davidmac75

Hi I am a print finisher, history is mainly in magazines books and newspaper supplements but my skills are transferable. Ill look those companies up. Not too bothered about commute if public transport is as good as I'm led to believe. Initially until we get a car etc..

Roberto1980

No not over yet. Going for a visit / recce in October, and activate our visas.

Paul_Shepherd

Im not from Glasgow and im happy with my move, i lived in a lovely village in the UK. As has been said before on here, the sucess on your move depends on many things, however I have always thought the pull of Canada must be stronger than the push from the UK. If it is the move usually works out

Shirtback

I notice the OP ain't addressing the visa/children's passports/citizenship question.

I'm mildly curious (and know it's None of My Business), why one would use a consultant for a spouse visa, unless one has a "problem" application...

davidmac75

i haven't addressed it directly as i am unsure why there is dubiety, my children qualify immediately and i will be sponsored by my wife, i will also be granted express entry, this is the information i have been given by all agents i contacted.....now the reason i have instructed a consultant is because i want too!! simple, and 'one' does not have any problem (that i am aware of).....but thanks for you positive attitude, it augers well...

christmasoompa

Please don't be defensive, we're simply trying to help as it seems you've either misunderstood or been given incorrect information.

Assuming they're Canadian citizens then yes, they do, but if you haven't already got passports for them then you need to apply for their proof of citizenship. This can take several months.

Get proof of citizenship (adults and minors)

Again, brilliant and nice and easy, but it certainly won't take 4 months as you've been told. You can check processing times here, note that it's 57 days for your wife to be approved as a sponsor, then a further 28 months for the second stage of the application. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/informa...es/perm-fc.asp

Now 28 months is actually a lot longer than your case should take if your application is straightforward (i.e. no criminal history etc), it's an average and because the London visa office also processes applications from high fraud countries such as Pakistan, that skews the average processing time somewhat, as theirs take much longer. But going on the recent timeline thread (in the immi section of the forum), you can expect around 8-10 months for the second stage, so perhaps a year in total.

No, you won't, Express Entry is only for those applying under one of the economic classes (i.e. because of their occupation). Express Entry

I hope that your consultant is licensed by ICCRC?

We're really not trying to be negative, but I don't want you thinking that you'll get PR within 3 or 4 months of applying, because that's just not realistic, as you can see from the official info above. Even if you got an application together within a month or so (probably just about doable if you can get a medical appointment asap and get your police checks applied for quickly), then you're still looking at around 10 months from now before you get PR at the earliest.

I hope that helps a bit, do feel free to ask any questions about the visa side of things on the immi section of the forum, it's fairly simple (no need to use a consultant unless you particularly want to), and there's a great FAQ about spousal sponsorship in the Wiki which would be well worth a read - Spousal Sponsorship-Canada/FAQ : British Expat Wiki. There's also a very good spreadsheet of all those that have applied over the past couple of years and that will give you a really good idea of timelines (link in the FAQ). Schnookololy is our resident Spousal Sponsorship pro, so she'll no doubt help with any questions you put in the immi section of the forum about it, and she's incredibly knowledgeable.

HTH, good luck.

davidmac75

Hi Not being defensive at all, i addressed your response in isolation as it wasnt in any way an answer to any question i posed, everyone else has given great feedback. now i have been in contact with a family (who unfortunately are not on here yet) who have been set up within the 4 months with almost identical circumstances, maybe things have changed now?? anyway my 'sole' purpose was to ascertain areas, info on life in general and not on visa entry regs etc... im sorry if you think i was being rude but i am not, i just wanted advice on the specifics asked at this stage and your response was negative.

davidmac75

28 months ????? from the UK ? was that a typo?

SchnookoLoly

OP, I think you're confusing your visa routes here. I think you might be well served to start a thread in the immigration section just for the immigration portion of your query, and then leave this thread to talk about areas to live, work-life balance, and so on.

As for your immigration questions, I'll summarize it here but will answer in more detail if you start a clean thread.

First, spousal sponsorship. If you apply before you move to Canada, you have to apply outland. As others have said, processing times are sitting around one year right now. It's POSSIBLE the other family had theirs faster, depending if their application was held in Mississauga - late last year and early this year, some applications were staying in Mississauga for processing instead of being sent to London, and some of those were processed in 3-4 months. HOWEVER, it was not every application, and there has not been an application stay in Mississauga for quite a few months now, so it looks like they are not helping London with the backlog anymore. Applications sent to Ottawa are taking just less than a a year, and applications sent to London are taking about a year. The spreadsheet Oompa mentions is also linked in my signature, below. Have a look at it - that gives you the most accurate possible timeline and will help you set your expectations.

If you want to apply inland, then that's a different beast. That will get you working in about 4ish months from the time you apply, but you have to be INSIDE Canada already in order to apply, so it will mean a few months without working. You'll have your OWP in 4ish months following your application, but you won't have PR for over two years.

I don't know enough about Express Entry, but that's an entirely different visa stream and is completely and totally separate from spousal sponsorship.

Read the FAQ article, read the main article about spousal sponsorship, have a look at the spreadsheet, and perhaps start a new thread in the IMmigration section specifically for discussing your immigration path to Canada... else this thread is going to get a bit messy.

christmasoompa

It wasn't, but you seemed to think you'd be able to get PR almost immediately, so it was just correcting that assumption. Not only for you, but for the sake of anybody else searching the forums and reading in the future.

You may feel that you are sorted, but you've mentioned a couple of things that have made us wonder if you're misunderstood stuff, so we're simply trying to help. Far better that we do that than you have unrealistic expectations, or even worse try and do something you shouldn't!

My main concern is that you're using a dodgy consultant, as if they're really telling you it will take 3 or 4 months then there's something not right, and we've seen far too many people be conned out of money by the usual suspect 'visa agencies' that aren't licensed on here.

Not really, processing times have lengthened a bit, but 4 months would still have been incredibly quick and very unusual. They were definitely applying for PR (not just a work permit or similar) and via the London visa office? You can get a better idea of the normal timescale by looking at the spreadsheet mentioned above in the FAQ.

It wasn't negative, it was realistic. Are you confusing me with Shirtback, who your original response was to?

I simply suggested you would have plenty of time for a couple of visits before you got PR so that you could narrow down areas and research some more, as it wouldn't be a quick process.

HTH, good luck.

christmasoompa

No - please do have a look at the link I've given above, which is the official processing time info from the CIC website for spousal sponsorship.

SchnookoLoly

You posted these while I was writing my response... I addressed your comment about the family in "identical" circumstances in my response. Even if you were applying at the same time, it woudl not have been a guarantee as there's huge variance depending which office ends up processing your application. This is covered extensively in the FAQ, it's in the first few questions.

28 months is not a typo, but again, it's explained in the FAQ. While it's not a typo it's also not realistic for "normal" British applicants. You can expect roughly one year - go look at the spreadsheet. THat's your best source for an expectation of processing time.

davidmac75

ok thanks.

davidmac75

hi thanks for this, i didnt actually start the chat about the immigration process, it was brought in by others, i do appreciate everyones help here but i am very focused on certain key areas....work/life balance, safety, education, climate, way of life etc... having these addressed will be key to us moving at all. My wife will always have her Canadian Citizenship. again thanks for your help.

Tirytory

Err not to be funny but having visa's is actually the key to you moving...don't dismiss the kind advice people are trying to give you. They could also save you a bundle of money from an immigration consultant (?) that you will need for the actual moving process.