grioghair

I moved to the US in '98 from the UK, and I am now a permanent resident. I am 56, and my wife is concerned about us having no retirement to live on, due to me not getting enough work years in. I still have 11 years to go before I need to worry about this, but I am looking towards maybe emigrating to Canada - as I know they have a better system set up there to look after their senior citizens.

My wife is American and I am British. Is this gonna be a difficult move, or am I gonna have to jump through a lot of hoops to make a move such as this? I need to start somewhere, so I thought I would start with this board.

Thanks in advance,

Steve

christmasoompa

Hi Steve, and welcome to the Canada side of the forum.

You will have to jump through some hoops to get a visa, but depending on various factors, there may be many hoops, or just a few!

Your first step needs to be figuring out what visa (if any) you are eligible for. I'd suggest you start with the CIC website (www.cic.gc.ca) and the Wiki on here (blue bar at top of page) which has loads and loads of useful info.

This article is a good place to start...............http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Quick_...an_Immigration

Once you've figured out which visa route is the most likely for you, you can then come back and ask questions about it.

Good luck.

gvanleer

When you say you know Canada has a better system to look after their Senior Citizens...not sure how true that is. We still need to pay so much into the Canada Pension Plan to be entitled to an Old Age pension. Same as your NI in the UK. Did you maintain your voluntary contributions once you left the UK? If not that was probably a mistake. I continued mine and I am now fully paid up, so will get a full UK state pension (for what it's worth) when I retire.
I would fully investigate the situation here, because moving here at your advanced ages (no offence!) will be no easy task.
Good Luck!

Nikki Ian

(quote Did you maintain your voluntary contributions once you left the UK? If not that was probably a mistake. I continued mine and I am now fully paid up, so will get a full UK state pension (for what it's worth) when I retire.)


I would double check this, from my understanding, yes you will still get a UK pension, but the rate will be frozen at the level it was when you left the UK, regardless of how much more you paid into the system,

Canada is a commonwealth country not part of the euro zone, so expats here do not get full UK pensions ect, This has been part of a long battle both in and out of the courts i believe.

Simon Legree

Not so. Your pension will be frozen at the date that you first draw it. If you are fully paid up (i.e. 30 years of contributions) you will get a full pension at the rate that it is when you first draw it but it will not increase annually as it does in most other countries. It also is nothing to do with being a commonwealth country. Almost all other commonwealth countries get annual increases. It is residents of Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand who will have their pensions frozen.