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There seems to be a feeling out there that you HAVE to hire a lawyer in order to move countries. WHY?
I was born in the UK, lived as a resident of Spain legally for 3 years, and now am living in Canada as a citizen.
I have never hired a lawyer to deal with immigration and moving. In Spain we hired a lawyer to take care of the paperwork
once we arrived, but only because of the language problems and the fact we we were dealing with a business out there, and
dealing with the government there is something else!
Immigrating to Canada is not difficult and you don't need to hire a lawyer unless you have no knowledge of English or
French and your case may not be routinely straight forward. Don't feel you have to hire a lawyer because you don't!
With access to the internet things have become much easier. It is the best research tool out there. I do advocate doing
as much research as possible and finding out the right way to go about things. Despite my doing that I still got caught out
with misinformation and arrived in Toronto without the correct papers. It was scary but it turned out fine. I have all my
story on my own website so anyone interested can read it
here
Once you have made up your mind you want to move to Canada, unless you have a job or family to come to you need to think
where it is you want to live. I would seriously consider a trip to view your prospective home. Do not think because you visited
a place for 2 weeks and had an idyllic holiday that it will be like that when you live here. There is plenty of adjusting
to do! You will miss things from "home" although in Canada there is a big British contingent and UK progammes on the
telly! And they have the same sense of humour as us Brits! (almost).
Be prepared for COLD winters and HOT summers. Yes that's right, HOT summers, it is not always the big white north with
snow all year round. 35C plus with humidity making it feel like 42C threw me off keel the first hot summer I experienced.
Thankfully we have air conditioning as do the stores and the buses! As for the cold, as long as you wrap up (bundle up they
say here) you should be fine. In Ontario there is more snow than in British Columbia, but not as much rain so it is not as
bad as a cold damp winter in the UK.
If you made up your mind you are coming here (and well done for the good choice) then you need to visit this website
Immigration and Citizenship website
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