6 limes

Hi all. This is my first post so I hope its in the right forum.
Anyway heres the thing. Hubby and I have been talking for about 10 years now about moving lock, stock and barrel to Canada. Up until now something has always cropped up to change our minds but this time we feel its a now or never.
We have 5 children aged 19, 18, 14, 11 and 7. My OH works as a self employed joiner and is 46 yrs old. I am an ex nurse but am at present doing a diphe in counselling with 1 year to go.
I have checked the points system and we seem ok there. Also one of our reservations was always the fact that we know no one in Canada and as such we would be at the mercy of strangers in terms of where to live, work etc. So just recently my cousin, who is a Canadian citizen moved back to Ontario after 20 yrs in USA. He is a great person who has assured us of his support in any way that he can so this is very reassuring.
So my questions;
1. Are we too old.?
2. Are our kids too old to be able to settle.?
3.Is the grass greener on the other side.?
4.IF we decide to go for it what is the quickest or slowest or best way to go about the whole procedure.?
5. Due to climbing the property ladder a bit here we would hopefully have £250,000 after selling our home to take with us, does this sound adequate?

Sorry to ramble a bit but I'm trying to sort out my own thinking on the subject to enable us to make an informed decision.
Thank you all.

Tangram

See above

6 limes

anybody else?

nikkiandlee

Well thats the millon dollar question, if only we all had a crystal ball

I don't belive your too old ,
I suppose it depends on the children every one is different,
Not sure about the grass being greener (we are still in the uk with family in Quebec) Its all about perception, and every where has its problems. I'm of the mind that Canada will offer a different type of life that we will enjoy more, not necessarily better, if you catch my drift,
Getting employment is by far the fastest, Loads to look at on the Wiki section with regards to this,
£250,000 we will have but a fraction of that but hay ho! I suppose if your one of those who are moving to be mortgage free it depends on where you live! We will still have a mortgage but I'm assuming that Canadians also have mortgages so we will be fine .

Good luck in making your decision!

Nikki

seanyg

Tangram's right about the job - pretty much the only way in nowadays. But you should perhaps take a trip to Canada first so you can see for yourself what it has to offer - did you have a particular province in mind, and why?

What were you reasons (a decade ago) for wanting to move to Canada, if you don't mind my asking?

With regards feeling lonely / not knowing anyone, I have to say the Canadians are a very friendly bunch and will go out of their way to make you feel welcome. It's very important to make friends and have a sense of 'belonging' so you don't feel homesick. Maybe you could take a trip to Ontario and visit your cousin and see if you like it there, then at least you'll have family close by

This forum has lots of knowledgeable people on it, I'm sure someone else will be along shortly to advise you more

Anita (hoping to move to Winnipeg via the Manitoba PNP)

6 limes

We are thinking of Ontario as with 5 kids to think of this seems like a place with plenty of choice and maybe no such a shock to the system in terms of weather etc. I could be wrong of course.
Why did we want to move a decade ago? We're from Northern Ireland and the political situation would always factor in our reasons to move, both then and now.
I've just thought of another question, do most people starting this process use a immigration consultant or do it themselves?

nikkiandlee

Hiya Again,

I asked that same question re immigration consultant. I was told that unless your application would be difficult i.e. problems with dependants custody, then its not necessary, you can do it yourself. There is loads of help on here if you get stuck!!!

dbd33

Practically speaking the first thing to do is to find an employer who wants to use one of you and who has the relevant adminisitrivia under control. If you can do that then the employer can sort it all out. If you can't find such an employer then it's going to take an unknown period, certainly many years, to move. If it's going to take as long as all that then you may as well do it yourself as employ someone; you have months to check and recheck each form.

moondevil

As the wiki advises, network,network and when you think you have done enough, network some more.
We came here with no family and just people that we met off here, 2 weeks into our new life and i would never go back to the uk, i may try other areas of canada, but i am happy here for now.
Good luck

Beastie

Hi and welcome to BE. Can I suggest you take the time to look at the Newcomers to the Forum, highlighted in pale green at the beginning of these posts - grab yourself a cuppa, it'll take some time to go through but well worth it the long run.

Lynne

christmasoompa

Think you might want to do a bit more research about Ontario's climate............ Generally speaking, very hot and humid summers, and very cold and snowy winters.

Coastal B.C. is supposed to be the climate most like the UK if that helps at all?

Good luck.

LotteW

Are you too old? Well do you feel too old? I'll bet that you don't so that answers your question.

Are the kids too old to settle? Probably not, but it really depends on your kids as to how well they settle in. If they are the sort to settle in well anywhere they will be fine no matter what age.

Is the grass greener? I would do a reccie visit and see what you think.

As far as Ontario goes, I can't really comment as we came to Calgary, but it has already been mentioned that the weather is likely to be a shock if that is what is worrying you. But tbh I really wouldn't worry about the weather... you get used to it very, very quickly.

And no we didn't use an immigration consultant - we couldn't afford to. We did it all ourselves and found it relatively simple if you go through all the forms very very carefully and double and triple check everything.

BristolUK

I moved over at age 47.

I had $123k. It bought our house and a duplex. The rent from the duplex supplements my 'early retired' reduced pension.

iaink

The immediate problem with Ontario isn't the weather, lots of Brits survive, even enjoy it.

The problem with Ontario right now is the lack of a practical provincial nomination program to get you here with permanent status any time soon, so you are looking at either a work permit (tenuous temporary status), progressing slowly to PR, or PR far quicker through a PNP in a different province.

I like Ontario, but I don't think the absence of a cousin in the final province you end up in should be an insurmountable problem, lets face it the majority of us knew no one when we arrived here.

As others have said, first things first, come for a visit and see what you think. For some the grass is vibrantly greener, for others its nasty and brown and full of thistles that make life miserable. You need to think about why you want to do this, and what you think you will get out of it.

The only thing about your age is you will be more dependent on UK pension provisions when you retire, and the UK state pension will not be index linked once you start to claim, and there is not enough time to make up the shortfall in your canadian pension contributions in time. I'd look long and hard at the pension implications before deciding anything.

Realistically two, maybe even three of your kids will have missed out on canadian schooling too by the time you arrive, which will make life a little tough on them in the job market here, not to mention socially. Getting into Uni will be an option of course (although also complicated by qualification questions), but that will likely cost you at least $20k each per kid per year to fund (4 year degrees here as a rule), so there goes the nest egg....

My gut feel is that most people that come here end up happier, but those that return to the UK usually do so because they dont ever get back to the same salary and responsibility levels that they had in the UK, or they miss the family and friends they left behind too much. No rocket surgery in those assesments, but there is no way for someone to guess how you are going to feel about emmigrating to Canada, or Oz or NZ or anywhere else for that matter after a couple of years here. A lot depends on your motivation for doing it in the first place.