Visas & Advice Detail
First steps to emigration
Emigration is often a long, drawn-out process. The number of steps you take to a new life in Canada depends on how long you ponder the process
So, we've divided emigration into five distinctive stages to help you pick your way through the migration maze. Here's part one...
According to a recent report, just over 50 per cent of British adults are tempted to emigrate at some point in their working lives. And for those that do turn temptation into a real determination to emigrate as a way of improving their lives, they will find themselves moving through several distinct stages in the emigration process. Five, to be exact. Says Richard Gregan of Overseas Emigration Visas, "Strangely enough, it doesn't matter whether you're a chef or a captain of industry, a single twentysomething female or a married man in your forties with a clutch of children, in my experience everyone works through five stages."
For the purposes of this series, taking into account the three-to-four-year wait between applying for and receiving a Skilled Worker visa, we've divided the process into the following five parts: 1) Deciding; 2) Applying; 3) Waiting; 4) Pre-departure; and 5) Settlement. So without further ado, here's a few key steps to take in stage one of the migration maze.
Decision time
At last! Having spent months if not years in an emigration limbo, those ever-tempting thoughts about emigrating have finally given way to something a little bit more focussed.
Perhaps the tipping point was the feeling that you're being pushed away from Britain. Among these push factors, as Gregan explains, could be "not getting that promotion at work, house prices going up faster than you can keep up with, winters seeming to get longer each year, or a craving for a different climate". You may also feel pull factors, those things which draw you towards Canada – landscapes, a laid-back lifestyle, a better environment for your children to grow up in or outdoor activities right on your doorstep.
Regardless of exactly which combination of factors motivates your move towards migration, now you're ready to explore the matter practically, and before you apply there are three key areas to explore: Information, motivation and expectation. So, where to look for information? Well, Emigrate Canada aside, there are three key areas of information: printed (books and magazines), electronic (websites) and live (exhibitions). However, not all sources of information are necessarily good sources of information, so you'll have some sorting of the wheat from the chaff to do.
As Ian Wisdom, a Calgary-based relocation specialist, advises, "Identify sources that provide as much information as possible on Canada and focus on specific locations within Canada". Organise this information into folders that break everything down to key areas such as provinces, cities, properties, jobs, etcetera, just to make things that bit easier should you end up with thousands of pieces of paper just waiting to hide themselves from view. But, Wisdom adds, as invaluable as UK-based research is, "there's nothing like a fact-finding trip to Canada. You can read all the books you like, but there's nothing like going and exploring the places you are interested in moving to – and not just as a tourist but as a potential resident. These two things are completely different, so it's important not to confuse a great holiday with researching a better life abroad."
For those worried that a research trip will cost them money that would be better saved and then spent on settlement instead, consider the following true story. One family took just this cost-cutting decision, but then, a couple of months into their new life, one of the parents woke up at four in the morning determined to return to the UK. So this is exactly what the family did. However, upon arrival back in the UK, the parent in question realised that they had made a horrible mistake and off they went again – to what they now considered to be the right area of their destination country, and this time settled in. Although, admittedly, a research trip for a family of four will cost several thousand pounds, the family's double emigration cost them £25,000 – £20,000 more that they would have spent had they taken the research trip in the first place!
However, before you embark on a research trip, do the following: Ensure that you can, in all likelihood, qualify for a visa. Without sorting this out first, you would be guilty of putting the cart before the horse. It may also be wise to consider more than one immigration route across the Atlantic, suggests Christopher Willis of immigration consultants Willis Brazolot & Co. "Make sure you have a back-up immigration plan should you not qualify for the visa you apply for initially," says Willis. He also advises contingency plans for settlement issues as well, "should any aspect of emigration not go as expected". After all, a certain creek is a little easier to escape from if you had the foresight to pack a paddle in your luggage in the first place.
Whilst considering all of this, also work towards understanding your own motivations for emigrating and use these to define your expectations. The tricky balance to strike here is that although you may need to be seduced by an emigration dream in order to be motivated enough to swap countries in the first place, only realistic and manageable expectations will prevent you from slipping into disillusionment within the first days and weeks of your new life – and perhaps returning home in the first few weeks. For example, assess what the likelihood is that you will worry less about your children's safety, spend less time stuck in traffic jams, get more out of your spare time, etcetera.
For those lost in the maze of stage one, answering such questions seems to throw up just as many counter-arguments that, on the face of it, appear to be equally valid, so in the next issue we'll cover this subject in more detail, as well as helping those who now feel ready to apply for their visa through the key steps of stage two.
For further information:
Overseas Emigration
Canilink
Willis Brazolot
Register for your FREE emigration starter pack
Search EmiLinks for thousands of Canadian sites to help you with your emigration
Subscribe to Emigrate magazine. Read more ...