family sponsorship

[Caddboy]

I am currently in the process of sponsoring my wife to come to Canada and processing the application outside of Canada in the UK. My wife is South African / Portuguese which is why I need to sponsor her to come to Canada. We have 2 daughters both born in the UK (Edinburgh) who will be moving to Candada with us when we go (age 3.5 and 11 months). What we are wondering is do we need to obtain anything for our daughters in order for them to immigrate, for example Canadian Citizenship Certificates (which we assume is used to prove their claim to being Canadians?).

We assume that once we arrive in Canada we will need to apply for SIN numbers for my wife and daughters in order to get them medical, child benefits, etc....

If someone can steer me in the right direction I'd really appreciate it.

regards

[Leon]

You should apply for the citizenship certificate for your daughters at the London embassy, see instructions here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/proof-how.asp

The processing time is unfortunately well over a year.  If you have tickets to go to Canada, you can ask for them to be expedited.  Even if you don't have tickets, you could try it based on your concrete plans to move once your wife gets her PR.  The sponsorship of your wife through the UK will most likely be faster that the citizenship certificates.  The younger one can get a temporary passport even if the citizenship certificate is not ready.  The older one could possibly get some type of letter or a travel document.  Do they already have passports from some country?

When you arrive in Canada, depending on what province you will be moving to, you might have a 3 month wait for healthcare (Ontario, BC, Quebec and NB) in which case you should take out a 3 month emergency and accident (travel?) insurance before you move.  If you move to some other province, you can, as a citizen and PR moving from overseas get instant health care.  You can apply for SIN numbers and get them instantly but the SIN cards will take about 2 weeks by mail.  The PR card will take around 6 weeks to arrive.  Here is how you apply for child tax benefit: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/bnfts/cctb/fq_qlfyng-eng.html#q8

[Caddboy]

Leon,

Thanks very much for the information, our daughters both have UK passports, so they will be able to travel on these to Canada, which our eldest already has a few times. We are planning to move to Calgary, AB so hopefully we can get the health insurance etc... quickly.

WHy do the girls need to get PR cards, if they are already canadian citizens?

cheers for your help so far....

[CharlieD10]

They don't.

[Leon]

Leon,

Thanks very much for the information, our daughters both have UK passports, so they will be able to travel on these to Canada, which our eldest already has a few times. We are planning to move to Calgary, AB so hopefully we can get the health insurance etc... quickly.

WHy do the girls need to get PR cards, if they are already canadian citizens?

cheers for your help so far....

They don't need to get PR cards.  They need to get citizenship cards.  They can travel to Canada with their UK passports but only as visitors.  They do not actually have the right to permanently live in, go to school and later work in Canada unless you and later them can prove they are citizens.

[Caddboy]

Leon,

Thanks for all your help so far. Hopefully my last question....

The (2) pieces of ID required for the citizen certificate (one with photo), we were thinking of send a copy of their passports and a copy of a bank statement, as they don't have any other cards with their names on it. All we have is a birth certificate, bank account and passports as they are only 3 and 1 years old.

Do you think this is acceptable or should I call the embassy to make sure?

cheers