My girlfriend and myself are looking at emigrating to Canada in approx 3 years time by this point I will have 14 years in the construction industry as a Civil Engineer (basic qualifications) and my partner will have two years experience as a qualified mental health nurse, we will be 30 and 28 years of age.

We would like to know whether or not it would hinder our application by already having started a family here in England in a couple of years time or we would be better waiting until were settled in Canada?

Additionally, would it ease our application/s if we were already married in this country?

We are very much thinking of long term plans to fit into making a move to Canada a reality which is why we are both prepared to delay marriage/family and obviously having more money for a move/assets to aid us in our application.

I also have my own mortage with a certain amount of money in the house by overpaying which I will continue to overpay into to maximise the money we have for a move and to get us a step on.

I am grateful for any advice anyone can offer,

Regards,
Chris

It doesn't matter if you're married or not. My understanding is that if you are you provide your marriage certificate, if not you prove by way of utility bills that you have lived together at least 6 months... somebody might correct me though!

With regards to having children it would probably be easier to wait as you wouldn't have to juggle them at the same time as juggling new jobs, new life etc but if your plans take longer to achieve than you expected you might then regret it.

Bring as much money as you can, it takes a "fortune" to set up home over here even when you think you brought everything over from the UK you could possibly need!!

RMN is only accepted in a few provinces so what province where you both looking at?

It is 12 months. Utility bills are useful but I think you will need more proof: joint bank accounts, life assurance policies and/or wills naming each other as beneficiaries, affidavits from friends and family and so on.

I don't think it makes any difference with regards to getting visas. I agree with you about the practicalities of juggling rug rates during emigration. However, it might be easier to deal with a newborn when you have friends and family around to call on.

Don't put your lives on hold waiting on what may or not may not be. If you want to have children, go ahead and have them. I hope your plans to move work out but there are never any certainties so don't sit around waiting for something that, with all the best intentions in the world, may not happen. I don't believe having children would make a difference to an application and children, especially young children, adapt easily to a move such as that. Mine were 3 and 7 when we moved and they had no problems settling in. I wish you all the best.

I think you have a very good point about not putting our lives on hold for something that may not happen, good point made. Thank you for that comment

we did it with joint accounts, a joint lease on our flat, join utility bills and whatever the IMM form is that's a declaration of common law relationship. Didn't need anything from friends and family, photos, holiday proof or anything like that, they were happy enough with the documents.

Friends of mine who are now in Vancouver got married as they thought that sending one marriage certificate was easier than sending lots of stuff with joint names on it, even though they don't believe in marriage per se. They didn't invite any friends or extended family, just their parents (as they thought they'd be disappointed if they weren't invited!) and went down to their local registry office with a dinner at Pizza Express afterwards to "celebrate"!

We got married before we moved as that was how it worked out but waited until we moved to have children as I wanted to be able to stay home with them and in the uk that wouldn't have been possible for us!
Good luck with your plans!great advice already given and yes whether you marry or not, or have children or not before you come, makes no difference to the application.
X

I would say that it would be a wise move to start a savings account in which you collect your funds which you will require when you emigrate.

I would separate your finances and set up an ISA or something where you can add cash, get a reasonable interest rate and use that as your "save for Canada" fund.
I would not rely on equity in your property solely for the move.

You will have a year from the date of your medicals to activate your PR, but if you find property prices have dropped further or that your house doesn't sell within that timeframe (the way property prices are at the moment and for the forseeable future in the UK probably, that is quite possible), then that could delay or scupper your move.

Having a separate fund for the actual relocation expenses means if you have good equity in your house and it doesn't sell, you can still move over and rent out your property for income.

Again thank you all for your comments, I have for the past few years paid extra into the mortgage to bring my term time down, although I think now is the time to start cash savings for emigrating expenses, although I do wonder if I should extend the term time again to bring monthly payments down which would allow me to save that little extra.

Don't forget about changing over to a buy to let if you don't want to sell your house or the market is very low.

We have just done that and you can get a good chunk of equity out (certainly enough to relocate with) if you have a good amount of equity in it. It's worth getting figures so you get an idea.

Not an ideal situation if you do want to sell (like we did) but a good solution to the problem. Helps if you have been overpaying too

Hope that helps

We overpaid big for a long while to get the mortgage down when times were good as you have done, but there is a time when readily available money is what you need and this is it!

With the housing market you just never know when or if you are going to be able to release whatever equity you have in your property so it makes sense to let the mortgage roll a bit while interest rates are low and stash some cash for the move.
Get an ISA or fill up the one you already have now and then again in April for max returns without needing to tie the money up.

The term extension is up to you but if I were you, I would start by getting an e-bay account and selling all that stuff that is filling your house that you don't really need.
Not only can this cash go in the Canada Fund but you will certainly be glad you did this early.

Even if plans for Canada don't come to fruition any time soon, it won't have been a waste of time - you will have de-cluttered!

It won't hinder your application in any way if you have children now - there are hundreds of people who emigrate every year with children - I know we did, we had 4 of them!

It might be a little easier to get settled and get jobs if you didn't already have kids, but as someone else pointed out, it is also easier to deal with the kids when you have family around that you can call on for advice and babysitting duties.

But conversely, kids are expensive, and as you say, if you wait, you will have more money for when you come over here which is an advantage.

As far as getting married goes, it really doesn't matter either way - you can emigrate as a cohabiting couple, but we actually decided to get married simply because it was less hassle - there were fewer forms to fill in and we didn't have to do anything to prove that it was a genuine relationship. But again, plenty of people who are not married do manage to emigrate.

I think the answer to both of these questions is "it is really up to you!"

Kids are expensive and their needs and demands often use up money faster than you can save it.
I met some people (two lots!) at the IELTS test centre on their third attempt to emigrate because the twice previously they had successfully got PR they had been unable to go because another kid appeared or it was not the right time because one of them was just starting school or they had no money.......

I know here in the UK maternity pay and such is said to be better but there are also many people who have had kids and got settled and then either never had the time, money or inclination to emigrate after that.

If you choose to start a family here, be aware that having kids changes more than you would think and prepared for the possibility that the same thing might happen to you.