and go back.

BUT what we did do was loads and loads of research on where we were going to make sure it was the kind of place we wanted to live. That paid off because 6 yrs on we are quite happy here.

Oink

Its the best way, why compound the issues?

irish_eyes

Where are you Oink? And Chookie, where are you? How did you narrow it down to one place! I'm going bonkers trying to narrow it down