For me, from China to Canada, a total diffrent and strange country, lacking of language ability and without enough money, I din't know if I could live in Canada for long time.
For example, in Montreal, we could easily spend the first several years with the help from the Quebec province because we learned French, English and some kinds of skills without worrying about our living situation at the same time.
Then, we knew wether we could continue to live in Canada by ourselves or not.
After knowing what kind of life we want, we just made the decision and did it.