LaylanSte

Hi,

Myself,my husband and our 5 kids are looking at emigrating to Ontario in approx 3 years time under the PR category.My husband is a plumber and I am a Special Needs Teaching Assistant.
My husband's brother lives in Canada however cannot sponsor us for financial reasons.We are looking at emigrating with approx 60,000 Canadian dollars.
We meet all the criteria, except for the fact that our little boy age 3 has ASD. He is not on any medication however does attend a special needs nursery.I am very worried that we will fail on medical grounds although I cannot see how his disability would put a strain on the economy as no medical costs are needed.I do not want to go through the whole immigration process only for us to be rejected.Can anyone please offer any advice or help?Thank you.

scribe123

Hi there,

I can't give you specifics but there are a number of threads discussing circumstances similar if not identical to yours.

If you have a search you should be able to find them.

Cheers

dbd33

That would depend on where he is on the autism spectrum. If, ultimately, he is disabled to the point of not being able to work that will put a strain, not on the Canadian economy but on your domestic economy. For all practical purposes someone in Ontario aged over 21 who is disabled by autism is the family's problem not the government's. This may not be a factor in getting through the immigration procedure but it is something that warrants consideration.

LaylanSte

Thank you for your replies. I am willing to home educate my son if necessary as I am a trained SENCO.On the flip side I would also pay for his education if needed.Obviously being so little we cannot say how his future will pan out, but he is doing well at nursery.I would provide all necessary documentation and reports at the initial stage of the immigration process to try and have everything in order promptly.Is PR the best route to go down?We do not have the funds for Business Class.

christmasoompa

Have you done a search of the forum? Unfortunately, having a child with autism could cause him to fail the medical for PR, we've had a few cases of that happening on the forum including a recent one. Can't for the life of me remember the username, but a quick search should reveal the pertinent threads.

You also seem to be a bit confused about the visa options, so I'd suggest you read the Wiki (blue bar at top of page) and the CIC website to clarify things. I'm not sure what you mean by 'business class', do you mean the investor program maybe? You also say that your brother-in-law couldn't sponsor you 'for financial reasons', but unless your husband is his only living relative, he couldn't sponsor you anyway.

If your husband is a plumber, meets the minimum points requirement of 67, and the other criteria (i.e. has enough proof of funds, no recent criminal record, you all pass the medical, etc), then he would be eligible for PR as a Skilled Worker. Do bear in mind though that 'the list' of eligible occupations for SW visas does change regularly, so don't delay if you do want to go ahead and think your son would pass the medical.

Good luck.

__TJ__

my son is 11 and has aspergers, and we sailed thru the pnp, so im hoping that we will not face any problems with pr. check also the disability discrimination rules, there are some things they are not allowed to exclude you for. my son is high functioning so other than weak anxiety meds he is not on anything or in special school etc. fingers crossed we will be ok.
good luck and im sure a chat with CIC would be a good idea, failing that speak to an imigration agent, they may be able to help you.

Skimom

Hi, I think you need to be prepared for the fact that you will almost certainly have to provide - at the very least - extra information regarding your son. My son has Asperger's and dyspraxia and has no help at school, no meds and nor does he need them. However, we received the dreaded excessive demand letter and had to put together our case to prove why he would not incur additional medical, social and educational costs. This caused no end of sleepless nights for me as we put together a huge file of evidence. However, we did receive PR and landed in May. I estimate that it added at least a year to the process for us.

You should definitely do a search on here for threads regarding special needs, Asperger's etc as over the past couple of years several of us have gone through the PR process and you will be able to see all our stories and the outcomes there. Most of us eventually got PR.

The autism will definitely get flagged up - and rightly so.

Good luck! for you to get the outcome you want.

LaylanSte

Thanks for your replies, I am reassured in the fact that eventually you have successfully got there.I am aware it will take longer and also of the extra costs of gathering relevant evidence and reports.To be honest when we started looking into the process I thought there was no hope,but you guys have given me hope.Im sure I will have a lot more questions but fingers crossed you will be able to help with my answers.

Tony-the-Tigger

Hi there,

Good luck with your application. Please keep us posted on how you all get on.

