Skiing on Cypress Mountain
Relocating often seems to be more about waiting than moving doesn’t it? For us that was true. We waited for visas. We waited to sell our house. We waited for the removal men. We waited at the airport. We waited at immigration and we waited at customs.
It can be pretty frustrating can’t it? So how do you stay positive throughout this whole process?
One good idea is to keep your goals in mind. Why do you want to move to Canada? What do you see yourself doing in Canada? What will it feel like there? What is most important about your new life?
I bet that we all have different answers to these questions. Probably even in the same family there will be different things that you want to do, see or feel when you get to your new life. So it can be helpful for you all to talk about what you see your lives being like in Canada.
We would have these kinds of chats over dinner. And we got all the kids to talk about this too. So when they were worrying about leaving their friends behind they could begin to imagine playing in the snow or on the beach – or going to a school without wearing a uniform.
If your kids are older, then you can get them to write about what they want their life to be like. Sue and I did this for ourselves too. We tried to be as specific as we could. We imagined what a day would be like. What would we see, hear and feel throughout the day?
For us we found that this helped us because suddenly the hassles of moving became smaller in relation to the big things we were going for. We could put them into perspective and focus on the bright future ahead of us.
We also found that talking to people who had moved ahead of us was useful. One of my pet themes is research – be prepared and build realistic expectations of what life could be like for you. So finding out more about your new home is a good thing and goes well with the whole idea of imagining your future in Canada.
When you do get to Canada, your imagined life may well begin to become real. Especially if you have done a good job of researching. At this time your flexibility becomes important. We have noticed that people who are most successful at making a new life in Canada are the ones who are flexible.
Flexibility might mean changing how you act. For instance, looking for work is about networking. This may not be the way that you normally look for a job so being flexible will definitely help. And when a job comes along it may not be exactly what you wanted – but taking a lower grade post might be the best way to start out. Just keep your goals in mind and be prepared to adapt.
OK, I’m beginning to sound like a motivational speaker! So let me just finish by saying “Go for it”!
I couldn’t agree more!
We finally have made it out to beautiful BC and are living in Victoria.
For us, the process took a long 4 years for our Permanent Residency visas to come through, we even had our daughter whilst waiting for the process to go through, but thankfully it was easy for us to add her onto the paper work.
The most difficult thing for me was leaving a perfectly good job. The thought of carting my family to the other side of the world with no jobs to go to and not a huge amount of money scared me.
When we got to Canada to validate our visas, my wife contacted a few people to speak to about how the job market is, and ended up getting an offer of employment. That made it a lot easier.
Once we got back, we put the house on the market and sold up within 2 months.
We arrived in January this year. My wife didn’t get the job she was offered, but that’s another story.
Thankfully, I managed to find a brilliant job, daycare (nursery) for my daughter, and now feel well settled.
My wife has found employment too, so it’s all worked out.
I have no regrets about moving to Canada, and sometimes you need to do these things, make your own luck and control your destiny!