British Expats - Hello! Moving from UK to Vancouver Island!

Hello all!

I'm very new to all of this - I am a UK citizen, 27 years old and my whole family moved to Canada in 2012 when I was 18 when my dad applied under the Skilled Workers process. We all got Canadian Citizenship in 2017. I lived there and went to Uni there for 5 years, all whilst going through a long distance relationship with someone I knew from secondary school! We managed it with great difficulty and I moved back to the UK in February 2017 to get married!

We have been in the UK ever since, working and saving money but now we're ready to move back to Canada to be with my family and to start our own family!

We have just started the process of getting my husband a Spouse Visa under the Family sponsorship class. I've had our application ready for a while but just took the plunge hiring an immigration lawyer (I'm way too nervous to send it off myself!) and the application should be ready to send off by the end of December. We're very excited and even though we know there may be a delay with COVID and all - we're hoping to be in Canada by the end of 2021.

We will be moving to a town on Vancouver Island, somewhere in the middle of Victoria and Nanaimo. My whole family lives there and we've both visited plenty of times so we know the area quite well. Knowing i've done it once before is great but I will also have lots and lots of questions in the run up to the move!

It would be great to start a chat with anyone else who can offer advice with meeting new people on the island. My husband (28) is very outgoing and loves the English culture so meeting up for a pint or a run with his mates is very important to him. We would love to meet some like-minded people around the area!

Its very weird because my parents have met some of their closest friends on here then we met up in person when we first moved in 2012 so I'm really hoping we can do the same!

Thanks all :)