christmasoompa

I really don't think one reccie trip will do it, they've tightened things up a lot recently and now at least 2 seem to be required. But look at it as a couple of nice family holidays for you all!

Good luck.

forourfuture

Thank you, Christmasoompa.

DandNHill said to see cases done with one trip actually but it seems for outside of Halifax. Center is more strict and normally request at least twice recci trips, right? I'd like to visit as a couple of nice family holidays but it would be expensive for us at moment.

Christmasoompa, how about your case please?

christmasoompa

It used to be that RDA's outside of Halifax may only require one trip, but not recently, they've got much stricter.

Halifax is incredibly strict, and would require proper community ties (i.e. relatives and many, many visits, or living there on another type of visa). Just a couple of trips there wouldn't do it.

OK, but you do know that you all must visit? So you'll need to budget for at least two visits for the whole family. And don't forget to add on all of your other costs - visa fees, medical costs, flights, insurance, shipping, proof of funds amount, etc.

My own PR application was not through the CIS. My knowledge of the CIS comes from working for a NS based immigration consultant who does a lot of CIS cases, and from this forum.

forourfuture

Hi Christ,

Your information is very useful to me. I thought that there are 2 recci trips max but actuality seems not so.
Could you suggest me how to do in this situation?

Thank you.

christmasoompa

It probably will be 2 trips, that should do it.

Just start by contacting the RDA of the area you are interested in and planning your first trip.

Good luck.

forourfuture

Thank you, Christ.
Should I contact some RDAs at a time and plan to visit them during first trip. Is there any conflict according to this? How do you advise?

Stephen Jones

can anyone explain CORDA to me?

heading-west

Colchester regional development agency? http://www.corda.ca/

izzi81

Different rdas have slightly different requirements, so the best thing to do would be to email the rdas for the areas you are considering and ask them what would be required. This is why a holiday recce is a good idea, its one thing to read about a place online, another to actually visit the place! I'd recommend not going in high summer either, parts of nova Scotia can be quite different off season, lots of places shut.

Have you looked at how much money you'll need to have? We just completed the process as a couple with no kids. I forget exact costs now but application was at least $1500, medicals approx £200, police certs about £60. Plus 2 recce holiday trips, and a minimum of $12000 savings I think (that will be more if you have kids). It's not a cheap process! I'm hoping its worth it!

forourfuture

Hi Izzi81,

How long does it take for one recci trip normally? I mean to visit RDA, employers etc...? Could you share some information please?

Thank you.

christmasoompa

Plan for at least a 2 week trip, any less and you just won't get everything done and be able to see the area as well imo.

HTH.

izzi81

It depends how much you plan to do. On our first trip we went for 2 weeks, so that we could stay in two different areas to work out where we wanted to live. We spent a lot of time driving about, visiting different places, as well as meeting with people. Because we both hope to start our own businesses we didn't have a lot of employers to visit, but we did visit some, as well as some business advisors and of course the RDA. We arranged most of these meetings by email before we went, but for some of them we just dropped in on people to have a chat about how things worked in Nova Scotia. Everyone we went to speak to was happy to give us some time to have a chat - though I don't know if that would always be the case, maybe we were lucky!

The second trip was just a one week trip - or maybe it was 10 days - and we really focussed on the area we wanted to live in. So we drove around the local area, looked at houses, did more research.

The last time we went was to land, which we did in October. We stayed for a week, and did yet more driving around, speaking to people, thinking about where we would want to live.

All the visits have obviously added up cost-wise, but mean that we have a pretty good feel for the area, so we feel as confident as we can be that we'll settle in OK. Time will tell if we're right!

How long you plan to visit depends on how much you need to do. If you've never been before then 2 weeks would probably be a good idea, because you can visit a lot of places; one week would be very rushed I think...

Niobii

Great advice thank-you. I tried to give you karma but I need to spread some 'Reputation' first (note to self to find out what that means ). We are thinking of going down this route now instead of FSW so thanks for the list. Looking forward to reading this thread and keeping up to date with it.

Are there any areas that are run down or extremely rural? It would help us to narrow down the areas we want to live in. Ideally, along with most others I think we would like to be no more than a 45 minute commute into Halifax but living somewhere that is semi-rural. We don't need to worry about kids just yet!

DandNHill

Well 45mins takes you quite a way.
The only area I have heard bad things about and it's regularly on the news is Dartmouth.
We are 3 1/2 hours from Halifax which is a tad far. If I could pick my life up and move it I would probably be in the Bridgewater/Lunenburg area...

Flogger

Lots of Areas that are extremely rural are run down.

Lunenburg would not be a 45 min drive from Halifax either, not by a long shot.

An hour in each direction out of Halifax would be. Chester, windsor, Truro, and Musquodoboit harbour.