As we have already said, it isn't about the jobs or the house or the cost of cereal (or beer or cheese....).
There are answers to those things and ways to solve them as you have pointed out, but some people just don't want to solve them because they just don't like the place and never wanted to leave England, really.

You have hit the nail on the head in the section I have highlighted.

My OH and I have been surprised at the number of people who, hearing that we are emigrating, have asked us if we have family in Canada or if we know anyone in Canada.
When they hear that no, we don't have family or friends here already, they seem shocked as they had assumed that was why we were doing it. They then ask if my OH got offered a company transfer and when we reply no, he just went over and worked hard to secure a job they seem even more surprised.

This leads me to believe that most people they know have either one or the other reason for emigrating (or of course, meeting and marrying a Canadian, which cannot apply to us as we are already spoken for.).

We also have no children and so are not "doing it for the kids".

We had none of those reasons - we just wanted to.

Our decision, our commitment, our choices, our fault if it all goes wrong.

It isn't long until the OP leaves now and I hope she and her husband are happy to be returning. The speed with which he got his old job back certainly is a good sign that it will be a seamless reintegration.

Good luck with getting something decent for $600K in Rockcliffe...

I'm actually not that keen on Rockcliffe - big nice homes, but not so many amenities and the transit isn't great.

Agree re. AC. We have it, and we really needed it this year in particular. You can survive without it of course but its much nicer not to.

Are you saying you need to be a native French speaker? Or just that you need to speak French?

The first is incorrect.

As for the second, if you want a job in government and you think its so cushy, what's stopping you? Go learn French, its a language not a birthright.

Hello, we were in BC (vancouver island, vancouver) we were there for 13 months doing house sitting. We were trying to find out where we would like to live. As we had the chance to live in many places (we lived in over 10 houses) and different areas this was a good thing to do without the expense. We agree with you about parks etc and beauty. You cannot beat the UK even if it is small.

In BC there is only one place to live and that is vancouver for the facilities of a vibrant city (although the young people called it 'no fun city' (we are in our 50's, not dead yet but like to go to a bar to watch a band. We lived in kitsilano over from the city which is a laid back area but pricey to rent. Would live there is we could afford it. But only for 6 months of the year as it is depressing in the winter with the grey skies and rain.


We lived in victoria on the island and we have to say that was great. Lived there in the winter too, not a bad winter warmer than the UK and no snow. The rain gets dumped on vancouver more than victoira. If you are looking for a little piece of the england. A small city but more english than england. If you have been torquay in the UK it is laid out like that with the town leading onto a harbour. We lived there for 5 months. We enjoyed victoria more than vancouver. The pubs are great and I mean pubs. They brew their own beer, have bands on 7 nights a week and no cover charge. The area is beautiful but the only place to live on the island with some life. Have lived in nanaimo, parksville, courtenay, and qualicum beach too. Lovely places but dead. What about montreal. I have visited there and that was a nice vibrant city.

After all this we are going back to the UK. We found the west coast canadians to be very judgemental 'self policing'. We have never been told what to do so much i.e. how to park a car, put on a helmet when riding, etc etc... this from complete strangers. BC (bring cash) is the only place we would live mainly because we are on the ocean. It is expensive for anything dairy here, but transport is cheap, houses are expensive (in vancouver and in central victoria). Try house sitting, advertise on www.usedvictoria.com or www.usedvancouver.com although we got more response from used victoria. The snow birds go away now usually from november - march. That way it wouldn't cost you anything to find out (all our stuff is still in the uk). We just bought a car and have lived in other people's houses.
The rest are all flat box towns and all look the same.

Canada is beautiful, for the mountains, lakes, and the space. If you like that you will enjoy canada, but you have to be a hiker or kayaker. We camped 2 months through the rockies and that was a great thing to do. We enjoyed those aspects of canada but it is not enough to hold us here, with the high taxes, inaffordable housing and costly food. We miss the culture of the UK, and the people who are down to earth and have a sense of humour. They are not serious like they are here (they are over the top in doing things professionally i.e. hobbies).

We are currently house sitting in mexico and its fantastic. We will probably live here 6 months and the uk 6 months. If you want any ideas on where to live in bc, we can help you out with the island and vancouver area. Although even though this country is big, you do feel 'trapped' as there are not many places to visit that are different, you feel like you only have one place. We were members of the national trust in the UK, say no more....

good luck, don't give up and remember why you left the UK. This is not the promised land, just different.

Well I work for the Feds and don't speak a lick of French.....I guess it depends on what you do

OP should be on the way to/at the airport now or very soon.
Good Luck and have a happy journey.

Eight days isn`t long.

Sorry but you`ll need to give it a few years.

My first few days were absolutely terrifying but we had no choice but to stay. Thankfully, it all settled down and things got better.
Now I`d be mortified if I had to leave!

I hope it all works out.

For more recent posters to this thread -
the OP is going back to the UK today!
See above quote.

[quote=RRhodes;9683481]... (my PR visa was running out so decided it was now or never to give it a try) ... quote]

Do the words "A Wing And A Prayer" rings any bells?

Just trying to wrap my head around how someone could go through all the trouble of getting an immigrant visa and not have thoroughly researched what they were going to do with it.

Perhaps I've become somewhat jaded with all my moves over the years.

Why have you moved lots over the years?

Sorry, I don't have time to go through every single post and what you have replied back to everyone, but:

- why Ottawa? I'm from BC and people from Ottawa (mostly) always LOVE the West when they come out here. We have lots of beautiful green spaces, parks, forests, mountains, etc. Housing here is expensive (comparable to Ontario, I would think) but you'll find that everywhere in Canada.

- I'm an immigrant myself (been here 12 years) and I'm not going to lie: it took me at least 5 years to stop crying and missing friends and family from 'home,' and a good 10 years to finally feel like this is home.

It does get better but it is incredibly hard. Try to find an expats group to meet up with as soon as you can - that really helped us!

Best of luck!

I wish the OP would post on here again and tell us that everything went brilliantly and she is about to move into her new UK house and jobs are lovely and that she and her husband are very happy.


I like a happy ending.

me too!

I have messaged her on FB, as we had become friends, if she replies, and is happy for me to update, or if she wants to come update herself, I will let you guys know!
I hope they are ok!
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