Hi there,
I was wondering if someone might be able to answer the following questions for me please or tell me if I’m right or wrong in my assumptions.

All these relate to Ontario only.

Am I correct in thinking that you do not need to have an Social Insurance Number (SIN) to exchange your UK Driving Licence for an Ontario one ?

How quickly can you get an Ontario Driving Licence ?

How quickly can you get an Social Insurance Number (SIN) ?


The reason for these questions is that our PR Visas run out in June and we’ve not ‘landed’ yet. This is because we haven’t managed to sell our house yet.

Because of this we are thinking about going over, ‘landing’ (before it’s too late) then returning to the UK. If we do this we will have bought ourselves up to 3 years grace before we would need to return.
Whilst over there we thought we could get our Ontario Driving Licences and maybe even get our SINs so it’s done.
We wouldn’t want to be over there for too long though as it would mean taking the children out of school. Ideally less than one month.
The Driving licence’s is the big one (after landing of course) as it is my understanding that you only have 60 days to do this (after landing) otherwise you will have to sit a test.
I’ve also heard that they may want to take your UK licence off you but I was wondering if they might allow us to keep ours (or at least give us a photocopy of them) knowing that we would be returning to the UK to sell the house.

I was also wondering about ‘goods to follow’ list.
When we ‘land’ we wouldn’t have one of these as we wouldn’t exactly know when we would be coming over for good.
Would this be a problem when ‘landing’ ?

Any comments would be greatly recieved. Thankyou.

Yes.

You do not have 60 days to swap your license after landing, you have 60 days to swap after becoming resident. You will be a PR but not a resident (small "r"!) until you actually move to Canada, so there is no urgency in swapping your license at all.

But if you're dead set on swapping it, you can do it as soon as you like. See here for info, also read this for ID requirements.

You'll get your temporary (photo-less) paper license on the spot, the photocard proper one will be sent to you by post a week or two later, so you need an Ontario address where you can receive mail. The temporary will only be valid for 90 days. If your photocard one doesn't turn up, you should alert them to this before the 90 days are up.

They do take your GB license from you and return it to the DVLA (sometimes they forget, sometimes they take only the photocard) so it would be your Ontario license you would be driving on back in Britain. You can only drive on your Ontario one in the UK for 1yr unless you go and swap that one for a GB one back in the UK but then that would have been a pointless excercise!

For info, Ontario requires you to notify them of a change of address within 6 days (such as leaving the country to go back to the UK), and the UK does not allow you to hold a GB license and a license from a country with which GB has a reciprocal swap agreement (although plenty people on this board have managed to keep both).

Soon as you like, but what do you need it for? I think the OH got his number on the spot, and the card followed a week or two later in the mail.

You should estimate what you will bring and have your good to follow list with you when you land - it's fine to have a list that contains items you don't actually end up bringing, but it could cost you to bring items that are not on your list at the time of landing.

Hi jenny,

I'll try and answer some of your questions. I'm not guaranteeing all of this is 100% correct, but it's to the best of my knowledge.

* I'm pretty sure you do not need a SIN number to exchange your drivers licence.

* You can get an Ontario licence really quickly. Provided you have held your British licence for a set period, you just have to go to a test centre (there is one in every town of any size) and you'll get the exchange there and then. You'll leave with the temporary licence and then the card will arrive in the mail later on.

As for the 60 days you mention, you can drive on your British licence for 60 days. After that, you couldn't continue to legally drive in Ontario with a British licence. It's not a time limit to exchange your licence though, as far as I'm aware. However, you must be sure you continue to meet the requirements given in the link below http://www.drivetest.ca/en/license/ExchangeOutProv.aspx

You are right that they take your British licence away. I photocopied mine before I handed it over, just so I had a copy. You cannot hold two different licences as it is an 'exchange agreement' with the UK. Make your decision with this in mind.

