Hi guys,
My girlfriend has had her perminant residency come through we are looking to move in with her family in March-May. I need help with a couple of questions below. My situation is unique so I'll provide some information. She has been given permanent residency so I'm guessing she can work. I however will be visiting using a UK passport eta. I work overseas on a rotation of 8 weeks away 4 weeks at home. My company will pay for travel to and from Canada. ETA allows 6 months in Canada for 5 years so I'm covered there.

1. As a tourist/visitor would I be able to have a CAD bank account I am paid in USD but have the option to transfer to CAD.

2. Could I get a Canadian drivers licence? I hold full British. If not how can I go about having a car? Insurance etc.

3. Also any suggestions on places to checkout to live in Alberta. To begin we will live in loydminster with her family. But we will look at other places. So far Red Dear and St Albert on the list. We want to be close to mountains or not too far a drive (both avid snowboarders). And not too far from a city but somewhere rural.

4. I'm looking at shipping our furniture out we have it all in storage 70sqft at the moment. Any suggestions on companies to use. Plymouth UK to Canada. And any ideas of cost? Also it's mainly personal belongings, kitchen stuff, a sofa, a bed and wardrobe. Would it be better just to get rid of it all and buy new? We only have a short amount of time before the move doubt we could sell it all.

5. Would it be easy for a non resident to buy a car? Or would I have to register it in my girlfriends name?


Thank you in advance

Wayne.

1. Anyone can open a bank account in Canada just explain the situation to the bank as to why you want to open an account.

2. If you are coming back and forth between work and Canada as a visitor remembering each time you enter is a separate entry then you would just use your UK licence. Just make sure any insurance policy covers you to drive.
As for buying a car with only visitor status you might run into a few problems as you have limited time in Canada.

3. Im assuming your g/f will be sponsoring you and you meet the common law requirements of having lived together for a minimum of 12 months and have evidence of such.

We have lived together for 2 years we were going to wait until we got married for her to sponser me. Would she be able to sponser me now as a permanent resident or would she have to be a Citizen?

She can sponsor you now, although just checking - she got her PR more than a year ago right? If she 'landed' to active her PR when you were her common-law spouse then that could be a huge problem, as she should have declared you at the time. Have you been working away for the repeated 8 weeks all that time?

Not sure if you'd qualify as common-law spouses though due to your absences, so you may well have to get married for her to be able to sponsor you.

Re: the bank account etc, have a look at the Wiki as there is lots of info in there.

HTH.

She has not landed to activate her PR yet she is looking to do this in march. We have been together for 3 years lived together for a year contant 1 year ago and for the last year ive been working away but living together on my months off. Should she declare me before she lands? We were confused when filing the application as her family in Canada were sponsoring here wasn't sure they could sponser me too. I thought she had to get PR then sponser me. If we married once she activated would that be ok?

Be extremely careful as Christmas points out. If a common law partnership is not declared before becoming a PR, two things:

It's misrepresentation
and
The partner is excluded from the Family Class and cannot ever be sponsored by their partner who didn't declare the relationship.

S

Hi guys thanks for the quick reply's.

I have cleared this up with my GF. She declared herself as in a relationship and common law on her application. I was confused as I thought they may have had an option for both of us to do a joint application. I have opened another thread but I'm guessing I just apply once she has her PR card 'landed' and put her as my sponsor. During my application we will have to prove our common law status correct?

Wayne

Snap! I've just said the same thing on the OP's other thread.

OP, if you can answer the questions on that thread we can try and help, your gf may have declared you, but if she was the principal applicant and said she was in a common-law relationship then you should have been included properly in the application (and also got PR at the time). But hopefully we can figure that out, we'll keep visa related stuff to your other thread and get this back to the excitement of bank accounts and driving in Canada.

No. If your partner declared you as a CLP on a PR application, you would need to have filled in forms. If you had not, IRCC would have asked for them.