xxdb

It wasn't really that difficult, though I'd say it was more serendipity than the result of research.

I was visiting some Canadian friends in McMasters University while I was also still at university in 1991. I spent a couple of hours in the library while I was bored and I was browsing the shelves and ran across a book which said "immigrate to Canada" so I read it and it looked pretty easy and I thought why not, it might be nice to try for a couple of years, so when I graduated and got my first job I wrote a letter (handwritten!) to the high commission in London and they sent me a package. I read it and found that once I had two years experience with my qualifications and a french o-level I'd probably meet the requirements. Being young I wanted to travel so I did the initial assessment (on paper!) and sent it to them. Six months later I got a letter saying I probably qualified and I could proceed if I was willing to pay some fee (I can't remember how much - maybe $200) so I had to go get some kind of wierd draft drawn on a Canadian bank (oh what fun that was - nobody knew what it was!) and then sent it off. I heard nothing from them for another six months and then a request for a police check and medicals came through which cost me more money. I sent those back and about four months later a visa came through the post. A couple of weeks laters I was at Pearson.

The order of events may be mixed up but it really wasn't that difficult. The main source of information was the library or the yellow pages.

ExKiwilass

I didn't come BC but I came before BE and the cic website. THe obsessing over timelines and application statuses on the cic website is new to me, I'm glad I was kept in ignorance until the paperwork arrived in the mail. I'm glad I came before BE, I am the type of person who focuses on small things so it's good I was clueless when I arrived.

Eastbound

1991 emigrating process to Aus , all done via paper form filling , faxes and telephone calls, bills were a nightmare but got us a rental on arrival, no small feat with three kids in tow, one a baby at the time and knowing no one on the other side
2004 Canada great all done online just a longer processing time but compared to the first process it all went much smoother

manitobain

read in the paper about a farm for sale in Canada, got curious. Wrote a handwritten letter for more info, got a handwritten answer back a month later. Got some books about Canada in the library, called the Canadian Embassy and asked about agriculture (they must have thought what a moron, as I had no clue it was so big and vast), got the guy visiting in Germany...booked a flight for hubby (I was very pregnant at that time)..3 years and 3 pound of paperwork later we immigrated to take over a farm in Quebec (1987 with lil clue about french). We wondered and worried beforehand, no time for that once we arrived...just enjoyed all the new things and really ..only missed decent bread for a while
I had to promise to write a letter every 2 weeks to mother-in-law and I did keep that promise for 13 years (mind you ..one of the first buys here was a type-writer...which later was switched for a computer).

el_richo

They probably had the piss taken out of them in steerage instead

Piff Poff

Me Too! I think BE would have scared me off trying this whole Canada thing. I has meant that we have spent unnecessary money, BUT, it has also meant that we tried it all without the doom mongers influence.

scribe123

Not sure the exact route he took, but after seeing information about Canada immigration and some research and phone calls, my uncle moved over around 1970 with no job and about 4 weeks worth of money to support him and his wife.

2 weeks later he was given a job as a joiner (for which he wasn't qualified), by blagging it. He bought some tools, and a tool belt, kicked them around the garden in the mud for the week he had spare before his start date to make them look used, and then started work fitting kitchens in new houses.

After about 2 week the foreman pulled him aside and said "you've never done this job before in your life have you?"

Panicking and crapping himself he came clean and said "no".

The foreman replied "Hm, thought so, because most of your work is way much better than these idiots, but there are some basics your a bit shaky on" (or something to that effect). I think he was then moved into a job in 'the office'.

After that it was college lecturer, then into an engineering firm and eventually became a very senior manager at Fisher Rosemount (I think it was them). Came back to the UK about 20 years ago to be closer to family and succeeded here as well.

IN SHORT: He managed 'BC', and the formula is pretty much the same as it is today: Bloody hard work and determination.

Chris

Chookie

There was no BE when we came over although there was internet/computers.

We mostly googled for info(pretty sparse tbh) and winged it apart from that.

It was an adventure...

triumphguy

No internet when I came either.

I disappeared into a cultural wasteland in the interior of BC, surrounded by plaid shirts, mullets and stubby "no-name" beers.

No footy for 10 years - I missed Giggs and Scholes early years - but I survived, got married, had kids etc.

Steve_P

Welcome back, is that where you've been hiding?

Dave n Ailsa

Thanks for all the brilliant replies and inspiring stories

My wife's Aunt left the UK many decades ago to pursue her career in nursing....in Bermuda I believe.

She soon moved to Vancouver and has now retired in a gorgeous Condo next to the Harbour at Nanaimo on Van Island.

She deserves the brilliant life she has...