Hi, everyone, we have two girls aged 13 and 15, due to sit their sats and gcse exams next year, is there anyone out there had a problem intergrating their kids into school during such a risky time. Another scenario we are looking at is selling up in the uk and buying in Canada, then applying for PR whilst there. We are new to this, any thoughts on either subject would be much appreciated. Thanks Lee

It depends on how you intend to apply for PR and what you intend to do about jobs, etc.

Have a read of the Wikis

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Catego...an_Immigration

and also the CIC website if you haven't already assessed your visa options.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/index.asp

Then once you know what route you would like to take and the time implications, it may make things easier to plan.

In the meantime, there is a lot on here about schooling, both in the Wiki and if you do a search of the forum.

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Canadian_Schooling

Ah, I see from other posts you have made you are thinking about sponsorship and have read some of the Wikis. Still, I think you do need to have a trawl through all the info, especially if you plan to move sooner rather than later.....here is a good example of a previous discussion with an excellent post by JiC.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...ight=schooling

My 17 year old daughter changed her mind and decided to come to Nova Scotia before finishing her education in the UK. She had gained a few GCSE's and spent a year in College. She is now taking her grade 12 here even though she would have been able to get into a College here. She decided to take her grade 12 so in effect transfering her qualifications into Canadian to make it easier in the future. We could not believe the difference in the two systems. In the UK you have maybe 2 chances in a short period of time to take your exams, whilst here you can keep retaking them until you pass. Staying on in school into your 20's if you so wish. She loves it here and finds that she is treated more like a grown up.

We have english friends here with children of 13 and 15 and they have gone in to school at least one grade higher having moved over from the UK. They are both doing very well and love all the extra sporting activities.

Good luck with your future plans and Happy New Year!

The kids have to integrate themselves. As much as we try we cannot make this work for them. The schools are very helpful and accommodating, but when it comes down to it it is the student who has to deal with it. It takes a while to integrate and so they should not expect to pick up where they left off in the UK.

Suggest they should go onto the youth forum and chat with some other kids already here or going through the same thing.

It depends on what sort of assets you have and how long you could live off your assets while you waited for things to be sorted out in Canada. In general, I would consider it to be a risky thing to do, specially for someone who had kids.

One of our forum members, R I C H, was successful in doing this. He and his wife came to Canada as tourists. They then were successful in applying for work permits on the basis that they would open a business that would contribute to the local economy and employ Canadians. They opened an equestrian centre in the Kamloops area of BC.

Something they had going for them, in my opinion, is that they were childless. If things had gone pear shaped, it would have been less of a disaster for them than it would have been for a couple with children.

If you come to Canada as visitors, here are some of the challenges you might face:

Usually a British citizen is allowed into Canada as a visitor for six months. There's no guarantee that you'll be admitted to the country when you show up at a port of entry. However, British citizens usually are admitted, and usually they're admitted for the full six months.

As you approached the end of your first six months, you'd have to apply for permission to extend your stay as a visitor. Again, immigration officials don't usually hassle British citizens too badly, because the UK is a First World country, and there's a reasonable likelihood that the applicant will return to the UK. But how would it look if you'd bought a house in Canada and moved into it lock, stock and barrel? I don't know.

As far as I know, your kids would not automatically be entitled to free schooling at public schools (equivalent of state schools, which is what most Canadian children attend). You might be charged tuition in the order of $10,000 a year for each child.

You would not be able to get a provincial driving licence. I forget how long you're allowed to drive in Canada on a UK driving licence -- three months, six months, something like that. Anyway, at some point you'd run into problems with your driving licence.

You would not be elligible to subscribe to your province's health care insurance plan.

In the normal course of events, if you don't have an Arranged Employment Opinion, etc., it takes about 5 years for a permanent residence application to go through (if you apply via the skilled worker category).

The whole thing could turn into an expensive nightmare, and it could be extremely tough on your kids, to say nothing of yourselves.

Beebop did you a favour by pointing you to the BE Wiki articles on immigration and to Citizenship and Immigration Canada's website. I'd like to supplement her advice by pointing you to the Wiki called Getting into Canada quickly (although you may have stumbled on it already, if you've gone to the Immigration section of the Wiki).

For most people, a job is the ticket to Canada. So that brings us to another vital section of the Wiki, the series of articles on job hunting in Canada.

There is heaps of information to absorb. I would guess it would take you about a week to even start getting your head around it. But in my opinion it's essential for you to read all that stuff and familiarize yourself with the basics before you proceed any further.