aml1982

Hi all,

I'm asking this more out of curiosity than anything. My wife and I (both Brits) are moving back to the UK in a couple of months. We lived out here for three and a half years on work permits, and during that time we had our first child (a little boy, now 9 months old). He is a Canadian citizen by birth, and holds a Canadian passport. He's also the main reason we're moving home (first grandchild on either side of our family, we decided the time was right to head back to England and let his grandparents enjoy some time with him)

However, long term we are still on the fence about where we would like to settle. Our experience in Canada has been amazing, and we feel like this might be the better place to bring him up. I started doing some reading about permanent residency/citizenship and immigration in general - my understanding is that his being Canadian would have no influence on our applications since he is a minor and can't act as a sponsor in any way. Is this right? I guess it's to combat birth tourism?

Like I say, I ask more out of curiosity than anything. Both my wife and I should have no trouble getting visas given our education and work history, and my wife works in a category A profession with a company that has presence in both Britain and Canada, meaning she should be able to get a secondment/transfer out here much as she did when we first arrived.

**Also, given that I have started this thread, I may as well ask - anyone with experience/advice of Canada vs Britain as it pertains to raising kids? Education, extra curricular things, youth culture as a whole? Much appreciated!

cheeky_monkey

i have three children 8-13 and for me i find the children in Canada very dull and boring compared to their UK counterparts in the areas i lived...children seem to be less independant here and a lot less streetwise..maybe a refelction of the parents here and/or the area i live.

Still all the bull about its a better life with better opportunites for kids is exactly that.

aml1982

Interesting. Would you say the reverse is true, that Britain is better for kids? Or that simply both have their merits and neither one is better or worse?

edmontonian

Wow, being born and bred in Edmonton I dont really know what to say to that, but having lived in England for 10 years and raised 3 daughters both time in Canada and the Uk, they as grown adults have since told me that the time spent in Edmonton, was the best time of their lives and want to return with their own families. My own experience of living in the Uk I had lots of rasicsm from youths in the street, eggs thrown at my windows and basically dont know how I survived for 10 years.
Maybe some of the kids are boring, but i think i would rather have that than the kids that i had to deal with on a daily basis. Oh and by the way, this wasnt some rough area either, just incase you were thinking that.

christmasoompa

I think it depends on whereabouts in Canada and the UK you are comparing, and also the age of the kids.

We live in a very lovely rural location in the UK at the moment and my children have a very safe and old fashioned childhood close to all their family, which for me is invaluable. At the moment (they're age 4 and 6), that is a much better option for them than a built up Vancouver suburb (which is where we'd have to be for hubby's work). I liked living in Canada, but for us at the moment, the UK wins, mainly due to time with family and support when they are young.

But Canada is definitely an option for the future and I'm not sure that teenage years in a location like ours would be ideal, as I'd like them to have a bit more independence than they'd have here.

Re: your question, your child could sponsor you for PR, but he'd have to be 18 to do so, and at the moment the wait time is around 6 years for PR via parental sponsorship - plus of course there's no guarantee that that visa category will still be in existence in years to come.

HTH.

edmontonian

I was just wondering, and im probably completly off the mark here cause im not sure how it works, but seen as they have been there for 3 and a half years, can they apply for PR themselves now? Or is that not an option on a work permit.

I was thinking that if they could, would it be a good idea to apply for that, then if they move back to the UK and realise that they didnt want to be there, they would have PR to make it easier to go back to canada to live. Obviously as long as they were within the time limits.

Ed

christmasoompa

I totally agree, but assume that there is a reason that they haven't applied for PR already (they could be citizens themselves by now if they had!), so guess that they are not eligible.

cheeky_monkey

its horses for courses i take as i find..i never had any issues with kids in the UK and have lived in London and other places..i coached football back in the UK so interacted with children from 5-16 never had any back chat or lip or any bad behaviour.

i think kids in the UK are given a bad press by the actions of a small minority.

Maybe its just Edmonton or maybe its me but i find the whole city inc the people just lacks a little bit of character.

Anyway thats just my experience there are plenty of people whose circumstances are different will sing highly of Canada for a place to bring up kids and i would be disapointed if they didnt.

aml1982

Re: the permanent residency comments, we didn't apply because up until this point we had no intention of staying here. As it is now, we're still on the fence about our future, and we'll definitely be going back to Britain in 11 weeks and spending at least a year there. I don't think we'd have time to apply for our PR before we left, now.

However, if I have read correctly, you can apply for PR for one year after leaving the country if you meet the right criteria and want to return. Is that right?

christmasoompa

You wouldn't have it through before you left, no. But depending on the best route to PR for you, you could apply and then wait for PR whilst in the UK.

Don't think it is, have certainly never heard of a visa route that will allow you to do that. You may be eligible to apply for PR without a job offer etc, in which case you could do it from the UK, but you may not have a route to PR unless you are in Canada, so it may be best to investigate before you leave so that you don't scupper your future chances of returning.

What do you/your wife do for jobs?

aml1982

Right now I'm a stay-at-home dad, but for my first 2 1/2 years here I was managing a coffee shop. I'm here on an open spousal TWP, my wife is on a skilled worker (category A I think) TWP. Our little boy was born here so is a Canadian national.

Edit - We're in Ontario.

christmasoompa

What exactly does your wife do?

It may be that you could apply as a Skilled Worker without a job offer - restaurant managers are one of the 29 eligible occupations and it can be any job you've done in the past 10 years, so you don't need to be doing it now. You'll need to check the duties listed and see if you did them (and can prove it), check your points score etc, to see if you qualify. If you do though, you could apply for PR from the UK if you wish and don't need a job offer to qualify.

Alternatively, your wife may be able to apply but it's possibly that she'd need to be employed in Canada to qualify, it will depend on what she does.

What visa route did you think you could apply for one year after leaving the country?

aml1982

I think it was the Canadian Experience one. I was generally navigating through the CIC website, skimming over the different options.

My wife is an accountant, working in audit. She's relatively experienced and she's been working for the same company, either in England or Canada, for 7 years. She's already been told by her bosses here that if she wants to come back to let them know and they will get the ball rolling (which is good to know).

I think as far as the point system goes, we are both probably in fairly good shape. Both of us are University educated (I am in the Masters + 17 years fulltime education) with lots of work experience. I could also get a job offer in place prior to submitting an application - my old boss told me that if I was ever to come back to Canada he would have a job for me and to give him a call.