KDucros

Hello

We're coming over on 30th June to get PR card and we're staying for a month. Seeing as you only get 3 months worth of driving on your international driving licence, does the month we stay come off our 3 month quota?? i.e. when we officially land next year will we only have 2 months to do the test or will our 3 month have expired as we landed this year.
Hope I make sense,
Cheers in advance
KDUCROS

Nicola N-A

I don't think it comes 'off your total'. You wouldn't take 2 weeks off for a holiday, so I think it's from when you move over. Your licence is only valid up to 90, beyond that you must hold the provincial licence.

MB-Realtor

I don't know if its true, but I heard that if you go out of the Country it re-sets the clock. ??????

AmyDavid

I would agree with this - like Nicola says - if you had a holiday you wouldn't take it off the three months would you?

chicken cheese

Hi KDucros,

We thought the same as MBRealtor. However, I don't know if we just had bad luck, but this was our situation.

Our family 'landed' in Halifax, NS in September '08, but then after about 3 weeks hubby had to return to England to sell house, finish off work commitments etc.

When hubby finally joined us (after about 7 months in England) he went to take his written part of the driving test about a week after arriving. The 'kind' lady at Access Nova Scotia told him that she had to take the original landing date as the start of the three month period, and as he was now over the three months he would have to get a temporary licence. This meant that he couldn't drive the car unless he had somebody with a full licence in the car with him, and he could no longer drive on his British Licence.

A bit of a pain for a few weeks, but thankfully he has now passed the test!

Hope it works out differently for you though!

4d32ftw

the BC book says that you have 3 months once you "live" here.
if you have landed and gone back to another country then you don't live here
so you should be ok. but as we know goverment agencies are a rule unto themselves and often interpret things in there own magical way

danniek

The rule is that it is 3 months from the day you begin to maintain residency. So, the day you move over to Canada is the start of your 90 day term. Regardless of whether you go on a holiday or not.

Edit: Some provinces are much more sticky on this subject than others.

Aviator

Whatever you read on hear won't get you out of trouble if it's wrong. You might be better to ask the licensing authority in the province you are going to be living in. Chances are you'll be OK with 3 months from when you become a tax resident, but you should get that confirmed.

Butch Cassidy

Once again quoting the ambiguous sections
Would you care to define maintaining residency?
When are you deemed to have moved over to Canada?

Exactly

chicken cheese

I agree with Aviator. We had actually asked the same question when we landed back in September, and Access NS told us my hubby would have 3 months from the time he took up residency. However, in practice, this wasn't the case at all.

I think that part of our problem was that we both obtained our NS ID cards back in September, which gives you a 'Master number'. This same number is also used for your Driver's licence. So the system thought he had been here for 7 months.

Moral of the tale...don't get your ID cards when you 'land', wait until you take up residency! Oh, and prepare for all eventualities, because if the person issuing the licence doesn't know 'the rules', then it's tough luck!

Rob_999

Exactly.

Common sense dictates the 3 months should start when you actually move to BC (ie same as the tax residency rules), however we all know that common sense means sweet FA when it comes to government agencies. Seeing as insurance is also run by the province, if you have an accident you really want this to be clear. Phone them and then get it in writing.

KDucros

There's so many abbreviations so not sure what an NS ID card is? is this the Permanent Resident card or something else?

Think calling the authorities and getting it in writing is a great idea. Though again it seems that it's down to who you get on the day.

Cheers
Kate

chicken cheese

A NS ID card is a Nova Scotia Identification card. We were advised to get one soon after arriving. It is useful during the first few months while you don't have a Driver's Licence for ID, and once you have been issued with one it can be used as quick identification, cutting through waiting time and red tape in certain places!

You get it from Access Nova Scotia, same place as Driver's Licence. I'm not sure if other provinces have a similar ID card system, but I'm sure someone will be along soon to let us know!

Now that we have our Driver's Licences we tend to show those instead if ID is required.

Permanent Resident card is something different, and so far I've only shown this when returning from a quick trip to the UK!

MR79

Hi i believe that you get 3 months from when you take up residency, if you come for a few weeks then go home it does not count, it may be worth checking this out on the icbc link below -

http://www.icbc.com/driver-licensing...riables._frag_

MR79

JonboyE

You are supposed to be resident in a province before you apply for a provincial ID card. The rules are exactly the same as getting a driver's license, except of course you cannot use the ID card for driving. As you declared yourselves resident in NS when you applied for the ID card I can easily understand why they don't want to give your OH another three months to get his driver's license.