alcat2010

Hi all,

I have posted a similar thread before, but please bear with me..

Basically, my wife and I are now having doubts as to whether we should continue with our plans on emigrating.

Since 2008 we have had a never ending rollercoster of planning, hoping, wishing, frustration, confusion, deflation, not to mention expense!

In a nutshell, my wife was offered a job (nurse) in Alberta in 2008, that was withdrawn at the last minute (after a recce trip looking at hospital, houses etc. )

We have had 2 previous Fed Skilled Worker apps refused, 2010+2011 -(cap being reached)

So........ here we are now, on one hand wondering should we send in a 3rd application in July.. Or stay here in sunny west of scotland where it will be alot easier bringing up our kids (18 month old, and another due in 3 weeks! )

If I am honest it is due to the realisation of raising 2 young babies with no family support + familiar surroundings etc that is making us doubt if this is the right time to try moving to Canada..

We are both feeling really unsettled where we are, But we agreed that this unsettled / "where will we be" feeling has been partly caused by the immigration uncertainty...

Even if we DO get approved in this application, the whole process of gaining employment also seems very uncertain, as my wife has to sit provincial exams, further training etc... I am in no way guaranteed a secure job either

Should we put our hope of living in the promised land on the back burner for a few years when our kids are past the 'hard' stage?

In the hope of an agony aunt out there with some cool words of widsom!
What are your thoughts?

Cheers...

bigals

It can be a great move to come here but you have to be 100% sure,if you have any doubts I would not recommend doing the move,It is tough there and it is tough here also and if you get the move out of your head it will be easier to deal with bettering the life you have there.
just my 2 cents

fletcher m

You might have read this before, I have posted similar post on another thread and i think it is relevant to you.
First, not only could you have applied under Reg Nurse NOC, when that was full, you could have also applied under practical nurse NOC for PR/FSW1.

Second, this whole process is very unsettling, that is a fact. If you had ideas of moving to Canada then I suspect that those ideas will keep smoldering away. Why don't you get on with your lives in UK and now you know you have doubts, accept that you may not go but continue with the process, therefore, just in case it all goes pear shaped here and you decide it is best to go to Canada, you will be ready. Yes i know it is expensive, but if the idea re-ignites, you could be PR, landed and it could be as much as 4 years from now that you actually go.

I actually feel the same way, wife has to do the CRNE and SEC, no guaranteed job for me or her, houses look so bloody expensive! Top that off with high insurance, big property taxes, high fuel bills, and some of the knocking of canada on here, it is hardly surprising that you are having second thoughts. fletch

iaink

What is it that you think Canada will add to your quality of life?

I like it here, but as you say, raising kids on your own has its challenges. My wife is having surgery in May, and its just as well my Dad is able to come over for an extended visit, its things like that that bring things into sharp focus.

Sit down, make a list of pros and cons of your current and potential future location, and then think about alternative strategies for resolving the down side to where you are now, it might be a lot easier and less stress to move within the UK or Europe for example, or just find a different angle to the west coast of scotland, there are probably worse places to live.

MikeUK

+1

I can't reiterate this enough, and while your doing it try to be realy honest, don't forget to cover "what if I fail" scenario's....

alcat2010

Hi mate,

appreciate your reply.
You mentioned you (your wife) is applying under 3233/licenced practical nurse.

After advice from several migration consultants, we did actully apply through this category in May 2011, but we were rejected as my wifes experience was solely as a registered nurse?

Is your wife currently or has had experience as an LPN? Sorry for asking but I just hope CIC havent made a mistake and rejected our app through a mistake!
That really would be the final nail for me! ha

We just cannot see a clear route to 'getting in'..

From having a successful application, to getting the PR visa, what exactly is next?? (for a nurse)
Is it:-
1. register with provincial nursing body ?
2. sit (expensive) courses to be general trained?
3. sit exam ?
4. gain employment?

Everything seems so uncertain..

fletcher m

Yep, don't put your life on hold, just prep yourself for the next phase, in case it comes!

Hope this helps, get your ducks in a row and when YOU and Mrs AL is ready, knock 'em down.

angelic applicant

hello,
i cant promise words of wisdom or the answers to your questions only your family will have those but.......think and reflect what made it seem possible and a wish in the first place??? apart from the rollercoaster we all seem to be on at the moment to get there what is making it seem impossible now??

if you stay where you are ....what are the costs??? can you make your dreams come true there??? are you happy with your lot???

its easy for me im going all on my lonesome so i dont have anyone else to consider. i dont know how old you are, but at 37 its now or neva for me.

my thought process being i can live with having tried and it not working but couldnt live with not trying and never knowing.

use this wating time to your advantage...saving etc

im not sure this will be helpful but you need to try and retain some of that positivity and thought processes that brought you here in the first place x

London Mike

You probably mentioned this in another thread that I haven't read but why do you want to move to Canada anyway? Sounds like an idyllic life there in Scotland.

magnumpi

Strange how most of the above no sayers (or doubters) actually live in Canada already Not a dig as such just an observation.

Why not have a third go, who knows third time lucky. If it don't work out then your ultimate decision will be made by fate.

alcat2010

Its what we feel it can offer the quality of life for our kids (future)

I suppose in a nutshell its for the better culture / standard of living?
(Its hard to emphasise to others the west of scotland 'mentality' that I dont want my kids growing up in, especially in their later years...) Its not the best tourism advert! but its the way we, and alot of others feel..

Maybe this is another thread in its own right, but rightly or wrongly, we have convinced ourselves that Canada is an overall better environment?

I do sometimes realise maybe we do have blinkers on a bit...
Have we got into the mentality of thinking only of the so called positives in Canada, and focus only on the negatives here??...

