Canada - British Expat Forum

hi

we have just had the request to send our passports back to get visa put in, we have been in NS on a work permit for the last 18 months. we will be getting our PR (hopefully!) through Provincial nomination, how do we stand if we want to move to another province in the future? i can get no firm answer anywhere, although i did ring the province who nominated us and they said that they hoped that if we were nominated we would want to stay, but nothing concrete about what could happen if we had to move elsewhere for work. has anyone else been in the same situation?

thanks

solution is easy, just pack some heavy duty wire cutters to get through the barbed wire fences surrounding NS, then you're home free!!!

as a PR you have the rights and freedoms of being a Canadian (except for citizenship rights like voting etc.)
so go live where you want

I am using the prov nomination prog to facilitate PR, the rules may vary from province to province, but the expectation is that you will stay for at least 3 or 5 years, but I have not signed anything to say that I will do this and I dont see how they could enforce it or what penalty would be appropriate - immigration is a federal jurisdiction and the provincial nomination is a provincial issue - generally federal laws surpass provincial influences. So it is not likely that your PR would be revoked.

Having said that, I'm in no hurry to leave manitoba!

s

It does sound like a bit of an anomaly - and one which could be unsatisfactory to both provinces involved. I can understand why people would do it, given the lengthy waiting process and it's not dishonest or anything, but it doesn't seem a good system to serve the purpose.

People get fast-tracked to the less popular places and then move. The less popular province has now lost the person they helped to bring in quickly and the more popular province has a new person they didn't ask for when they already have a long list of other would-be immigrants. Sure, that's the system. But where's the logic?

I suspect the nomination prog is a bit of a sticking plaster attempt to fix a leaky dyke. Some provinces have a need to fill some aspects of the labour market, if the federal immigration process wasn't so lengthy there would be no need for the program. (from the provinces point of view)

There are a bunch of labour mobility issues within canada which prevent interprovincial moves for anybody (canadian or immigrants).

I'm not even sure it fast tracks much in reality.

s

It is an interesting question.

We looked at PNP for NS but did not want to be tied to any one province for up to 5 years. Thinking about it I am not sure what they can do to make you stay for that length of time???

I wonder whether you have to sign anything nearer the time? Or on collection of the PR Card? Or whether you have to reimbuse the Province the amount of money it cost them to sponsor you?

I would say speak to a lawyer first.

carolinedraper wrote: I wonder whether you have to sign anything nearer the time? Or on collection of the PR Card? .

I'll let you know in a few weeks!! should be collecting it in october