How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

It has occurred to me, as it will everyone else on this journey at some point, that people have been emmigrating for decades, long before the internet.

I can only imagine how hard it must have been, so I salute you :thumbup:

Is there anyone on here who had to do it the hard way, or had parents that might have.

I'm interested to hear your/their stories.

It will make the rest of us look like a bunch of pansies I'm sure ;)

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

1998, Got a job offer, got on a plane. No research really other than two days here for the interview. There was this big building in town, full of books. Called a library or somesuch thing. Got a little info there, but not much.

Seems to have turned out OK, I think many people overthink and try and micromanage every little detail now to be honest, and it just ads to the stress rather than reduces it.

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

My grandfather emigrated to Canada in 1912. He was fortunate to not have internet. If he had, he would have sorted his travel timing a bit better and not missed his intended ship. The Titanic.

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

Looked at trade paper.

Australia, long way away, what if we don't like, how will we pay to come back?

US, takes weeks to get a visa and there's no healthcare.

Canada, how about Canada? They speak French there.

And so, a couple of weeks later, we were in Canada in the clothes in which we stood, carrying a cue and a pair of skis. We had no luggage, no money and so no option but to stay and make it work.

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

One friend, now retired, came to Canada as an immigrant in the early 60s. No job, nowhere to live, no internet, phones prohibitively expensive. He walked out of the station in Montreal and said to himself, "right, this is the rest of my life. I'd better get on with it."

And he did.

We immigrated in 1999. The internet did exist then. I had an account with AOL. But sites like this did not exist. For which I am very grateful.

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

Sounds about right, it was 1963 for me and my father.:thumbup:
Don't know about the phones although long distance rates were prohibitive. :)

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

1977: Applied for and was offered a post-doc job in Southern California. OH and I stuffed a few clothes into two rucksacks, hopped on a Laker Air flight from Heathrow to JFK (cost 50 pounds one-way) and then travelled by train from Grand Central to LA via New Orleans.

1982: Drove from LA to Canada (with newborn son in the back seat). Arrived in Toronto after a couple of weeks.

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

Are you sure about those dates?

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

Oops. 1977. Edited, thanks.

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

No probs. I'm sure you are familar with peer review. And pedant's.

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

Thought this was rather cool.

Early Computers

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

I came to Canada from my Mummy's tummy. ;)

My mom's parents came to Canada from Scotland after WW1 (like a lot of Scots did). Times were bleak and Canada advertised 'opportunity' so the family caught a ship and settled in Hamilton.

On my dad's side, my great-great-great-great grandfather immigrated to Newfoundland from Dorset in the 1740s. I'm still trying to piece together why he might of done a crazy thing like that! :eek:

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

He was probably fed up with all the drunken chavs adding to the general malaise of sink-hole Great Britain.

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

For the kids i reckon.

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

Thank goodness COMPUTERS weren't around then, we all know how people get slated around here for that.

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

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.

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

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.

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

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 :)

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

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).

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

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

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

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.

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

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

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

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...

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

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 :thumbdown: - but I survived, got married, had kids etc.

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

Welcome back, is that where you've been hiding? ;):rolleyes:

Re: How did you do this "BC" (Before Computers)
 

Thanks for all the brilliant replies and inspiring stories :thumbup:

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...