He Used the Student Route to Relocate His Family Twice — 1000 Ways to Japa

Someone you know has left or is planning to leave. 1,000 Ways to Japa speaks to real people and explores the endless reasons and paths they take to japa.

In 2021, Austin (42) left Nigeria for the United Kingdom (UK) with his wife because he didn’t want to raise their two children in a country with high insecurity and low living standards. Two years later, he moved to Canada for an even better life. This is how he did it.

I’m currently living in Ontario, Canada, but it’s been a long journey. I left Nigeria in October 2021, and I went to the UK first. I never even thought I’d end up in Canada. My family and I spent about two years in the UK, then moved to Canada in December 2023. 

What was life like in Nigeria before you left, and what finally made you decide to go?

I worked for an investment company as a stockbroker and also had some business interests on the side. Things were genuinely going well. Still, I’d always wanted to leave, though I wasn’t desperate about it. It was one of those things where I thought, if it happens, fine; if it doesn’t, fine.

Then Buhari became president, and things started to nose-dive. The EndSARS situation happened, and by then, I already had kids and was just starting to look at everything differently.

The moment that really triggered my need to leave was one day when NEPA brought light, and my eldest daughter, who was just about three years old at the time, shouted: “Up NEPA!” I sat there thinking that this little girl was already celebrating electricity as if it were a miracle. My parents did the same thing. My generation did the same thing, and now my own child. It was like, this country was never going to change.

That was the deal-breaker for me, but it wasn’t just that. The safety situation was also a big one. 

I called a friend of mine who was already in the UK and asked how he did it. He told me that with around ₦3 million back then, I would be able to get myself to the UK. After that call, I went and did my own research.

We went through the student visa route. The UK uses a points-based system, so once you meet the required points, your school acceptance letter, proof of funds, and so on, it’s very likely the visa officer will sign off on it. It’s more within your control than something like the US visa, where your fate is basically in the hands of the consular on that day.

My wife was the primary applicant. She got admitted to Teesside University in Middlesbrough to study Public Health for her master’s, and I applied as her dependent, along with the kids. Back then, the UK still allowed dependents under the student visa route.

Tuition was around £11,000. Visa fees were roughly £400 per person. And then flights for the four of us came to around 720,000 naira. It was supposed to be cheaper, but we booked late because the visas came out close to the resumption date, so we ended up paying more.

We applied for my wife’s visa first, and it took about six to seven weeks to come out. We heard the main applicant should apply first because if you apply as a whole family, it might raise flags with some visa officers who might think you’re all trying to run away. So we staggered it, her first, then the rest of us.

By the time our visas were needed, there were only three weeks left before resumption. So we paid for express processing, which took seven days.

No. I did the entire application myself. And that’s my strong advice to anyone: don’t rely on agents. The information is out there. As long as you meet the requirements, you don’t need anybody to do this for you. 

We landed and stayed with a friend in Middlesbrough. It’s important to hold a lot of funds when you’re moving to a country like the UK because you genuinely don’t know what you’re walking into. This was also just after the COVID lockdown, so things were still uncertain.

Getting accommodation was one of the hardest things. Middlesbrough is a student area, so there was high demand and many immigrants in similar situations. We couldn’t find a place within the town itself and had to look outside Middlesbrough before we found something we could move into.

Everything. The transportation system. The British accent was very hard for me to get accustomed to. The weather, too, was another thing that really shocked me; even in October, it was cold in a way I didn’t expect. 

When you experience a country where things actually work, you start to realise the dysfunction you’d been living in back in Nigeria. The way they value human life. The way the system is structured, you don’t need to know anyone to get a job; you don’t need an uncle or an aunt or anyone to pull a string for you. We were seeing this and thinking: This is just how things should work. It was as if we were becoming human for the first time.

Right-hand drive was also new, and since I’m not really into British food, we went with a lot of Nigerian food from home.

