Congratulations!

Many congratulations, good luck with the move

Well done and the very best of luck to you and yours

Many congratulations, hope you all enjoy your new life in Canada.

I've just answered a PM about how we put forward our plan to alleviate excessive demand - I've copied the story (the process might help give more info) to help others.

Here is what happened with us. When we applied our son had no diagnosis. He was diagnosed with ASD 2 years a go. He really is very borderline. When we went for our medicals we gathered a letter from his pediatrician saying that he had no further treatments (speech therapy etc) and a letter from his GP stating that his ASD didn't have any medical costs associated.

Nonetheless, we were requested to send extra medical info, and details of support in school etc. We had to pay for a private full educational psychologists assessment of him, including IQ testing and future prospect assessment etc. Of course we didn't let him know it was anything to do with our immigration, just part of his AS treatment.

The assessment was ok - he didn't perform his best, but he attained average IQ - and in detailed testing has no learning disabilities. Diagnosis was confirmed as Aspergers. The Ed Psych recommended that if in school he would need some support and to participate in group work.

I would definitely get a full ed psych report with IQ testing done in advance of medicals, as well as the other stuff I mentioned.

We had taken the step to home educate both our kids prior to diagnosis. The ed psych wasn't overly keen on this for social development reasons - this is very subjective. Tony Atwood who is one of the leading Aspergers thinks home ed is great for kids with AS. We had a very supportive report from our LEA who has inspected our home schooling and gave us an excellent report.

Anyway - because the 'special med info; goes to Ottawa for processing, this took an extra 7 months after the report was submitted.

After all that, we had the letter at the beginning of April suggesting that our son would cause excessive demand on Canadian Social Services. This was a very detailed report particular to our son. The social service named was special education services. This is costed depending upon the province you are going to. For example, in BC, all kids in the spectrum are costed at $16,000 per annum regardless of where they are on the spectrum. This is obviously greater than the $4,800 level for excessive demand to kick in.

We were given the opportunity to submit a plan to show how we would stop the excessive demand on the system AND/OR to give any further medical info. Part of this is the signing of a form declaring that you have the ability and intent to make sure you don't cause excessive demand. This link gives more info:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/EnGLIsh/resources/manuals/bulletins/2008/ob063.asp

We highlighted each and every need that their report said our son had, and made sure that this was addressed in our plan. This will be particular to each child.

The in bulletin above, it mentions home education as one of the ways you can prevent the special ed costs. However, we had to go further - we got two private schools to show what it would cost for him to attend as we would not be able to access the public system due to the extra educational costs. This was in case we could not home educate for any reason. It is worth noting that faith schools cost a lot less than some other private schools, but they need to state that they can cope with the child's Aspergers or ASD.

We also got a private educational psychologist in Canada to quote on the support costs specifically for our son to alleviate all the concerns CIC had.

We then showed that we had the money to cover the potential private school costs (if we were for any reason unable to home educate) and the educational psychologist costs over a 5 year period - the period of PR - all this aside from our standard landing fee. For us this means we probably won't be able to bye a house but will rent - even though we don't think we will need the money we set aside.

We basically had to show the money - but the money isn't a plan in an of itself - the details of the plan are important.

We also contacted local Autism support groups where we are moving to and got them to write a letter saying we would be able to join them.

So our plan was structured:

Education plan (home educate)
Contingency Education plan (private school letters showing costs)
Professional Support (Ed Psych in Canada)
Community Support (Letter from support groups)
Financial Viability (statements and income plan)

also - signed declaration of ability and intent.
and we were helped by a lovely letter from our son's pediatrician responding to their report saying that our son was not on the trajectory that there report suggests and is responding well to management strategies of his Aspergers and that his behaviours are all under control.