* Getting a SIN number is also quite easy if you take all of the necessary paperwork (proving you can work in Canada) to a Service Canada office. Again, you'd leave with a number on a temporary piece of paper and then get the card later on.

I'm not expert when it comes to landing etc (I got to Ontario through BUNAC) but you might be best to officially land, just have a vacation/recce trip and then head back without all of these stresses. You can pick up everything else later, to the best of my knowledge.

The one problem I see trying to get all this done ahead of time is not that it takes too long but that you'll need an address here to get the licence and the SIN cards (as Biiiink has since suggested in her excellent post!)

Why not just land officially, enjoy a trip and then get all of this sorted when you arrive for good? None of it will stress you out too much!

As for the 'Goods to Follow' list, someone else will have to help... and maybe tell me everything I've said is wrong.

I hope that's helpful.

So if we land then return home and come back 12 months later, and then swap our licences over, we do not have to sit an exam ?
What is the difference between a PR and a resident (small"r").
When do you become a resident ?

I just thought that if we got our SINs sorted then it would mean that when we come back for good we could start looking for work without delay.

How could we make a list ? Should we just put things like childrens toys - 4 boxes, clothes - 6 boxes etc ?

Being a PR means you're entitled to live and work there and for Canucks to take tax off you. It's your permission slip and your status inbetween Visitor and Citizen I guess.
CIC define it thus: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/informa...card-faq01.asp

"A permanent resident is a person who has immigrated to Canada. To keep permanent resident status, a permanent resident must live in Canada for at least two years in a five-year period. "

Becoming a resident of Canada means living there whether you've emigrated or not. You can count yourself as resident on a temporary visa for instance.

Be aware there are some exceptions to the 'live there to be resident' rule though, you can see you can count yourself as resident (with little 'r') as a PR even if you're not living in Canada below:

Within any five (5) year period, a permanent resident must be:

physically present in Canada for at least 730 days (two (2) years) in that five (5) year period

OR

outside of Canada, accompanying a Canadian citizen, who is his or her spouse or common-law partner or a child accompanying a parent

OR

outside of Canada, employed on a full-time basis by a Canadian business

OR

an accompanying spouse, common-law partner or child of a permanent resident, who is outside Canada and is employed as a full-time basis by a Canadian business.

erm - not quite. It is being resident with a small "r" that entitles you to be taxed (if "entitles" is the right word...). Being resident for tax purposes simply means that your primary place of residence is in Canada, and has nothing to do with your immigration status (WP holder, PR, citizen, student visa holder, refugee....). I'm entitled to live and work and pay tax here, but am not (yet) a permanent resident - I'm here on a WP.

You know, you couldnt tell just by looking at you. I thought you were the real thing

But we all agree a lander-and-leaver is not yet resident (small r) and does not need to panic about getting an Ontario driving license within 60 days of activating their PR visa

OP, no, you would not need to do a test if you moved 12mths after becoming a PR, just swap your license as per the details at the link upthread.

Goods to follow list - see the wiki article here for more info.

Oh no, no, no - I'm entirely a figment of your imagination. None of us is real except as an idea in the mind of Richard Dawkins

I have a pretty vivid imagination, must have to have conjured you lot up.

Fancy that, my imagination and the mind of Dawkin's in the same paragraph. Is this good???

Thanks everyone for your comments.
Very helpful.
Sorry to be a pain but I've just thought of another question.
When we 'land' (with the intention of returning to the UK straight away) will we need to show proof of funds for 4 people ?
If we would then how might be the best way to do this because obviously nothing at that point in time would be in Canadian Dollars.
Would the Customs people be bothered in us showing proof of funds given that we would be returning home straight away (and obviously we would have plane tickets to prove this) ?

Comments and advice greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Often they ask about money but don't ask for proof. But anyways , it doesn't have to be in dollars . Bank statements from the UK showing an equivalent amount in unencumbered funds would be fine.

Ech... Apologies OP, Oakvillian is right. No need to worry about tax til you're resident.