Hi eveyone I'm new to this site.

I'll introduce myself I'm Sarah, I'm 38 and myself and my hubby (45) are hoping to emigrate to Canada. My hubby's Dad lives in Ontario and his Brother is in Vancouver, we have visited 6 times, we have a 7 yr old daughter and a 2 yr old son and we got married in Ontario 2 weeks ago. Anyway we have now decided after much thought that emigrating to Canada would give us a better life and more opportunities for our kids.

We will be hopefully coming into the country under the federal skilled worker route, I have recently printed off the application, and it says that a test needs to be taken to prove that we can read, write and speak the English language, so I guess my first question is, do we need to take this test even though we were born in the UK? Secondly is it just my husband who will need to take the test or do I need to as well even though I don't plan to work straight away in Canada as I am a SAHM?

Thank you for your help

Hi and welcome - Only the Principal applicant has to take the test and yes, this is regardless of where you come from (mad I know!)

good luck

What she said. ^^^^

What occupation is your hubby applying under?

And welcome to the forum.

LOL, and I had a lovely comprehensive welcome and reply typed out and the two of you beat me to it

Wiki link anyone?

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Category:Canada

Wow thank you for your quick replies, hubby is a gas engineer

So assuming that would come under the Plumber NOC code (sorry, not really sure what a gas engineer does ), then that's one of the ones that isn't even close to filling up yet - phew! So you've got time to get it all sorted, do get the IELTS booked soon though as you often have to wait 2 or 3 months for a test slot, and then another two weeks or so for the results.

Good luck with it all.

Yes gas engineer comes under plumber, wow thats good to know, thanks again for your help on that. Is is just the one test he needs to take?

Dont forget the lovely 6 week wait for the police certificates to arrive in the mail from the UK

Yes it is unless he's also claiming points for French? Then it's just the small matter of gathering employment references, proof of him doing the duties listed under the NOC code, educational certs, identity documents, police certificates, proof of funds, your Canadian relatives identity docs and utility bills, etc, etc!

I presume that the OP is in the UK though? So only a 2 week turnaround, and they can pay extra to have them back in 3 days if they really want!

If the OP's husband has close relatives in Canada, maybe he could go over and secure a job offer and LMO and then they could go over sooner using the LMO/TWP?

They could then apply through PNP (Provincial Nomination Program), which gets out of having to renew the LMO if the processing takes a while.

Having relatives there would make this a very easy and maybe a more desirable option and probably quicker than waiting for FSW Cat 1 processing.

It also requires fewer documents, I believe, so it is a bit easier all round.

Riskier though, not sure I'd do it with two kids. But definitely an option the OP could consider.

I enclosed a letter in our skilled worker application explaining that we were born and had lived all our lives in the UK. We only spoke English, it was our "native language."
We did not sit any test nor were we asked to. It was not an issue.

How long ago was that?

Since June 2010 it has been a mandatory item on the checklist that you include the General IELTS as proof of language proficiency.

Your points allocation is directly calculated from the score you get on this test.

That was Nov 2004. Got max points for English as it was set up at the time. I just ticked the appropriate box. Although it did refer to the test no test score was asked for.