Laur_pren

So I’m 27 and moved to Nova Scotia with my mum and stepdad(Canadian) when I was 15. We are all planning on moving back to England however I am doing it sooner as my stepdad has to apply for spousal visa etc.

I recently visited back home for the first time in 9 years, instead of staying for 3 weeks I stayed for 2 months and decided to come back, sell my car, tie up loose ends and hop back on the plane.

I just want to know if it really is as easy as that, if I can go and give up my Canadian residency from England, if anyone has done that. I don’t have any property or rrsps etc, my boyfriend is coming over from England in a week and I have a flight booked to go back with him. Is it really just as easy as that?

Also since I was 15 I never got a national insurance number, so do I just apply for that when I go back?

thank you in advance from a girl who is just following her happiness and winging it!

christmasoompa

Yes, absolutely you can just go home (assuming you're a British citizen of course - you've not actually said!), and apply for your NI number once there. https://www.gov.uk/apply-national-in...r/how-to-apply There's no requirement to renounce your Canadian PR, although you can if you wish of course.

It may be worth considering getting Canadian citizenship so that you have the ability to move back just in case you change your mind at any point in the future? I know at the moment you think the UK is where you want to be, but if you've lived in Canada for so long it would be awful to shut that door and have to try to qualify for a visa in the future if you do change your mind - never say never and all that!

Best of luck and welcome to BE.

durham_lad

Welcome to BE. I will only add to the excellent response above that you can apply for a job before receiving your NI number as it can take some weeks for that to happen. This was the case when our son moved back in 2017 after moving to the USA with us when he was 5 and moving back 30 years later. This was pre-Covid and even then he had actually applied for a job, and started work well before his NI number arrived in the post.

tdrinker

I second getting Canadian citizenship if you cab before moving. You're young, you never know what you may want to do in the coming years / decades. A Canadian passport could also be useful for visiting countries where a UK passport is less welcome, or if you wanted an extended trip to Canada. Further, you may have kids in future, and might be able to pass the citizenship onto them if they wanted it. This may never happen, the kids and/or them wanting to live in Canada, and no-one knows what the citizenship rules will be in years into the future anyway. But it's better to have it and not use it than not have it and want it. Bottom line, it gives you options..

Expatrian

Nothing to add to the great responses other than to iterate consider getting your Canadian citizenship. There’s no shortage of posters here who have ping-ponged between countries, sometimes more than once, because they didn’t realize it wasn’t what they’d expected. You are young, not old and retiring, so it’s even more likely for you that you may change your mind down the road. Thus, it’s even more important to think about giving up the right to live in another country, which is hardly ever easily obtained.

jandro

On the Canadian side I think you're supposed to inform the CRA what the last day is of your residence in Canada and then file your last tax return before the usual deadline (end of March). On the T1 form there's a box asking you to indicate the month/day you ceased to be a resident. On the UK side don't you have to fill in a ToR form?

Twitcher1958

From the tax point of view, there’s an NR73 form to complete when leaving to determine your tax residency - you fill it in and submit, and CRA then confirms you’re no longer a Canadian tax resident. Don’t know about ToR but perhaps OP will be covered by her family one - my daughter moved back to the UK I independently and didn’t complete one - isn’t it to cover your ‘stuff’ so you don’t pay tax on it?

BritInParis

If your parents ever claimed child benefit for you then chances are you already have a National Insurance number. Try giving HMRC a call and check with them.

https://www.gov.uk/lost-national-insurance-number

durham_lad

Yes, the ToR is to avoid paying import duties. Provided you have owned everything at least 6 months then no duty is owed.