But if we are really honest with ourselves, my wife and I do have a decent standard of life here at the moment...
We both have secure enough jobs, living within our means has ensured we have no real money worries, family, friends etc...

At the very beginning, (2008) when my wife and I first thought we were moving to Canada. We had no kids. And our main drive to emigrate was for a bit of an adventure I suppose, better working environments also. We visited the rockies and thought the place was amazing.. The seed was planted..

Now that we have kids, they are obviously our priority, and giving them a stable upbringing is vital.

With the whole process of emigrating SO VAGUE AND UNCERTAIN, we are both getting a little fed up of being messed around and putting our plans on hold (buying a house = we currently live in a flat..)

I find it unbelievable that for a country in need of skilled workers i.e. nurse Why is it made so difficult???

Atlantic Xpat

I have no idea what the "West of Scotland mentality" is, but many regional/rural areas have a mentality/narrow horizons etc. I grew up in Norfolk. Some of my contempories horizons didn't extend beyond living and working locally. That's the same the world over. Some Canadian's horizons don't extend beyond moving out of their town/city/province. And many will be perfectly happy doing just that.

You can bring up your kids, wherever you live, to appreciate that there is a wider world out there. Encourage them to go away to study/work/travel. You don't have to move to Canada to do that.

The standard of living UK vs. Canada question is a complex one. It's a big country with tremendous variance between places. For my part, having lived in Essex, obtaining some of the "quality of live" things that we go from moving to Newfoundland, could have been gotten equally easier by moving to the West Coast of Scotland!

It is very easy to look through rose tinted specs at Canada & emigration. The successful and happy immigrants IMHO are those that have a rounded and balanced view of moving here. It is, as has been discussed on numerous threads, not all a bed of roses.

You may have read my recent thread about how a sudden and potentially fatal health issue clarified for us the importance of having family around to support. (My wife is from Newfoundland). That might be something worth considering carefully if it is something that you have at home. As I said elsewhere, I wouldn't want to go through what we have been through in the past month without any support on the ground.

Finally, the process of emigrating is immensely frustrating. It is, however, a good primer on the vagaries of Canadian beauracracy, protectionism and sometimes sheer bloody closed mindedness.

huddersfieldlass

Hi there

Its a tough one your predicament - but i'd like to offer you my views -

We moved out here 6 years ago - to a small town outside Calgary - we have 3 kids. Our main reason for leaving Huddersfield (and family and friends) was the old saying "for a better life for the kids". I cannot explain to you what we thought that meant back then in 2006! From getting an agent and a job for my OH we were here in a year. We were disgruntled with our lot back in the Uk - by this I mean no money for extras like holidays, a bigger house, more family time together. My husband worked full time in a job he enjoyed with people he got on with. I worked 12 hours part time in a local shop.

Now here we are in 2012 - kids are 100% happy but us old parents are wiser with age and realise what we had back in the UK wasn't actually that bad. By this I mean husband now works full time but with extra travelling time of 45 mins each way in his own transport - he has to do a share of saturdays. I have to work full time and 1 in 3 saturdays as well. We both only get 2 weeks annual leave a year (that is the norm in Canada/Alberta). However we do have a large house but no holidays. I guess we have both failed on the "more family time together" idea.

I guess what I'm trying to say is the grass isn't always greener. To emigrate a family of 5 out here costs way more than you anticipate (set up fees on arrival really eat into your house capital). Standard of living in canada is I would say higher than in the UK. Our kids were happy in the Uk and are happy here.

I don't know Scotland but it sounds from your posts that life is pretty good - Canada isn't all its cracked up to be. Please don't be fooled by the old age comment "a better life for the kids". It comes at a high personal cost.

One snowy evening myself and my husband worked out how much emigrating costed us and we could have moved to a larger house in the Uk and gone to Disney 2 years running!

However life is too short for regrets so we have decided to make the most of it here in Canada - we enjoy camping in the Rockies and the snow activities and are lucky to have a large expat friends group for support. Still haven't flown back to the Uk yet but hope to do so next year.

Good luck

Tony-the-Tigger

I understand where the OP is coming from with the remark "West of Scotland mentality". He is more or less talking about the west central belt, from Glasgow, out to the west coast. Within this area, there are many good people, living in unsightly, deprived communities, even entire towns - I could even stretch this to regions but there's also a very large section who fit into the term - underclass. I'm from North Lanarkshire and I'm struggling to think of any town within it's boundary that I would choose to live in if I was given the choice. The OP is referring to ugly, crumbling ex local authority housing, with one shop, a pub and a bookies. Towns where you can't walk your dog due to smashed Buckie bottles littering the street. Where kids leave school and go straight onto benefits, if you are a girl, you can get pregnant and claim for a house. Young men learn how to carry a knife, smoke skunk then smack up. You can then get onto the methadone program at your local pharmacy to clean up but many end up on heroin and methadone. For no real reason, pick up the family tradition of hating Catholics or Protestants and your entire life revolves around one of the old firm clubs as if it was a religion. Parents drink heavily, neglect their kids and spend the child allowance on cigs and cider. The diet is so bad that it has the world's highest heart problem % per head of pop and the worst life expectancy in Europe.

I've lived in Toronto including Scarborough and I've traveled all over Ontario and Quebec. Nothing comes close, not by a long shot. I've never passed through a town and thought to myself, this looks just like Cumbernauld or Easterhouse or Ardrossan or Port Glasgow or Irvine.

Ailsa n Dave

Not my place to say... But gut feel with two kids 18 months apart this is not the right time to make the move... you have enough on your plate.

However... Canada isn't going anywhere... once your kids are out of nappies maybe thats the time to sit down and re-access?

Not now doesn't mean never... it just means not now...