Oofma

Hi, I'm new to this site but my wife and I are well beyond the planning stage of moving to Canada. We've got the forms but need a few things clearing up.

Our situation is as follows: My wife is Canadian but we live in the UK - we have a young daughter. We have just (last month) sent off our daughters Canadian Citizenship application - does anyone know REALISTICALLY how long that will take - I know the site says 15-18 months, but was sort of hoping thats there to put people off doing it lightly!

Anyway, thats not why we're confused. these are:-

1. Presumably our daughter is exempt from being put on the spousal application as a dependent child as she is half Canadian, and EVENTUALLY (as noted above) her Canadian Citizenship will confirm that. But do I really need to wait for that as its more of a when than an if as to whether we get her Citizenship card.

2. Do I need a police check? There seems to be conflicting information, but if you look at IMM3999 (the Immigrants Guide) page 6, it clearly states that police certs should not be obtained before applying for immigration for the following countries - one of which is the UK. I dont really mind getting it, but is it a hoop I really have to go through?

3. My wife has to prove (as she is resident in the UK) that she intends to resettle back in Canada as my sponsor. What is considered reasonable proof. We don't want to buy a house there until we move, nor do we want to rent as we have accommodations with her family initially. She's thought of trying to secure a job first, but I can't believe that will be easy trying to get work from the UK. Therefore we have no concrete evidence per se - just a dream and a plan.

It's a bit chicken & egg at best - on the one hand the Canadian Immigration tell you not to make significant plans to move before applying in case you're rejected, but at the same time they want you to prove your sincerity in committing to a move...

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Biiiiink

Hi Oofma,

Same as you - I'm a canadian citizen, sponsored my other half, and our son is also canadian but born in the UK 2yrs ago.

From memory it was 4-5mths for our son's citizenship certificate via London. We applied 2wks after he was born (hah, I knew what CIC were like!) and also applied for the "child's short validity passport" that they issue for travel until citizenship is confirmed. Did you get one of those? It was an extra eleven pounds and couple of photos I think.

Your point 1> You don't need to wait but we included a copy of son's citizenship certificate and his UK birth certificate as evidence that our relationship was genuine, i.e. we were both named as his parents. So whilst you don't need it for your app, it might be useful in proving your relationship, and also that you intend to move to Canada as you've gone to the effort of applying for certificate for your daughter.

2 > Yes, you need a police records check. I think family class submits all the stuff like that (and medicals) upfront because processing is so speedy compared to skilled worker applications. So yep, I'd definitely submit one with your app. It's a tenner, your local force's subject access office can give you the forms (or check their website).

3 > I sent deeds to my property and copies of my canadian bank account. I had and have no intention of working here so it's not a given that you need to document a work search. Just anything you can think of along those lines... also evidence of "winding down" affairs in the UK might work in that regard too.

Good luck We had passport request in 3mths (although thanks to Royal Mail it was 5mths in real time!)... many recent posters on the Immigration forum are reporting the same timeframe.

Biiiiink

Oofma

Thanks so much - you have no idea how helpful that post was!

I guess we need to think a bit more laterally about evidencing our intentions to move.

Happydayz

[It's a bit chicken & egg at best - on the one hand the Canadian Immigration tell you not to make significant plans to move before applying in case you're rejected, but at the same time they want you to prove your sincerity in committing to a move...

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.[/QUOTE]


Hi, as far as imigration process goe's, as a family class it shouldn't take long.
Its been 3 months from AOR to passport request for me on a spousal appl.
For the proof of our intention to settle we sent the estate agents details of our house, to prove it was for sale,the realtors details in Nova Scotia,to prove we were seriously looking for a home and a covering letter explaining our plans when we move. This all seemed to be enough. Hope all goes well for you.

Tony

Oofma

Thanks for your extremely helpful reply.

Mike - I will look into that - we have a trip in October to Canada and plan to check out some real estate then, so can probably pick up a whole bunch of stuff.

Biiiink (sorry if I missed an i!) I have downloaded a pdf of the police form so all systems go!

MCC

Hi

I'm Canadian too and have sponsored my husband. We have 2 kids born in England. It took us a little longer than Biiiiink for the kids citizenship (10 months, applied last Sept). But that doesn't stop you applying for a temporary Canadian passport valid for a year (so apply maybe 3 months before you want to leave).

