adamm82

Hi, I am new here.

Just a quick background,. I was born in Canada but moved to UK when I was 3. I have Canadian passport. But have lived in London UK ever since.

My wife (Italian, living here in London with me) we are planning to move to Vancouver through the spousal sponsorship.

But I am a bit concerned with the part to prove we intend to move to Canada.
We 100% want to leave London and go to Canada at the same time. I wish to avoid a situation where I have to go there before her.

So applying for jobs and not knowing when you are able to make the move is very tricky. I have read about I can ask relatives to provide a letter but my relatives are all in Nova Scotia and not Vancouver. I have read that I should just apply for some jobs anyway and show searches for finding a place to live etc.

Would opening a Canadian bank account be of any use whilst still in London. I have contacted some Canadian banks in London and they said I can indeed open an account here (deposit only) and finalise it once I arrive in Canada.

I was also thinking what if I submit the application for example in May. and then arrange an apartment (temporary) for December 2014, For example what we intend to do is find a place to stay on a site like airb/b for one month and then as we arrive we will use that as a base to find a proper place to rent.

prairiechicken

I was in a similar situation. Born in Canada but my parents moved to UK just before my 3rd birthday. My husband and I have an 11 year old son, so didn't want to risk splitting us all up for any length of time, and financially it just seemed to make more sense to wait here until roughly the time we expect to get PR for my husband (which also will coincide with a naturally good time for our son to change schools), rather than all head over to Canada first.

So we couldn't tick any of the boxes on the form about proof of intention to move back - no job offer, mortgage, property or rental agreement.

Instead, we included evidence of the research we had done on the area we plan to live, and a summary of what our intentions are.

We spent a month there last year doing a recce trip which helped as we had time to build up a relationship with a realtor there, visited the local school etc. We also opened a bank account.

So I included in the application:
- Copies of emails with the realtor in Canada (to show we intend to buy over there)
- Letter from UK Estate Agent regarding valuation of our current home (to show we are serious about selling home here)
- Copy of emails with local school about our visit last year, and answering other questions I'd had about enrolment etc.
- Copy of bank statement with canadian bank (to show we had opened an account)

I hadn't applied for any canadian jobs as it wasn't practical to do so.

I think there might have been a couple of other things too, can't remember exactly what I sent in the end.

Anyway, I've been accepted as a sponsor, so no problem there.

I think every application is assessed on its own merits, so basically you should include any info that you feel will help to show that you are serious about your intentions to move. Everyone's case is different, and as far as I can tell, there aren't any hard and fast rules about what is acceptable and what isn't.

SchnookoLoly

WE didn't even have what PrairieChicken had in terms of proper stuff as we were living in a rented flat in London. I'm the Canadian, my husband is a Brit, we were living and working in London.

What we did was just wrote out our plan for moving which was that once PR was granted, we would start applying for jobs so that employers wouldn't have to worry about immigration barriers and such. My husband would be looking for a similar job to where he was currently working (banking industry), since his bank doesn't operate in Canada so a transfer wouldn't be possible. I would be looking for a job in my field, with transferring with my company as an option. My husband would be likely working downtown Toronto (again, banking) and my parents live in Oakville, so we would be looking to live around the west GTA. We would be moving in with my parents initially until we were able to sort out buying our own house, and then we wrote a bit about some areas we had driven around and had been considering. We had my parents write a letter confirming that we would be living with them when we first moved.

Really, they just want to see that you have a game plan, and you're not just going to land on the ground and say "now what?". You don't really need to apply for anything yet, but you can show that you have been researching the job market in Vancouver and are expecting to apply for jobs in whatever area. You can also write that as far as living arrangements go that you'll move into a rented place and you'll be able to find somewhere once you have a move date, and after that you'll buy something, and you can talk about areas you might be looking to buy. Talking about recce trips you've taken as well is another good thing to include. You could also contact one of the real estate agencies in Vancouver and then include copies of having emailed them to talk about housing options (they could help you with rental options as well).

Hopefully that helps!

prairiechicken

Yep, I think it's just common sense really- what SchnookoLoly says all sounds very sensible!

You can only send in what you have, but you can put any research you've done in there.

adamm82

Thanks all. This is very helpful. I will try to fit in a trip to vancouver too before submitting the application. I also have correspondence with a relative who was living in Vancouver where I have been asking him plenty of questions regarding Vancouver for a while now.

I will also try to see if any of my relatives may have any useful contacts in the job market as they work for some larger companies in Canada and I have an uncle who worked for the government they may be useful in the long run.

But as for research I am sure I will be able to provide plenty of that for them. As I have been researching non-stop on a daily basis. I've even been checking what supermarkets to go to. If I should join Costco where the local Walmart and Denny's is!

SchnookoLoly

Just include a paragraph or two that outlines the research you've done so far and your game plan on getting there and after you arrive. If you've put thought into it and your game plan sounds reasonable then they won't give you any trouble here.

IndiaInMyMind

Housing in Nova Scotia is the highest in Maritimes Canada; It would help you very much if you could come to other provinces in the area, Prince Edward island or New Brunswick and purchase a home first.

Siouxie

The OP is planning on moving to Vancouver.