OhLiver

SanDiegogirl

The Youth Mobility Scheme is cheaper and quicker than the unmarried partner or spouse visa. If you are eligible for that then I'd suggest doing it.

Once in the UK you could then apply for the unmarried partner or spouse visa when ready.

Google Animal transportation for companies which ship animals.

BritInParis

A Tier 5 YMS visa is a much better idea initially. If your intention is to make it a permanent move then switching to a spouse visa after at least one of you has been working for six months is the most efficient way to go as any time spent on a Tier 5 visa won’t count towards ILR.

chasingsun

I would go the youth Visa, Much simper process. We have given up on our plans to go back home as its a complicated way to go on a Unmarried partner visa. Im British and hes Canadian. Didn't want to have to split the kids from there dad for any length of time.

OhLiver

Thank you, that's good to know. Is it a complicated process then if we go there with her using the YMS visa and then switch to the unmarried partner/spouse visa? Can we begin that switch before the initial two and a half year of the YMS visa is completed?

OhLiver

Very helpful to know, especially about how time on a Tier 5 visa won't count towards ILR, I didn't know that. Are there any other benefits to the YMS visa other than it being faster and cheaper? And is it a complicated process to switch to a different visa once there or is it just a matter of waiting until one of us has worked for six months like you said?
Thank you!

OhLiver

Sorry to hear that. Was the process for an unmarried partner visa complicated in general or were there particularly difficult parts to it?

christmasoompa

Are you a Canadian citizen, or PR? If you're only a PR, you might want to think about getting citizenship before you leave Canada.

BritInParis

It makes the financial requirements for the spouse visa easier to meet as you can use one or both of their salaries once you have been working in the UK for six months. Applying from outside the UK means that only the spouse’s salaried income would count and they would also need a job offer in the UK in order for both applicant and sponsor to move together. A YMS visa means you can move together in order to look for work and then switch to a spouse visa once one of you meets the financial requirements.

Switching would be the same process as extending an existing spouse visa from within the UK - there are no additional complications.

Not mentioned yet but as an unmarried couple you will need to provide evidence that you had been living together in a relationship akin to marriage for at least two years prior to the application. Living apart whilst dating isn’t going to cut it. If this is the case for you then you should consider getting married.

chasingsun

We were already to go had the house up for sale and would have had the funds for me to sponser him. Been together 15 years now but we would have had nowhere to live here whilst waiting for his application to be processed.. He cant come to UK while waiting and I don't like to separate my boys from there dad in a new country for them. The kids are dual British/Canadian. I am a stay at home mum so have no income so we have to go savings route. He has 3 job oppurtunities in the uk but don't fall into the short category.

Its mainly easy paperwork but family separation is a big No for me, Because who knows how long it would take.
Secondly was trying to rent somewhere from here was a disaster, No one would rent because we had no income but we could pay a years rent up front, Then we had no referees in UK,

Hoping we can work something out to retry next year, But I would go the easy route and reapply from within UK..

Editha

Your calico cat will become a tortoiseshell.

OhLiver

My mistake! I made a rather significant mistake in my original post - I'm a Canadian citizen as well as a British citizen. If I were a PR though, you would be right, I would absolutely get citizenship before leaving Canada. Thank you for pointing this out.

OhLiver

That is a huge advantage going that route then. It would definitely be easier for her to obtain her visa if we could count both our salaries towards the application, and if she didn't need to have a job offer in the UK beforehand. And most importantly, that's great that switching to the other visa once we're there isn't complicated, which I'm genuinely shocked by!

That's a good point to bring up as well regarding relationship status. We had considered this and thankfully we're fortunate in that we have been living together for almost three years now and have our previous lease/rental agreements as documents to prove this. We are hoping that this will be sufficient and helpful in the visa application process but we were wondering about that as well.

Thanks so much again, your insights have been very helpful and encouraging for what the process may be like for us.

OhLiver

That sounds very stressful, I'm sorry you and your family had such a difficult experience so far. But it sounds like there are several factors in your family's favour so hopefully the next try next year will go better like you said. Transferring our entire lives there with finding work and a place to live, as you described, is the stress that we are anticipating and apprehensive about. And your experience definitely reinforces the idea that it would likely be easier and a smoother process overall for us if my partner can come to the UK with me first via the YMS visa and then we can sort out work for her and finding a flat there. Thank you for sharing your experience, it's helpful to know what other people have encountered in this process.

OhLiver

Will she? I'd forgotten about that. We like that descriptor as a breed, so my partner will be delighted.

We've also been researching on the UK government websites all the regulations and requirements for moving our cat there with us. We feel that we have the idea overall (microchip, vaccinations, rabies vaccine specifically in appropriate timeline, health certificate, "Transfer of Residency" to avoid paying the VAT, 5-day rule, airline approved carrier, pet friendly airline and housing in UK, and making sure our vet knows how to fill out the paperwork). We also read a helpful post on this forum from another person from Canada moving to the UK with their cat, and read the list of approved airlines/routes, and that London Gatwick has a faster process for receiving pets than London Heathrow. Air Canada is more expensive so we considered Air Transat, but we are concerned that having our cat travel in the hold will be too stressful for her - when we moved from the UK to Canada when I was a child we brought our cat and his personality completely changed into a stressed cat after the flight. But I don't think there is an option for pets to travel in their carrier in the cabin with us, unless someone else has heard of this option with an airline?