Hi and welcome! I did my certification by referral, as I live in Vancouver and didn't know if I wanted to do the cold water diving thing. I did all the class and pool sessions here then completed it by referral in Australia on the GBR. It's certainly not the most economic way to do it, but it worked for me. Had I not done my OW dives in tropical waters I don't know that I would've been hooked. Now that I'm home I have donned a drysuit and am regularly diving the local sites, because I AM hooked!
but be warned
you can get very spoiled by warm water diving