cathcrow

Hiya, my husband and I are looking in to emigrating to Canada via skilled worker route, but we wanted to find out whether it would be possible for my mother who is 67, in good health and owns her own property to sell up and retire out there. It's a bit of a make or break issue for us so I'm hoping someone on this board can advise me of how it's possible for her to do this.

Also, if she can't stay permanently, is there anything stopping her going over to the USA or indeed back to the UK when her 6 months is up and then returning to Canada again shortly for another 6 months (and continuing to do this until her sponsorship comes through)??

We really want to make this happen, but couldn't possibly leave her behind for the time it would take for sponsorship to be processed. Are we kidding ourselves??

Thanks in advance!

PMM

Hi

Me thinks you are kidding yourselves, as there is no retirement category, and the sponsorship will take about 4 years after you are landed (1 year to meet the LICO from Canadian sources, 2 years for sponsorship at Mississauga, up to a year or more for her application to be processed overseas)
If she tries recrossing the border every 6months, CBSA is going to decide that she is living permanently in Canada and will give her a short admission to clear out her possession and leave or refuse her admission.

Judy in Calgary

In addition to what PMM said, be aware that visitors experience limitations when they spend extended periods of time in Canada. I'm just thinking of a single, six-month visit -- not even the repeated, six-month visits that you appeared to be contemplating.

For example, a visitor is not eligible for provincial health care insurance. Your mother would need to purchase medical insurance to cover emergencies.

A visitor also is not eligible for a provincial driver's licence. If your mother wanted to drive in Canada, she would have to find out the length of time for which a British visitor is allowed to drive on a British driver's licence in the relevant province.
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cathcrow

I think I knew the answer I was going to get but just needed to try and see if there was anyway around the red tape. Has anybody else tried the "non-official route" while waiting for sponsorship? How'd it go??? I desperately want a better quality of life for my children, but can't reconcile that with them being away from their grandma who they absolutely adore and who is desperate to come with us.

iaink

Pay for frequent visits by her, say a month at a time three or four times a year. It will be cheaper than health insurance for her anyway....

Paul Wildy

The proper route is for you to move here and then apply to sponsor her. If the application to sponsor is successful then she can apply for perm residence through the family class. It does take years (though might not be quite as much as 4 but probably not far off).

As for the "non-official" route she can apply for temporary vistor visas and try to renew before they expire. This is slightly different to just turning up (and relying on the fact that British Citizens are allowed to visit for up to 6 months without a visa) and then leaving Canada before the six months is up and coming back in a few days later - apparently the authorities are clamping down on that.

But there is certainly nothing non-official about applying for a vistor visa. You could apply for one for a year and then try to renew 30 days before it expires. We've been doing this with my mother-in-law. She is staying with us long term and we are applying to sponsor her in the meantime. She had a 1 year visitor visa to begin with, we tried to renew for another year but the only sent us a 6 month visa. We're now applying to renew for another 6 months (still in process). There's certainly nothing illegal or improper about doing that. But you have to make it clear that it is temporary - if it seems like she's expecting to stay put they wont grant it. It's fairly high risk and in our case we all know the score - the visa might not get renewed and she will have to leave which will be quite traumatic for an elderly person as well as our family but we all know the risks.

To get a temporary visitor visa she would have to demonstrate she has the means to support herself financially and is prepared to leave when the visa expires. Also, because she wont qualify for healthcare as a visitor, it would be prudent to show that she had arranged a private health policy to cover her healthcare costs.

Yoong

http://www.sponsoryourparents.ca/
You could join the above group to petition
CIC to speed up the immigration applications.
Yoong

halftheworldaway

You might find the link below useful, its from the relocation2bc.com website.

It's about how they emigrated to Canada, and how they got a visa for Sue's Mother.

http://www.relocation2bc.com/aboutus.htm

Hope this helps, I'm sure Sue and Frank who run the website could give you more information.

Thanks

manningl

Hi NSpaul - Did you have to wait 12 months before submitting your sponsorship application? I noticed on the CHC website they want to see 12 months worth of income statements? Also how difficult/easy is it to get a temp visitor visa? Do they take a long time?

Thanks

Paul Wildy

You have to meet a minimum income requirement within the preceeding 12 months in Canada to apply to sponsor. But as far as I'm aware you dont have to wait 12 months - if you meet the min income requirement within 6 months then you have what you need to apply. Getting a temp visitor visa from London takes about a month I believe. When you apply to renew though you apply to an office in Canada and they are currently taking about 80 days to process them. You have to apply 30 days before the current visa expires but you are allowed to stay in Canada while you application to renew is being processed.

As a British Citizen you dont technically need to apply for a Visitor Visa - you can just turn up and stay for 6 mnths but if you know you want more than 6 months its worth applying for an actual visa before you come. If you dont go this route you can try asking for a longer visa at point of entry - Immigration officers have discretionary power to grant a temporary visitor visa of up to 12 months on the spot. If you're going to try that it would be a good idea to have proof of means of support, medical insurance docs and stuff like that with you in case you are asked for them.

cathcrow

Wow, all starting to look a bit more positive now. Hooray, at least there are avenues worth exploring!!

NSpaul, I hope you don't mind if I bombard you with a few more questions, but you are the only peson I've heard from who is actually doing this.
Did your MIL go out with you initially or did she join you later?
Would keeping a property in London make it more likely that my mother would be granted a visitor visa (and hopefully consequent extensions) i.e. as it shows she has a base in UK?
Do you know if many people take the route you have taken, and if so whether many of their parents get refused re-entry? It seems such a gamble, but obviously if it is the only way we can do this it's worth considering.

Neilt, thanks for the link to Frank and Sue, I have emailed them for some advice also.

Thanks so much for all the help and any further suggestions will still be very much appreciated!

manningl

Thanks for the Info NSpaul really appreciated

Paul Wildy

No problem - fire away!
No - she joined us later. When she arrived they were probably a bit suspicious as she is elderly, travelling along and was in a wheelchair at the time. She told the visa officers that we were meeting her and they actually came out into the arrivals area and asked us to come with them "backstage" to the passport control area where she was waiting. We explained about the fact that we were sponsoring her etc. They wanted to see our proof of PR. They told us that if we liked they could giver her a 1 year visitor visa instead of the usual 6 months (thats how I know they have the power to do that) and we said "great - thank you".

They obviously took pitty on her to an extent and I should add too that we are in Nova Scotia - I'm sure not all points of entry are as nice and friendly!

I would say yes - if you can that would be a good idea. It probably wont be an issue when she comes over as a visitor initially (there's nothing suspicious about a grandma visiting her grandchildren after all) but when you get to the stage of renewing visitor visas (if you go that route) then you may need to provide some evidence to support the claim that the visit is genuinely temporary and that she is willing to leave Canada when the visa expires. The application to renew doesnt ask you to send that kind of evidence but if they came back to you with further questions you would be better covered.

I honestly dont know how many do it. There are certainly people that try to live here unofficially by staying on their 6 month entitlement and then leaving and coming back a couple of weeks later but thats very high risk (you could be refused re-entry at the border) and like I say I did hear that they were really clamping down on that kind of thing. Applying to renew is the best way to go but you do have to be prepared for the fact that they could refuse to renew and she has to leave. When I asked the question (see http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5682147) there were a few people who popped up that had been here on multiple visitor visas that they had managed to renew successfully.

Judy in Calgary

There is some brilliant information in this thread. In an ideal world, the information would be harvested and added to the Wiki article called Retiring in Canada.

But, in the meantime, I've added to that article a statement to the effect that there is good information in this thread, and have provided a link to this thread.
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