Hi

Over here in Calgary at the moment and we have had an offer accepted on the house we want. We have been to the bank and have set up bank accounts and we also wanted to arrange the mortgage through them (TD Canada bank). The bank have told us this:

"you must be Landed immigrants or confirm that you have applied and your application has been received and acknowledged by Immigration Canada."

We have completed the application for residency but are just waiting for one reference from one of Darren's previous employers to come back before we can send the application off to London. Then it will take however long it takes for us to get the AOR. Our concern is that this will take too long - we have got a possession date of Juy 31st on the house and I am sure we will not get the AOR back in time to finalise the mortgage before then.

Is this a standard problem for people coming over on work permits? It never occurred to us that it would be a problem buying a house whilst being on a work permit.

Has anyone else been through this and if so, how did you solve it??

Thanks for any advice.

Lisa

We had this question asked of us and we resolved it by giving them our AOR - which you can't do.

You may need to look at another bank:curse:

Did you not get pre-approved before you put your offer in ?

Did you not get pre-approved before you put your offer in ?[/QUOTE]


Basically no, because it never occurred to us that the mortgage would be a problem because the job is a permanent one. We only got here Thursday evening and looked at houses over the weekend and then had the bank appointment on Monday morning.

Lisa

We're on 3yr work permits and had no problem getting a mortgage with RBC. Signed the paperwork and took posession a week after we arrived.

If you used a realtor, then they should be assisting you. They should have got you pre approved. But moving on, they should know a mortgage broker who can assist you. If they do not know one, I know one who specialises in the UK market and new immigrants.

Banks are known for being really hard/negative and terrible for getting mortgages from. If you have been with the bank for 20 years, earning 150,000 and lived in the same house for the same 20 years then you may get one. Even if you were landed immigrants, most banks want you to be working for 3 months at least.

PM me and I can get you the mortgage broker details.

Hi
We have not even arrived yet and have pre-approval based on work permits which we will be picking at POE. PM me too if you like as I too have a fab mortgage broker!

Susan

Hi

Thanks for all the replies. We have spoken to the realtor we are using and he has given us details of a mortgage broker to arrange the mortgage rather than going direct through the bank. We are seeing the realtor this morning to finalise some details on the purchase of the house and we are also seeing a solicitor to arrange Power of Attorney for Darren as he comes back to start work at the start of June, so he can then sign anything on my behalf. We are lucky really that the current owners don't want to move out till the end of July, so we have got some time to sort things out, even if we have to do it from the UK via email etc. We fly back home this afternoon.

We did think that things were going just that bit too smoothly as we had found the house we wanted with a big garden looking out on to green space, the timing of the move suits us just fine, the boys like the school they will be going to and we were really impressed with it too. So there was bound to be a fly in the ointment somewhere! From all your replies though, it definitely sounds like we should be able to get it sorted!

Thanks again.

Lisa

Lisa

All sounds like it will hang together- wow! what a productive week!

Gryphea

Shop around for your mortgage - TD gave us shockingly poor rates when we went direct to the. If you use a mortgage broker they can normally get you a better deal - even if the lender ends up being TD.

I know its crazy, but this is how it seems to work! The whole buying a house process seems to be about involving as many middle men as possible!

Hi

We have spoken to the mortgage broker this morning and he only needs copies of the work permit, job offer and credit checks/bank and mortgage references. No need for AOR. He has also got us a much better rate than the TD offered us, so that is great!!

You are right about involving lots of middle men - we thought it would make it simpler just going straight to the bank for the mortgage but obviously not!

Just going to see the realtor now then back to the airport! Had a great week and managed to get loads done - including quite a lot of sight seeing - the boys have declared Calgary Zoo to be the best zoo they have ever been to!!

Lisa

Whereabouts in the city have you bought - SW, SE, NW, NE ??

I was in exactly the same situation in Montreal and solved it in exactly the same way. RBC were happy to give me a mortgage on a work permit.

We had no probs getting mortgage on WP, our realtor assisted us and we got it through Canada TD trust although we bank with RBC. I dont know how much a difference it makes with how much deposit you are putting down.

In Okotoks in the lake community.

Apparently according to the advisor who we saw at TD, this AOR/landed immigrant requirement is something which they have only recently introduced as part of their mortgage conditions. We are putting 35% deposit down.

Lisa