The TWs

My husband and I have just returned home from a week scouting in Vancouver. I was born in the UK, raised in BC but been in London for the last 6 years. DH really loves the thought of moving to Canada so while we were visiting for a wedding we went into full recon mode. Looked at properties in Langley, Port Moody, East Coquitlam, and Vancouver. Saw some fabulous stuff and loads we could live in... but now we're back in the UK and starting the paperwork I really feel like we're just treading water now til the all clear...

For those of you who have gone - what do you wish you had done or known in the beginning?

Thanks!

Mrs TW

kt0157

I wish I'd known just how bloody long the CHC would take! I would have given up at the start and done something else instead. Now I'm in limbo (or purgatory, since I'm still in the UK).

K.

printer

Playing the waiting game is a pain but shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone surely. When we applied we were told approx 18 months and it was exactly 2 years when we got accepted so all things considered it was ok.
We expected to wait and got on with our lives as best we could and spent lots of time researching.
The only thing i wish is that we started all this a few years earlier when the kids were younger.

kt0157

There are plenty of immigration consultants promising timescales that aren't true. It's not yet filtered out into the consciousness of the general population that the waiting times are so long (hence the sporadic, breathless "we've decided to emigrate to Canada!" postings, followed shortly by "you do know the waiting time is 5 years?" postings).

I was told 12-18 months (which was true at the time). I got med requests 26 months later with what appears to be 6 or so months from med requests to actual landing. From what I read, people just a couple of months behind in submissions are looking at med requests 6-12 months behind mine.

It's a scandal. People should know about it and factor it into their plans (which might well mean going instead to a country that actually wants skilled workers).

K.

printer

I know that the current waiting times being quoted are scandalous but it seems to be very widely reported on forums newspapers etc. so anybody seriously considering immigration should really be well aware of the possible time scales unless they have jumped into it without checking first.
Of course if they have been swayed by false promises from immigration consultants then that is not good.

P.

britishvixen21

12 - 18 months is just approx so teh fact that you got your med request just 8 months afterwards isnt really bad.

as for people not knowing the time lines, im sorry but if you cant read the timelines on cic then maybe your not intelligent enough to come here in the first place! and secondly there are ways around it like PNP and work permit.

Personally i dont think your timeline was that bad to be honest and i think your just peeved that you let the opportunity go and now your regretting it.

People are now waiting 50 months patiently without whinging half as much as you and you only waited 26 months to near enough be done.

6 months between meds and ppr gives you time to sell your home, and such. you cant expect most people to wait to get meds then ppr a week later you cant pack up all your crap in a week!!!

The TWs

Oh we know we'll have to wait - I'm not surprised by that, although the variance in spousal visas is shocking (we've heard to expect anything from 4 weeks to 9 months!) I don't think I could put up with longer!

Its just now that we've made the decision, and know that we'll, in all likelihood, be gone within 12 months it feels like everything is some sort of limbo until our new life begins!

yonk

I see it more like my time here in the UK may be limited and so we are hoping to do all the things we have meant to do for years, but don't quite get round to.

Novocastrian

How refreshing. Karma sent.

Tableland

It's a different story now though. 18 months - 2 years is fair enough and gives people a good length of time to sell the house and organise stuff and get things in perspective.

But if you apply tomorrow morning in London as a skilled worker, it's probably going to take somewhere around 5 years to get to Canada. According to the CIC, 80% of UK applicants' cases in the most recent time period measured took 54 months to process. This has risen from 52 months in just a few weeks because I checked this not long ago. It gets extended by a couple of months every couple of months.

They must be having one hell of a party at the Canadian High Commission in London, because otherwise it wouldn't take four and a half years to look at a few pages on a form, check a photo and push a rubber stamp on it. Let's be direct here, it only takes 20 minutes to process one of these forms. Making people wait half a decade for this 20 minutes is rather on the crappy side.

printer

I agree that it is now becoming rediculous if the only option you have is skilled worker category. But armed with this information you can always decide not to put yourself through it. There seems to be many people who fit into the "must get out of Britain" category and in their case another country would be a better option, however if Canada is your dream then of course it is an agonising wait.

Mrs Madmac

Hmm - I read this thread and then the replies and thought it had gone a wee bit off topic....... what I wish I had know at the beginning was not the wait..... we did one hell of a lot of research before we came and we knew what time it would take. It was more practical money stuff I wished I had known:

I mistakenly believed that if I gave a bank all my money they would be accommodating...... L.O.L. ..... here they take your money at every opportunity. Banks charges and restrictions on what you can do were definitely something I wish I had known more about.

I wish I had known that it is not as cheap as you think........ I have found it to be only slightly less expensive than back home for the day to day things......... and getting used to the prices excl tax is still something I am struggling with.

They want money up front for "security" on things. We had to pay $200 to the Gas company and the Hydro people wanted $200 but we managed to avoid that one by arranging a direct debit with them. We even had to pay $100 up front security on our mobile phones.

You need to create a credit history ...... but to do that you again need to put up money. So to get a credit card.....we had to match the credit limit with cash and lock it away at a very low interest rate. (I did not even want the credit card but if you use your credit card and pay it off every month it means you can lower the transactions on your cheque account and hence reduce the fees.)

Fisherman Bob

are you suggesting that the staff at chc shouldn't bother to check any of the information on the application forms?

yes, it may take a long time (i am anticipating another 30 months or more on my application), but the chc does have a lot of applications to deal with (and not only from britain). i'm really surprised at the attitude of some people on here.

The TWs

Thanks Mrs Madmac - that is definitely more what I meant!

Rich_007

Don't be a complete d***. We live in times of high security. People commit crimes, change identities, launder money, undertake espionage and terrorist activities, raise funds for criminals and terrorists. They fake their past and claim credentials they never earned.

And you think it's a 20 minute rubber stamping exercise ?

Jeez, sometimes I shake my head at the nonsense I read on here. God preserve me from CIC importing some sick UK terrorist scum from an Oldham slum into Canada and on to the US to commit some twisted atrocity, if that security process takes four years to complete then that's what it takes. I have every sympathy for those waiting patiently, been there got the smelly t-shirt of CIC boredom, but once on the other side, you see it all differently and understand it. It's worth the wait IMHO but if you can't wait, move on quietly.

Rich.