shelley748

Anyone else on here go back to UK for winters and come back in summer? Which country do you claim residency for? Also if you claim UK does your state pension get indexed or no? Any other thoughts on things I might not have thought of? Thanks in advance

seascape

This was our kind of plan too until Covid came. We are in UK with house in NS, plan was to be in NS say June - Oct and UK rest of the time which is 7 months. I am Scottish, wife is Canadian. Plan was to keep resident in UK. I work in UK and subsidiary company in Canada so would be working for same UK company and its Canadian subsidiary when over in Canada. Things we hadn't worked out, dog, driving licence, would have to take private health care, not sure what flights are going to look like now in terms of availability and cost. We might try it in 2022 and see how it works, sure there are other things we haven't thought of!

shelley748

Thanks for the reply..I hadnt thought of the driving licence aspect...

SanDiegogirl

Health Care? If resident in Canada and only visiting UK for 5 months or so you, technically, are not eligible for the NHS.
Insurance for property - most insurance companies won't cover for long term absence without some sort of additional policy.
Presume if you have own home then you'd need it to be looked after/checked on while away.

scilly

Taxes ................ which country will you be resident in?

Health .................. if you are out of Canada for a certain length of time, you are not eligible for Pharmacare (or whatever it is called in your province).

DaveLovesDee

And if the UK isn't deemed your permanent country of residence, they'll be paying the foreign patient fees of 150% of the treatment cost, instead of getting NHS treatment for free.

Farmer on a bike

You don't 'claim residency' your either are resident or not. It is not as simple as how long you spend in each country as far as CRA are concerned. Significant ties can still make one a tax resident. If you own a home, there could be tax implications on determination of principle residence if it were sold. Tax residency is determined by the laws of each country, it is not up to the tax payer to choose which they prefer. You may want to seek professional advice to keep affairs in order.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-age...cy-status.html

Revin Kevin

For what it's worth and from my experience emergency care for accidents or sudden acute illness is basically provided FOC and without question in the UK whereas in Canada they want your credit card details as soon as you enter A&E. I would say be resident for healthcare in Canada and be prepared to wing it if you need sudden health care whilst in the UK.

SanDiegogirl

Visitors/tourists to the UK are eligible for no charge emergency treatment in A&E. If you need hospitalisation , you pay for it.
So. break your wrist, fall off your bike: if you are treated in an A&E only, no charge. If you have a heart attack are hospitalised and, god forbid, end up in ICU, expect to pay thousands for treatment.
Get health insurance.

scrubbedexpat091

And if when your a resident of Canada and covered in your province for healthcare, it's wise to have travel insurance even when travelling within Canada, not every medical service will be covered out of province, and for example if you need to see a doctor while visiting Quebec and are a BC resident, you will very likely be asked to pay upfront, then seek reimbursement from BC upon return.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/h...itish-columbia

bats

Well I'm glad this thread is here as it prompted me to look up elibility. Found out that we are eligible for NHS services due to my husband's war oension.

https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/visi...nhs-treatment/

dbd33

I lived for several years, in Canada, with someone who wasn't eligible for government healthcare (she was here as a tourist). During that time she had a number of inpatient hospital treatments and routinely went to the family doctor. The cost was reasonable, way less than a small animal vet would charge, despite the quality of treatment (she once phoned her stepfather, a doctor in the US, from the hospital and described the tests she was having "no HMO would allow me to do that" he said). I would not bet that paying for healthcare is cheaper in the UK than in Ontario though, if "wing it" means "brazenly lie and cheat" it may be.

Jerseygirl

As a visitor, I spent 5 days in hospital in Toronto. No surgery involved, or tests apart from an x-ray…approx $40K, which we had to pay before leaving hospital.

scrubbedexpat091

Yeah hospital costs for those not covered in BC are fairly high as well, its several hundred dollars just to walk in the door, add in the doctors cost, lab costs, testing, etc, it can add up quickly, maybe not US level but hardly inexpensive either.

Walk in clinics are pretty affordable, usually in the $100-$200 range in BC depending on clinic, but that just gets you in to see a GP, if you need lab or a referral those are all extra costs.

MRI at one of the private clinics in BC will run $600 upwards depending on type of MRI, CT scans run $500-$1,000 depending if contrast is needed, PET is pushing $2,000.

These are at private diagnostic places though, no idea what these would run in a hospital if not covered.

https://initiomedical.ca/booking-costs/

DaveLovesDee

The general guideline for whether an NHS visit would be chargeable would be that, outpatient (including A&E) usually not charged, in-patient (admitted to hospital) charged.

Excellent... It may be worth making sure you guys have proof of entitlement with you just in case it's needed.