evelyned

Hi guys, I have just been approved for Sponsorship last week. Me and my husband are still going back and forth with our plans of either moving now and wait for COPR or stay in the UK another year to make sure we get everything sorted first. It would be interesting to know how others who have moved on a visitor visa first and waited for COPR found the experience? Hopefully, hearing from other peoples experiences might help us make a decision. I would love to move to Canada now but I don't want to make things more difficult for my mom and dad who we will be moving with and our children. Any experiences good and bad would be good to hear. Thanks!

SchnookoLoly

There are quite a few on the board who have moved as visitors, or who have stayed as visitors while waiting for PR (Orly and Becki come to mind). So do a search around of the board and see what you can find, and hopefully some others will post here as well.

I personally think the decision mostly comes down to whether or not you can survive on one salary. My personal experience isn't exactly the same, but it might help anyway.

We applied for PR back in 2012, so it was all approved by the time we were job hunting. My husband got a job offer in Toronto to start in September, so we started making proper plans to move. However in the process of that we realised that I would qualify for my British citizenship at the end of September, 3 weeks after Husband would start work... so moving 3 weeks before being eligible seemed a dumb idea. So we made the (tough) decision to move separately.

Husband moved in September, I took a week off of work to move him to Canada, then returned to the UK. Husband moved in with my parents.

We balanced needing a bit of extra income from me with not wanting to be apart for too long. I applied for my citizenship as soon as I became eligible, but maintained residency in the UK just in case I had to re-apply (there were a few things in my application that made it more complicated than most). I also had a 12 week notice period with work, which was going to make applying for jobs in Canada incredibly difficult as most notice periods in Canada are more like 2-3 weeks, so finding someone willing to wait 3 months for you to start was going to be an exceptionally tall order.

At the end of September I moved out of our flat and in with my in-laws. I went back to Canada for a week and a half in October for a visit, and finished work at the end of October. I spent 3 weeks in Canada in November as a visitor, back to the UK for a week in December, then back to Canada for 3 weeks to just before Christmas, then Husband came back to the UK with me for 2 weeks over Christmas and New Year.

I got lucky that my citizenship application came through at the beginning of December, in that one week I was back in the UK, and I managed to get my citizenship ceremony booked for the next day. Once I got back to Canada I then started job hunting, and luckily landed something quickly, so was able to start working at the end of January.

So, all in all, it ended up working out alright for us, but we got lucky that we were both living with our in-laws (much amusement there), and so surviving on one income was completely fine. I could have stayed in the UK longer, but in the end we didn't want to be separated more than we had to be, so this was a reasonable compromise.

I know it's not quite the same thing, but hopefully it helps.

evelyned

THanks, yes it's good to hear it worked out fine in the end. My husband is self employed as a wedding photographer and will be coming back to the UK for a few jobs over the year and I will get a job straight away (hopefully). Although he wouldn't be able to work in Canada we are wondering if we might save more money being with my parents than staying here and carrying on paying our mortgage. Just worried he might get frustrated if we can't get a mortgage or CORP takes longer... Will do a search and see what I can find. Thanks again!!

Jim Humphries

If they did the medicals but are not coming to Canada with you as PRs then they should not get COPRs at all at this time. In the future if you and they wish them to come then you will have to sponsor them for PR provided they are still young enough to qualify as dependents.
If they did not take the medicals then they cannot be sponsored as dependents and would have to qualify as independent applicants.

rnccominghome

Quick couple of questions:
-Anyone have any experience with redirecting post (We've sold our house in preparation of the move to Canads and gone travelling the UK whilst we wait) and have redirected our post to our family in the UK. Just a bit concerned with the copr arriving and the whole special delivery thing....

- Do you start counting down to the average upon receipt of the application or the sponsor approval?

- Does waiting get easier? Bored and ready to go now!!! Lol

SchnookoLoly

Found this - http://www.royalmail.com/node/19350492 . You should be fine.

For the spreadsheet, it counts from the time you apply at CPC-M to the time a decision is made. Right now that's about 6-7 months, but seems to be slowing down generally. (I might add some new stats into the spreadsheet to capture this...) You're end of November, so generally I would say you should be hearing pretty soon, however there are still quite a few outstanding October and November applications, so might have to sit tight a bit longer...

Hehe. At least you know from the spreadsheet and from others in this thread that you aren't alone in it, and you can tell that yours should be coming up soon. Give it another few weeks then maybe drop a case-specific email. No guarantees it will work but sometimes it does kick-start things.

rnccominghome

Can I just say Schnookololy, you are so helpful and reassuring to have around.

Thank you.

Am so looking forward to starting my life again - feels like limbo and that can be so disheartening sometimes. Oddly moreso that we are closer now! X

SchnookoLoly

Always happy to help.

Don't let the waiting get you down... at least at the end of it you'll have full PR and will be ready to go and life will be great. And in the meantime, just enjoy travelling and spending time together - you aren't likely to get too many chances to do this in the future!

rnccominghome

Thanks again - that's what we figured! Our son is young and not needing to be pulled out of school, and we aren't getting any younger - time for an adventure.

Such an odd situation, I know it will end most likely in approval being as we have a straightforward application, but feels never-ending!

Take care - lovely speaking with you! X

SchnookoLoly

Ah and just saw in your signature your app didn't get to MIssissauga until mid-Dec, so you're not even at 6 months quite yet... definitely just sit tight! Updated your line on the spreadsheet.

rnccominghome

Nearly 6 months though! Lol.

When would you recommend sending a chase email if we haven't heard? X

SchnookoLoly

At about 6.5-7 months. The average right now is just over 6 months, and the median is 6.44 months. Most seem to be taking 6-7 months these days, so I'd wait until about the 7 month mark and then chase it. Maybe a bit before if you want. So that would mean emailing around mid-July.

rnccominghome

Cool - that's what we figured anyhow Thanks again! Will keep you posted

Everyone else - I hope you all get your approvals soon! X

Queen_E

I thought I'd give feedback, since my husband waited out his COPR as a visitor in Toronto (and during one of the worst winters on record, hello ice storm!)

For us, it worked out fine because he's a web developer and was able to use the time to work on a personal project and learn some new coding. Now he has a more impressive portfolio for the job hunt. Without that though, he would have found it a lot more difficult to be out of work.

Also, the salaries in our fields and rent are so different compared to London that we've been better off living on one salary in Toronto than when we both worked in the UK! We don't have children though.

Overall, I think it depends on how your salaries/cost of living balance out in Canada vs the UK, and if there's something your husband can busy himself with while he waits. At least the weather is nice now, so he won't be stuck inside!

Becki567

Hiya,

To be clear my husband was here on an IEC visa twice. He had a 6 week gap where he stayed as a visitor after his first IEC expired and then a month after his second IEC visa expired we received the COPR. So, to be fair, he was never out of work for months and months like some people.

If it had turned out to be months and months he would have still stayed here. I'd have missed him terribly if he left and it actually gave us some time to go around the province of Alberta and do things that we never had a chance before to do.

It all depends financially what you can afford to do. I am a full time student so I have no income but we have savings and we would have been okay financially if he was off work for a longer period time. However, I realize not everyone can financially swing it.

If your concern is crossing the border, I too was worried about that. We travelled to Las Vegas twice, Hawaii, Disneyland and London without issue. Border Agents, in my experience, have never been particularly friendly or smiley but we have never had an issue. In fact, landing with his COPR was the worst experience we've had but that was just because of a cranky old lady border agent.