Hi, have searched the forums and can't find anything, so apologies if this has already been asked / posted.

How many of you that have immigrated to Canada did so without ever having visited there previously? Was it what you expected? would you do it differently if you could do it again?

The reason I ask is that I am researching immigration to BC but have never been there. I figure that I have nothing to lose (no family ties here in the UK and no kids), and it can't be any worse than the UK... can it?

I'd visited Canada twice before we decided to move over here, but did purchase this particular home from the UK, without ever having seen it "in real life". I took my husband's word for how amazing a place it was (plus the amazing pics online!) Bit of a gamble I suppose, but 18 months later, it has paid off 1000 times over

OOps - just found a post on this subject but it is 2 years old, so some recent replies / feedback would be appreciated

We had visited Ontario 3 times with the kids and had only visited Nova Scotia for 5 days when my husband had his job interview (kids stayed at home). Four months later we moved here and our whole family love it

My friend emigrated to Ontario without ever setting foot in the country. Her husband had gone over for his job interview and spent one week there. They and their 2 sons have been here for 7 years this summer

I would recommend visiting first if you can. Flights are more affordable these days. However, if a job offer comes up and you are footloose and fancy free 'do what feels right for you'.

Only a couple of decades ago most people emigrated without ever setting foot in the country and that was well before the days of the internet too

My husband and myself came for a weekend in august of 2000 for a job interview,in nov 2000 we were living here and have been for almost 7 years.
We are in Ontario .

We hadn't visited. We expected French to be widely used.

HI there, we visited for 3 weeks back in 1998. I keep in regular contact with relatives in Vancouver and hope to be there at some point this year. We had dreamt about immigrating to Canada even before we visited but after visiting it just felt right, and we felt then we were making the right choice.

Sonic.

Hi there,

We came to BC for 1 week in 2005. I had 2 job interviews (one in Victoria and one in Surrey). That left no time to visit Powell River (or much anywhere else).

So we didn't have much time to form an educated opinion on the place. And Powell River isn't like anywhere else in BC.

This fast-forward emigration worked well for us. I think you can research and research, but we didn't have time for that. But research is very important for people who have children (we don't).

Our approach worked out good for us. If you are not causing yourself a lot of expense in the UK e.g. by selling houses, losing money on cars, or spending a lot on shipping, then it's worth a shot.

Hope this helps,

Sarah

We only visited after my husband had accepted a job and applied for WP. We bought a house during our 6 day factfinding mission. So we made our decision based on very little really. But we don't regret it.

We came without visiting first, but it was way back in the mid-70's, when transatlantic travel wasn't as common-place as these days, and you had to be rich to do so. Emigration was pretty much like that in those days, whether it was to Canada or Australia. You jumped into the unknown but with much optimism and the knowledge that you were going for a better future for your kids (the 70's in Britain was very depressing). We knew no-one here in Canada, had limited means, but we made a good go of it. And now I'm homesick after all these years!!

If I were to do it again now, I would have to come to Canada to research first, and several times, I think. And of course there are the advantages afforded with the internet, and world-wide communication being so easy. So no excuses for not knowing what you are getting into.

Had been to Quebec City (fortunately totally unrepresentative of Canada as a whole IMO) about 10 times visiting inlaws but moved to Nova Scotia by the pin in the map technique, drove in 20 months ago wondering where we would be sleeping and are still having a great time.

Not for the fainthearted though.

I think you can visit numerous times and research like crazy to get as much info as you possibly can...............and all that is good, BUT until you live the life, you never really know what it will feel like to you.

I know people who have come completely blind and love it, settled really well and all is great.
Others (like my hubby at the mo) have done all the research, lined up the job, visited on a few occasions, yet are still struggling to see it as home.

So many factors can come into all this, all you can do is give it a shot and take an opportunity that has presented itself to you.

If we end up going back, we have had a fantastic couple of years, lived the life, bought the t-shirt etc and grown a lot as people. No regrets !

I never visited before the immigration.
How ever I lived in US (West coast) for a good old 8 years and assumed the Canada to resemble the East coast of USA and I think it is (minus crime).

I didn't have lot of options BTW.

I cannot imagine why anyone would not visit Canada before emigrating. Australia / NZ I can understand because airfares are very expensive but to fly to Canada these days is reasonably cheap.

Each to their own I suppose...

We came over for a holiday to Vancouver/BC during our application process - but had never visited before we applied. We now live in Vancouver and love it.

Don't regret doing it this way at all.

Good luck!