lassy24

Hello all,
Great website!
I am hoping that someone will be able to assist me with some information.
My spouse who is Canadian and I will be moving to London at the end of next year. I have dual citizenship so I know working in England is not a problem for me, but how does it work for my spouse? Does he need papers or a visa? Also he is currently working for our provinces power company and we were looking to see if there is a job similar to his in London. Does anyone know what the power company is for London area?

Well thanks everyone.
Take Care

Lisa

Elvira

Check the uk-yankee forum for information on how to to bring a foreign spouse to the UK. I believe they have all the basic information an dlinks to the appropriate Home Office website.

London Electricity is one power company; not sure whether there are others.

www.fool.co.uk has tons of useful discussion boards about all kinds of aspects about the UK.

lassy24

Thank you so much. I will check it out. Can you recommend any website for job search and for apartments for rent?

Thanks
lis

JAJ

Absolutely needs a (spouse) visa. http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk
http://www.canadianexpats.com and http://www.immigrationboards.com are also good resources.

Have you got any children?

And would your husband like to become a British citizen in due course?



Try some of the following:

http://www.edfenergy.com
http://www.eon-uk.com
http://www.npower.com
http://www.british-energy.com
http://www.scottish-southern.co.uk
http://www.nationalgrid.com

lassy24

Hi there,
Thanks for your time. We have no children. If it was possible we would love for him to get citizenship.

JAJ

Under current law, he could become naturalised British after 3 years in the U.K.
Canada allows dual citizenship.

(he would need to obtain Indefinite Leave to Remain as a spouse at the 2 year mark).

What's his trade/profession? If he is an engineer he should look at the EC-UK website: http://www.engc.org.uk
There is some recognition of Canadian engineering qualifications.

lassy24

What is Idefinite Leave to Remain? He is a electrical engineer technologist. But he has been managing construction contracts as of late.
Thanks again
Lis

JAJ

Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) = U.K. permanent resident status (like permanent resident/landed immigrant status in Canada).

The spouse visa he gets initially isn't permanent. He would have to apply for ILR around the 2 year mark in Britain. Only then does he have a right to remain independently. After 1 further year (3 years in total) he can apply for British citizenship.

If he is an engineering technologist he should check with the EC-UK and the relevant Canadian body to see if his qualifications are recognised under the Sydney Accord, to which both Britain and Canada have signed up. This would ease his pathway to the equivalent U.K. qualification, Incorporated Engineer.

BristolUK

Funnily enough I was looking at this subject yesterday. I read that ILR may be granted immediately where a couple had been married for a minimum of 4 years.

But then there is this "life in the UK" test that seems to be a requirement even for an English speaker (between 18 & 64). Unless you take an ESOL course. That in itself seems a waste of time for an English speaker, but they also want evidence of an improvement since one began a course. If you've been an English speaker all your life, it's hard to see where such improvement will come from with an ESOL course.

But you can't take the life in the uk test outside the UK and you won't get ILR without it, so it actually seems impossible to get immediate ILR in the above age group.

Anyone have any opinion on this?

JAJ

The Life in the UK Test constitutes evidence of English ability.

The work-around is to sit for the test while visiting the U.K. although I don't know how practical that is.

BristolUK

Nothing wrong with needing to be satisfied about English ability...but if you're from an English speaking country and always lived in an English speaking country, have an English spouse of many, many years, who lived in the UK for 40 odd years, perhaps even having spent time on multiple visits to the UK during your 15 year marriage to the Brit, one might expect a little common sense to apply. Yet up to age 64 the test is needed, while someone a year older, without all those UK connections needn't take it.

Since I made my original post I read on another thread that one could enter the UK on the usual visa, take the test and then apply for ILR without having to wait the full two years. That's okay 'time wise' but it does mean a fee for the visa and then another for the ILR. If the test could be taken outside the UK (and it looks like that might be possible in the future) one could jump straight to ILR just like one can for those exempt...like under 18s and 65s and up.

petally

My husband has flown to the UK today from the US to take that silly life in the UK test. Applying for ILR in the UK costs 750 pounds, which means that it's cheaper to fly to the UK and take the test and then fly back again. And you get a trip to the UK thrown in as well!

Unfortunately, that's the only way around it :curse:. If you apply without the life in the UK certificate then you'll get a visa for 2 years - but you CAN apply for ILR at any point after taking the life in the UK test (the waiting for 2 years only applies for couples married less than 4).

For me, what I find really annoying is that anyone from any non-English speaking EU country can just stroll into the UK and remain as long at they please without taking a test. But Americans, Canadians, Australians etc all have to take that test, even though they come from countries with far similar institutions than, for example, those in Lithuania! Even more annoying is that if I were a non-British EU citizen, I wouldn't be fleeced for all this money to bring my spouse to the UK. You can only screw over your own citizens, not those of other countries! (and I'm pro-Europe!)

JAJ

If they want to become British citizens they must take the test.

True - but your spouse would need to wait a lot longer for permanent residence.

petally

OK, but I still can't see any justification for paying the kind of fees that we are paying. For us it hurts but we'll manage. For others it could be a serious barrier but it doesn't mean that these people are not worthy citizens or won't contribute positively to British society.

JAJ

Fees were a lot lower before the current Labour government was elected.