and will your wife's PR not expire whilst you do that?

(Hi Julius )

[/QUOTE]

Hi

I obviously wasnt around when you had your previous problems that you mentioned, which you seem to have sorted and to this I say well done

What I would like to comment on is you comment above. Have you any idea what this will be like both for you and your family - living on different sides of the "pond" ? Do you have idea of the strain that it will place the whole of your family ? Anyone can live from visit to visit - but 52 weeks between them is a hell of a count down for anyone to make.

I ask this as, as everyone knows, I have been separated from my hubby for 6 very long months whilst he was out in Canada on a WP and I was left here with the kids to sell up ready for our permanent move. I only say the above from my own experience as I personally would most definitely not reccommend it to anyone - it isnt very nice for you on your own over there and the family you leave behind in the UK.

My advice to anyone is DONT DO IT IF YOU DONT HAVE TOO the amount of strain on both of you is too much to do this indefinitely.

Best of luck

gaynor
x

I've been doing this the other way around. DH in England me in Canada with kids and it's been horrible. I certainly wouldn't want to do this again - ever!

There must be a better way for you? That's no quality of life and Canada isn't worth it if it will break up your family. Cant you just move out of London but within England?

Hi FF

I am glad that there is someone else who is in a similar position to me. When we started out on the process this way it was a case of " yeah we will be fine we have Skype dah dah dah" and it isnt "fine" it is hell on earth to be physically separated from the ones you love - like a death that you cant mourn due to the fact that you have "lost" someone but you may see them again but dont know when.

Gaynor
x

Yes Gaynor, it isn't as easy as it sounds is it? We initially thought it would be 3 months apart and now it has dragged onto almost 6 months and it's really tough. I don't think I could ever go through this again. I thank my lucky stars I'm not married to a serviceman - I really don't know how those wives do it?

I hope you and your family will be reunited soon!

Hi FF

The difference between hubbies that on the rigs or in our services is that their wives know when they are due back so they can be a family - we dont know when ours are "back".

Gayx

hi, stepnek!
yes, thats the only option i have!

and of course, their status will expire during that time.
the only hope i have is to retain mine and then reponsor them when they want to come over.

apart from that, i cant see any other way forward really.

hi, biiiiink!
good to hear from you!

Hi guys,

Have to defend the services bit there, very rarely do the men/women return when expected. Our motto here is 'I'll expect you when I see you'. We never plan on anything or get our hopes up. It's worse at the moment with all that's going on in the world.

On a lighter note, good luck, Julius, with your move back to Canada. I have read quite a few of your posts and I wish you well.

Karen

Hi Karen

Knew that someone would come back with that kind of answer as soon as I had posted it but didnt know how else to put it

Maybe a better way of putting it is that as Service wives/hubbies I think that you are more conditioned to the situation as it is part of the OH's job which is a little different than someone going out to work in a foreign country leaving someone to sell the house and not actually having any sort of date for being together again - as civvies we are not used to this separation so that is what makes it hard

Gay
x

He retired on 10000 not out.

I stepped in to fill the gaping void. I think you are nuts, living apart from your family for 5+ years. You might as well get divorced now. Canada is really not that much better than the UK to make it worth giving up your family for so long. As you say, there are other parts of the UK that are better, so why not try them instead?

The main attraction of Canada is to cash in UK property equity and upgrade on arrival here, and with family remaining in the UK I dont see how thats going to happen.

Agreed.

The worst bit must be wondering what your other half is getting up to when you're not there?

not if you trust each other.

The worst bit is missing the acheivments of your kids for 5 years or more, although it could be just as bad if there is a change of mind, once PR status is lost as they couldnt be reunited again unless either:

A: You return from canada again, or

B: You wait 3 years plus a years processing for citizenship, plus another 6 months or a year for sponsorship.

I dunno, its just not something I would be prepared to do. When I was a kid there were a couple of occasions when my dad lived away from us in the UK for over a year due to job relocations and problems selling the house, and we got to see him every weekend or everyother weekend, and that was bad enough.

Totally agree. I just can't imagine anyone thinking that they'd have a family left if they deliberately planned to be apart for five years and thought that the end goal was worth living apart for so long.