Melissa Smyth tells Holly Ellyatt why, despite enduring some tough times, she doesn’t regret starting a new life in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with her Canadian husband.

So, you’ve fallen in love and want to follow your partner back to his home country. You decide to emigrate, apply for a visa, move in, unpack the boxes and live happily ever after.

Well, so the fairytale ending would have it. For Melissa Smyth from Seaford in East Sussex, however, moving to the port city of Halifax in Nova Scotia has not been plain sailing. Instead, for Melissa and her Canadian husband, the picturepostcard idea of a smooth transition to life in another country has been tainted by ongoing visa issues.

Melissa worked as a home care worker in Seaford and after meeting the man of her dreams she decided to upsticks and follow him back to Canada. For her, the decision to emigrate was driven by practical reasons and, needless to say, a romantic wish to be with the person she loved. “I decided to move because I met a Canadian in the UK and fell in love and wanted to be with him,” surmises Melissa. “His British visa had run out and he had to go back to Canada so I followed him there a year later. I ended up in the town where he grew up as he wanted to stay there.”

Making the move in 2007 to Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia located on the East Coast of Canada, Melissa initially headed to the country on a visitor’s visa and then applied for residency once she was there. Adjusting to life in another continent was never a problem, she says, largely because the local people were so accommodating, “I love life in Canada. I found it an easy move because Canadians are very friendly and accepting people.”

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