3 years old is quite an early age to be already diagnosed on the A.S. It must has been fairly obvious that something wasn't right with him. Unfortunately, we are on the same boat with our boy. He was 3 when he was finally assessed although seizures were the first real sign that something was wrong at the age of 2. He also attended a special nursery and then went into a primary school that has an attached unit for kids with developmental delay. Our boy just turned 9.
He was born in Toronto but we returned to the UK 6 months later. We are now seriously considering returning 8 years on and I've been looking at the facilities available in the GTA for him. From what I've picked up so far, the 2 most notable school boards for facilities are Peel region and York. In particular, their separate school boards. This information has come from more than one source and I trust it.

You should also be aware that benefits in Ontario are income based ie. the more you earn, the less you get from the government - the very thing the Tories want to introduce here!

One more thing that springs to mind is that all the school boards I've contacted so far integrate autistic children into regular classes. Support teachers can assist if required.

Hope this info helps you a bit. Thinking back to my own medical years ago, they are quite strict about how much (if any) of a burden you could be on the health and benefit system. I am a Plate fitter to trade and they were specially interested in my hearing and back/joints. I can only imagine the concern shown toward children on the A.S.

If anything else comes to mind, I'll post it.

Tony.

dbd33

My experience is limited to dealing with the Peel Catholic French School Board. IME:

- the school board is awash with money. You want horseback riding or a Snoozelen room, there it is. Money doesn't help with autism and there's a potential for sibling jealousy, assuming you can't fund horses and spas for all children, but there is a lot of money about.

- benefits do not vary with taxable household income in the range of $25,000- $200,000 a year. They may do outside of that range. The primary benefit is respite funding which is generous, if you can find a provider.

- autistic children in the school system are allocated a head count for support, this might be half a person for a verbal but severely disabled child. That means that, in an integrated setting, for half the time, that child will have a dedicated teacher's aide. Negotiating the allotment of time is important, obviously.

- there is a school in Hamilton that is not integrated, although it shares premises with a regular school. Buses don't go there (except if you live in Hamilton) so children are shipped there from across the region by taxi.

- there is also a school, Applewood(?) in Etobicoke that is not integrated and which is generally thought to be the best in the GTA.

I'll be blunt. As the parent of an autistic adult raised in Ontario I would advise families including an autistic person that, in my informed opinion, it's against the interests of the autistic person to move from the UK to Ontario. It may, of course, benefit the family as a whole and so be worth doing regardless.

Tony-the-Tigger

dbd33, I've been trying to overlook comments like yours about avoiding Ontario if you have an autistic child. Unfortunately though, nearly every person and professional I've been in contact with has given the same warning. It's starting to concern me.
The last 7 years or so have been all about my youngest son. Everything we do, everywhere we go, how will he behave? Will he be able to cope? And on top of all this, his behaviour is becoming more obscure and aggressive/manipulative. I've given up work to care for him. I've been out of work so long in the UK that ironically, my old boss from the last place I worked for in Woodbridge is the one person who knows me best as an employee. He has offered me a good position within his company and I'm really tempted to go back. Our youngest son, of course, is the spanner in the works. If I was to be perfectly honest, I can't see him being integrated into a regular school class. The school he is at right now has a special needs unit attached to it and he is very rarely integrated into regular classes. The only way I think I could feel comfortable about him going to school would be to go to one like you mentioned - in Etobicoke. Do you know if there are any dedicated schools in Peel or York region?

To the OP. I hope you don't feel as though I've hijacked your thread! Maybe you will get some info from this that will help you.

dbd33

I only know of the two mentioned. The one in Hamilton is a French language school (a parent has to be francophone, so even if the child has no language, that's a hurdle). Applewood is one of those places for which one must be well connected and have applied before the child was conceived. It's not a likely option.

However, from your account, schooling is not the primary problem. The primary problem is that school, and all forms of state support, ends when the child turns 21. To make Ontario a good choice of location you should have deep pockets and someone to whom to pass responsibility, day-to-day responsibility, that which prevents you from working, after you're dead.

"nearly every person and professional I've been in contact with has given the same warning. It's starting to concern me."

As well it might.

Tony-the-Tigger

I believe you will find the same situation in most of the UK. After school (16 years of age), there is nothing apart from a few charity run day centres and special needs care homes scattered in a pot luck fashion, the length of the country.

TobyNJane

My family and I successfully became Permanent residents through the New Brunswick provincial nominee program whilst I was employed as a temporary worker. Our Eldest Son has Downs syndrome and after the medicals we then needed to provide further info from a child phycologist. After a very long wait we were finally permanent residents. We are a family of six and the whole process took start to finish 3 years.
Every case is looked at individually, best of luck.