I was still working remotely for my Nigerian employer when we first arrived, so that helped. But I also got a job at an Amazon warehouse, the pay was around £14 an hour, which was more than enough to cover our costs.

Our rent at the time was £450 a month, and we were spending less than £200 a month on food. School fees for the kids were free. So we weren’t burning through our savings; we were actually managing well. My wife also started a part-time job after settling in a bit.

By the time I was ready to think about settling properly, I had already transitioned from a healthcare assistant role into tech. I was working as a business analyst. The company I was working with wasn’t going to sponsor my visa. My healthcare job had been willing to sponsor me, but I didn’t want to go back to healthcare when I’d already moved into tech. So we had that dilemma: do I go backwards just to get a sponsorship?

On top of that, the UK was already tightening its policies. So my wife and I sat down and thought about Canada. The pathway to permanent residency there is more straightforward and more accessible, especially for younger people, through things like Express Entry. We decided to apply for a student visa from the UK and move the whole family to Canada.

No, it was seamless, just documents, forms, and meeting requirements. I applied first, and once my application was approved, I applied for the family. We didn’t have to come back to Nigeria; we applied directly from the UK. The visa application fee wasn’t expensive at all. The tuition, however, that’s another story. Tuition in Canada is significantly more expensive than in the UK. But it is what it is.

I studied Global Supply Chain Management in Ontario.

Honestly, both places give you the basics that are completely missing in Nigeria: good roads, stable electricity, and security. Those are what we’re actually looking for. It’s not complicated.

The main differences are the accent and the transportation. The UK has a very extensive train network; you can get anywhere without a car, which is great. Canada is completely different. It’s the second-largest country in the world by land mass, with a population of only about 40 million, so the infrastructure to support that kind of public transport just doesn’t exist the same way. Having a car is basically a must.

The basic things that shouldn’t even be luxuries. When you’re sick, they treat you first; there’s no “deposit ₦10,000 before we attend to you.” I’m not sleeping with one eye open, listening to generator noise. I’m not scared that my kids might not come home from school. I’m not afraid of entering a bus and something happening to me. Those things sound small, but they’re not. Personally, I feel this is just what life is supposed to look like.

Honestly? No. Maybe the food sometimes, but we get a lot of Nigerian and African food here, so even that is covered. I miss my family, though, but we do video calls so often that it feels like we’re in the same house.

And when you’re on social media, and you see what’s still happening there, it doesn’t make you want to go back. I have no immediate plans to visit.

Do your own research. Sit down with your laptop, open the internet, and put in the work. People make agents sound like a necessity, but they’re not. If you meet the requirements, you can do this yourself. Agents often use false information, and you end up paying for something you could have done on your own.

Beyond that, be strategic. Know your end goal before you start. If you’re going abroad and you want to stay, you need to know the pathways to permanent residency before you even apply for your first visa. Don’t just follow what everyone else is doing. We’ve seen people arrive here, only to be back in Nigeria two years later because they didn’t have a plan.

Canada has more pathways to residency than the UK right now, like the Express Entry, provincial programmes, and others, especially if you’re young. The UK is tightening things more and more.

Canada has more pathways to residency than the UK right now, like the Express Entry, provincial programmes, and others, especially if you’re young. The UK is tightening things more and more.

Just do your own research. The information is there; you just have to go get it.

Ten out of ten. And I say that specifically because of where we’re coming from. Some people in Nigeria will live their entire lives without ever experiencing what good governance feels like, and that’s what makes it painful. Coming here and seeing how life should actually be lived, that’s a privilege I take seriously.

I’m not rich. Abroad, nobody’s really trying to be extremely wealthy in the Nigerian sense. What I want is to be able to afford the basics, and here I can. My wife is working, and my kids are in school. I’m working two jobs — as a procurement officer and a part-time healthcare worker. We’re not struggling. Nothing is missing. That’s why I’m giving it a ten.

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