This plan was hard work to put together - emotionally draining - we often felt like giving up - for every step forward it felt like there were two steps back, but we got there in the end.
I would assume that you may have excessive demand thrown at you, and to plan now before they ask for the plan - we only had 60 days to get it together. I guess the more you show up front, the better the chance of getting through.

well pat yourselves on the back for a job well done and congratulations on being able to follow your dream

This subject is close to my heart as my Grandson is on the ASD spectrum and it often worries me if my daughter decided to follow us to Canada they would be refused because of his diagnosis even though he takes no medication and no longer has Occupational Therapy.

I am sure a lot of people wil benefit from your hard work. Have you included this in the wiki?

A very informative post.

Great post! Thanks for sharing as this will surely help people with similar situations in the future! And congratulations again on getting approval on your visas. After all this emotional stress you can finally move to Canada Best of luck

That's a really terrific account and will be of tremendous help to others down the road.

Kind regards,

Eamonn & Janet.

Congratulations, best wishes to you and your family

Thank you everyone. We are emotionally exhausted due to the length of this whole process. However, the past years stress seems to have evaporated now and been replaced with a new "eek, we've got to move quick" kind of stress! It's great to be at the end of this long ol' road now though

Will look into posting our detailed info above on WIKI.

How did I miss this one?

Fantastic news - you must be thrilled beyond belief.
I am staggered that they have a standard cost for a spectrum disorder though - I'm now gutted, as it has confirmed that our daughter's costs are also likely to be listed initially as extortionate, rather than actually calculating what she costs... and I really really really don't want to have to promise to home ed. She's not AS, but we know we'll be subject to a burden ruling.
<off to ring private ed psych and check bank account>

Enjoy your last minute panic!
Dx

The cost varies province to province so don't let our experience out you off. You don't have to promise to home ed. We are already a home educating family so it is how we were going to continue to educate in Canada anyway. We also contacted private schools and they agreed to offer us a place in their schools should the need arise, and showed their fees in the letter. Private schools in Canada are not expensive like in the UK.

Having been through this process my advice to anyone would now be that, if you have a child who made been deemed "excessive demand", then prior to your medicals (like a month or so before) ask your school to write a report about them. In it they should list the child's current educational needs, how much time a week they have with a TA and what their future trajectory looks like. Also get an educational psychologist evaluation done (a complete one where they test for IQ etc). Take these reports along with you to your medical and the DMP will forward them with your medicals to CIC. This will save you a lot of time and delay (it will still take CIC about 5 months to process the reports though as they have to go to Ottawa). I wish I had known about this prior to our medicals, it would have saved some of the stress!

Finally don't give up hope

It's a bit late for being put off anyway lol. We've been in the queue for nearly 3 years... and had come to terms with the fact that just as everyone else gets their med requests and thinks 'yessss!', we'll be thinking 'here's where it starts getting interesting'... with a conservative year on top for spec med/ appeal etc... and we're waiting for med requests now...

At least this is proof that they are now looking at individual circs for all classes of immigration in the wake of Hilewitz/ de Jong - not just Investor, so for that we must be grateful! It's the first concrete case I've come across where it has actually worked out under 063 for someone other than investor! Yay!

Just to clarify though - we were already planning on taking existing (NHS) reports to DMP if we get that far before we move (heading to Alberta in Aug), but as my daughter's issues are documented as physical rather than any hint of ld, do you think an independent ed psych report is a necessity or a bonus? She does get extra help at school, but for physical reasons rather than cognitive/ social... Just wondering if it might be worthwhile forking out for a neuro/ paed report which would go into future/ prognosis instead....

I am soooo chuffed for you. Your news has made my day!

Having read that she has physical difficulties I wouldn't bother with the ed psych report, but that's just my thoughts not CIC's! I would consider it a bonus rather than necessity. I think a neurologist/paediatrician/physio report might be more beneficial. It must be a recent report though.

Wishing you all of the best with your case.

Just to be clear it would seem to me that a professional medical diagnosis and prognosis will be required. It is not clear from your posts just what the problem is beyond some physical disability. That and the many hints from luvmykids should see you getting the best possible assessment. Good luck.