Zoe Bell

They are really picky about proof of residence.
please understand I am not Complaining as I understand Completely why they are picky but I thought it would be good to pass on our tale to help others.

visit one -enquiry about how to apply - given a list of acceptable documents - decided we couldn't apply because we had no proof of address-fair enough.

ok so now we have signed a lease on our new home -cue visit 2

visit 2 this lease is a fax copy - we need the original. Now this is slightly annoying as 'the original" doesn't exist. our lease was faxed between the two realtorsa Couple of times as a few Changes were made, The Copy we have has our original signatures on but in black ink that looks like the faxed bits! -So no joy again.

meanwhile bank statement arrives, ah hah OHIP we both Say! visit three beckons


visit3 -When did you become a pr? -21st August. This bank statement has activity before then - you can't use it. Ok but we have rogers bill - but only in Bens name. At this point I walk away as I'm about to loose my temper and its not the Poor girl behind the desk's fault! She starts to register Ben.
Suddenly I remember that I am listed on the Rogers bill on about page 7. I walk back up - point this out and hey presto yup - she can do me as well!


An Interesting point is She Mentioned to Ben that I could go over and Swap my driving license and then they would take that as proof of address even though you don't need any proof of address to Swap licences

Again I hope this May be helpful to Someone

Biiiiink

Seconded We had trouble with proof of residence too - 1 half of a common-law couple with different surnames being on the purchase/title of a property is apparently not enough to get the non-named person OHIP cover They covered me and son (whose surname is myname-MrBsName), but not Mr B until he could get bills in his own name to our new address. And those bills were difficult to get too as the utilities get names of new purchaser from solicitor and were not keen to add a non-owner.

He also used the driving license in the end, like you say, bit daft to accept it as proof of residence when you don't actually need any proof of residence to get the license itself! (for our first ON license a few years ago we used the Delta Chelsea hotel address, no problems or questions asked)

Still, the one good thing about it all was that they were perfectly happy to start the clock ticking from when we said we arrived in Ontario, and not from the date on which Mr B could finally present some proof of residence, so it was a hassle but we didn't lose out on any coverage

iaink

I was under the impression that if you moved to Ontario from within Canada, any health care needs in the wait period were covered by your old provinces insurance plan anyway....but maybe thats just my overactive imagination?

Biiiiink

Yep, you are indeed covered by the old one. But by not being able to provide proof of residence in the new province, he could have had cover expire in MB but not yet be active in ON. But he didn't, because although they were idiots about his proof of residency, they were reasonable about his declared arrival date in the province

Zoe Bell

To be honest the lease thing really annoyed me - they were asking for something that didn't exist! I think if we had signed in blue ink rather than black it may have helped! but even when we pointed out our original signatures they still insisted it was a faxed Copy.
The utility bill thing is a pain because our rent covers all utilities-so no bills!

iaink

I was advised by the old timers to get my drivers license ASAP when I landed many moons ago for precisely this sort of thing.

Surely you could argue in the absenes of a long stay elsewhere that if the old province cut you off after 3 months that would be proof enough that you took up residence in the new province at that point.

Typically for a total newcomer to Canada I would have expect that your ROLF form would be a pretty good indication of when you started to live in province...but what do I know. Maybe they have tightened things up since when I did all this stuff, probably in part because of all the yoyo landers.