Again, unlike Biiiiink we haven't got anything in Canada. So no proof what's so ever. I just gave them a detailed plan of what we wanted to do. That we would sell our home for approx XX and would be taking $xx in Canada, that we wanted to move to Ottawa, I gave my mum's, my uncle's and my sister's addresses. I mentioned the jobs we were resigning from and what were our plans once in Canada.

And nothing is at all going to plan. We were going to Ottawa, we're on our way to Halifax. We haven't sold our house, so we'll be renting it. Nothing is going to plan but everything is falling into place. We're having the movers here on the 30th.

So just be honest and give them a detail plan and it should be OK.

All the best

MCC

Oofma

Hmm, we didn't apply for our daughters temp passport, so we're going to be hanging around a bit for her Citizenship stuff I think. I still don't madly want to put her on the application - it seems pointless and I don't want her to have to go through a medical when she doesn't need to. This is probably my biggest concern now.

However, we are in slightly different position to you because we have already sold our house and are living in rented accomm. It's not costing us any more than it did on the mortgage, and we have a wad of cash in the bank earning a bit of interest short term.

From what you've said we'll have plenty of stuff to prove our intentions of moving from relatives addresses, and just proving we sold out house and have a wad in the bank bound for the Canadian economy!

stepnek

When we faced this problem we didn't know what to do either. In the end my Canadian wife just enclosed a letter explaining her firm intention of wanting to be back in Canada and to be near her family again. She'd been living in the UK for four years. Anyway we never heard anymore about it and the application proceeded without any hitches.

Souvenir

This "proving stuff" thing is a funny old game.

My partner and I are common law (legally recognised here and we have the documents). We thus filed our tax returns together and were taxed accordingly (ie taking into account household income). We later realised that we had made a mistake and had contributed to the Quebec drug plan; an overpayment of close to a grand. We are not liable for that because my Mrs is in the army and they have their own plan, which also covers me. We filed an amendment and have since entered into an argument with Revenu Quebec.

They were quite happy to take our word for it that we are common law when they took the money off us but now we want some back it's a different story. We have to prove that she is in the miltary (read her bloody T4, you cretins), what the military drug plan covers (they came close to getting a 400 page fax for that one) and that we are common law (look, dear, we're not really, but we thought that if we said we were on our return, it would give us the opportunity to pay more tax).

There are about 7,000 people working at National Defence HQ in Ottawa. Probably at least half of them are Francos that live on the Quebec side of the river and file their taxes here. Many have spouses and kids, all of whom are covered by the plan. There are thousands more in the same position throughout the province. Common law is extremely, well, common.

Has Revenu Quebec really never come across this before?

Sorry, rant now over.

Biiiiink

She shouldn't be on your application, she's already a citizen. Definitely no medicals for her, she's not applying for anything. We mentioned our son where it said for Mr B to list his dependents but put a note saying *=dependent but already Canadian citizen, see appendix 1, copy of child's citizenship certificate --or words to that effect.

You can submit without any proof of your daughter's citizenship as she's not part of the application, I was just saying that we used that kind of thing as evidence of genuine relationship (i.e. producing a child together) and commitment to becoming established in Canada but it's not required for your application.

Biiiiink

My condolences Souvenir. I was hoping for a more efficient tax agency but I was wrong. It seems RC gave me a temp SIN a few years ago without me asking for one and without telling me they'd given me one. Now that I have a real one it's caused all sorts of chaos and no-one is willing to link the two numbers for fear it's not actually me.

Meanwhile I have no sofa to sit on until they deign cough up my tax refund

Oofma

I'm overwhelmed by everyones help on here - its more than I possibly hoped for - thank you all so much.

Biiink (damn those i's!) thanks for reassuring me about my daughters application (or lack thereof). I just don't want any hitches if I don't have her citizenship through when I send off my application.

Stepnek - thats great to hear - I know my wife sincerely wants to go home to be close to family again as much as she loves the UK. I think we can put together a convincing argument now.

Cheers everyone - you all deserve a

JAJ

Has your wife also got British citizenship? If not, has she thought about applying for naturalisation before she leaves the UK?

It will make any subsequent return to the UK a lot easier. Especially if that's in many years time, for example should your daughter as an adult decide to settle in the UK.


Jeremy