jillmalcibar

My brother is enrolling at a 2 year Diploma course at a Toronto College and bringing is wife with him. He is exploring the possibility of bringing his son and the daughter of his wife out of wedlock my brother´s stepdaughter so to speak. The girl is 13 years old, with an illegitimate child status, her birth certificate would reveal that her parents never married. Considering that in the Philippines, parental authority belongs to the mother when it comes to an illegitimate child, would the embassy question the child´s freedom to travel. This is most especially difficult since the biological dad is nowhere to be found, just in case the embassy would require consent to travel. How should this be done? My brother is supporting the child during her stay in Canada.

jillmalcibar

Further to the documentation problem, since my brother (with student visa) and his wife (with visitor visa for conversion to oen work permit) are projected to arrive in Canada ahead of their kids should they apply for the visa together with their kids who are set to arrive in Canada 2 months later.

Judy in Calgary

Other members of this forum who have been in this situation have had to obtain official documentation (for example, a statement witnessed by a lawyer) to the effect that the birth father's whereabouts are unknown and that the mother has sole custody of the child.

Your brother and siser-in-law should obtain a document along those lines before they submit their applications for their study permits and spousal open work permits respectively.

Your sister-in-law could be named as an accompanying dependent on your brother's study permit application. Then, once she was in Canada, she could apply for a spousal open work permit (SOWP). However, I recommend against that course of action. She would have to wait another couple of months for her SOWP to come through if she submitted the application from inside Canada, and that would waste precious time.

It would be better for your sister-in-law to submit her SOWP application along with your brother's study permit application. Then she'd have an SOWP in hand right from the time that she entered Canada.

Many school boards in Canada are confused about whether or not children of temporary work permit (TWP) holders and study permit holders need study permits in order to attend school. This issue is separate from the issue of free tuition. Technically children of TWP holders and study permit holders do not need study permits in order to attend school, but some school boards insist that they have them. Your brother and sister-in-law may want to play it safe and apply for study permits for their children at the same time that they themselves apply for their own study permit and SOWP. Alternatively, it would be a good idea for your brother and sister-in-law to get a written commitment (e.g., an e-mail) in which the relevant school board agrees to enrolling the children even if they don't have study permits.
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Judy in Calgary

Yes, it would be best to submit all family members' applications together.

If your sister-in-law (SIL) was not going to apply for an SOWP, your brother should list her as an accompanying dependent on his study permit application. However, as I stated earlier, I recommend that your SIL apply for her SOWP when your brother applies for his study permit.

Similarly, if your brother and SIL ascertain that their children will not need study permits, your brother should list the children as his accompanying dependents on his study permit application.

I'm a bit mystified, again only from a personal point of view, as to why your SIL plans to accompany your brother to Canada and have the children follow a couple of months later. Even if they all apply for their permits together, your SIL could stay behind with the children and fly to Canada with them a couple of months later.

Alternatively, they could all fly to Canada together as a family. Whichever way you slice it, the children's education is going to be disrupted. There's no way round that. I don't see what good would be accomplished from letting the children complete the school year in March in the Philippines and then waiting until the following September to enroll the children in school in Canada, which was an idea I saw you floating out in one of your posts. That's a long time for children to be out of school, from the point of view of their social lives as much as anything else.

There is lots of useful information in the Wiki section of this website. For example, there is an article on Spousal Open Work Permits. The article called Schooling for Expat Children explains which children are eligible for free tuition and what documents they need when they register for school.

Hope that helps.
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jillmalcibar

Hello Judy, thank you for your reply, it was very comprehensive and shed so much light on my issues. My brother and my SIL want to go ahead because they need to get settled-in before the kids are coming over, especially that my SIL has to get a job hopefully within the 2-month period. Moreover, since the kids are gonna be gone for a long time from the Philippines, my parents would want to take holidays with our kids before they eventually leave. Me and my brother are to enroll at a College in Toronto for a 2 year diploma program, his classes start in Spring mine starts on September. I am thinking of bringing my kids over as well. I want to play it safe so we will be applying for student permits for all of them by 1st getting a confimation from our chosen school here, my kids and my brother's kids, and I am the one bringing them over to Canada by July. Now my issue is still the free tuition fee for the kids. On that link Schooling for Expat Children, I don't know if it's a hard and fast rule and the spirit/reason behind that qualification to get free tuition which is being enrolled as full time student at a University. We are enrolling at a college for a 2-year full time diploma program, are we still qualified? Hope you can shed more light again Judy. Thank you so much..

jillmalcibar

Hello Judy, thank you for your reply, it was very comprehensive and shed so much light on my issues. My brother and my SIL want to go ahead because they need to get settled-in before the kids are coming over, especially that my SIL has to get a job hopefully within the 2-month period. Moreover, since the kids are gonna be gone for a long time from the Philippines, my parents would want to take holidays with our kids before they eventually leave. Me and my brother are to enroll at a College in Toronto for a 2 year diploma program, his classes start in Spring mine starts on September. I am thinking of bringing my kids over as well. I want to play it safe so we will be applying for student permits for all of them by 1st getting a confimation from our chosen school here, my kids and my brother's kids, and I am the one bringing them over to Canada by July. Now my issue is still the free tuition fee for the kids. On that link Schooling for Expat Children, I don't know if it's a hard and fast rule and the spirit/reason behind that qualification to get free tuition which is being enrolled as full time student at a University. We are enrolling at a college for a 2-year full time diploma program, are we still qualified? Hope you can shed more light again Judy. Thank you so much..

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Judy in Calgary

The Education Act of Ontario states:
My reading of that is that your own children and your nieces and nephews will not have to pay tuition for their schooling in Ontario.

I don't know about Toronto, but some school boards in Canada do charge fees for locker rentals, supplies for courses that require unusually expensive supplies or equipment, and sometimes transportation on school buses. But these fees, if they are charged at all, are minor. They are nothing like the $1,000/month tuition that foreign students (who are not accompanying parents who are TWP holders or study permit holders) have to pay.
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